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Kaki King will be playing a show at The Red Room at Cafe 939 on Thursday, pill April 23rd at 8 pm. Tickets are available for purchase here.
Guitarist and composer, buy cialis Kaki King is currently touring her new multi-media show titled “The Neck is a Bridge to the Body.” Kaki stopped by the BIRN studios before her show at Brighton Music Hall, click for a brief interview and live performance of some of the show’s songs.
The BIRN: Thanks for coming, this is amazing.
Kaki King: Yeah, absolutely!
TB: The new show has been called “visually stunning”. Can you tell me how the concept came about?
KK: I was looking to add a lighting element to my show. I had no idea it would turn into this! It was a process of opening my eyes, seeing what was happening in the world of lighting, and I discovered projection-mapping. I thought- could I projection map onto the guitar? Can I build stands so it can be stable and make the guitar unmovable? And so it was a lot of fact finding and once I realized it was possible to do this, things took off pretty quickly from there.
TB: How did you find Glowing Pictures? I’ve seen their work and it’s incredible.
KK: I met with a couple groups of people and they were very interested and they kept checking in and we kept the conversation going because early on all it was, was a giant question mark. But once we actually got together and put up the guitar and mapped it and put an image on it, I thought this is going to be great. From there it went pretty quickly.
TB: I’ve read so many great reviews from your shows you’ve done recently in Chicago and Toronto. Do you get to enjoy it as much as the people in the audience?
KK: Probably not! I do have a mirror that’s my monitor so I am able to see. I have some visual queues I have to have a monitor for. It’s funny because at first we were all so into the tech of it all we were thinking, “so we’re gonna have a webcam, a monitor set-up, and there’s going to be some cameras”. And I thought- what about a mirror? [Laughs] What about some analogue stuff? So I do get to see what I’m doing. Obviously when you’re performing you don’t ever get the full picture. What’s coming through your monitors isn’t the full house mix. So I don’t enjoy it as much people who are just witnessing it. But then again, I’m performing it and that’s it’s own enjoyment.
TB: Does performing it with having the guitar and the visuals being such a large part of the show- is that different? Can you explain that a little bit?
KK: Well, the guitar is running a dry signal through the computer that’s going into a software called MIDI Guitar that’s reading the signal and translating it into MIDI, which is then connected to a software called VDMX. I’m triggering little movie clips to play. Some of those are little color spirals or a color wash behind me. So, I suddenly have all this control. If I play a note, I’m going to get a little colored spiral. It’s totally new. It’s something that I’m still learning and unlocking its secrets and learning how to play the show. I have a video engineer who’s performing with me- her name is Beth Wexler- she will be listening to what I’m doing and she’ll give me some visual feedback and I’ll riff off of that, so we can kind of go back and forth. Unfortunately, no one in the audience will know that this is happening. There’s so much cool tech stuff that is improvised and that is happening in real time that I think might look staged. It might look like I’m playing along to something. But no one’s going to see the same show twice.
TB: I was just about to ask that! So there’s a lot of improvisation through the show?
KK: Yes- early on in the show and at the end of the show specifically. Of course there are some movie clips that [Beth] presses play and I play along, and there’re some tracks that I play along to, but it doesn’t have the same effect as a cheesy backing track. It’s like you’re watching a soundtrack to a movie that’s being played on the guitar and I’m filling in the gaps. What I realized about track, which had never occurred to me before, is that I’m actually fully able to improvise in them. The track is kind of it’s own song and I’m just able to play guitar on top of it, so I can do something different every night. But like I said- there’s like twelve or thirteen different sections of the show. It’s a storyline, there’s a beginning, middle, and end. It’s an experience. It’s definitely something new.
TB: Is it something that can be contained within the record? (The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body is available now on iTunes)
KK: Well, I would say that the soundtrack is meant to be an accompaniment to the show. But I put special care to make sure it was it’s own record and it’s own right so that no one will be disappointed. It certainly has some tangents for me that are a little bit from what I normally do. With that being said, I think that the show has more happy accidents and a little more flavor, but the record is very full and very polished. So it just depends on what kind of thing you’re into.
TB: Do you like to travel?
KK: I do! I love traveling. I’ve gotten very good at it over the years.
TB: Now what does that mean?
KK: I think just the self-care aspect- not burning out, pacing myself, and taking care of myself. And not losing things and not being frazzled by plans changing. I think the ultimate test for someone being on tour is changing plans on them [laughs]. Killing awkward amounts of time.. I feel like I always have an hour and a half to kill, which is not really enough time to go anywhere and do something substantial, but too long to just sit and stare at your phone. So I think over the years I got good at dealing with things that happen to you while you’re on the road.
TB: The process for writing this new record, how was it similar or dissimilar from doing work for scores for doing your own album?
KK: Interesting that you mention that! It was very similar. So, what would happen with this is I had a list of demos I had just done at home or had a friend hit record and get the guitar stuff down. And I would send them to Glowing Pictures or to other artists and they would create something and send it back or send some ideas/references and I would go, “oh now that I’m seeing something, I’m hearing something!”. And so it was very similar. It was like- oh I think I’m going to need this effect on this pedal or I’m going to need to use something like this kind of distortion. When I hear music I don’t see anything really. Occasionally I’ll feel a color, but I don’t have synesthesia, but what I do have, is when I see something it sounds like something to me and it always is very specific. Anytime I’ve done a score, whatever’s come out has been the first instinct and the most natural. So in this way, I was seeing visuals that were inspired by music that I had already created that would re-inspire the music. A lot of that went into the album. That certainly was a part of it.
TB: With that process, how do you know when you’re done?
KK: I mean, you’re never done. You’re done when you run out of money at the studio, or when the deadline comes up. I feel like I work very well under deadlines because otherwise, I wouldn’t be finished!
TB: This album that you’re releasing tomorrow will be the first one under your label. Is there more pressure or is it more fulfilling that it’s your thing now?
KK: I mean, I have witnessed labels change in the last 12 years or so that I’ve been doing this. I’ve been on a major label, I’ve been on an indie, I’ve been on a label that was very cool and didn’t do anything for me. I feel like the last few records were just distribution deals anyway. I’ve changed management now… at this point, it’s just paperwork. So my label is really just the paperwork and the distribution. For me, it hasn’t been this cool DIY intensive creative process because, fortunately, it doesn’t have to be. I did make some CD’s but I feel like in a couple of years it will be completely obsolete technology. I mean, it’s this bizzare world we live in where it’s all digital downloads with our vinyl. It doesn’t make any sense to me at all!
TB: Will vinyl be available [for The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body]?
KK: Yes, vinyl will be available.
TB: So your management company really acts and does all the things that a label would do?
KK: Yeah, pretty much. It’s pretty much that simple. Even if it weren’t, and I’m fortunate that I have some help, it would be just as easy to do it all by myself. And I encourage people who haven’t done that yet to do so!
TB: You started off as a drummer, is that where the percussion influence came into your guitar playing?
KK: Well, I can kind of demonstrate it because I think when people say percussion it’s like banging. And of course, I do a little bit of that. But I think really, it’s been the separation of my hands. So that I know the right hand has a job and the left hand has a job. I think when you’re learning guitar first, the left hand places it’s finger one at a time and the right hand makes it happen. But for me, I don’t think like that.
TB: When was that aha-moment for you that you could take it beyond?
KK: I think I was doing it naturally because that’s what made sense to me. I don’t think it was a moment. Obviously there’s other times in my playing when I use that concept, though it might not be that direct. The right hand and the left can be separate and do their own job and they can even go in and out of phase and out of sync and the result it something really magical. But I don’t want to work really hard [laughs]. I will say that my right hand is 80% of what I do and the left has always lagged behind. I’m terrible at doing really quick awesome solos. But I make up for it and I use the strength that I do have.
TB: Last time you were here, you gave us two great scoops. The first one you told us about was Into The Wild before that happened. You got nominated for a Golden Globe for it along with Michael Brooks and Eddie Vedder. And the second one you told us about was August Rush!
KK: Oh yeah! That was my movie era.
TB: Is that over?
KK: Well, I’ve done a couple of documentaries since then. There’s one that’s actually premiering at SXSW. The cool thing about Into The Wild was that it wasn’t a super big commitment. Michael Brooks really did most of the music for it. You have to decide to be off the road. You have to decide that that’s something you want to dive into and do just that. I just haven’t been able to do that since. The couple of things that I have done were over a short period of time. But I’ve done some things for commercials I’m still a guitarist for hire. We all want to make a movie, we all want to make a record, and it’s hard to get it together to make something on a big scale. So there’s a lot of talk and sometimes things come through and I get really excited. But to become someone that scores for a living or on a semi permanent basis, that is a huge commitment and with the touring schedule I have I’m just never really able… That’s the thing I always run into, oh I’d love to do this project but I’ll be on the road for the next two months.
TB: Well, you’re taking care of the visual need for your music with this show which is really cool. With tuning, how do you decide where to go with that?
KK: The guitar’s already a self limiting system. And then you’ll have a specific tuning in the guitar that’s again self-limiting. I find that different tunings inspire me because they limit my choices so much. I only have a few building blocks of a few open notes that are going to work on the guitar and I have to build around them. And I won’t say that I decide I’ll say, without sounding silly, the guitar decides. The guitar is saying, no it’s not going to work this way you’re going to have to change something, you’re not a good enough player, or your hands aren’t big enough, whatever it is that can’t be done and then you adapt. So you adjust and say ok what if this is a half step down or if this interval is a fifth instead of a fourth between these two strings, what does that change? So that’s kind of how the tunings come into being. They’re dictated by the natural response that I’m getting from the guitar. My stretch is only five frets at the most. So if I can’t make the note that I want to hear, I got to change the tuning.
TB: The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body can be purchased through your favorite online store, March 3rd. Thank you Kaki King!
Kaki King live at the BIRN:
Kaki King – The Surface Changes Live:
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