They’re back.
And, by all appearances, Novakain is here to stay. Maybe for not for another 12 years but still. This hard-rocking band ain’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“We just love making and playing music together,” said bassist/vocalist Dylan Kain, who formed the band with older brother and guitarist Kyle and drummer John Bereuter when they were kids decades ago. “We’ve seen a lot of bands come and go, but we’re still here doing what we love, and that’s a great thing.”
After playing their first show in 2010, Novakain established itself as one of the hardest-rocking bands in all of North Texas. Having performed all around North Texas, they’ve also played a few festivals and shows in Houston, Austin, and some small towns, too. The guys have just released their fourth album, and the all-analog, seven-track The Oh No! Unknown may be their best yet.
“We’re definitely very happy with this album,” Dylan said. “It’s our best recorded album to date.”
Recorded, mixed, and mastered in Hurst by Jeff Mount at Sessionworks Studios (Chastity, 3Eighty3, Jefferson Colby), The Oh No! Unknown offers a lot of heavy, ’90s-influenced headbangers a la Alice in Chains.
“This album is more sci-fi-/dystopian-themed songs,” Dylan said, “kind of a loose concept album.”
The analog production was a different take for the guys, Dylan said.
“We wanted to do it analog,” he continued, “because we’ve always been about that classic-rock ’70s vibe, and what other way to make it sound like the bands we love then to do it all analog just like they did?”
The guys say Mount approached them after a show and said he really liked their sound. He offered to record them to tape for free, but scheduling conflicts prevented that from happening.
“Once we got the album together,” Dylan said, “we definitely wanted to go record with him and do it the old school way, on tape. It’s cool to record with someone who already digs your music.”
Kyle and Dylan grew up in Grand Prairie, and that’s where Kyle met Bereuter in third grade listening to classic rock. Dylan started writing songs when he was 4 years old.
“It’s always been part of my life,” the frontman said. “I never just sit down to write a song. They just come to me. It’s like this supernatural thing, God or something. If we can jam and gel together musically, the grooves just start flowing.”
The Novakain guys already have a few songs recorded for their next album and said they’re going to start recording again later this year.
“We have created, like, our own groove,” Kyle said. “We just love what we do. We all have a deep passion with music and our instruments, and we love to make music.”
Dylan said they feel “great” about their longevity.
“Since we were teenagers,” he said, “we first really wanted to be rockstars and start a band. That’s all we really wanted to do. Of course, life hasn’t made it for it to become our full-time jobs — yet,” he laughed.
