Chimney Choir wants to take you on a journey

When we called up Chimney Choir’s Kevin Larkin to talk about his eclectic band Chimney Choir and their show on Saturday, we were surprised to learn that it’s a show on Nov. 17 that’s really going to get weird. Of course, this weekend’s show at the hi-dive is well worth catching, too.

So this Nov. 17 show is performance art? Explain that for me.

We released a CD called Compass in June, and we did four different release shows, one for each cardinal direction — north, south, east, west — and it was kind of a game. The theme was we’re looking for the album. It was at Leon Art Gallery on 17th and Park, and it kind of started off as a normal show. Most of them, it’d go into tangents with storytelling and puppets, and at one point we had a seance and conjured up ghosts. At the last one, we did a mock ‘70s game show and called up contestants from the audience. It’s hard to explain, but just breaking down the usual show of paying money to go see a band — it was a little more. We’d hand out cookies and burn incense and try to get all the senses involved. This one is kind of a different concept. We found blueprints to an interdimensional communication device and we’ll be turning that on to see what it does.

An interdimensional communication device?

We found it while on tour in September. We don’t really know what it does, but we have to turn on Nov. 17 and see what it does. I don’t know more than that.

And this show is still with the material from Compass?

We’ll be playing a lot of the material from Compass in the upcoming shows, definitely.

So there’s new stuff?

There’s lots of new stuff. After the next show on Saturday and the November one, we’re gonna go be hermits for the winter and rework some stuff. There are a couple new songs in the mix, but most of this show we’ve been doing with Compass. There’s plans for recording this winter and kind of, you know, exploring more different sounds. There’s plans to do a folky string kind of album and more of an ambient electronic album. 

It sounds like you’re not tethered to one sound.

I guess that’s always been the philosophy of the band, and even with as far as who gets involved — like this video project coming up, we’re collaborating with an actor. We kind of go from project to project. If someone has a vision we just go for it. Whatever turns out, it’ll be some cohesive thing in the end. So, yeah, I think each one has kind of a direction to follow until you can’t follow it anymore. Definitely not bound to recreate any previous project.

And how long have you been doing this?

The band is coming up on three years in December, I think.

I guess you haven’t run out of ideas.

We’re forcing ourselves to take a break because it’s been pretty constant for three years. A lot of travelling, but it’s been great. I think everyone is looking forward to this and then taking time and doing something else.

Is there anything people should know before this November show?

I would just say come with an open mind and you may have an interdimensional experience.