It has been 15 years since Kevan Byrne and Kevin Lynn formed King Cobb Steelie, a venerable dub-space-disco combo that set our asses shaking while we drank at our college pubs. With their fifth album, Destroy All Codes, hitting the streets via Outside Music, they show no signs of letting up. Outoftheshine caught up with Kevan Byrne.

Who are you? Kevan Byrne from King Cobb Steelie. The other members are Kevin Lynn, Geoff Walton and Sam Cino.

Where are you from? Well, the band formed in Guelph, but three of us live in Toronto now.

What do you do? Many things my friend, so many things - or nothing at all... depends on which end of the binoculars you look through. In KCS, there's a lot of cross-pollination, so different people do different things at different times on different pieces. Is that suitably opaque?

After "months and months of mixing and editing," how do you feel this new album is different from the work you've done in the past? The guitars are more pointillist. There's a great cascading gorge of bass and drums imploring the heretofore unseen wildlife of Canada's nether regions to march forward and be anointed. There's a muted sort of knuckle-dragging gait and clumsy attempts to be deliberately lurid.

Why make the decision not to sing anymore? I exchanged my larynx for that of a snow monkey and the results have been less than flattering.

How was it recorded? Record to one-inch tape, dump to ProTools, "puree," pour into muffin tray and begin ritual incantation.

Despite your frequent use of electronic instruments on albums, I've read that the show is going to be entirely live instrumentation. How do you feel about that? Fatigue, hot flashes, lower back pain.

Looking back on the past 15 years of playing in this band together, what do you see as some of the highlights or low points? Highlight = possibility = love. Lowlight = cool = death.

What do you see in the future of KCS? Another album? We're planning on developing a couple of new rhythms for other musicians to version - the first one is called "A Distant Fever" rhythm for bass saxophone. The second rhythm (still under construction) is entitled the "Touching, Approaching, Disturbing" rhythm, which is closer to a traditional dancehall version.

BY OUTOFTHESHINE