Two impressively confident albums and a grand live presence ensured Sydney art rockers Gelbison have attracted their fair share of attention over the years.  However with drummer Dave Galafassi departing to pursue other projects, Gelbison’s lead duo Edo and Nadav Kahn have now taken on their own name (simply, the Kahn Brothers) and have taken a distinctly different musical direction with the release of their debut record, Love Melts Fear.
It is a melodic, harmony-rich record full of simple, bouncy pop, drawing obvious George Harrison comparisons, and is a direct insight into Edo and Nadav Kahn’s approach to spirituality.

WB’s Tom Perry sat down for a chat with Edo Kahn to discuss the record, Indian influence, moving on from Gelbison – and yes, religion.

Can you tell me a bit about how the album was written?

We never have a formal songwriting process. They always just pop out – just some of them pop out fully-formed, and others would just begin with an idea. Both me and Nadav would each have ideas and the songs would just evolve. And probably over the last two years, you end up with 11 songs on the record, from a pool that we started with of around 40 – not necessarily because they’re the best – that’s just how it turns out.

So do you think what you’ve ended up with are the best songs for the record?
For sure. We kind of had two records when we started the process. We had one record which was really mellow and was laced with harmonium – which is kind of a ‘pump organ’ that’s used more in Indian music. And then we had the more ‘up’ songs, and we were just trying to fit it all in together and it wasn’t working. So this record ended up being the latter, and then there’s going to be another one which will be a much mellower record. Kind of like a sister to Love Melts Fear.

I understand India and Indian music is a major influence?

For the last four years we’ve been spending quite a lot of time just travelling back and forth to India and studying a lot about sound, and yoga, chanting, devotional music. Definitely the philosophy has influenced obviously the content of the music and also the internal. On this record there’s obviously the emotional elements, but also just the bigger element of peace.

And is there a particular song on the record where that stands out? Whether that’s in the lyrics, or in the sound itself?

It sounds more like western ‘60s, ‘70s sound. Obviously there’s a Beatles/George Harrison influence to it. I think ‘So Glad’, which is the third song on the record – we played that in India at a big celebration there was a few thousand people there – and that song is certainly about surrendering. It could just be about a relationship, but to us it’s about surrendering to the divine, to the Mother – to going back to that Mother Energy idea.

How does the Kahn Brothers sound differ from Gelbison?

Gelbison was much more of the sonic experimentation. We were really taken by sound. This is much more stripped back songs that we can play on acoustic guitar. Gelbison songs involved different tunings – they were more complicated I suppose. The actual arrangements weren’t simple to just play. This is a lot clearer. The message is clearer, and the vocals are very upfront.

It’s easy, it’s safe. It’s not like a record where something’s going to jump out at you, whereas Gelbison records were about a journey. You could have something that would be very quiet, then it would eventually be very loud. This is a much more peaceful ride.

And in the live context?

The thing about this record – and it’s the big difference between this and our Gelbison material – is that it was recorded live. There’s nothing that’s on the record that we can’t recreate live. It’s a really great feeling – to be able to recreate that live, and to be confident in it. And that’s why the shows feel really great. The harmonies sound really large.

I feel this is definitely the album that I feel the most excited about touring live. And that’s also because it’s so simple – all I have is an acoustic guitar, and one little pedal. I don’t have a massive pedal rack. I used to spend half the time on the floor tweaking knobs! (laughs) And Nadav had that big spaceship of a keyboard that nobody knew how to work, maybe even him I think…

What actually happened with Gelbison? How did it reach its end?

Once Dave [Galafassi] left, we started making this record, and we were starting to ask ourselves whether it was actually a Gelbison record. It didn’t feel like it. It felt like this was a new life, a new project and we needed to leave that behind. And that’s not to say we weren’t proud of what we’d done. We made two records that we’re really proud of, but it was just time to move on. It just became clear.

Are you conscious of the fact that you’re now representing your family now, more directly, even so far as putting the family name out there?

We did want to consciously send out a message of showing solidarity in family, and present a healthy relationship between siblings. It’s funny because during the recording of the first song, ‘Thing Called Love’ – which has the lyrics “No fighting, no fighting my brothers” – we fought a lot.
As soon as we decided that we were going to try and ‘melt this fear’ and deal with these emotions, it brought up a lot of stuff and every step of the way it was a question of “are we going to make a choice out of love, or out of fear? What’s it going to be?”

So definitely we want to present a message to the world about unity, about being able to work together and not just in ‘blood’ family, but in the community, because we are all a family. I hope that message comes across and I hope we are able to live that message, and be truly representative of it, as opposed to just talking about it.

And then there’s also that feeling of being kids together – to be able to create that in the music was the aim. We tried to bring that innocence to our music.

How has the response been so far?

It’s been amazing. People were just listening and participating and the audience was clearly just happy. And that’s the point of these shows – they’re just designed to give people a sense of release from whatever troubles they’re going through, to feel the joy. And it works. We set that intention – and that’s generally what people have come back to us with. They key word that we keep hearing is ‘joy’.

What is the story behind the first single, ‘Open’?

It’s about what we’ve been doing for the past few years – just trying to be open to everything, to all the experiences that come. One of the main things about that song is that we always seek happiness in everything, in everything outside of us. And we’re never satisfied, because we might have something for a moment – and then it’s gone – and we’re upset again. And so this song is really about that whole process of seeing that inner joy. That everything we’re seeking is already in us. And then when we see that, then we can actually interact in a way that’s more pleasant and more joyous. And I guess ‘Open’ is about that – everyone has that same inner potential, that same inner being.

And ‘Lord Lord Lord’ - is it a statement?

I guess that’s an interesting one because obviously the word Lord can bring up a lot of things for people. It’s not as bad as the word God – but it’s up there. It can bring up a lot of resistance. For me, the name is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if it’s Buddha, Allah or Krishna, it’s one, it’s all one internal energy.

I was listening to Bob Marley and got really inspired when I wrote that song, and it just felt like I was crying out for the higher self, or the energy – or whatever it is.

And I know some people will listen and ask, “Is that Christian?” whereas I don’t see it like that at all. To me it just feels good.

Do you think that will frighten people at all?

I don’t know. My Dad’s an atheist, and he likes it! (laughs)

If it brings up some resistance in people, then so be it. We’re not trying to appease people – if I even tried to figure out how people would respond, I’d be lost. You just never know – you don’t know how people respond to things. How did you respond to it?

I was a little bit scared of it, maybe because I’m a little fearful of religion?

Totally! Because we’ve had this experience because we see all of these horrible things that have been done in the name of religion, or we grew up in a Catholic school and it was full of hypocrisy, or whatever that negative experience may be – there’s so many reasons to be afraid of religion. But at the same time, the purpose of religion is to help us focus so we can know who we are – and do good things.

But we’re living in an age where a lot of the purity has been corrupted by materialism and by ignorance and all these different things. But in every religion you can still find the pure people who have unconditional love for everyone. And so it’s kind of good that in a song like that where the feeling’s good in your heart, but you’re feeling a little scared by any religious element of it, then it’s bringing up something good to check out, to investigate.

From our perspective - your God, our God, we’re all divine, yet divine is something bigger than us. This is not about us trying to push some sort of religious view or anything like that.

The title track – ‘Love Melts Fear’. To me it sounds like the one that will pull the crowd the most.

Playing a long song like that is amazing live, with the audience silent and drawn in. It’s a unique song, I just don’t know where it came from. This song is like nothing I’ve ever written. I love singing it, I love playing it.