Kasador ready to take flight with the release of new self-titled EP

Bands that want to have long careers shouldn’t fear evolution; they should embrace it as the best way to allow themselves and their fans to continue to grow together. 

That’s a core feature of the new EP from Kingston, Ontario’s Kasador, a quartet with the foundational duo of Cameron Wyatt on lead guitar and vocals and Boris Baker on bass (and occasional vocals) along with drummer Stephen Abudofuor and new guitarist but longtime friend of the band Thomas Draper. 

Coming out this Friday, April 4, the self-titled album is further proof that this is a band with a clear sense of where they want to go. This is Kasador breaking out of their collective cocoon and spreading their wings. 

From the opening track, the short but mighty instrumental “Alchemy,” this is a Kasador that’s feeling not exactly experimental but unafraid to try new styles and sounds. “We jammed that in Boris’ basement for a while, but we had this kind of cool vibe, a half-time groove, almost kind of hip-hop dubby,” Wyatt says. 

At just over a minute, “Alchemy” is a  great setup to the first true song on the EP, “Golden.” 

“We’d die to be famous/ Don’t care but the street’s gonna know my name,” Wyatt sings. Inspired by spending some time in LA, where the allure of perceived perfection is overwhelming and anything less than that is viewed as almost worthless, “Golden” is about seeing beyond the facade to find the truth. 

“If something is not that unrealistic perfect we kind of see it as invaluable and I feel like us looking at it that way kind of devalues everything because nothing is like that,” he says. “If you’re always searching for that perfect thing, and if everything always has to be perfect, it’s not real life. You’re living in something that doesn’t bring meaning.” 

Baker sees things a little differently. “I’ve always seen a side of it that’s like desensitization,” he says. “Social media and the news are, at the same time, desensitizing people to real life events and real life feelings while also making people want to feed into (a fake sense of reality) more.” 

But the pull of the superficial is still there, and still strong, as evidenced by the less-than-real persona that starts off the next song, “Cut It.” 

The first line of the song, “I don’t like when you talk like that, cut it,” has Wyatt playing around with his vocal tone, adopting an affectation that he swears is just a character and not a new tone fans can or should expect to hear on a regular basis. 

“That one is more about the attitude than it is about a deep message,” Wyatt says. “It’s a cool presentation. It’s kind of semi-nonsensical, but also kind of means something as a play on how you speak and how you would interact with someone….I’m talking in a weird way. It’s fun.” 

“It’s a tongue-in-cheek commentary on criticism and just kind of being light-hearted,” Baker adds. “It’s an odd song. I like that song.” 

Skipping ahead to the final track — there’s a reason — “I Don’t Hate You (But I’m Trying).” 

“Something about that sentiment is kind of compelling. Everyone can kind of relate with it in a certain way. This one is more of a standard relationship (song), something you love or someone, a part of your life that you keep coming back to but it’s a way to hurt you a bit and you want to (move away from it) but it’s still prevalent in your life,” Wyatt says. 

“It’s a universal sentiment. If you know you should stay away or you’re trying to figure out a way to do that, or if you get dumped and you still love someone, the easiest way to get over that, and I’m not saying it’s the healthy way, would be to trick yourself into (thinking about) the things I don’t like,” Baker says. 

The best song on the EP, in this writer’s fully biased opinion, is the expansive and soaring “Butterflies.” Fans of the band might remember this song from an online series of performances taped at the Isabel Bader Centre in Kingston, released back in October 2021, when artists filmed their songs without audiences during COVID. The band originally recorded it for a previous release but wasn’t happy with how it turned out and, Baker admits, the song was almost shelved for good. 

“The production and the instrumentation is a lot thicker and heavier and it embodies the feelings that Cam is speaking about. There was talk in the studio, when the band came in, we wanted it to feel like a hurricane, like something was shaking you,” Baker says. “I love the instrumentation on this and the production is exactly what I envisioned the first time.” 

Wyatt took vocal lessons between the initial recording and this finished version, which Baker says made his voice “way more powerful” than previous versions. He also credits Draper’s creative influence and new perspective on the song for adding layers and depth to the song.  

The lyrics are a personal story for Wyatt, who has dealt with a condition called tachysensia which distorts reality and the perception of time.

“It just feels like I can feel time moving in my brain and how that extrapolates to emotions every once in a while. I have some anxiety things as well and the way it manifests is it feels like there’s a million particles in your brain clashing around and heightened senses,” Wyatt says. Being able to transfer those nearly uncontrollable feelings into something more powerful and creative, like butterflies fluttering, is a way to harness that chaotic energy into something more positive and less frightening. 

“It’s midnight; I’m awake and surrounded by wild eyes, so I disguise anxiety as butterflies, turning my peace of mind into overdrive, so I’ll hide in the eye of my hurricane,” Wyatt sings. “…All this time, slow motion going into overdrive, soaring up into the highest heights, but I’ll tell my friends that I’m fine.” 

The resulting song, a strong, theatrical and polished three-and-a-half minutes of storytelling, is a high point in what’s bound to be the next great chapter for a band that has continued to create, evolve and focus on what they want to do. There’s no stopping the ambitions of Kasador; there’s only forward momentum and hopes of touring internationally while continuing to write new music. 

“I feel like we haven’t hit our peak yet,” Wyatt says. “We haven’t hit our best yet. We haven’t hit our potential. We’re still finding our core sound.”

“We’ve been finding pathways that are smoother and more fun and easier in a sense but they require more work than ever,” Baker says. “Partly because it’s more fun. We’re really on the same page.” 

“Kasador I” comes out on Friday and will be available in all the usual places. The band is hitting the road starting next week in support of the album. If you haven’t seen them yet, or recently, get out to a show and thank yourself later.