Portland-based electronic music artist Kalaido went from raw, carefree tracks in ‘Moonlit Tales’ to mixing live strings, orchestral elements, and old vinyl records. His new album ‘In Praise Of Shadows’ ditches digital trends for vintage sounds, inspired by Tokyo Jazz cafes where he’s choosing authenticity. Learn more in this exclusive interview.
1. From ‘Moonlit Tales’ to this album – how have you changed as an artist?
‘Moonlit Tales’ captured a phase in my artistic development where I was discovering my voice for the first time, and really just trying things out to see what worked and what didn’t. I had just barely acquired enough skills to finish a full album, so I think there’s this rawness to the project that comes from my lack of technical expertise at the time.
Since then, my ear has significantly improved, and I’m way more technically skilled as a producer. I’m way better at the process of recording and mixing, layering sounds, and my composition skills have also gotten better. I’ve also branched out stylistically and tried out some new genres, like Jazz, Ambient, and House. I think you can hear that progression in the albums since ‘Moonlit Tales’ – ‘In Praise Of Shadows,’ for example, I wrote and recorded a string section, mixed a full drum-kit, and wrote full-on Jazz pieces with complex harmony. It’s a way more ambitious project than ‘Moonlit Tales,’ which required a lot more technical and stylistic knowledge to pull off. That doesn’t necessarily make it better, of course, but that to me is a pretty significant change.
Also, I was 25 when I wrote ‘Moonlit Tales,’ and I’m 33 now, so I’m also just in a different phase of life, and that naturally comes through in the art you create. ‘Moonlit Tales’ captured a really carefree, happy period of my life, and since then, I’ve had to deal with a lot more struggles and realities of becoming a bit older. So naturally, the tone of my music has shifted over time – there’s no way I’d be able to write another Moonlit Tales at this point, even if I wanted to.
2. What made you flip the script on this project and start mining the past instead of chasing the future?
It was a combination of things – first, I had started listening to vinyl and physical media more, because I was getting increasingly tired of how disconnected I felt from the music I was listening to on Spotify. Listening to vinyl felt like a way I could reclaim some of that “connection” I felt like I was losing, and most of the vinyl I own is older music.
Second, I realized a lot of what I loved about the early wave of Lofi was the fact that it sampled these really interesting, obscure genres from the past. Things like Japanese Jazz, 80s Ambient music, City Pop, Library Music, and all sorts of other cool styles.
That sent me down this rabbit hole of re-discovering and researching all these old genres, and that eventually provided me most of the inspiration for “In Praise of Shadows.”
3. What’s the deal with Japanese Jazz from the 70s? What hits different about it?
I love Japanese Jazz. Until recently, it was a Hip-Hop producer’s secret weapon, because it was this forgotten offshoot in musical history that was just teeming with amazing and underappreciated hidden gems. In America, a lot of Jazz groups in the 70s were rebelling against Jazz traditions and making these super avant-garde, experimental albums, whereas in 70s Japan, Jazz musicians were still following in these traditions, but infusing it with their own, unique Japanese sensibilities instead.
They also used instruments and production techniques from the 70s, but were taking inspiration from older Jazz from the 50s and 60s – so what resulted was an entire offshoot of Jazz that was very unique, and completely different than the Jazz coming out of America at the same time.
It’s hard to put into words what I love about it so much – I just adore all of the cinematic orchestral intros, crunchy Rhodes sounds, funky breakdowns, and great solos. Despite it being amazing music, during its time, it went completely unnoticed in the West, so it’s pretty awesome that YouTube has introduced it to a wider audience over the last few years.
4. Why are Portland, London, and Tokyo your go-to cities for finding inspiration?
I live in Portland, so I get inspiration here on a regular basis, mostly from the community of artists and friends I have here, and it’s amazing nature. London and Tokyo were both cities I’d visited during the creation of ‘In Praise of Shadows,’ so they inspired the record naturally. London has a really rich DJing and crate digging culture that I find very inspiring – while I was there, it felt like everywhere I went, there was someone DJing old records in the corner.
Visiting the listening bar Spiritland was also a formative experience in creating this album, because it was the first listening bar I’d ever experienced. I have Spiritland to thank for kicking off my obsession with discovering as many listening bars as humanly possible, which continued when I visited Tokyo later on.
Tokyo is an endless source of inspiration for me, and it inspires both the music and artwork of Kalaido in more ways than I can mention. For this project though, I was particularly inspired by the Japanese Jazz Cafe (Jazz Kissa) listening culture, and how they invited people to listen to full sides of vinyl LPs together, mostly in silence or over quiet conversation.
It was just really refreshing to listen to music this way and to be in an environment that encouraged people to pay attention to what they were listening to. Now that we’re in this era of shortened attention spans and music becoming devalued background noise for many of us, this experience felt like a much-needed contradiction to the norm, and gave me hope that there are still people and places out there that value recorded music as an art form worthy of respect and attention.
5. TikTok fame versus Jazz cafe intimacy – which version of success feels more real to you?
I’m not sure, to be honest. I’ve been very lucky to have a lot of my music do well online, and it’s one of the main reasons I’ve been able to focus on music full-time for years now, so in that way, it’s had a very positive and real effect on my life. I’m super grateful for all the messages of support and encouragement I get from people, and they genuinely help me to keep going whenever I feel existential or have self-doubt about myself as an artist.
Lately, though, I’ve been feeling a lot more satisfaction from experiences I’ve had with my music in the real world, whether stocking my cassette at a shop in Tokyo or having a little album release party in Portland where I can meet fans. I feel infinitely more rewarded from talking to a small handful of people in person about my music than seeing my new track has got one-hundred thousand streams on Spotify.
I’m trying to figure out more ways I can integrate my music with the local community, but it can be tough when my music has such an “internet” base to it. It’s a work in progress, for sure.
6. If someone only listens to one track to understand this album, which one would you pick and why?
Probably “Shapeshifter,” because to me it represents a lot of the different ideas behind the album. It takes inspiration from older music, such as 70s library music and jazz harp, which are both styles that the SoundCloud-era Lofi sampled a lot.
It uses live instruments, has Jazzy sensibilities, and yet also kind of sounds like a beat at the same time. It also has a kind of darker, Jazzy, moody tone, which I feel like embodies some of the soul of the album.
7. How do you even categorize this music? What genre are you claiming?
I know it’s the kind of classic response, but as an artist, I think there’s often an aversion to wanting your music to be neatly categorized. I take inspiration from all sorts of places, and wanted to make an album that challenged people’s expectations of what to expect from a Lofi producer.
8. You’ve got violinist Gregory Allison and saxophonist Sam Miles on this. How do you direct live musicians when you want things to sound spontaneous?
With Greg, I’d written out all of the string parts on a score first, so he had the role of performer and I had the role of composer. Greg’s a great violinist, so he was able to take my written parts and add a lot of expression and feel to them to make them sound more spontaneous.
Usually, good players will know how to go off-script from the score to make the parts sound more expressive, and it’s my job as a composer to consider the players’ intuition when this happens. It’s important to know when to roll with it, but also when to guide the player back to the written part, and that really just comes from experience.
With Sam, I wanted something super free and jazzy sounding, so I sent him the track and told him to solo over it and do whatever he wanted. He sent me back a few different styles of improvisations that were all amazing right off the bat, and then I chose what I felt worked best for the track. Sam’s such a talented Jazz musician that I knew that he’d do something great if given the freedom to simply improvise a bit.
9. What kind of listener do you picture when you’re making this music?
I honestly don’t think of my listeners at all when I’m creating music. I find that’s usually a recipe for disaster if you start to think about that too early in the creative process, because you run the risk of constantly second-guessing yourself. I feel like, ultimately, listeners crave authenticity, and that starts with me making music that I like first and foremost – and hoping it connects with other people after the fact.
10. What’s next? Are you staying in the shadows or venturing back into the light?
Next, I’m working on a few game soundtracks that are coming out next year. One of them, called “Songs of Glimmerwick,” is a cozy fantasy game that I’ve been working on for over 3 years now, and is mostly orchestral RPG-type music. The other game is an unannounced horror game. These are both going to be released under my name, Phoenix Glendinning, which I’ve been doing in addition to Kalaido on the side.
Next for Kalaido – I’m honestly not sure. I’ll probably do some singles and collaborations here and there in the Lofi genre, but for bigger projects like albums and EPs, I’ll likely be venturing further into trying out new styles.
I’m kind of accepting I’m at a point in my career where I’ll probably be confusing the algorithm a bit – but that’s alright – It’ll be worth it to satisfy my artistic curiosities. So to answer your question, I’ll probably be staying obscured in the shadows for a little while longer.
CONNECT WITH KALAIDO
Hi, I’m Erick Ycaza — a music blogger with a BA in Advertising & Graphic Design. I created this blog to keep you updated with daily music news. Surprisingly, I’ve been writing about music since 2007. If you’re an artist and would like to be featured, feel free to reach out: info@electrowow.net
