Three Music Thingz with Low Presh
Well well well, it's another rendition of Three Music Thingz, the blogseries where I ask musicians for three thingz that are essential to their music-making.
Today we have Nik Kohomban from the band Low Presh! Low Presh is a band in Brooklyn NY that just put out an album of "skate punky" songs called Never Fake! I've had a long and luxurious interview history with the band—drummer Pat Petrus and former guitarist Mel Henry both appeared in the pages of my old newsletter The Molly Zone— and I am thrilled to now display Kohomban's words and thoughts on the I Enjoy Music page.
Bandcamp New & Notable May 29, 2022
This new Low Presh album has the same fiery chagrin as the pop-ish punk music I listened to 20-odd years ago (the coarse, zippy guitar tone in particular kept reminding me specifically of my beloved Blink-182 side project Boxcar Racer). As Nik wrote at the end of their Thingz response, "the driving engine in Low Presh, at least to me, is a tornado of rage and sadness at the state of our world"—but on Never Fake!, the band's musical direction leans more toward community catharsis than depressed isolation.
On "Sidewalk Slammer," generalized nihilism inspires a night of partying on the stoop ("We are all gonna burn and die / So now's the perfect time / To get fucked up outside"); on "Pilot Light" there's some romance to be found even in a city full of "fascist cops and Nazi punks." Low Presh knows that when everything's a mess, it might make you act a little messy, but you ultimately can't give up—in fact, pushing things to the limit is what gets you to the other side. As Kohomban sings on propulsive closing track "The Wizard": "When there's nothing left inside / you'll have nothing left to hide."
Behold....Nik Kohomban's Three Music Thingz...
- Mangled garage rock
I have a real distaste for categorizing things based on (in my opinion) arbitrary and reductive genres, so I often struggle to articulate my favorite musical style in simple terms. It’s often heavy drums and gunshot snares, concrete-thick guitar chords and gnarly licks, distorted bass and some gritty synths, shriek-adjacent cathartic melodies. Music that sounds like it was tracked in a garage and has the ambient squeal of a feedbacking Mesa in the background.
We can call it “mangled garage rock” for short—it’s the sound in my head that I’m always chasing. There are records both old and new that I’d put in this category: Raw Power, The Downward Spiral, Relationship of Command, The Woods, Deloused in the Comatorium, Like Clockwork, A Laughing Death in Meatspace, Deep Sage. - Cannabis
Fuck it. I know it’s both an uninspired answer and a stereotype, but it’s the truth. All my best ideas have included a medium to light toasting at some point in the process; I think anyone that I’ve written with before will confirm that. Sometimes it’s while jamming, sometimes while writing lyrics, sometimes while finalizing, but it’s always there.
I struggle with anxiety and a tendency to overthink myself into a brain freeze. Cannabis has always been extremely helpful for me in counteracting that—artistically, at least. - Quiet places and open spaces
In part because of anxiety and in part just because of introversion, I have a bit of claustrophobia and a hard time focusing around a lot of activity. Crowds, subway screeching, horns and sirens—whatever. All of it puts me on edge and keeps me from thinking clearly.
When I need to think—especially if I’m trying to work on “art”—I like to get as far away from other people and as close to nature as possible. I live in a fairly quiet apartment in a fairly quiet neighborhood near Prospect Park, so I like to go write in secluded spots by the Boat House or in the Ravine. When that isn’t possible or feasible, I cancel out as much noise as possible and imagine myself somewhere devoid of people.
Thanks Nik! Listen to Never Fake! and check out their link aggregation.
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