“Seattle based singer songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, electronic music producer and engineer Caleb Kallander has a penchant for mixing things up literally. His latest "When She Comes" takes organic folk sounds and bathes them in textured bits of electronica. The result is a brand of storytelling that has whimsical surreal edges. Kallander builds his folk universe here in total, playing all instruments and producing from the bottom up.”
“Sugar Nap joins Julia Newman, in one of those songs that encourages you to think everything about the present that you keep inside. I Became an Ocean is a song to understand you once and for all, as if this work were a constant reflection to explain the rawness that we keep inside to exist in the midst of people. What we have here is an opportunity to lose ourselves in the appropriate intimacy of desire, without anything stopping us from destroying everything inside us.”
“There are some other fun [songwriting] methods I've used as well. I've turned on the tv, the radio, a playlist from my phone, matched all the volumes, and in all the madness, wrote down the occasional word I could pick out. Then I'd take the list of words, cut them into individual pieces of paper, and mix them all up into different phrases and see if something inspires an idea.” - Caleb Kallander
Debut EP released October 8th, 2021
Caleb Kallander & Sugar Nap
Pacific 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 electronic, folk, rock, and progressive music, Caleb has been playing professionally for ten 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 October 8th, 2021, followed by singles from the EP, Going Nowhere, Stay, and Slow Motion released in 2020 and 2021.
Inspired by music recorded as much as 40 years before he was born, Caleb remembers the exact moment his musical world was turned upside down:
“At a young age", Caleb recalls, "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 with Dad at Roger Waters from Pink Floyd in 2010, performing The Wall at the Tacoma Dome. I’ll never forget the suspended plane flying over our heads, crashing into the wall, and feeling the explosive heat on our faces from our seats.”
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 an audience, whether that involves thousands of dollars of props and effects or a single seat and spot light, 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, The Allman Brothers Band and many more. My whole family played music, and our love for 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, more artists emerged and were discovered 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, Radiohead, The Cure, 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 writes frequently on his own boat and works most often as a commercial sea cucumber diver. "Being underwater is the most alien thing a person can experience in my opinion, and to make money doing it all while being inspired to write is such an incredible opportunity."
He 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 recreationally besides commercially, surfs and frequently rides his motorcycle, and shoots film photography, capturing the world around him while influencing the music he creates. He recites from memory 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 album sometime in 2022, saying, “ It captures me as an artist today. It’s adventurous for me, a bit psychedelic, and lyrically philosophical and reflective. There are themes of love, loss, regret, growth, nostalgia. I've been using a lot of alternative percussion alongside traditional instruments and other textures I’ve recorded myself; weaving guitars, synths, drum machines, old organs and experimental sound engineering techniques together with my lyrics and voice to try to create this immersive, cinematic experience.”
In the meantime, he is releasing the first self titled EP on October 8th ,2021.
