In "Sound Check," we check in with some of our favorite musicians.
I recently caught the band Cold Cave in an awe-inspiring show at Williamsburg's Glasslands. The man behind the band, Wes Eisold, took the stage dressed head-to-toe in a perfectly tailored black uniform, a blazer loosely draped over his shoulders, as he swayed across the stage during the haunting set. For many in the audience, the sounds brought back cherished memories from college, when nights out were spent submerged in the goth-synthpop scene that the band is largely responsible for popularizing. James and I conversed with Wes about touring, literature, and fashion idols below.
Fill in the blanks: My band is ______ and my music sounds like______.
My band is Cold Cave, and my music sounds like dark, romantic, existentialist new wave.
If your most recent album were the soundtrack to a film, what would it be?
Over the Edge
If you could spend the day with one historical figure, who would it be?
Richard Brautigan
Where is the strangest place you've been on tour?
The strangest show I played (not place) was in Kathmandu, Nepal. It was a couple months ago. They don't have shows there, they're illegal. So we played at this bar with boarded up the windows, and it had to be over by 10pm because police would come in and take all the money with machine guns if it wasn't. We saw cops in the streets selling drugs and 13-year-old kids huffing paint and young boys being prostituted.
Once, we were leaving the show and we got lost walking around Kathmandu because it was pitch black––there is no electricity there, there's only power for eight hours a day. That was wild! They said they've only had four real concerts there: Ricky Martin, Napalm Death, Ryan Adams, and Deep Purple, which got canceled. When we checked into our hotel, after an hour the power went out. When we went down to the front desk and asked if a fuse had blown out, they said, "No, there's no power here between 10am and 8pm."
We checked into this other hotel that was 80 bucks a night, which is like killing it there. The staff was taking photos with us, they told us that Ricky Martin had stayed there and they offered to go shopping for us. "Anything you want," they said. It was so surreal.
Best tour food you've had?
We make it a point to try different vegan restaurants in every town we go to. It may not be the best food ever, but some of the Buddhist temples in China have full vegan restaurants. It’s pretty incredible circumstantially; we weren't eating otherwise, because every other restaurant was just so vile. Also, right now there's this restaurant called Veg in Philadelphia that I really like.
Worst tour food you've had?
Anywhere in China.
Whose style did you admire as a teenager?
I always liked Andrew Eldritch from Sisters of Mercy's style. Before that, Robert Smith. His style is really weird, looking at it now. But a lot of those guys I liked a lot. Robert Redford in Sundance Kid was really cool as well.
Favorite thing to do when you're not making music?
I guess playing music.
If it was socially acceptable, I would ______.
I would like to ignore people at airports when they talk to me. I think that would be a nice thing to be able to do. I have this problem where I have beefs with people at airports. Like today, I had two different people at airports stop me and I always get into it with them. I would like to just bypass these situations and not have to subject myself to these bureaucr
I recently caught the band Cold Cave in an awe-inspiring show at Williamsburg's Glasslands. The man behind the band, Wes Eisold, took the stage dressed head-to-toe in a perfectly tailored black uniform, a blazer loosely draped over his shoulders, as he swayed across the stage during the haunting set. For many in the audience, the sounds brought back cherished memories from college, when nights out were spent submerged in the goth-synthpop scene that the band is largely responsible for popularizing. James and I conversed with Wes about touring, literature, and fashion idols below.
Fill in the blanks: My band is ______ and my music sounds like______.
My band is Cold Cave, and my music sounds like dark, romantic, existentialist new wave.
If your most recent album were the soundtrack to a film, what would it be?
Over the Edge
If you could spend the day with one historical figure, who would it be?
Richard Brautigan
Where is the strangest place you've been on tour?
The strangest show I played (not place) was in Kathmandu, Nepal. It was a couple months ago. They don't have shows there, they're illegal. So we played at this bar with boarded up the windows, and it had to be over by 10pm because police would come in and take all the money with machine guns if it wasn't. We saw cops in the streets selling drugs and 13-year-old kids huffing paint and young boys being prostituted.
Once, we were leaving the show and we got lost walking around Kathmandu because it was pitch black––there is no electricity there, there's only power for eight hours a day. That was wild! They said they've only had four real concerts there: Ricky Martin, Napalm Death, Ryan Adams, and Deep Purple, which got canceled. When we checked into our hotel, after an hour the power went out. When we went down to the front desk and asked if a fuse had blown out, they said, "No, there's no power here between 10am and 8pm."
We checked into this other hotel that was 80 bucks a night, which is like killing it there. The staff was taking photos with us, they told us that Ricky Martin had stayed there and they offered to go shopping for us. "Anything you want," they said. It was so surreal.
Best tour food you've had?
We make it a point to try different vegan restaurants in every town we go to. It may not be the best food ever, but some of the Buddhist temples in China have full vegan restaurants. It’s pretty incredible circumstantially; we weren't eating otherwise, because every other restaurant was just so vile. Also, right now there's this restaurant called Veg in Philadelphia that I really like.
Worst tour food you've had?
Anywhere in China.
Whose style did you admire as a teenager?
I always liked Andrew Eldritch from Sisters of Mercy's style. Before that, Robert Smith. His style is really weird, looking at it now. But a lot of those guys I liked a lot. Robert Redford in Sundance Kid was really cool as well.
Favorite thing to do when you're not making music?
I guess playing music.
If it was socially acceptable, I would ______.
I would like to ignore people at airports when they talk to me. I think that would be a nice thing to be able to do. I have this problem where I have beefs with people at airports. Like today, I had two different people at airports stop me and I always get into it with them. I would like to just bypass these situations and not have to subject myself to these bureaucr