Counting twenty-two years experience in the music industry and with a new album MICD already on the making, Kid Dakota is more energetic that you can handle. With his recently released album Age of Roaches Darren Jackson is showcasing his powerful and evocative songwriting. Read our interview below.
Describe your sound in three words please!
Minimal, Desolate, Intense
What is the main concept of your new album ‘Age of Roaches’? How easy was it to record during lockdown?
Age of Roaches was completed as Covid-19 was spreading throughout the world. Although not about the pandemic, the album makes the fear and anxiety produced by forces greater than one’s self palpable. With the assistance of some of Minnesota’s finest musicians – Alan Sparhawk, Jeremy Ylvisaker, Christopher McGuire, Ian Prince, Matthew Kazama, and Justin Korhonen) – Darren Jackson weaves together the disparate themes of nuclear annihilation, ecological collapse, addiction, forced human migration, physical trauma, and the overwhelming presence of infinite space and time into a apocalyptic, postmodern concept album. Recorded at various Minnesota studios – Pachyderm (Cannon Falls), Sacred Heart (Duluth), Homesteader (Minneapolis) – over the past ten years, the album also marks a turning point in the career of Darren Jackson as a producer. For while simplicity has always been a hallmark of Kid Dakota’s sound, Age of Roaches combines this minimalism with an almost neurotic attention to detail that rewards repeated listening.
Is songwriting a talent or a skill?
I believe it’s a talent but I definitely think you can get better at it.
For this album you collaborated with an array of musicians. What is the best and most challenging thing about working together with others from your experience?
The most challenging thing is letting go of your vision and trusting that the collaborative process will generate a richer, more diverse work you could have created on your own.
In what ways can conscious and political music impact society?
Well, I think artists have the potential to reach a large number of people and consequently accelerate and magnify pressing social issues.
Favourite album of the past decade?
Lost in the Dream – War on Drugs
What keeps you going in the day to day life?
These days, it’s actually playing music. For awhile I didn’t really enjoy playing music but in the last few years, mostly as a result of switching to playing so much acoustic guitar, I’ve really developed a love for performing.
Something not many people know about you is…
I’ve been a vegetarian for 26 years.
Thanks Kid Dakota!
Follow Kid Dakota
Website/Instagram/Soundcloud
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