As a beginning to the 2013 Festival year, I attended Lucidity, an amazing festival celebrating the music, culture and art of a visionary world.
Kaminanda produces and performs music to uplift the spirit of the listener, while allowing the natural ebb and flow of light and dark.
Hailing from the Coast of the northern mossylands, Kaminanda’s productions are a swirling fusion of trip hop, dub, midtempo and sensual grooves, unveiling crystalline melodies, ecstatic rhythms from around the world, and beats and bass that sway the body into surrender and release.
An audio oracle, Kaminanda sets unfold archetypes and elemental movements while tapping into the unlimited realms of adventure, beauty and elevated states of consciousness.
In this conversation, Kaminanda and I discuss dance culture, music, vibration, energetic exchange of dancers with DJs and the greater connection of electronic contemporary and modern dance communities with tribal sound and source energies of our created world.
Terra: Where does your name Kaminanda come from? Does it carry symbolic significance or meaning for you? How do you come to go by this name?
Kaminanda: Kami is Japanese for “Forest Spirits, Spirit and God.” I Came across the word in a book once. Nanda is Sanskrit for bliss.
Electronic Bridge Building is the art of joining musical worlds. What inspires you to create in this way? What draws you to bridge these musical ends?
I learned back in my 20’s that I am a world bridger in Mayan astrology. This resonated with me immediately and I felt a powerful draw to embody that long term with music. I am super inspired to bridge worlds, genres, communities, styles, all as a way to create a unifying and inclusive experience.
Your music is described as chill, dub, downtempo with a lot of world influence. Those who follow you on sites like BandCamp, Ektoplazm and Soundcloud also use terms like ‘magickal’ ‘transporting’ ‘awesome’ and ‘blisstrip’. In one of my favorite reviews a fan says ‘thank you for blessing our dance floor’ – what is your response to this? Do you create music with the intention of evoking these kinds of responses?
I create music because it’s my passion and my mission on earth. I receive responses like these when people are resonating with the spirit emanating within the message of the music.
In part, you also describe your music as building shamanic, visionary “Imaginarium Universes” and sexedelic dance trance experiences. Can you elaborate on what all this means? What is the experience you intend for those who listen and dance with your music?
I intentionally create music designed to be like a large magic carpet, traversing worlds and dimensions, navigating through Earthly sensual elements, ancient mythologies, archetypes, balancing dark and light, masculine and feminine, while showcasing musical influences from different time periods and cultures on the planet. I think it ripples out in a positive way when people have an ecstatic experience. I am not “trying” to influence society. Music, dance and modern culture are already doing that. My focus is more on facilitating an ecstatic experience which inevitably has a healing effect on people and the planet.
Prior to producing your own tracks as a Producer/DJ you mentioned experiencing the EDM movement as a dancer. How does this influence the music you produce?
To make music for dancers, it makes sense to be a dancer yourself. I make my tracks from a dancer’s point of view. I get out of my chair, take a step back and dance to my music and “feel” what needs to happen next. Then I get back in my chair and make it happen. This allows me to make music from my body and the contextual communication of the heart and my feminine presence, thus enabling me to “channel “ and call in energies that transcend what my mind could create. Through this I balance the left brain with the right brain.
We’ve talked a little about dancers and DJ’s sharing an interrelated, energetic connection. The connection between musicians and their audience or the culture they represent is not new, however the electronically produced sound is a relatively recent development. You mentioned that eye contact and connection when creating electronic music is an important part of your performances. What do you believe is happening on a physical, psychological and energetic level when this connection is realized?
It just allows all participants to be more grounded in the experience and present. It also feels really good to connect. I rejoice in the amazing energy that the dancefloor is bringing to the table. I am so in love with my audience, I want to soak up every moment with these beautiful people. I have received feedback that people also enjoy my “presence” with the dancefloor and this fuels my capacity to engage.
What in particular draws you to create music and interact as part of Electronic Dance Music culture?
Music is my calling and dancing has been the most influential element in my evolution. It made total sense to me to make dance music for the world to share my passion and joy of what makes me feel alive. I really appreciate the interactiveness of EDM, festival culture, etc., and watching the crowd move their bodies. I am here to love people with music, and facilitate an empowering experience for people.
You mentioned a variety of musical influences. Beginning around 16 you played guitar, listened to psychedelic journey rock and jam bands such Phish. With time, your musical expression progressed more into the electronic production of psytrance, tribal downtempo, and what you’ve called crystalline musical forms, which bring your sets into a very deep chill space. This is just the surface description of your musical influences. Can you elaborate on the musical and sound lineage you follow?
I was influenced in my youth by classic rock, then moved on to the jam band scene, which invoked a lot of mystery into my being. I love storytelling within the musical communication.
I got into jazz and funk which brought a wider, more layered and harmonic foundation. Mickey Hart from the Grateful Dead pretty much turned me on to “world music” which really got me onto percussion and drum jams.
Around the turn of the century I got into electronic music for the first time through the Portal of Interchill Records (http://www.interchill.com/) which includes a lot of tribal and earthly elements embedded in their chill dub sound. I was also really into dub reggae at the time and loved the “spacial” fx of the old school dub producers.
I found myself going to Intentional dance parties on the coast of BC, which allowed me to fully develop a relationship with the shamanic dance experience. During this time, I played drums in a live tribal trance band in Canada which furthered my relationship with dancefloor dynamics.
For the next few years I explored psytrance and downtempo, allowing the influences of the burgeoning culture to infuse my experience with the artwork, workshops, space shaping, and fascination with Sacred Geometry giving shape to my trajectory. The small festivals in BC and Shambhala music festival really influenced my life.
In the last couple of years I have absorbed a lot of glitch hop, westcoast crunk and dubstep to create a deeper palette of sexy and deep sonic colour brushes to work with. I really am super grateful of all the amazing music makers that have lit me up on the dancefloor over the last decade.
You mentioned being part of the Transformational Festival, Symbiosis, also featured in the new web documentary series THE BLOOM: A Journey Through Transformational Festivals (Directed by Jeet-Kei Leung / filmed by Akira Chan) travels around the world in 2012, documenting 23 transformative festivals. You’ve been part of these festivals representing a neo-renaissance of tribal human culture. In this global movement, I see a joining of individuals through respect and connection to our Earth expressed through a progression of refined and distinctive electronic music sounds and vibrations produced by digital shamans, such as yourself. From this joining of natural with digital, a very powerful, artistic and creative global culture is forming. I’d like to know your perspective; what is happening within this global culture?
I’m very excited for the growing momentum of festival culture on the earth. Still relatively young and in a state of constant learning and growing, the transformational festival culture of the world is setting an unprecedented explosion of art, music, culture, ideas and communal minded energy. People are waking up to the profound expression of relating to each other in a heightened sense of celebration, peace, harmony and forward thinking. Festival culture has immense potentiality as a direct conduit for transforming the conscious matrix of the planet.
You have begun to produce works in harmony with the 432 hertz frequency. This frequency is said to harmonize with celestial spheres and star alignments, and invoke sensations of compassion and harmony. It’s also said to be a frequency used in sound and healing ceremonies. While you may be fresh to working with this perspective in music, what compels you to work with these specific harmonic overtones? More generally, what consideration do you give to setting the vibe on the dance floor?
I am always looking to take this artform to the next level. In doing so, I’ve started to do more research into the effect of specific frequencies. Some of my peers in music have been using 432 hz as a portal into older and ancient lineages of a more original tuning. This tuning is in harmony with natural movements (the music of the spheres) and greater cycles. Following Phi ratios, music played in this tuning can have a greater effect of positive influence on our DNA and genetic makeup. Generally, for myself, I find it to be very worthwhile to embed “messages” or themes into the frequency ranges or certain melodies within my music. I do this with visualization and prayer while I’m making the track to create a unified grid across the dancefloor that embodies the feeling of the intention. It has been an ongoing “experiment” and I have been getting some interesting feedback.
Each album you’ve produced is available for download online and includes a piece of album art to go with it. Much of this art carries a light, geometric theme. Who creates this art and what about the pieces do you find relates to or represents your creative musical work?
I just think about the album name and the feel I want to go for. Then, I choose from the amazing well of friends I have that are amazing artists. I send them the tracks, the album name, and a basic theme, and then they do their magic!
Where can your music be found? Online? I person? Shows, performances, festivals? How can people connect with you?
My music can be found on Bandcamp (http://kaminanda.bandcamp.com/)
Also on Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/kaminanda)
You can connect with me personally on my FB music page (http://www.facebook.com/Kaminanda.music)