Hammarsing Kharhmar was jittering with a pre-release high when I sat down and spoke with him in early April just days before Last Dance dropped. A few nights later I stood standing in shock, front row at Baby’s All Right. I had been knocked by an infuriating wall of sound. Kharhmar, New York indie scene oldie of Mon Khmer, makes an impression on us with his new broody, minimalist, and dualistic project — Exhibition. Stripped down of ego and of complication, Kharhmar speaks on how the focus of the EP is rawness in sound, no-fuss recording, and a unpretentious approach to his listeners.
The opening track “No One There” is a deep dive into the world of Exhibition. It’s upbeat character features drawn out vocal melodies complemented by Julian Casablancas vocals. The song expands with wandering synths, and flashes of playful guitar riffs over a steady brooding bass line which works as a motif to ground listeners. The melancholy track explores the purposelessness of fame and money within the material world. “Every line you measure so carefully, every song you learned to sing. Try to remember, what it was that you came for.”
“All I Want” is a crowd pleaser — the song’s ambient chorus could put you in a trance on the dance floor or punctuate the nothingness of just laying in bed. Kharhmar composes a thumping guitar riff that is simultaneously steady and suspenseful.
At Baby’s All Right Exhibition is a five-piece band. Kharhmar‘s roster consists of his old friends and collaborators. Colin Killalea on synths and guitar, Aaron Arntz on synths, Kharhmar on guitar, Jeremy Gustin on drums, Jordan Brooks on bass ,and the most energetic of all, Solonje Burnett on backing vocals. The steady hum electrified the stunned audience. The crowd was shook by this mass of funk and pure noise delivered through such simple stage presence.
Kharhmar is a focused and articulate musician. He can speak truthfully and shred like a mad man. I’ll let his own words speak for him as it’s what he seems to do best
Exhibition – Last Dance from Exhibition on Vimeo.
How did you get into music? Especially having grown up in a small town in India?
So my town, funnily enough, is called the rock capital of India. The reason or that is that a lot of people play guitar there. I grew up playing guitar. The reason for that is it was set up as a summer capital for the British, when it was British India. A lot of missionaries moved there so through Christianity and Western influence a lot of people took up western music. For the last 70 years everyone played and listened to rock n roll. Everywhere, cabs in the 80s, when I was growing up, there’d be CCR playing or Judas Priest, the Doors, Bob Dylan. It’s very different from the rest of India. It’s more like southeast Asia in a way because of that presence of education, missionaries came through. It became an educational hub but through western music.
Because of that did people develop their own styles or was there a lot of mimicry?
There’s a lot of mimicking. There are a lot of amazingly talented people but that’s the biggest problem. Not having your own style. Now it’s changing, I go back and people are singing in their own language. Like Kassi, which is my dad’s language. That’s really cool, then incorporating local and tribal rhythms. Back in the day people just wanted to look like iron maiden and play lead guitar.
Was that a big influence for you?
My dad played guitar. Any party that my friends would have everyone would start singing and playing guitar at the end of the night. It was very normal. A lot people in India, especially my India, we all listened to the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, that or metal. Deep Purple was the meeting ground. You have Iron maiden, Megadeath, Metallica and on the other side we had Led Zeppelin, The Doors.
How is Exhibition different from Mon Khmer or other past projects?
Mon Khmer, what was really cool about it was the five of us would collaborate, I’d bring a song but everyone would bring their influences to it. It felt eclectic. What I wanted to do with this was have it stay within the same cloud. Keep the mood the same.
Is Exhibition more just you?
Yeah, it’s how I would want the song to be from beginning to end. It changes because they guys I play with I tour with. Jeremy who plays drums in Albert’s band, Jordan too, we have an understanding. It’s more like I have the idea pretty set but then they add things that make it better but within the goal that I have. I wanted that, because sometime things are cool because they’re totally different but in this case I wanted it to stay as close as possible to what I had in mind.
What did you have in mind? What is the cloud you’re talking about?
It definitely has a dark element, Not depressing but, I didn’t want it to jump stylistically. People are saying its new wave, for me that’s Joy Division, Nick Cage, Bowie in the 80s. I was trying to keep it simple in a way. Not have all these different sections.
Was there a goal you had in mind?
For me I’ve always wanted to write and perform my own music that has to go back to where I’m from. Everyone was mimicking and I don’t want to be good at mimicking. After touring with Albert I needed to get back to doing my thing. I definitely want this to be a raw, intentionally rough. A lot of the takes we didn’t rehearse too much. Last Dance, I showed Jordan, the bass player 5 mins before. And we were taking a break and he started playing it, we had this drum machine and a hi-hat instead of a click and Jeremy started with the beat. Then I made up the guitar part and some of the lyrics on the spot. We overdubbed some cymbals but we didn’t change anything. The production, was my buddy Jeremy, we’ve been working together for a longtime. He’s good at keeping things organic. That’s cool, that’s what I wanted, more visceral, not trying to sound pretty. That’s my goal.
You’ve been in the New York music scene for a long time, what has it been like seeing the scene change? Have you ever felt discouraged or happy about the direction it’s taking?
So many times, so many ups and downs. It’s just getting used to it. I’m not afraid of people not liking my music anymore. Get it to the people that like it. The scene is always going to change, rock and roll seems to be fading a little bit, but it will come back. Maybe this (Last Dance EP) will help the kids who listen to it notice, oh that sounds like Bowie, T-Rex. That’s important to me.
So you think there’s an importance to paying homage to your influences?
Totally, I can name every influence in every song. *laughs* but I won’t give it away, it’s going to spoil everything. Sometimes you try to go for something but it ends up not sounding the same.
Is it even necessary to pick out these influences in your music?
Because that’s what I like, influences don’t have to only be rock. When it comes to rock these days, I don’t know who’s doing what I have 2 friends, whenever I go to their place they always play the darkest electronic music and that always influences me, the mood, the minimal stuff, that I definitely feed into. Some of it is new, some of it is old, I don’t even know the names. I love classical Indian music, I love Amjad Ali Khan. If I’m thinking about it when I’m mixing I do it one way but then find something new, you have to, nothing comes out of the blue.
Do you have any memorable experiences from recording this past album?
Last Dance and the way it happened was so special. Recording Julian’s vocals that was pretty amazing. We weren’t sure it was going to happen. It kept getting postponed and everything. Finally, he was like come up to my house and that was the night that the storm was supposed to hit, March 13th. He was flying out the next day for a tour so it was this major operation, we had to make it happen. We went there, he was so cool, it was fun seeing how good he is, trying out all these ideas. He knew where he wanted to go but finding the different ways of getting there. Then eventually just executing what he wanted, but so naturally. That’s why he’s who he is. He let my girlfriend in, and he wasn’t weird about it. We were laughing and playing that song.
How was this experience different from the last?
I would send Julian pieces of recordings then he’d give me feedback. We finally found a group of songs that we’re in that cloud. It’s a mood, not a depressing cloud. I grew up close to the rainiest place in the world so maybe that’s why and I love rain. This was done at Sear Sounds, we did it in one of the smaller studios, a mixing room and two booths. We suspect these booths were used to make the overdubs for the porn the owner’s wife used to make in the 80s.The room has all these weird lights, and she’s a famous soft porn producer. One of the pioneers of early New York. Sears is famous, it’s where John Lennon did all his stuff, but that’s in the big room. It was cool, it was cozy, I like that. Even if I get a big budget I won’t get a big room because there’s no expectation. We just sit down and make music. I didn’t want to overthink stuff. Definitely not trying to change the world musically. Make something I’m proud of, get it to the right people, that’s it. I’ve recorded so much stuff that’s never been released. It leads to better things, it wasn’t that good. What I’ve seen is that no one can like everything. We can’t all like the same things, thank god for that. If we were all listening to the same thing it would be so boring. When you’re young you want everyone to like your music, but you just want to be liked. Ego and insecurity. I still want people to listen to me but I’m more relaxed about it.
Was this premeditate or more spontaneous?
I wish I could say that it was spontaneous, but it was both. It was years of doing something and learning from it, and now not wanting to make those mistakes. I just wanted to finish it and make it have a vibe, that was important to me. I want people to feel good. My songs always have a groove to it, if you can hear that and like it I’ll feel good.
