One Track Mind: Dennis Kane

Standout Track: No. 8, “What Can Never Slip Away,” a not-so-subtle Echo & the Bunnymen homage, complete with psychedelic 12-string guitar leads and heaps of reverb. But where Ian McCulloch might have warbled senselessly over such fare, Kane imparts a succinct lesson about the impermanence of the things we love. “Close your eyes/Open up/Don’t try to find the clues to what can never slip away,” he sings.

Musical Motivation: Written roughly a decade ago, “What Can Never Slip Away,” almost slipped away. “A lot of times I’ll write a song and have no inkling as to what it’s actually about,” says Kane, a full-time soundman at Black Cat. “A lot of times I grow into them instead.” So, upon completing the tune, he dubbed it a B-side and promptly shelved it. But years later—after losing his father and getting married—he started to hear the song’s lyrics in a different way. “I realized that it’s about the tenuous grasp on a person,” says Kane. “Like, what is it about this a person that really affects you? Those are big questions that you deal with after you lose a loved one or meet the person that changes your life.”

The New Beat: One thing that Kane is ready to let fall away is his rhythm section—a Korg MiniPops 35 drum machine. “I’ve been listening to that one beat for ten years,” he says. Although Kane initially found the Korg’s limited range inspiring, lately he has been replacing the machine—which was, for a long time, his sole accompaniment at gigs—with a flesh-and-blood drummer. “At first it makes people laugh,” he says. “But when they hear the same beat after the third song, they start to realize that it’s gonna be playing for a long time.”