It's always weird when a friend of the big Indie Music family publishes new tracks. Kahone Concept, which we know from the days when we were still an indie-rock webradio, comes back with a new 5 track-EP, named in a very original way "And Then, My Five". And when we had the privilege of an early listen, we just remained speechless. 5 tracks. 5 jewels. So we wanted to know more about this mysterious character behind Kahone Concept, Ben. He tells us more about his musical universe and the creation of this new EP.

Indie Music Center: Hey Ben, welcome back to us! First, thank you so much for sending us an exclusive preview of your new EP! Could you tell us what's your story, and how you came to music?

Ben : I have pretty much always done some sort of music thing for as long as I can remember. I remember my dad had a guitar sitting out in the dining room and I just picked it up one day and just started messing around and ended up teaching myself "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. What a first song. I became obsessed and would sit down literally every day and play for as long as I could. I originally wanted to be a guitarist in a band, but where I live, there wasn’t anyone to play with. So I started just messing around trying to make my own stuff and do it on my own. I sold my Xbox and a few other things and bought some really cheap recording stuff online and started learning how to do it!

Selling that Xbox was the best idea you could ever have! I follow you since your first EP, "Clouds", and today we can see the evolution you got through... You sound really more "at-ease", if I can say so. Your tracks sound more professional, year after year, release after release, how could you explain that? Are you more confident, now, about the music you make? Did you realize you have gold in your hands?

Yeah video games are fun but very distracting! You have been super supportive from the very beginning and I genuinely appreciate that, thank you. I am a constantly trying to improve, I think being content with where you are and never at least trying to get better isn’t doing yourself a justice. I remember, with my first release, I was super scared, because I had never shown anyone the music. Most people never even knew I was making it! I had zero knowledge on how to produce and mix and it was definitely an experimental phase. Most bands have a lot of old demos and songs, but "CLOUDS" was genuinely the first Kahone Concept anything. There was nothing before it, so it was a big step to try and come into the scene. After each EP, I learn a lot. Especially production wise, I watch an inasane amount of YouTube videos and read articles to try and teach myself how to do it. Especially with the new EP “And Then, My Five” : the production on this one I put a lot more into. As for confidence, I’m not sure if I would call it professional. I still get insecure about my music, it’s just I’ve reached a point where it’s all I ever think about and all I ever want to do, so that pushes me to just do it and not think about it and worry. Gold in my hands... lol very kind of you but I’m not sure that it’s quite gold haha!

Wow, it must have been a lot of work. That's really impressive to see how much you've learned through those years! You are right. It was not gold. It's modesty, so! About the way you work, could you tell us a bit more? Like : what is coming first? Lyrics? Melody? Some artists use notebooks, to write down some thoughts... What's your method?

It’s so much time. But it’s what I love to do, some days, it's harder than others to keep working, but I’m at a stage right now where if I’m not gonna work, there is someone out there that is willing to, so that tends to keep me motivated. A lot of the times, lyrics come after. Every song is different but they all tend to start off the same. I’ll just be in a mood where I can feel I want to write a song, I’ll sit down at an instrument, sometimes guitar but mostly piano for Kahone songs, and I’ll open up my voice memos on my phone and press record. I’ll just start playing and singing whatever I feel and what ever happens happens. Sometimes an awful song comes out, and sometimes a decent one. I’ll save the voice memos and take a break and then come back to them and if I like the melody and chord progression, I’ll write lyrics, and then start to transform it into the full band sounds. A lot of my songs are written slow and then, in the production phase, I change them a little bit to make them more fun, especially for live shows. At my shows I like to keep everything upbeat and go nuts, and sometimes it’s hard to do that with songs like "Forefront" and "Canvas"!

Thanks so much for giving us a little of your time! All the best for the release and all your future projects!

_________________

To stay aware of new releases, follow the Indie Music Center :