Getting to Know… Elektragaaz | Interview 🎤

On our 221^st Q&A, we land one of the most distinct, fascinating interviews yet with New York collective, Elektragaaz.  

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he diversity in orchestration, rhythmic spontaneity, and cross-genre embodiment within the idiom of electronic music makes Elektragaaz stand out as one of a kind,” 🎙 Jas Windstorm, asserts.  Windstorm is one of many members of “the multi-fusion electronic music of 🎙 Elektragaaz.”  Besides Windstorm, the collective is comprised of 🎙 Kosmic Kate, 🎙 Josh Firebow, 🎙 Tom Elektron, 🎙 Mat Thunder, and 🎙 Kathy Kaos, all of which have different last names (read on folks, read on). Created by “a group of talented New York metropolitan area musicians and a reclusive and mysterious young Frisian composer who goes by the name of 🎙 Poppo Redband,” clearly, Elektragaaz gives us one of the most distinct and fascinating Q&A interviews to date.  Rather than spoil it, why don’t you check out 🎤 Getting to Know… Elektragaaz: Interview No. 221 for yourself!

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Starting thing off, for those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes Elektragaaz distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off? 

🎤 Kate Amrine aka Kosmic Kate: All the different combinations of sounds and textures make Elektragaaz truly unique!

🎤 Jasper “Shogo” Dutz aka Jas Windstorm: I could write paragraphs on this alone, but I’ll summarize by saying the diversity in orchestration, rhythmic spontaneity, and cross-genre embodiment within the idiom of electronic music makes Elektragaaz stand out as one of a kind.

🎤 Josh Henderson aka Josh Firebow: The sound and diverse instrumentation

🎤 Tom McCaffrey aka Tom Elektron: I think the amount of layers all weaving around each other make the sound of Elektragaaz what it is.

🎤 Mat Muntz aka Mat Thunder: The audacity with which so many styles and sounds are combined and juxtaposed against one another is to me the most striking thing about Elektragaaz.

🎤 Kathy Sheppard aka Kathy Kaos: This project is unique in that the contributors manage to compose music without being in the same space, which purposely minimized the influence they might have on one another.  We are all completely free to compose our parts over whatever our individual impressions of the core music from Redband are.

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What a thrilling answer! Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did your band form and what were some of the goals or the visions you had as a band early on? 

🎤 The multi-fusion electronic music of Elektragaaz is created by a group of talented New York metropolitan area musicians and a reclusive and mysterious young Frisian composer who goes by the name of 🎙 Poppo Redband.  The project was started after a 2017 conversation between Redband and 🎙 Trebor “Big T” Lloyd, the producer at City Canyons Productions. Redband subsequently sent some sample tracks to Lloyd.  Lloyd was very intrigued by the music and realized that a very special group of musicians would be needed for the Elektrgaaz project and proceeded to scout out the very finest talent available in the New York metropolitan area. While they were a number of fine musicians who made amazing contributions early on, the final “chosen ones” turned out to be Kathy Sheppard aka Kathy Kaos (keyboards), Mathew Muntz aka Mat Thunder (electric bass and double bass), Jasper “Shogo” Dutz aka Jas Windstorm (woodwinds), Kate Amrine aka Kosmic Kate (brass), Tom McCaffrey aka Tom Elektron (guitar) and Josh Henderson aka Josh Firebow (strings). While Elektragaaz has now released three EPs in 2021 (💿 The Synaesthetic Picture Show Now Playing, Parts 1-3), the group doesn’t simply churn out six new songs every few months. As noted, Redband launched Elektragaaz in 2017 (at the age of nineteen) and the catalogue from which the band has crafted its ongoing series of EPs is a deep one. Little is known about Redband except his nationality (Frisia is a section of the Netherlands) and that he is a talented composer and a fledgling video game developer. He is intensely private and has chosen to remain that way and his collaborators respect his privacy. However, the band is always very happy to talk about the Elektragaaz project and their work on it.

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Extremely interesting backstory. Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now? 

🎤 Poppo Redband explained to Big T, who produces and arranges the Elektragaaz material, that the cinematic instrumentals of Elektragaaz were intended to unreel personal films in the listener’s mind and reflect a smorgasbord of old and new pop cultural references ranging from video games to film noir to tales of gods and heroes—both modern and ancient—to epic science fiction, to a myriad of other pop influences. Lloyd passed this on to the band members and since they were hand-picked for their diverse tastes in music as well as their formidable musical skills, they very much bought into that vision.  Currently our goals for the foreseeable future are to continue to turn out top-quality EPs every three or four months, pulling material from that deep catalogue. Eventually we’ll put out an album. Our dream then would be, once the pandemic is behind us, to take our show on the road. A big dream would be for that road to be an international one, since we are building a truly global audience with listeners in the U.S., UK and other established markets but also in Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, India, North Africa and other spots scattered across the globe.

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Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential? 

🎤 Kate: Everything from Miles Davis to Björk honestly.

🎤 Jasper: Oliver Nelson, Nat King Cole, Eric Dolphy, Björk, Billy Strayhorn, Joe Hisaishi and many more.

🎤 Josh: Gil Shaham, Jimi Hendrix

🎤 Tom: Radiohead, Frank Zappa, Trey Parker & Matt Stone.

🎤 Mat: Charles Mingus, J.S. Bach, Ornette Coleman, Ustad Amir Khan, Pandit Kumar Gandharva, Harry Partch.

🎤 Kathy: My greatest musical influences are Frank Zappa, and most prog rock, especially Gentle Giant.  I also am influenced by classical music, especially the neoclassical composers.

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Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative. 

🎤 Kate: A couple years ago I played a rave with a DJ at Roseland Ballroom (any New Yorkers remember that venue?) and our piece was tied to a countdown w lighting and the projector, and we rehearsed it a million times and then when we finally did it at 2 am they didn’t turn our mics on so nobody could hear it. 😀

🎤 Jasper:  I once played an 18-piece big band show with guitarist Nels Cline from Wilco. The venue was Union transfer in Philly and at the peak of one of the most dramatic songs, lightning struck the venue. Power went out for a few seconds, then suddenly came back on. We resumed the music as if it was part of the show.

🎤 Josh: Getting booed!

🎤 Tom: When I was on tour with Liza Colby, we played a gig, and she whacked her head into my guitar headstock. I looked over and her face was absolutely covered in blood. She was ok though it just looked absolutely brutal.

🎤 Mat:  I was performing with a big band at a Starbucks shareholders meeting in the Seattle opera house. As the curtain was closing at the end of our set, Kenny G popped up from in front of the stage and said, “You guys sound great!” and disappeared.

🎤 Kathy: I was touring with an all-female hard rock group called Scarlet Fever.  Our tour featured a week-long engagement at a major rock club in Halifax, Nova Scotia called the Misty Moon.  Upon our arrival at the club, we were greeted by a somewhat plump and awkward young man named Chester.  Throughout that week, Chester made sure there was always water in our dressing rooms, ran errands for us, and would escort us to and from the stage with his flashlight.  On the night of our last performance, our managers met with the owners of the club.  While finalizing business, they thanked the owners for Chester, who had been so helpful.  The owners responded, “Chester??  We thought he was with YOU!!”

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Up until this point with Elektragaaz, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special? 

🎤 Kate: Ooh that is so hard! The most recent one I recorded, 🎵 “Here Comes Your Girlfriend” possibly was my fav. It’s a fun tune and gave me a chance to be really creative in my contribution to it.  (“Here Comes Your Girlfriend” will be on the next Elektragaaz EP coming out in February of next year.)

🎤 Jasper: I have recorded so many at this point I can’t pick just one but I will say that one of the most memorable is 🎵 “Sebastians’ Apple” (from the 3rd EP released in September). I really enjoy almost baroque style music and gestures put into a modern context. I got to do a lot of that with soprano saxophone and clarinet (which happen to be 2 of my favorite instruments to play) and I think the end result was really successful.

🎤 Josh: 🎵 “Dancing with the Queen of Hearts” (from the first EP); can’t put my finger on it, but enjoy it a bunch!

🎤 Tom: One of the newest one which will be released on an upcoming Elektragaaz EP, 🎵 “Humoresque” has a lot of concise melodies that play really well together. On already released stuff, I would say 🎵 “Cabin Fever” (from the first EP), because I got to get heavier on that track and use effects that I don’t often use!

🎤 Mat: I like 🎵 “Sebastians’ Apple” because of the orchestration and counterpoint.

🎤 Kathy: My favorite is always the last song I worked on, so in this case, it is a song with the working title of 🎵 “Sentinels of the Milky Way.”  It was especially fun to come up with timpani sounds for this one, which proved to be a challenge. Sentinels doesn’t have a release date yet. Of songs that are released or scheduled to be released I love 🎵 “Here Comes Your Girlfriend”!  There is just something so sassy and adorable about it.

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Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits? 

🎤 Kate: I’m a great cook!

🎤 Jasper: I’m not sure what I should share but here are 3 facts/skills about me that many of my colleagues don’t know: (i). I’m an avid gamer and have invested lots of time into various video gaming communities (ii). I am a trained archer with nearly 15 years of experience with a recurve bow. (iii) I’m deeply passionate about marine biology with a focus on cetaceans (marine mammals). If I wasn’t a musician by profession, I’d most definitely pursue this path.

🎤 Josh: I’ve never had a cavity!

🎤 Tom: I run a recording studio in Brooklyn called Rad Hazard!

🎤 Mat: In addition to bass I play Croatian bagpipe and homemade wind instruments.

🎤 Kathy: I love vintage cartoons.

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Getting to Know… Elektragaaz: Interview No. 221 🎤 [📷: Elektragaaz, Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype]

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