Flowers
13 years ago, Max Bien Kahn moved to New Orleans. He was already a songwriter then, but in Louisiana he became a performer—busking up and down Royal Street with jazz and country bands, playing upright bass and guitar until it became a full time gig. Right now, most of his time is spent playing tenor banjo in the traditional jazz band Tuba Skinny. After some critically acclaimed local releases, Kahn reached out to his friend, Video Age’s Ross Farbe, about working on some new material together.
Kahn and his quartet worked for an entire year, lasting from extreme lockdown to a post-vaccine world.“The first few sessions we had,” Kahn says,“we had the windows open, doors cracked, we were wearing masks, everyone was really paranoid.” But it wasn’t all nerves.“To have that time was so rare. That’ll never happen again. We were able to sit on it and not worry about a deadline or anything like that.”
Kahn’s never made an album like Flowers before. When he’s recording in NewOrleans, the projects are usually live material or feature a lot of guest performers. It’s how you get folks like Esther Rose, Matt Bell, Ray Micarelli, Steph Green, Charlie Halloran, and Shaye Cohn. This time, though, it was just Kahn, Farbe, Pearson, and Snyder. “It’s a much more intimate process,” Kahn says. And the songs get personal without losing Kahn’s trademark brightness. He’ll always try to be funny about the things that are following him around, be it death, marriage, and whatever triumphs and tragedies fall someplace in-between.
Flowers is a rock-steady album that inexplicably documents our humanity and who we become in the wake of loss and on the precipice of falling in love.“When I was writing these songs, I was trying to make it more of a spiritual journey,” he continues,“spiritual not as in God, but in connecting to the planet, connecting to your family, connecting to yourself more.”
Flowers
13 years ago, Max Bien Kahn moved to New Orleans. He was already a songwriter then, but in Louisiana he became a performer—busking up and down Royal Street with jazz and country bands, playing upright bass and guitar until it became a full time gig. Right now, most of his time is spent playing tenor banjo in the traditional jazz band Tuba Skinny. After some critically acclaimed local releases, Kahn reached out to his friend, Video Age’s Ross Farbe, about working on some new material together.
Kahn and his quartet worked for an entire year, lasting from extreme lockdown to a post-vaccine world.“The first few sessions we had,” Kahn says,“we had the windows open, doors cracked, we were wearing masks, everyone was really paranoid.” But it wasn’t all nerves.“To have that time was so rare. That’ll never happen again. We were able to sit on it and not worry about a deadline or anything like that.”
Kahn’s never made an album like Flowers before. When he’s recording in NewOrleans, the projects are usually live material or feature a lot of guest performers. It’s how you get folks like Esther Rose, Matt Bell, Ray Micarelli, Steph Green, Charlie Halloran, and Shaye Cohn. This time, though, it was just Kahn, Farbe, Pearson, and Snyder. “It’s a much more intimate process,” Kahn says. And the songs get personal without losing Kahn’s trademark brightness. He’ll always try to be funny about the things that are following him around, be it death, marriage, and whatever triumphs and tragedies fall someplace in-between.
Flowers is a rock-steady album that inexplicably documents our humanity and who we become in the wake of loss and on the precipice of falling in love.“When I was writing these songs, I was trying to make it more of a spiritual journey,” he continues,“spiritual not as in God, but in connecting to the planet, connecting to your family, connecting to yourself more.”
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13 years ago, Max Bien Kahn moved to New Orleans. He was already a songwriter then, but in Louisiana he became a performer—busking up and down Royal Street with jazz and country bands, playing upright bass and guitar until it became a full time gig. Right now, most of his time is spent playing tenor banjo in the traditional jazz band Tuba Skinny. After some critically acclaimed local releases, Kahn reached out to his friend, Video Age’s Ross Farbe, about working on some new material together.
Kahn and his quartet worked for an entire year, lasting from extreme lockdown to a post-vaccine world.“The first few sessions we had,” Kahn says,“we had the windows open, doors cracked, we were wearing masks, everyone was really paranoid.” But it wasn’t all nerves.“To have that time was so rare. That’ll never happen again. We were able to sit on it and not worry about a deadline or anything like that.”
Kahn’s never made an album like Flowers before. When he’s recording in NewOrleans, the projects are usually live material or feature a lot of guest performers. It’s how you get folks like Esther Rose, Matt Bell, Ray Micarelli, Steph Green, Charlie Halloran, and Shaye Cohn. This time, though, it was just Kahn, Farbe, Pearson, and Snyder. “It’s a much more intimate process,” Kahn says. And the songs get personal without losing Kahn’s trademark brightness. He’ll always try to be funny about the things that are following him around, be it death, marriage, and whatever triumphs and tragedies fall someplace in-between.
Flowers is a rock-steady album that inexplicably documents our humanity and who we become in the wake of loss and on the precipice of falling in love.“When I was writing these songs, I was trying to make it more of a spiritual journey,” he continues,“spiritual not as in God, but in connecting to the planet, connecting to your family, connecting to yourself more.”
