Interview #7: JASON KEISLING

 

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Interview #7

1.What pedal or instrument you take for a mission to Mars?   

Am I only allowed to take one? If so, it would be difficult to leave earth without my Stratocaster. But then I'd be without an amp, delay and reverb pedals, and means of recording so I'd have to find some Martians with gear to produce my next record, which would almost certainly have to be space rock. 

2.What album you take for a neverending moon travel?

The Dark Side of the Moon. It fits thematically, but to be honest this would be my choice no matter where I was traveling. I never get tired of hearing this album and it always leaves me thinking, no matter how many times I've heard it. I would consider Pink Floyd's "Meddle" as well just because I think "Echoes" would be an amazing soundtrack for space travel. And I definitely have to bring some radiohead. If we're staying on theme, I'll go with "A Moon Shaped Pool". 

3.What are your conditions, your habits or your inspiration when composing a new track?

I set a specified day and time for working on music. I have a pretty busy role as a father and husband and spend a lot of time with my family so I set aside one night a week to work after kids go to sleep.

I get inspiration from a lot of things. I love analyzing film scores and figuring out what a composer did to achieve specific moods and thinking of ways I can use those techniques in my music. I follow a lot of music theory channels on youtube and I also listen to a lot of music that's not within genres I create. 

For example, when I wrote "As if the Sea Should Part", I was listening to a lot of deep house music for some new inspiration (I was not at all familiar with that genre prior to this). My song sounds nothing like deep house or really any kind of electronic music, but I did some things such as using the bass as a lead to carry the song and using guitars and synths as ambient textures that I don't think I would have thought of doing if I had not been exploring new genres. 

When starting a new track, I don't have a set process. Sometimes I put a lot of thought into what types of emotions I want to convey, but sometimes I just jam and let the music go wherever it goes. A lot of times I'll start with a synth or piano and come up with some unique chord progressions that I can build on top of with guitars and other instruments. "As if the Sea Should Part" was exactly this process. Other times I'll start with a guitar riff or piano part and build the chord progressions around that, which is how I wrote "And the Rest is Rust and Stardust". The song "Lyra" had a bit of both processes with the first half building off of the chord progressions and the second half creating harmonies to support riffs I was working around. 

4.Do you have any information to give us concerning a new album or a new track?

Yes! My full album will be out February 22nd, 2022. It's a concept album (as much as an instrumental album can be). It's a semi-autobiographical metaphor for life, personal philosophy, and finding one's place in the world. My most recent single release, "As if the Sea Should Part" is the opener, which is where the protagonist sits on a beach looking out at the infinite ocean and reflecting on an upcoming journey to discover what's out there. It sets the scene for the rest of the album, which is that journey and how it changed him, challenged his idea of what was beyond the horizon, taught him to navigate storms and to find direction when lost at sea, encouraged him to stop worrying about life's questions and just appreciate the beauty of the ocean and world around him. It is 8 songs total and titled "In Finite".

5.Which artist would you like to work with? (musician, illustrator, movie director or composer)

I've been fortunate to get to work with a lot of great artists this year with the Post-Everything Collective and I'm excited for more collaborations with artists from that group (stay tuned!). I've also been very eager to collaborate with a skilled electronic artist to combine some ambient post-rock elements with IDM. Any top composer (Zimmer, Horner, Williams, Mansell, Elfman, etc.) would be amazing to work with just to learn from them and I'd really like to do a film score at some point. Christopher Nolan or David Fincher would be fun to work with. And of course I'd love to work with David Gilmour, Robert Smith, Radiohead, or Trent Reznor. 

6.For which film would you have liked to make a sound track?

Doing a film score is really high on my bucket-list as a musician so I love this question. I loved the soundtrack for the German show DARK and I have many of the songs in a playlist that I still listen to obsessively a couple years after seeing the show. I was a fan of what Ólafur Arnalds did for Broadchurch, as well as much of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' work. But this is such a tough question because so many of my favorite films have amazing scores and soundtracks already and I can't imagine anything I would do that would improve on them. I suppose my ideal film to work on hasn't happened yet. If any film producers are reading this, let's chat!