kayneevol

Sped up technology has dealt somewhat of a blow to fans of the "lo-fi" musical aesthetic. Musicians on a budget can use computers now, eliminating the snarling tape hiss and White-Castle-drive-thru-speaker sonics of past lo-fi Indie Rock. But those still craving that homemade sound will find a kindred spirit in the music of singer/songwriter Brian Cammerer.
Under the pseudonym Kayneevol, Cammerer has been recording (and writing poetry, making videos and doing visual art) since the dissolution of his band, Higbee, several years ago. The prolific artist does everything D.I.Y.-style, crafting esoteric Rock songs that seethe undiluted emotion, with overdriven guitar and raw yet memorable melody.

I meet Cammerer at the Westwood home he shares with his grandmother. He's on the front porch when I arrive, playing an acoustic. I'm nearly blinded by the intense hot-pink shirt he's wearing for our "photo shoot." Emblazoned across the front is "I (Heart Symbol) Mom." He later explains that his pen-name is a tribute to his mother, who, when he was a kid, "knitted an Evil Knievel costume from scratch and made it really nice."

He leads me through the house, which is decorated with grandmotherly knick-knacks and family photos. We head to his workspace in the basement, a tiny corner room. The walls of the cubbyhole are covered in bed sheets and a glowing, neon sign that reads "Whatever" sits next to a rainbow-painted boom box, which, along with a small portable studio, Cammerer has used to record.

As we talk on the back patio, Cammerer seems nervous, his hands shaking as he pulls from a steady stream of Camels. Answering questions, he speaks carefully, often on tangents, and his words are book-ended by deep breaths. I ask Cammerer, whose music possesses a fractured, fragile genius quality, if he knows about "outsider art," the term used to describe idiosyncratic art and music crafted by artists disconnected from the mainstream, either by choice or due to psychological conditions. Daniel Johnston, Roky Erickson, Syd Barrett and Jandek are just some musicians whose music has been termed "outsider."

"No," he says to the question. "But I liked the movie. The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton is my favorite writer." He later e-mails me to say, "If I'm an outsider artist then I hope it rains real hard, and someone feels sorry for me and lets me in." (Cammerer, who works as a nurse's aide, asks that his comments about any psychological issues be kept "off record" due to his job.)

In his teens, Cammerer, who cites Paul Westerberg as a main influence, formed the fine Indie Pop Rock group, Higbee, which lasted about 10 years. When Higbee went under, Cammerer kept a "workbook" and began writing feverishly. He would write in his journal regularly at the old Buzz Coffeeshop; the resultant poetry was turned into the book, Rock-N-Roll Ate My Paper, and what he considers the best songs on his sprawling Monster Monster Munchy Munchy album.

Questions about his creative process draw long pauses. I ask if his art is natural and spontaneous, his way of interacting with and reacting to the world around him.

"I don't know if you'd call it spontaneous or feeling-driven," he says. "I'll have a picture in my mind, a riff ... a lot of times I go by the picture, you know?"

So you plot things out ahead of time, as opposed to constructing it like a craftsman, like "Now I'm going to write a song"?

"Sure, why not," he shoots back. "I don't know ... you wanna take a break?" he adds with a laugh.

Cammerer says he desires to have more people hear his music, but when asked if he would be interested in putting an album out on a label, he says, "I know nothing about that kind of stuff." He does have aspirations though.

"Doing mirror paintings in hotel rooms with fingernail polish," he says. "There's lot of other (ambitions), but that's the big one. I've always wanted to see the world through hotel rooms."

The Internet has been the main outlet for his music and other art. A friend offered to start a Web site for him, so Cammerer collected his work and had it uploaded to kayneevol.com. It's an exhaustive collection, with hours of music dating back to his Higbee days, plus newer material, like last year's You Rock My World. The site also contains a phone-book's worth of his writing and colorful artwork. Cammerer says he's gotten feedback saying the site is too hard to navigate, but he doesn't seem to care.

"I put it up there as an art piece, to reflect what I have to say," he says.

Cammerer says he doesn't go out often to see bands anymore ("I'll be honest, I'm a bit of a hermit," he admits). But Kayneevol has come to life on stage recently. His first shows didn't go well, but Cammerer, who plays live flanked by two tall P.A. speakers and his artwork, is giving it another shot Tuesday at the Northside Tavern. Asked what people should expect, he says simply, "Expect me to rock."

After about 45 minutes of start-stop - citybeat