TLOBF Interview :: White Hinterland

“I think everyone has had a special moment when, just as it’s happening, you know that it’s significant and delicious just because it’s going to be over soon,” explains White Hinterland singer Casey Dienel on the title of upcoming album, Kairos. A reference to the Ancient Greek concept of the ‘supreme moment’, it is a fitting philosophy, one that has influenced her approach to making music. “It’s used to describe a unique event, one that sits outside of sequential time and floats in the ether. I really related to that idea and felt like making this record was my very own ‘Kairos’.”

Her second album under the White Hinterland moniker, Kairos surely stands as one of the most achingly beautiful records to be released this year so far. For the first time, Dienel and musical partner Shawn Creeden delve into electronica – with results nothing short of impressive.

“I wondered what would happen if we started to take his perspective of looking at things, because Shawn doesn’t play any conventional instruments and I come from a very disciplined musical background,” explains Casey over the phone from Portland, Oregon. “I think that when the two collide there is some sort of magnetism that feels special. Shawn seems to be able to apply a Midas touch and show me that what I’m doing is magical.”

Golden is perhaps the easiest way to describe what White Hinterland have crafted on this effort – neatly polished but not over-processed, Dienel’s longing, ethereal vocals wash over Creeden’s cautiously crafted synth textures and lower-than-heartbeat drum murmurs, swelling to create utmost musical beauty. Shades of Beach House and Cocteau Twins permeate, but through its understated otherworldly pop, Kairos manages to sound overwhelmingly unique.

A classically trained musician, Casey attended the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music before leaving to pursue her career, eventually settling in Portland. “I’ve moved a lot in my life, probably too much, so the concept of home is quite a strong theme on the record” she muses. “I think no place I have lived in has been perfect, but Portland is the place where I’ve found I can feel the most myself, which is strange because I think I’m learning about myself all the time. Everything keeps changing.”

Since the release of her 2006 debut under her own name, Wind-Up Canary, it is indeed clear that Dienel has undergone a significant musical transformation. From these tentative first steps, she has managed to transcend rigid singer/songwriter tags and establish herself as a more mature, more soulfully aware chanteuse. Emerging from truss-like labels did not come quickly, however. “One of the first labels I went to really wanted me to play piano and sing like Regina Spektor which made me think, ‘If you want Regina Spektor songs, why don’t you just sign her?’ Inevitably, artists do sound similar, but I think trying to sound like someone else is strange.”

Dienel has since found comfort in the ethic of US indie Dead Oceans, also home to the likes of Phosphorescent and Califone. Her first release on the label, Phylactery Factory in 2008, also marked the adoption of the White Hinterland moniker. “I really wanted to be able to hold my own steering wheel and for some reason I felt like changing the name would help me do that,” she explains. “I chose White Hinterland because it sounds like a place I would want to go to, with a lot of space to test things out. To me, it’s somewhere calm, beautiful and assured of itself.”

Perhaps the release of Francophone EP Luniculaire shortly after Phylactery Factory stands as a charming manifestation of newfound self-assuredness. Luniculaire (a crafty portmanteau of French words that come together to suggest ‘moon train’) features not only takes on Serge Gainsbourg, Brigitte Fontaine and Françoise Hardy but two original compositions, also in French. “It’s sexy! I think when I first studied French that was one of the reasons I stuck with it!” she laughs. “French sexuality is maybe a big cliché, but I just think it’s wonderful. I think to be a real singer you have to know your body and be comfortable with yourself, otherwise you’re almost like a body that has no spine.”

Dienel’s restless, angular interpretation of Monsieur Gainsbourg’s ‘Requiem Pour Un Con’ somehow manages to embody the roguish spirit of the man himself, despite her own gentle croon and fragile observational lyrical output often representing something altogether more saintly.

Her penchant for taking the works of others and twisting them magnificently into her own possession have not stopped there. A spellbinding cover of Arthur Russell’s ‘Lucky Cloud’ can be found sitting neatly alongside a ghostly interpretation of Justin Timberlake’s ‘My Love’ on a tour EP released last year.

“I like that in Arthur Russell’s music there’s an immediate sense of pleasure that you can also get from listening to Justin Timberlake. I don’t categorise; I get the same kick out of ‘Single Ladies’ as I do listening to Stravinsky. It’s all pleasure.” When applied directly to Kairos, “all pleasure” is a fitting sentiment. Tender, enigmatic, and almost mythical, White Hinterland have crafted something special; not often does minimal electronica succeed like this and remain so heartfelt. Very much like its namesake, Kairos captures a supreme moment, one that deserves to be devoured.