Finn Cohen just wants to complete his degree in music. However, for this 28-year-old Duke sophomore, finishing is much harder than it may seem. Cohen, the guitarist and lead singer of the Triangle-based budding rock outfit The Nein, began the life of a musician directly after high school and hasn’t looked back since. Cohen has had a colorful academic career, attending UNC, Durham Tech and currently Duke.
The Nein formed in early 2003, after Cohen and drummer Robert Biggers experienced the demise of two other bands. After high school, Cohen attended UNC briefly, but dropped out after joining White Octave, the pioneering indie group led by ex-Cursive guitarist and then Duke Law student Stephen Pederson.
“White Octave was doing a lot of touring at the time,” Cohen said. “I just wasn't going to commit to going to school while that was going on. Music has always been my top priority.”
White Octave broke up when Pederson began his career as a lawyer, but Cohen, Biggers and bassist Linc Hancock wanted to continue playing. Shortly thereafter, the three musicians formed Gold Chainz. Most of Gold Chainz’ songs were written by Hancock, and Cohen and Hancock’s musical tastes clashed regularly. In the end, however, it was not musical differences but rather family life and distance that eventually drove Hancock to leave the band.
“Linc was writing decent music, but it was basically just major chords, Guided By Voices stuff,” Cohen explained. “I was interested in doing things a little bit differently, but everything worked out in the end. He moved to Raleigh, got engaged and eventually left the band.”
After Hancock’s departure, Cohen took up the frontman position, renamed the group and asked Casey Burns to play bass with the band. The inspiration for the band’s name stems from the Lord of the Rings characters, The Nine. “Finn really liked the idea of naming the band The Nine, but he kind of messed up the spelling,” Biggers joked. “Even after we found out we spelled the name wrong, we stuck with it. We even thought it worked better.”
Soon after The Nein formed, they began to test themselves musically, seeing what they were capable of creating. After The Nein self-released two EPs which garnered them substantial local popularity, Cohen applied and was accepted to Duke. “I wanted to finish my education near my house,” he explained. “Duke was the closest school to me, so I figured I’d apply.”
Just one week before Cohen began his first semester at Duke, The Nein was signed to Sonic Unyon, an indie Canadian label, which boasts of signing Sponge, the Pixies and Mooney Suzuki before they all got big. “We had been sending out our stuff to just about every label we could find that looked half-decent,” Burns said. “It was literally a mass-mailing. We were talking to a couple labels who wanted more material, but then Sonic Unyon contacted us and asked if they could put [our EP] out immediately. We said yes and they signed us on the spot.”
Cohen found himself again in the same position he was in during his time in White Octave: torn between school and music. “You can’t imagine how difficult it is to tour for a couple weeks and then come back to school, where you’re expected to make up the work and keep going,” he explained. “Touring just saps so much energy from you. What’s nice is that most of my professors have been cool with it.”
After Sonic Unyon released their EP in late 2004, the band decided to push themselves further. Burns was a friend of rock veteran Dale Flattum, who has been a member of revolutionary underground outfits like Steel Pole Bath Tub and Milk Cult, and wanted him to join the band. Flattum, who made the artwork for both the band’s EP and their upcoming album, uses two tape decks, a sampler and an echo, all run through a mixer and into an amp as his instrument, adding a whole new sound to The Nein's music. “In my old band, it was an easy way to make the cheapest, simple music,” Flattum said. “It's always a kind of experiment, to see which sound works with what, which frequency pulls through.”
“It took me a while to get used to what Dale was doing,” Cohen said. “Sometimes, the sounds he creates just don’t sound right, but then you listen to them a few more times, and you realize they’re perfect. That’s where Dale’s genius shines through.”
Using his tape decks, Flattum samples different sounds he has collected over time. “I have so many cassettes sitting around my house,” he said. “I have more cassettes than records or CDs.”
The other members of The Nein are very satisfied with Flattum’s presence. “I think that Dale makes The Nein more complete,” Biggers said. “His sounds mash really well with our music. I think our new music is more complete.”
The band’s original EP has a very raw, stripped down rock sound, or, as Biggers calls it, very much of a “live band sound.” With the addition of Flattum, The Nein cleaned up their sound and opted to record their new album in a professional studio. “I think that we’re challenging ourselves and making better, more interesting music,” Flattum said. “What you're seeing is just the band maturing.”
The main appeal of The Nein is not only their thoughtful, interesting music but also Cohen’s lyrics. “Finn’s lyrics are steeped in worry and concern,” Burns said. “They’re not preachy, they're just contemplative.”
The members of The Nein are preparing themselves for growing popularity. Their debut full-length album, Wrath of Circuits, which features Flattum, is prepped for release May 17. After the release, The Nein will be embarking on a national tour that begins in late May.
Although they do not anticipate exceptional success, they would love to become a self-sustaining outfit. “I don’t think any of us are really planning on getting really big,” Cohen said. “But I’m anticipating good things happening in the next six months or so. We’re thinking of touring Europe and Japan really soon, which would be great for the band.”
With a packed show at South by Southwest last month and a possible trans-Atlantic tour, Cohen’s dreams of getting his B.A. might have to take a break. “If we do go to Europe and Japan, I’m going to have to take another semester off,” Cohen said. “It’s too bad I have to leave school, but as I said before, music has always been at the top of my list. One of these days, though, I’ll finish.”
There will be a record release party for The Nein’s album, Wraith of Circuits, at King’s Barcade in Raleigh on May 7.
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