Karneef steps out in affordable style
Returns music to higher level with $600 laptop
In a sense, Karneef ’s Love Between Us is to him what the Grammy Award-winning Random Access Memories is to Daft Punk. All that’s missing is the laundry list of experienced session players, the pristine studio, the pricey equipment and a couple of robot helmets.
Where the two albums share an unlikely bond — besides their occasional funk flirtations — is in the desire of their creators to bring music back to a higher level of sonic quality that’s been somewhat lost in this era of compressed recordings designed for portable devices.
Daft Punk had all the tools money could buy to make its dream album. Phil Karneef had a $600 laptop and a recording space in an old afterparty venue long ago shuttered by the police, among other things. Still, the 30-year-old strived for his indierock-meets-jazz-fusion record, full of complex rhythmic experiments, to sound as clean as possible.
“Everybody takes pride in doing more with less, and the more you have, the more you should be able to accomplish,” Karneef said while busily restringing a guitar at his Parc Ave. jam space. “Those who work in big Los Angeles studios make better records than I do, sound-wise. I guess you could say mine is more like a green-screen version.”
Had the native of rural Ontario stuck to his initial guns when he joined the Montreal music scene, Karneef might have become an in-demand producer behind the scenes instead of a howling, Afro’d frontman. Two artists he performed with as a backing musician — indie rocker Pat Jordache and songwriter Sean Nicholas Savage — persuaded him to give singing and songwriting a try.
“I wanted to be in charge and run a project. I didn’t want to sing. I didn’t even think I could,” he recalled. “It’s a classic story of sitting on something, and waiting for some- one to push you over the edge.”
In 2012, he self-released his first solo album, In Error. Many of those songs also appear on Love Between Us, in re-recorded form. He still performed most of the music on the latter, which was released in November, but a pair of professional backing players were brought on board: bassist Hansford Rowe, who played with fusion rockers Gong, and drummer Max Lazich. (“He had dinner with Bill Bruford,” Karneef said.)
Neither will be a part of Karneef ’s live trio, which promises to be an interesting example of how technology can replicate a much larger band without the need for any prerecorded parts. The band doesn’t use amplifiers on stage; instead, every note played from the drums, bass and guitar goes through a laptop, meaning a guitar strum could be programmed to sound like a saxophone. Not a new concept, but it’s one Karneef wants to explore inside and out, with the limited gear at his disposal.
“I’m not (Jean Michel) Jarre,” he said. “I don’t want to make a spectacle out of technology. I want the spectacle to be the music and the performance, and for the technology to be there to support the show.”
In order to properly celebrate the release of the album Karneef spent months mixing to his liking, he also wanted to add a touch of class to his launch. Not unlike a certain other Montreal act that recently instituted a recommended dress code and got pilloried for it, Karneef is asking those who plan on attending Friday’s concert to look sharp.
“(The Arcade Fire incident) was pretty funny, but my decision wasn’t in reference to that,” he said. “The vision I had was pretty much the semi-formal from high school. I feel like when people are making an evening of something, dressing up forces them to take it more seriously.”
Love Between Us is available now. Karneef performs Friday at 9 p.m. at Cabaret Playhouse, 5656 Parc Ave., with Joji and Vesuvio Solo. Tickets cost $5 before 11 p.m., $7 after, and can be purchased at the door.