October 23rd, 2009 | 
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Interview with Joel Kanning
NewAgeMusic.nu is proud to present an interview with rising new age star Joel Kanning, who recently released the album Ubiquitous Frequency Oscillation (UFO). Read BT Fasmer’s review of it here.
BT Fasmer: Welcome Joel Kanning! Nice to have you with us. Please start by telling a bit about yourself, and your musical background. I hear that you have been a drummer?
J
oel Kanning: Thank you very much for having me!
oel Kanning: Thank you very much for having me! Yes, I actually started on the drums when I was nine years old. I come from a musically rich and diverse family. My dad, brothers, cousins, uncles and aunts – everyone plays an instrument of some sort (acoustic guitars, electric guitars, bass, banjo, mandolin, banjo, violin/fiddle, piano, etc). So there was always music happening in our house, or at family gatherings.
When I was nine, I was trying to decide whether I wanted to play the electric violin (because I thought they looked so cool!), or the drums. At that time, one of my brothers was giving guitar lessons down at the local music shop. One day he got an old drum kit as payment for guitar lessons, and he gave them to me. That was it. I would practice every day after school, listening to the radio through headphones, and playing along on the drums. I essentially learned on my own, listening to classic rock and 70′s & 80′s pop music and trying to work out all the fills and tricky bits. Later on, my cousin (who played guitar) and I spent most of our teenage years jamming, recording, and learning old Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Hendrix – you know, all the good stuff 
It wasn’t until after my high school years that I began experimenting more with guitars and keyboards, and recording my own ideas.
It wasn’t until after my high school years that I began experimenting more with guitars and keyboards, and recording my own ideas. BT: What was your first encounter with the New Age/ Ambient/Electronic genre? According to your web page, your influences are Enigma, Achillea, Jens Gad, Deep Forest, and Delerium. Was it these artists that inspired you to start composing music?
Joel: My oldest brother listened to a lot of Alan Parson’s Project, ELO, Genesis, Tangerine Dream, etc, while I was growing up and I believe that music, on a subconscious level, influenced me to some degree – although I was mostly interested in rock music at the time. But the pivotal moment was experiencing Enigma MCMXC a.D. for the first time, because it literally changed my musical direction. Up to that point I had been drumming in various bands and was determined to “make it” as a rock-and-roll drummer. But when I heard this Enigma music, my entire perception of music changed.You see as a child, I would perform these fantastical music concerts inside of my mind as I cleaned my room or did my chores. There was never any recognizable melody, or anything that I could write down or play back for anyone – it was just this wonderful, imaginary, musical landscape (of course, there were always these huge drum solos at the end!). The thing I remember most about it was this amazing, other-worldly feeling that it gave me. Hearing Enigma for the first time was like rediscovering that same feeling – only it was real music on a cassette tape, and I could rewind it and experience it again, and again. Suddenly there was a much deeper purpose for me in music, and I knew I needed to create something that moved me in that same way. Around that same time I discovered Deep Forest, and later Jens Gad, Achillea, Delerium, etc, and these all were a huge inspiration to me as well.
BT: Your new album, Ubiquitous Frequency Oscillation (UFO), is out now. It is eight years since your previous release (Nobis). Describe the process behind the new album. Have you done the mastering yourself?
Joel: I started writing material for UFO about 3 years ago. Most songs started out either by messing around with drum samples & loops and creating a rhythmic bed, or by playing with a synth of some sort and creating a musical bed, and then the songs would just evolve from there. I’m a firm believer that all music exists on some sort of ethereal plane, and is accessible to anyone at any time. So when I’m in the studio messing around with synths, and samples, and so on – I think eventually I reach the proper state of mind to connect with it. Then it’s really just a matter of having the time and technical ability to capture it before it’s gone!
On the technical side of things, I mix (engineer) as I write. So, as I’m adding new parts and trying different arrangements, I’m also adjusting EQ & compression, adding reverb & delay effects, and adjusting levels on everything – constantly. I like everything to sound great from the start. Obviously as new parts are added and the song begins evolving, so does the mix, and many more adjustments have to be made to allow everything to sit in its own space. The good thing is that I can always “undo” if I end up making a huge mess of it all!
I had been drumming in various bands and was determined to “make it” as a rock-and-roll drummer. But when I heard this Enigma music, my entire perception of music changed.Joel Kanning
As for the mastering, yes, I did it all myself. Mostly out of necessity, because of how the whole thing was put together. With UFO, the songs are all tied together with transitions fading in and out, and sound effects and so on, so the album is really just like one great big song. If a song didn’t sound right in the context of the album, I would have to revisit the mix and make further adjustments until it sounded right to me. Some songs I ended up mixing 20 or 30 times – I mixed “One World” a total of 58 times before I was happy with it! The whole process of creating final mixes took about 6 months. By the time I was finished, most of what would be considered the “sweetening” portion of the mastering process, was already done. All that was really needed at that point was some final EQ enhancement and level adjustments.
BT: Your music is very true to the Enigma/Deep Forest “ethnic fusion” style. Was this your original plan – or did it just happen?
Joel: Well, my first album, “Nobis,” was primarily an instrumental new age/electronic album, as were most of my previous compositions. I was always afraid of sounding like a copy-cat, you know? I didn’t want people to hear my music and say “Oh look, it’s another guy copying Enigma,” etc, so I was really just trying to discover my own sound back then. At some point I think I just decided that I’d rather create more of the music that I loved listening to, instead of trying to come up with some new sound that no one else was doing. Once I removed that restriction from myself everything really started flowing nicely. The only rule I have now is that it has to be sincere, it has to move me.
When I was first contemplating the UFO project, I really wanted to create something that felt familiar, yet new and exciting. So obviously the sounds I created and samples I chose to use were meant, to some extent, to harken back to the early spirit of Enigma and Deep Forest. It’s hard to explain, but I knew that if I could just connect to that original feeling that brought me to create this music in the first place, I would be on the right track. Kind of like taking some old friends on a new adventure – you don’t know where you’ll end up, but at least you’ll be in good company!
BT: You use a lot of samples in your music. How do you work with samples?
Joel: I am very abusive to my samples – it’s a good thing there isn’t karma for sampled sounds! Samples are an integral part of this music, as is the technology for manipulating them. I mean, it’s nice to find a great ethnic vocal sample with the right feeling or emotion in the recording. But then there’s the matter of getting it to fit the key of the song, and adjusting the rhythm to match the tempo of the track. Sometimes I’ll just chop it up and make an entirely new performance. It’s the same for drum and percussion loops. There are times when I’ll just use them straight, but I usually end up chopping several different loops into pieces, creating a completely new rhythmic bed with all the different pieces. It largely depends on what feels right for the track.
BT: You have been remixing the music of both Michael Cretu/Enigma and Eric Mouquet/Deep Forest. Michael Cretu personally even selected your entry as the 2nd place winner in his Downtown Silence remix competition. How was that – and do you plan to do more remix work in the future?
Joel: It was crazy because at some point in the fall of 2008, I was working on remixes of Eric’s tracks, and working on my remix for the Enigma contest – at the same time! It was very surreal to be working with their tracks, and since I had never done remixes before, the whole experience was just a lot of fun. As it turned out, Eric contacted me and said that he really liked what I was doing with my tracks, and that he had actually featured one of my remixes, “Africa Brasil Chuva Remix,” on his MySpace page.
Then, a couple months later I was informed that Michael had chosen my remix, “Downtown Silence (Past Lives Mix),” as one of the winners of his contest. It was beyond surreal at that point. To have my own work acknowledged by both of these great artists was a tremendous honor! As a result of some connections I made doing those remixes, I ended up remixing a track for Arman Behdad called “Crimson Skies (Joel Kanning Remix),” which was just released this summer through Bonzai Elemental.
I am quite fond of remixing now, and would welcome any chance to do more of it in the future. For me, remixing provides a wonderful way of understanding song construction from a totally different mindset. This has actually helped me to develop new ways of approaching my own material, including many of the tracks on the new album.
BT: You are an independent artist. Would you consider signing a record deal – or do artists really need a label these days?
Joel: I think it really depends on what your objectives are. It is truly amazing what can be done these days with a laptop and a few hundred dollars-worth of software. The Internet has now become an extremely viable outlet for selling your own music. There really is no better time to be an independent artist than right now.That being said, if I were approached by a record company that actually believed in my music as much as I do, then yes, I would definitely consider it. I think the chances of successfully reaching the intended audience would be much greater. However, thanks to the wonderful efforts of people like you here at NewAgeMusic.nu, and all the internet radio stations and websites around the world that are introducing people to new music and really getting it out there, I think independent music might just stand a chance
BT: Thanks for the chat, Joel! We are great fans of you here at .nu, and we recommend all our readers to check out your music. If you are one of the many New Age Stars listeners, you probably already have heard some of his material. Just follow the link in the player to buy his songs on iTunes/Amazon.
And don’t forget to check out Joelkanning.com – where you can sample the album.
Great Interview
A lot of care, deeply emotional…it’s a terrific album !
As a French (!), I’m glad to get the chance to share and enjoy such good music that radio stations (unfortunately) don’t play anymore…
Joel Kanning deserves more recognition…He deserves it !
Bravo !