Caleb Kallander & Sugar Nap
“With all the great music surrounding me, supportive parents, and a family full of musicians, I realized that nothing else in the world turned me on like music and that I wanted to spend my life pursuing the mysticism of writing, sound, and performance.“..... Caleb Kallander
Northwest-based singer/songwriter/producer, Caleb Kallander has adopted a varied assortment of musical instruments and consumes an eclectic mix of music, allowing him to experiment with a consistent flow of new ideas and sounds. With mostly a focus on folk, indie, electronic and progressive music, Caleb has been playing professionally for eight years in a variety of bands and solo settings showcasing his original music, covers, voice, and multi-genre guitar playing. He records and produces most of his music in his home studio in Des Moines, WA.
His current metamorphosis is Sugar Nap, a progressive, psychedelic and cinematic effort, self-written, performed, produced and engineered as a tapestry of electronica, folk, pop, dreamy vocals, tasteful ambiance, and caramelly, experimental sounds.
The first Sugar Nap EP is scheduled for release early 2021, followed by singles from the EP, Going Nowhere, Stay, and Harms released in 2020.
Inspired by music recorded as much as 40 years before he was born, Caleb recalls the exact moment his musical world was turned upside down:
“At a young age, Caleb remembers, my Dad called me into his office. He had me turn off the lights, sit on his lap at his office desk, and he played me Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon in its entirety through his high fidelity desktop monitors. I was mesmerized. My first “real” concert was Roger Waters from Pink Floyd with Dad in 2010, performing The Wall at the Tacoma Dome. I’ll never forget the plane flying over our heads, crashing into the wall, and feeling the heat on our faces from our seats.”
To this day, Pink Floyd is still likely the band that inspires Caleb the most, from their writing and skillful musicianship, engineering, and their legendary live shows. Caleb considers the production of a live show critical to engaging your audience, whether that involves thousands of dollars of props and effects or a single seat, arms length from the audience.
It wasn’t just Pink Floyd that enriched the Kallander home. “Growing up I was surrounded by a lot of 60s and 70s folk and rock, including Carole King, James Taylor, Crosby Stills Nash, and Young, The Beatles, Steely Dan, Eagles, Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and The Allman Brothers Band. My whole family played music, and our love of the melodies of those folk-pop artists and bands, along with our church music background, created great family jam sessions with big three or four-part harmonies. We would sit around the grand piano in the living room, usually mom, dad, my brother or sister playing, while whoever wasn't on piano was either singing or playing guitar, and we would play for hours and hours,” Caleb recalls with a smile.
Over the years, he’s added more artists that influence the direction of his music, besides Pink Floyd, James Taylor, and other early artists he grew up listening to. Some include Tame Impala, Bon Iver, Shlohmo, James Blake, Alice In Chains, Joy Division, Glass Animals, Dream Theater, Frank Ocean, Jim Croce, Pearl Jam, and The Doors.
Caleb has a strong work ethic and loves to push the boundaries with his music and his inspiring non-musical life. Commercial fishing in Alaska has been a recurring excursion. “Depending on the fishery and season, there is a lot of time alone to write and reflect. Being surrounded by the beauty of the Alaska landscape while studying philosophy and making my own observations, all while working in one of the oldest industries is very easily inspirational,” Caleb explains. .
He has also challenged himself to climb to the summit of Mount Rainier and succeeded, he renovated a 60’s camper he travels in, he loves to scuba dive, surf and take his motorcycle on the open road, always with a film camera by his side, capturing the world around him while influencing the music he creates. He recalls something said by another inspiration of his, Christopher McCandless (also known as Alexander Supertramp), "So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."
Caleb is ecstatic about releasing the first Sugar Nap EP, saying, “ It captures me as an artist today. It’s adventurous, a bit psychedelic, and lyrically both mindful and assertive. I've been using a lot of alternative percussion alongside traditional instruments and other textures I’ve recorded myself; weaving guitars, synths, old organs and experimental sound engineering together with my lyrics and voice to create an immersive, cinematic experience for whoever dives into these songs.”
Ambitiously, he plans to tour with this material. “I enjoy the challenge of recreating the studio sounds in a live setting with the highest fidelity possible and, of course, imagine the most elaborate sets and production to create an unforgettable live experience.”
