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Rene Chambers’ debut ‘Kremlin Bats’ is good news for Halloween freaks

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Just a few years ago, Jim Leonard was laying down the rules of rock on his sludgy opus Treble in Paradise. In 2018, he’s profiling a character who’s “a destitute figure, living on the fringes of society.” And his name — and the new title for Leonard’s new creation — is Rene Chambers.

The new ominous project unfurls like a character study throughout Kremlin Bats, the first album under his new moniker, released August 10 via Plastic Response Records. All the eerie undertones make for good news for the goth-y or otherwise Halloween-minded music fans of the world.

“Much of this record is written from the perspective of a character that has developed in my songwriting over time and it felt fitting to really dive into that persona and give the character a name,” Leonard tells Vanyaland. “I wanted something that sounded old, like the name of a burnt out lounge singer, a name that wouldn’t look out of place on a record from 70 years ago. Also, there is a great deal of mystery and ambiguity in the music and I wanted the name to reflect that as well.” 

Despite hailing from Massachusetts, Leonard tapped Plastic Response Records, a label from South Carolina, for the release. The collective, albeit not local, has previously released music from the likes of The Lentils and Sam Gas Can.

“I got involved with Plastic Response through my friends Al Marantz and John Brown,” Leonard explains. “I played drums on Al’s record Green Tobacco Hair, and that was released on Plastic Response earlier this year. John mixed Kremlin Bats, and as we were going through that process he suggested that I also get in touch with the label. Plastic Response has had an amazing set of releases from artists that I love like Cleaners from Venus, Part Time, and Jib Kidder and also a strong connection to Massachusetts [and] the Northeast… It was a no brainer to release the tape on Plastic Response. TJ, who runs the label, has been super helpful and he is also a halloween freak of sorts so he pretty much immediately was down to put out the tape.”

Released right at the early onset of fall — or at least the start of basic-fall-loving culture — the record touts song titles like “Black Cat / Witches Hat,” “Warriston Cemetery” and “Halloween,” all of which stretch Leonard’s experimental darkwave to the far corners of his murky imagination. But Leonard also knows when to lighten the mood.

“The ‘spooky’ themes in the music and lyrics play off of the nature of this created character,” he says. “He sleeps during the day, wakes up in the evening and roams the streets seeking his past. He’s haunted by his regrets and each song is a snapshot of some experience flashing in his brain. I think it’s important to maintain a degree of humor in all things though and even though Rene Chambers is a downtrodden, seedy individual, the songs are peppered with jokes and weird imagery. If that stuff wasn’t in there it would get really cumbersome. I like to think of him as sort of a sad, bumbling clown. You can laugh at his misfortune but there is always a fear that it could happen to you too.”

Peep the album in full below, and make sure to dive into the glory of Leonard’s fancy fretwork at the end of “Spiral Stairs.”