Just before the world shut down last year, Chicago's Kali Masi drove to suburban Massachusetts to hole up at Jay Maas's Getaway Recording Studio to get to work on the full-length follow-up to their 2017 debut, Wind Instrument (Take This To Heart Records). Fast forward a year (March 26th, to be precise) and the band unleashed the final product, [laughs], to the masses, also via Take That To Heart Records. It is, in your humble host's opinion, is one of the best albums in recent memory.

We managed to convince the quartet to forgo their regularly-scheduled band practice and, instead, to chat with us for an hour or so. We of course talked about the writing and recording processes, and the decision to embrace some of the weird directions that they scratched the surface of on Wind Instrument. We also dug into some of the different ways the band not only kept busy but kept productive in the run-up to the album release, included a handful of brilliantly self-produced videos (see links below, especially "Trophy Deer" and "Guilt Like A Gun"). Much thanks to Sam and Wes And Anthony and John!

Make sure you pick up [laughs] here: https://kalimasi.bandcamp.com/

[laughs] Videos:

The Stray: https://youtu.be/Ek1PANfbVNs

Freer: https://youtu.be/UX4pmCm1dNg

Trophy Deer: https://youtu.be/SU6Q6DQa3n4

Guilt Like A Gun: https://youtu.be/bvHq2NmE5rQ

New (*both laughs*) theme song is an excerpt from [laughs] track "Hurts To Laugh." © KALI MASI 2021 ℗ Take This To Heart Records 2021