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What inspired you to first start making music? And how did you come to be in your current incarnation? Or if you prefer, a brief bio about you.

Hello I am Jake Kaiser and currently live in the San Francisco bay area. I’ve been creating music since I got my first guitar when I was 10 years old. I was in a number of bands from punk to classic rock and always had an obsession with creating my own music. I also fell in love with electronic music when I first heard it and was listening to a ton of progressive house and trance long before electronic music went mainstream or was popular (especially in Idaho where I grew up). My love of electronic music was as a fan most of my life, however, after graduating college a buddy and I started DJ’ing up in San Francisco and it wasn’t long before I decided I wanted to play out my own music. At this point I got Ableton and the 4 years since then I have been completely obsessed with electronic music production and spend almost all my free time making music. I have put out all my music under my own name and reject the idea that a producer should stay within genre boundaries. I like many different kinds of electronic music so produce lots of styles and genres that all have this Jake Kaiser sound or overall vibe. I also like to bring a lot of live instrumentation and unexpected moments to my music as I feel that electronic music has become a bit monotonous and I want to bring a deeply emotional feeling/vibe to all my tracks.

Provide us with some info about your latest release…

My latest release is titled “Introspection” and is a progressive house tune that was inspired by looking back at the time I have spent producing and reflecting on this crazy journey. This track was released by Elliptical Sun Melodies which was amazing as I have always been a big fan of Elliptical Sun and it is surreal to release a track with them. Introspection as a track has a lot of movement through many evolving layers and is constantly building in sounds up until the outro. This track is given extra energy from massive bass stabs and a building arpeggio and has a very deliberate flow of energy with the dancefloor in mind.

Which ones would you consider your main influences both music-wise & non-music-wise?

For music I am very inspired by progressive house legends like Eric Prydz as well as newer progressive artists like Yotto, Lane 8 and many more. Although it may be seen less directly in this track I am inspired by all kinds of music and you will find me listening to a ton of Indie and alternative rock when outside the studio (I have some great playlists on Spotify for anyone interested).

For non-music inspiration I am inspired mostly by engineers, scientists, and leaders trying to improve our world and use technology to solve massive issues like climate change, population growth, and others. When not making music I try and contribute to this goal as well and am currently working on Google’s self driving car project.

In what way does your sound differ from the rest genre-related artists/bands and why should we listen to your music? In other words, how would you describe your sound?

I would say my tracks bring deliberate songwriting and musicality that comes from my years of playing guitar that can be felt in smaller moments like transitions of my tracks or live guitar in breakdowns or as pad sounds . In addition to this I am not aware of many other producers making such stylistically different releases. I have put out progressive house, future bass, synthwave, and techno tracks and feel that this makes my productions unique and I bring different ideas into all my tracks. These different styles showcase my creativity as an artist and technical production skills as well as the fact that I am making all my music from the heart and not trying to pander to a specific audience.

Please name your 3 desert islands albums, movies & books…

Albums: (This took me far to long haha)

  1. Transatlanticism – Death Cab For Cutie
  2. Deadmau5 –  > Album Title goes here <
  3. Self Titled Album – Blink 182

Movies:

  1. Lord of The Rings Trilogy (All my three)

Books:

  1. Desert Island Survival – (whatever is #1 on amazon)
  2. Snow Crash – Neal Stephenson
  3. The Name of the wind – Patrick Rothfuss

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Do you prefer studio or performing live and why?

I prefer the studio. I love the act of creating something new and also love the comfort of being at home. I am pretty introverted despite what anyone who knows me might say.There is nothing I love more than being at home working on new music with a nice cup of coffee or glass of beer. However, I will say the energy and rush of playing live is amazing and keeps me going in the studio and I believe you need a balance of the two.

Is there any funny-unique story you would like to share with us, always in relation to your music ‘career’?

My favorite thing that has recently happened is having all my “Fans also Like” artist tab in Spotify being all synthwave artists. I made one track that has a kinda of synthwave sound (I’m not fully convinced) that has become my most popular track. Now it appears I am a synthwave artist despite all my other releases.

Which track of your own would you point out as the most unique and why?

I would point to “Nothing’s Perfect” which is very different from “introspection”. It is a chill and euphoric electronic track that all started from a guitar melody I wrote years ago and features me singing some vocoded lines about being in love.  I would say this song is the most unique due to it blending a ton of ideas and styles into a single track. I feel a lot of my tracks are pretty unique as they blend genre boundaries.

Would you like to share with our readers your future plans?

I have a ton of music that is about done that I am really excited about. I currently have 4 tracks signed with various labels including some of which will also be coming out with Elliptical Sun Melodies and should make fans of my darker progressive sound like “Introspection”  happy. I also am working with a few other artists on my first major collaborations as well as an EP that is all inspired by field recordings I have taken while hiking. All in all the rest of 2019 should be exciting and jam packed with releases and I can’t wait to share them all with the world.

Free question!!! (Ask yourself a question) you wish to answer and haven’t been given the opportunity…

Think I covered everything in more than enough detail.

Curated by: Christos Doukakis

Recommended listening:

Connect with Jake Kaiser:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1gClae3b8Eh3aCg7KPAHaG?si=kJ-xwGXoSfSpi8x02x0NTQ

https://www.instagram.com/jakekaisermusic

https://soundcloud.com/jakekaiser

https://www.facebook.com/JakeKaiserOfficial/?ref=bookmarks

https://twitter.com/jakekaisermusic?lang=en