Lester
Hide of Frankenstein

David Krejci is an experimental Minneapolis songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and all-around tortured soul whom you may know from his Reverend Strychn Trio and Cleophone projects.

However, unlike the dark, droning textures, and instrumental atmospheric sounds of the Cleophone recordings, his new project — Lester — is a rock band, which relies on more traditional guitar, organ, drums and vocals (song structure, you know, all that good stuff). Although, fans of Reverend Strychn Trio’s back catalog will notice a resemblance to Krejci’s flamboyant arrangements and penchant for the macabre

The 15 tracks on his new album, Hide of Frankenstein, represent an allegory of pain, betrayal and resentment stemming from the kind of personal family drama you would never wish on your worst enemy.

But instead of hitting the bottle, the track or the (quite physically) the wall, Krejci thrust himself into an egomaniacal songwriting frenzy. Lost in his pain, the skeletons in the closet started singing melodies and the verses flowed.

Nearly a year later, HOF captures the Kodachrome anniversarial soundtrack for a sober kind of fear and loathing.

Tonight is Lester’s one and only show, complete with some help from noted local musicians (IcyShores, Guitarzan). Below is a brief interview with Krejci and some mp3s to sample.

Who and/or what is Lester?
Lester is a handmade spider doll thing made and given to me by my daughter. When I was looking for a name for the band, it’s one of them that came up upon her recommendation. The other one was Sauce Pan, which has its own merit of course.

Back in the day you lead the Reverend Angus Strychn Trio and just lately, you made some news here locally with the invention and performance of the Cleophone. Musically, how does Lester differ from those two projects?
Easy answer regarding the Cleophone. The Cleophone is a solo instrumental improvisational ambient mess of sound - Lester is a collection of “songs.” As compared to the trio? I don’t know. Still the same me — same musical obsessions and repulsions.

You had some major changes in your personal life this year. How did those thrust you back into the creative mindset?
Yeah, major — the end of a decade of marriage. I never left the creative mindset. It was just stifled by circumstances. Those circumstances left on Oct 3 2006 and before Xmas, all of Hide of Frankenstein was written.

Has writing “Hide of Frankenstein” been cathartic?
Create or destroy, right? I chose to create this time. After I recorded it, I listened to it constantly for a couple months like it was some self-medicating, healing monster. Lester, the character, the spider, the songs, all of it took care of my head while I tried to understand what had happened. It wasn’t narcissism, it really was a way to put down how I felt about everything, and then look back at it while listening to what I’d written. Each of the songs were written in one sitting, recorded to four-track immediately… meaning, i never thought consciously about what I was doing. The songs became 14 mirrors and then 14 pills.

HOF is extremely diverse, musically. I’m sure that will make it fun to perform. Do you tend to drift into certain genres, or do you enjoy keeping things eclectic?
I love the Mills Brothers no more or less than I love Led Zeppelin. I never thought about what I was doing; I would just pull out the four track at 8 pm and then go to bed at 1am with a song. I was so raw at that time that I had no filters, no biases, no pretenses. Just wants. So, out comes a song that sounds like Seals & Croft one day (”Goodbye”), then five days later, Black Sabbath (”Hate Ain’t Great”).

Can you describe the theme woven throughout HOF?
Every song on HOF is either about someone, or to someone, that relates to the story that was consuming me at the time. Again, sounds so self-absorbed when I say that and you know, I guess it is. I WAS self-absorbed at that time (and clearly still am). I can’t make up stories — The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carol is not how I roll. I can only write what’s on my mind. Where Lester gets weird is the concentration of the theme. My past recordings are a disparate collection of things going on around me; Lester is about one very focused story. “Hide of Frankenstein” is about last Halloween and me walking around the neighborhood in a Bride of Frankenstein costume. It will mean nothing to anyone but me, but it will forever capture the whole of how I was feeling at that moment. “Consumption Twilight” and three others were written for a friend who who was there for me. A couple songs are for/to my daughter. You get the picture. But they are all just threads from the same suit.

Big CD release gig this Thursday (today), right?
After I recorded Lester at Mike Wisti’s studio I decided I wanted to play some of it live. I got together Nick Larsen from IcyShores , Guitarzan, and Rus Kos from the Reverend Strychn days, to play. I owe them all more than they could know for agreeing to perform these songs with me. We’re just doing this one show–the final cathartic act of Lester. God I’m overblown.

Lester : “Consumption Twilight” (mp3)

Lester : “Hawaii High Ho” (mp3)

Lester : “Goodbye” (mp3)

Lester plays its one and only show this Thursday, Oct 25 at the Hexagon Bar. The new CD, LESTER: Hide of Frankenstein, will be available at the show.