KALI: "Depending on the mood we wanted to create, we used the respective style and combined them with each other."
We head over to Bavaria, more precisely to the beautiful city of Regensburg, and sit down with Prog band KALI, who I recently discovered on a festival. They quickly caught us with their expressive music and captivating performance, and learning about their upcoming debut "Samsara" made me even more curious.
Band-Links: WEBSITE / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM
Welcome to join us for a chat and read more about the new album, their origins and future plans:
Hey, thanks for making time to answer my questions. How are you today?
Very good and a little excited.
We clearly have some exciting things to talk about :-) First, could you please introduce yourself and Kali to our readers?
My name is Ben, and I´m the solo-guitar player from Kali, a modern Prog band from Regensburg in Germany. You can hear Tim singing, Raffi plays the second guitar, Karl is our bassist, Michi is on the keys and Vince plays the drums!
You’re set to release your expressive debut “Samsara” on October 24th! How do you feel about it, and how was the reception so far?
We´re really excited thinking about our release in October. So far we shared four of the songs that will also appear on the record, and the feedback we get is amazing!
We picked up not only the Progrock listeners, but also a lot of people who feel comfortable with harder sounds, and on the other hand people that aren’t used to Rock and Metal music at all.
Our audience also spans all age groups. From old rockers, whom we remind of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and co., to young people, whom we can take on a journey with our fresh sound.
Well deserved. Let’s take a look at the colorful cover artwork: What can you tell us about its origins, and how does it reflect the album thematically?
The colour elements on the cover reflect the individual songs behind the album's concept. Each song can be assigned a colour, either uniquely or individually. The colour transitions between the individual shapes are not always smooth, but sometimes merge with colour inconsistencies, just like the story we want to tell with this album. And so some songs merge into one another, while others pick up on musical and lyrical themes from the other songs.
Awesome! Could you dive a bit into the album’s story with us, please?
The story of the album is told from the perspective of a protagonist who awakens in a kind of desert, a place without any signs of life, called ‘Limbus’. After wandering around for a long time, disoriented, he encounters the goddess Kali, who is raging on a dune. As a listener you might think that everything is over now, as she draws him in with her divine powers, but she grabs him, throws him into the unknown (and he grows wings).
In the next song, ‘Unspoiled Earth,’ we arrive in a green world, long before humans existed, where life can still unfold freely. In this utopia, the protagonist experiences the boundless beauty of nature.
‘Mankind’ tells of the first intelligent life, the first king, the first fire that Mother Earth must beware of. ‘Revolution’ tells of the turmoil of humanity, of a senseless war against its own existence, which in ‘Evolution’ finds a sad end for humans, but a conclusive one for the protagonist.
“Charon” and ‘Redemption’ provide a fitting conclusion to the album and offer room for interpretation of the story, playing with concepts and anecdotes from mythology.
Great plot. Musically speaking, “Samsara” is a wonderful, diverse record, on which you blend elements of Stoner Rock and Postmetal with a strong progressive approach. What is your background, and where do you draw your inspiration from?
When Kali was founded, four of the five founding members were at music college in Regensburg. We found it exciting that each musician felt comfortable in a different musical genre. One came more from Stoner Rock, one from Metal, another from the Classical scene. Depending on the mood we wanted to create, we used the respective style and combined them with each other.
Which you do seamlessly. Could you briefly describe your writing and recording process, please?
For us, the focus is on musicality. Our songs usually originate from riff ideas or melodies that we try to put into a musical context. Often, one of us brings such an idea to rehearsal and we see where it takes us. For larger projects like ‘Mankind’, which is our longest song with over 15 minutes, we knew that you can't bring a chunk like that to the stage without some variation. So the song has four musical sections and we incorporated a tempo change from 120 to 90 bpm, which we introduce with dotted quarter notes. So there's also a bit of math involved in songwriting.
Hannes from Room4Studio, where we recorded the album, also supported us during the recording process and provided further input. On the one hand, there were minor corrections to melody notes and changes to cadences, but on the other hand, we learned from him that not everything has to be perfect in order to give the recording a human touch.
Let’s make a little time trip: When and how did you guys get together?
Kali first saw the light of day in October 2012. And no, it didn't take us 13 years to write the album!
In fact, we found each other through the Regensburg Music College and brought in Tim, our singer, from outside. The album was created between 2012 and 2014, and we finished recording it in 2016. Unfortunately, we were never able to release "Samsara" because we went our separate ways soon after.
In October 2024, we relaunched the project and brought in some new musicians. As mentioned above, it was important to us that the members had their own individual musical styles. Of course, the new members also had to be enthusiastic about "Samsara", as our first goal was to release the album properly!
How did you come up with your band’s name, and is there a deeper meaning behind it?
I think the story behind the name Kali is pretty self-explanatory. Kali is the Hindu goddess of renewal and destruction, which, from a mythological perspective, was the most meaningful reference to the story we tell in "Samsara". We also found the image of Kali, a feminine goddess with a skirt made of human arms as well as a sceptre and skull in two of her four hands, to be quite powerful and fitting for the music.
Absolutely :-) Let’s talk about Kali live: What was your most memorable show so far, and why?
The most impressive concert was this year at the Herzberg Festival. Even though all the shows we rocked this year will remain in our memories for a long time, but at Herzberg the atmosphere was special. Hardly anyone who happened to pass by our stage left the place again, on the contrary. Everyone listened intently to our sounds, and you could literally feel the tension in the air!
Can totally relate to that from your captivating show in Pfaffenhofen.
Germany is well known for being the home of countless great rock and metal bands. How would you describe your local music scene, and did you notice changes over the recent years?
Our music scene is actually quite lively. To name just a few, Klangphonix and Errection have already made it a little further, and bands like Burden of Life and Carrion Mother form a solid foundation in the Regensburg Metal scene. Our city is very colourful and active, thanks in part to the annual Jazz Weekend and our biennial city festival!
As a new and upcoming band: Where do you see the biggest chances and challenges in today’s music business?
We think Prog is very well received in Germany! So we're pretty optimistic about the future, even though we know the business is tough. However, we're well organised and, in addition to our upcoming release, we're focusing on new songs and social media. The most polarising aspect, however, are our live shows, where we put our heart and soul into expressing our music.
I think the challenge is to find a good balance between organisation and band work, and to keep your goals firmly in sight.
What can you tell us about your future plans?
As mentioned above, we are already writing new songs and want to go into the studio in 2026 and release new songs by early 2027 at the latest. We also want to gain a foothold outside Bavaria and play shows in northern and western Germany and, of course, in the new federal states!
Before we wrap things up, do you have any further thoughts you’d like to share here?
Music changes us, and we change the world. Let's shape the world in such a way that we can continue making music for a little longer.
Band-Links: WEBSITE / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM
That's a wonderful closing! Thanks again for your time, and all the best for the release and what is yet to come.