Music A Life, Loud

From left: Twelve-year-old Jonathan Kane, photographed by his father Art Kane. Kane performing at Museum of Modern Art PS1 in Long Island City, New York. Kane at the drums with Rhys Chatham’s 100 Guitars.

A Life, Loud

A drummer since childhood is thankful for hearing aids. By Jonathan Kane

credit photo credits: (age 12) art kane; (100 guitars) holly anderson; (ps1) bradley brown; (headshot) iris cushing I was born to wear hearing aids. Not as a result of genetics, but rather through passion and career choices. I’m a musician, and I’ve played a lot of very, very loud music.

Although I also play guitar and bass, my principal instrument is drums, and I hit them hard. Always have and always will. The drums alone are enough to wreak havoc on one’s hearing, let alone if one is a hard hitter. You spend 50 years with a snare drum cracking between your legs, and crash cymbals mere inches from your head and we’ll see how often you say “what?” in a conversation!

My first professional bands played Chicago-style blues and yes, we cranked the volume. But later in my career I took the volume to the next level. I’ve toured the world and recorded with minimalist icon Rhys Chatham’s orchestra of 100 (yes, that’s one hundred) electric guitars.

As loud as that sounds, it’s actually not as loud as Rhys’s music for six guitars, massive volume and open tunings being central to the creation of the magical, swirling harmonics and overtones that Rhys’s compositions generate. Later I formed my own multi-guitar band, Jonathan Kane’s February, wedding Rhys’s overtone theory to my love of blues.

I also founded the industrial post-punk band Swans in 1981. Swans is on the books as one of the loudest bands ever. Mojo Magazine placed Swans as the 4th loudest band of all time in their December 2000 article “The Grateful Deaf,” claiming that we were louder than The Who, MC5, and other titans of tsunamic sound.

Then there were power tools, motorcycles, headphones, and the NYC subway to add to my aural distress. I never wore any earplugs until 1991, when a monitor went bananas in my ear at a gig in Sicily, leaving me with a lifelong case of tinnitus.

About 10 years ago, my late wife Holly Anderson started bugging me to get hearing aids. Holly had grown weary of my constantly asking what, excuse me, and could you say that again? I was resistant but finally this year I caved. I think it was turning 65 and getting a coupon in the mail for a huge discount on the devices! I hated them at first. Really. But over the course of a few months I got used to them and now I am a convert.

My advice to anyone struggling with hearing for whatever reason is: Protect your ears from excessive volume with plugs when exposed, and if the damage is already done, don’t be ashamed, get hearing aids. They are very discreet nowadays (a plus for vain people like myself).

It’s wonderful to not struggle anymore to follow a conversation, and even to hear more birdsong, the beeps of a car, you know, the sounds of life. Oh and by the way, I still play loud music (with earplugs)!

Jonathan Kane is a musician, composer, and photographer, and he manages the archives and estate of his father Art Kane, the legendary photographer.