Meet the band: The Guitars

The Guitars are (l-r) Mark Van Patten, Russell Morris, Matthew Ayers and Kane Kitchen (Credit: Ryan Young)

Members: Mark Van Patten, guitar, bass,  vocals; Rusty Morris, organ, guitar, vocals; Matt Ayers, drums; Kane Kitchen, bass, guitar
Hometown: Cincinnati
Latest project: track on the companion disc (disc comprises songs of Ohio artists re-interpreting Seedy Seeds songs) for the upcoming Seedy Seeds album; working on first full-length album; digital download guitar picks
Sounds like: 60s-style rock, influenced especially by girl groups of the 60s and Motown

The name The Guitars is a bit of misnomer, or actually one big joke according to Kane Kitchen and Matt Ayers. According to the two, guitars are actually the least important part of their sound.

The quartet hopes to capture a more layered and full-bodied rock ’n roll sound embodied by Phil Spector’s "Wall of Sound." And that helps to explain why the group has been working so long on their first album.

We caught up with band members Kane Kitchen and Matt Ayers during a break in recording their debut album, which they hope to release around Cincy Punk Fest in April this year.

How long have you guys been working on your album now?
Ayers: One million years! Um actually, the last week or so of July, we started working on it, maybe two days a week, on or off. It always changes, depends if we have a show. It’s sparsely here and there.

That must be expensive.
Ayers: No, no. It doesn’t cost us anything. We do it all completely ourselves with the help of some very generous friends. It’s very nice because you don’t feel pressure to do anything. There’s no stress to it, so, I mean, you have time to make something like you’re gonna be real proud of and you don’t have to put yourself on a deadline, because you don’t have to worry about paying, you know, $500-$1,000 at a time for one or two days at the studios. If you have the means to do it all yourself, then by all means do it I guess.

When you set out to record, do you have a completely finished product in mind or is that something you work out during the process?
Ayers: No, we have like the songs, but then we think of some stuff in the studio or we’ll think, maybe, we don’t want that here. Or we'll find another instrument and start recording it.
Kitchen: It’s pretty much up in the air. It’s constantly evolving. Like we know what the songs are, we know the chord progressions, but we’re adding stuff all over the place and making up stuff on the spot.
Ayers: Lately, we’ve just been trying to make it a rule to bring in one whole song and figure it out from there, so we’re not just sitting there trying to write a song. There’s actually the whole complete idea and we’re just kind of coloring in everything else with the arrangement and everything, ‘cause all of us arrange the song.

Since you guys can play around with songs in the studio, how does playing live factor in to the final product?
Ayers: Playing live and recording are two completely, just different entities within our band…
Kitchen: At least right now. We never really knew exactly what we wanted on stage. We haven’t had time to prepare, in that aspect. The songs are, you know, still evolving or aren’t done completely.
Ayers: Yeah. Now we’ve started playing with guys who play horns and probably the next show that we play, I’m sure they’ll be there—at least on certain songs that now have, you know, brass parts on ‘em. You know, they’ll be playing those live with us.  And hopefully, at some point, we can get the girls that sang on this record that we’re making to join in too and play live.
Kitchen: It depends on the preparation time and how big we want the show to be, if we want to have a big production, you know?
Ayers: We’ve played shows here and there while we’ve been recording. And we just recently went out of town with Brian Olive, who we’re playing with this week. It’s been nice, getting back to playing and such.  

How long does a normal recording session go, and how late into the night do you work?
Kitchen: It depends on what we’re doing specifically, like if we have to do drum takes or like if we’re mixing, sometimes we’ll end early, because, you know, you can’t mix too long or you just want to kill yourself, because you’ve been listening to the same thing over and over, unless you have an ear for it. It can mess with your mind.
Ayers: Well, when your tracking and such, the foundation of our songs, like, we started out it was just guitars and drums. When we did that, we’d go ‘til like 1 or 2 in the morning, 'cause we’re getting all the bases done to it. And then after that, what we’ve got only lasts ‘til about 11.
Kitchen: Yeah, there’s no set time.
Ayers: We’ve all known each other long enough to where we can disagree, like ‘We’re hitting a wall here. We’re done for tonight.” Sometimes one or two people will go home and one or two people will hang back.

You guys get together at least twice a week. How does seeing each other often affect the dynamic of the group?
Ayers: It’s never like work, although it’s some of the hardest work, I think the four of us has ever done.
Kitchen: It’s like hanging out. It’s work, but it’s fun.
Ayers: Yeah. You love it, you want to do it. But, I mean, you’re working at something. 

In terms of songwriting, who has the primary responsibility?
Ayers: That would be Mark or Rusty.
Kitchen: He [Rusty] is like three or four up on Mark right now.
Ayers: [laughing] Yeah, Mark needs to drop a new one soon.
Kitchen: Rusty or Mark will come to the table with a song, and then we’ll all arrange together, and it will evolve from there. Then whatever it ends up, it ends up. Sometimes two songs get smacked together and become just one song.
Ayers: That’s happened a couple of times, yes.
Kitchen: We don’t really have a set way.

Do you ever worry about diminishing some of the raw energy of your live performances with the production process in the studio?
Kitchen: No, I think it’s a lot cooler, I like the songs a million times better in what we’re going for. Live, we can only do so much, at least now.
Ayers: Playing live is a means to an end. It’s fun playing live, but it translates better being recorded.
Kitchen: Yeah, we like to play live, but ultimately, we’re more about the studio stuff.
Ayers: It feels like two different bands actually when we play live as opposed to the studio.