Alacartoona lures an unsuspecting Folk101 to her lovely lair to talk about modern cabaret, the Kansas City music scene, and how to unleash your inner beauty.
Alacartoona likes to talk about the masks people wear in their everyday lives.
I was thinking about this as I drove to my interview with Kansas City's latest musical sensation. With my windows open to the cool evening and Ruby Falls cooing just for me on the stereo, I felt like I too should assume an alternate identity. For the rest of the night, I decided, I would be Abitibi Témiscamingue, a dashing French-Canadian reporter.
These are the types of fantasies that Alacartoona inspires. So, when I sat down with Ruby Falls, Providence Forge, Archibald Drexel, and Bachelor Calwood of Alacartoona, I was determined to get to bottom of why their music compels Kansas City audiences to toss caution to the wind and live in the moment, if only for a short while.
AT(FOLK101): Where does the inspiration for your music come from? What are some of the influences?
RF: The idea of it is definitely European. A little German and a little French. It's what was going on politically and musically and theatrically between the World Wars in Berlin, Munich and Paris. Coming out of the cabarets in Paris, this form of music mutated a little bit and got a little darker and dirtier in Germany. That's the tradition our music comes out of, sort of that European folk tradition of accordion, small instrumentation, acoustic instruments.
BC: But people get it wrong a lot.
RF: People say, it's like burlesque, and we say no it's not like burlesque. And they say, it's like vaudeville, and we say no, it's not.
AD: Really it's a hootenanny!
PF: Yeah, a hootenanny!
AD: Or a bop social!
PF: Seriously, though. That's why we called it "modern cabaret" from the very beginning. Because when you think cabaret, there's obviously something there and there's something that we're pulling out of that. But "modern" is a very important part of that title.
RF: We've seen ourselves listed with The Tiger Lillies, Dresden Dolls, Rasputina (who we've played with), Tom Waits, and Edith Piaf. They are all relevant, but it's none of those.
PF: There's no way that we are as good as Tom Waits! But I can understand why someone would say that Alacartoona belongs in the same category as those other bands. Because we are all definitely drawing off of some old ideas, but doing it in a very modern and individual way.
Continue to Part 2...
Related Articles:
Join the Folk Music Section's weekly newsletter by sending an email to folkmusic@suite101.com.
