Something becomes pretty obvious pretty quick when spinning Success, the latest from Winnipeg noise rockers KEN mode. The album, the band's sixth, is far more focused on the angular and discordant noise rock of a time past than it is the heavier sounds of the band's past couple albums. When bravewords catches up with guitarist/vocalist Jesse Matthewson, he admits this is the case before we even have a chance to give our take on the album.

"It's definitely a lot less metal and hardcore," he says with a laugh. "That's what the M.O. was when we went into writing this, we wanted to go back to our roots of the music that made us excited to even listen to music when we were teenagers. And, we're burned out on metal and hardcore. I haven't been listening to a lot of it in the past year and a half or two years. We're just writing what we want to hear; if that annoys people, it doesn't really matter to us."

But the album isn't so much of a sonic shift that fans are going to be running away confused. Matthewson says he's heard a couple of dissatisfied comments, but whether or not people are enjoying the band's sound doesn't seem to be a big concern for him. Plus, this increased emphasis on bass-heavy, quirky noise rock is simply amping up a part of KEN mode that's always been there, to a degree.

"It was a conscious move away from metal and hardcore," he says. "A lot of the people who follow us aren't entirely surprised by this. It's [noise rock] always been a part of our sound."

But all this talk of various genres does make me wonder: who the hell listens to KEN mode? I know some of my friends do, but they're total weirdos. Who is an average KEN mode listener?

"Honestly, I have no idea at this point," laughs Matthewson. "We have some metal fans, some hardcore fans, some on the indie rock side, and I think we're starting to win over a lot of the older noise rock crowd now. I think some of the metal and hardcore aspects of our band did turn them off before. We have a really weird mishmash of people who follow us. And that's cool because I listen to a lot of weird stuff, and we've always been more of a band's band, and it's cool when we can get people who like music for music's sake rather than being into one specific genre. As convoluted as that sounds."

But they're actually not just a band's band: KEN mode have seen their share of critical praise over the years, often from high places: in 2012, they won the Juno award for Heavy Metal/Hard Music Album Of The Year (the first year the award was given). Not bad for a trio from Winnipeg with an odd, shifting, and, quite frankly, difficult sound.

"Yeah, it's very strange," admits Matthewson. "Ever since it started happening we've been waiting for the other shoe to drop. We've had so many years of nobody paying attention to us. The plan was back in 2009 we wanted to try putting our all into the band and touring full-time if we could, and we wanted to link up with the right people to make that happen. And when we first linked up with Profound Lore, people started paying attention. So I guess our goal was to have that happen, and it's been working out pretty okay. The fact that anyone pays attention still surprises us, because inherently we've never been playing a cool type of music. The noise rock scene of the '80s and '90s was totally dead when we started, and people told us that we were playing a dead style. And now it seems like it's getting cool again. Fuck it; I'll ride that."