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Podcast FeedCool Kids Collective: Keeping Roots Strong
Nick sits down with the CKC - a unit determined to keep their roots strong and their music flourishing. Photos by Stan Chambers and Josh Parker.
Raleigh - The Saturday night crowd has begun to pile into the Oxford in downtown Raleigh. Men get drinks for their women, or women they hope to soon call their women. The younger crowd nervously checks cell phones for text messages. Some slip away in groups to the ladies room. House music thumps at a level still conducive to conversation.
By 10 P.M., 200 people have filed in. It’s doubtful that many of the suits and downtown diners who frequent the pub for lunch ever noticed the stage; it’s small and pushed to the corner, like the shy girl at a fraternity party. Right now, however, everyone surrounds it in anticipation. But there’s a problem.
The stage is empty.
The only evidence that there will be a show tonight is a black backpack that Cool Kid Collective guitarist/vocalist Frankie Goodrich slung into the corner upon his arrival. Matt Bowen (also on guitars and vocals) and J.D. Leath (percussion) have the gear, and they’re a few minutes away.
A few more minutes brings a few dozen more CKC fans as well as Bowen and Leath. The 
trio sets up their equipment with the quiet efficiency of battle-tested roadies. They play a few chords, beat some on the drum kit and beatbox a few lyrics before walking away.
Anticipation builds. And a few dozen more fans arrive.
Raleigh’s Cool Kid Collective seems out to prove that a band can “make it” while calling North Carolina home. Their sound and style seem suited for big cities like Los Angeles or New York City, and Bowen and Goodrich admit the three piece has done very well when they’ve visited those cities. There’s something to be said for swimming in a smaller ocean, however, and the way the music business works in 2011, there isn’t much they can’t do from their own familiar and cozy living rooms.
“The cool thing about this day and age is that a 14-year-old kid making music in his mom’s basement has worldwide distribution,” Goodrich told Magazine33 during an interview in one of the Oxford's private rooms. He and Bowen walk around the restaurant like they’re in charge, and it’s easy to see why. A couple hundred fans have shown 
up to see them.
The band recently terminated a deal with Dirt Bag Records, a west coast label that was swallowed up by Warner Brothers. They hold no grudges; in fact, they are thankful for the opportunity to learn the music business. The number one lesson: they don’t need a record label.
“I know bands right now that are charging about $30 grand a show, that are rolling around in a $1 million tour bus, and no one knows who the fuck they are,” Goodrich said. "And that’s the industry that we live in now, and it’s very encouraging and it’s very, very exciting.”
“The name of the game is distribution,” Bowen added.
Tonight, the band begins with a set of cover tunes. This set list isn’t impressive on paper – “Black” by Pearl Jam, Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So,” and selections from Lisa Loeb and Lynyrd Skynyrd are amongst the titles – but their arrangements make each song an adventure set to turn in a heartbeat and finding an unexpected direction at any moment. Have you ever heard a band beatbox Tool’s “Sober"?
Goodrich is the band’s hype man, and after Bowen does a couple of songs with Leath, he joins the group to give them a sampling of what they’ll hear when the original set begins shortly before midnight. His sound is polished and believable, and the crowd loves him for it.
During the interview, their roles stay true. It’s the older, more experienced Bowen who speaks wit
h a more tempered cadence. For example, Magazine33 asked how they collaborate lyrically. Bowen began by explaining that their new music will feature true collaborations, while previously he and Goodrich would write separately and then add a line or chorus to each other’s finished pieces.
Frankie Goodrich: Matt’s deep… he’s very introspective. I’m a little more… I like pop music. I dig the simple melodies and the cool, quirky, fresh subject matter. I’m completely unapologetic about it.
33: You’ve got Beiber Fever, don’t you?
FG: [laughs] I do. I do. But the contrast is beautiful. We really couldn’t be more different songwriters.
Later he admits t
hat anything you hear online doesn’t do the band justice. “You have to come to see Cool Kid Collective live,” Goodrich said. “The website, fuck the MySpace, forget the videos you see on YouTube. I mean, they’re great, they’re cool. But you have to see it live.”
CKC begins their original set with “Si Senor,” the track that plays when you log onto the band’s website. The crowd is into it immediately. Before long, Goodrich begins taking requests from the audience, and the band works in a few covers. It’s possible these covers are ones they’d never practiced before. Not that it matters, Cool Kid Collective never rehearse.
“The way we write is in the studio, and it comes together in the 
studio,” Goodrich said. “And then it’s just a matter of bringing it to J.D., he’s a classically trained musician… and he’s the type of dude, if you play something for him, he can play it right then and there.”
Leath is clearly the most talented of the three, which is a compliment to his skills, not a criticism of the very capable Bowen and Goodrich. His voice is smooth R&B at times, and he works the drum kit without a drip of sweat falling from beneath his dark sunglasses. One gets the sense that his Kermit the Frog t-shirt would be ready for another wear the next day
.
33: Is J.D. the brains of the operation?
FG: I wouldn’t say the brains, but he’s a large portion of the engine.
In 2011, look for new music from Cool Kid Collective. They have a CD release show scheduled for March 26 at the Southland Ballroom in Raleigh, but Bowen and Goodrich weren’t very convincing when saying the album would be ready in time. You can find the band back at the Oxford on Feb 19.
