(upbeat funky music)
(audience applauding)
- All right, so my name is Travis Holcombe.
And I am very thrilled to be here for Fender Sessions
with FKJ, who's gonna be playing us some stuff and also just
sort of walking us through his process of creating music
and all the different gear that he's got up here.
So welcome, FKJ.
- Thank you.
- Thank you for coming here. - Thank you.
- Can you just sort of briefly walk us through
the stuff that you have up here?
I mean, I see lots of pedals, lots of guitars and keyboards.
What all are you working with?
- So yeah, this is not my live setup exactly,
but it's pretty close, close to be.
We took off a couple of things
because just to make it simple.
But basically I got all the different instrument I have.
And even if I have more when I have the saxophones
and the piano, they all run through this, through Ableton.
And everything is processed through Ableton.
And that way I can actually loop things
and I don't need a lot of.
I could do all analog, but that would mean a lot of gear.
So I keep it digital.
That way it's like all through Ableton, and I can loop it,
have the effects, and play on my own basically.
- Is your studio setup pretty similar to what--
- Exactly, yeah.
Exactly the same way.
- Okay. - Yeah.
- And when you're composing music, I mean, there's obviously
there's a lot of improv involved with your show, right?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- And you got like a one-man band kind of thing,
so you can sort of go off into different directions.
What do you normally start with?
I mean, is it percussion or do you start with a riff
or just sort of a melody?
- It really depends.
Because if I always start with the same thing,
I'm not gonna, I'm gonna be bored at some point.
And I need to stimulate my inspiration,
so I will always start with something different.
I usually try to search for an unusual sound,
and that unusual sound is gonna lead me
to this kind of melody and this kind of chord progression.
- What we just saw, is that pretty much
how the process works in the studio for you?
Do you just sort of jam out and like figure things out
as it's going along?
- There's no rules.
Sometimes I'll just go to the studio for fun,
meaning I don't have no idea what I'm going to do
and I'll just mess around, so that's pretty much it.
I'm messing around, and it can turn out good sometimes.
Sometime it could just turn out okay.
Sometime, you know, that was okay.
But sometimes it's different.
There's an idea or special idea
that is not when I have instruments in my head.
It's like in the head.
it's not in the studio, it's happening somewhere else.
It's happening when I'm cooking.
It's happening when I'm taking a shower,
walking down the street, driving.
Then there's an idea.
And so that's a different kind of process to create.
It's like there's a specific idea that is inside there,
and I'm gonna go to the studio to layer everything down.
And usually I just record it with my iPhone.
I just record every layers on the iPhone,
the bassline, the chords, everything on the iPhone,
and then I go to the studio to finish it.
But this is just messing around.
Like there's no particular idea.
It's just like going there, doing a chord,
doing two chords, and just follow.
And yeah, this is what I do live.
It's really like in the moment.
It's like whatever turns out to be in the moment.
- Do you have a set list when you're performing live though?
- I have a set list.
I do a set list usually the day of the show.
Like a few hours before the show, I do a set list,
and there's always moments where it's like it's free.
So there's moments of just it's gonna be an improv.
And so that way all my team knows
this moment is gonna be an improv.
This moment is gonna be that song.
So there's a set list, but it's always moving.
- So when you're improvising, do you ever notice
that you might work yourself into a corner
that you don't know how to get out of?
And if you do, are there any professional tricks
that you have to sort of work your way into a flow again?
- No, I think it's okay.
That's the part of improvisation.
It's like if it turns out bad, it's all right.
I used to care more and I don't really,
even playing a big venue now,
I try to not care about this.
It's part of the fun.
If I want to keep having fun while touring,
because I tour a lot, I keep fun by having
those moments of improv and those moments of freedom
of not playing always the same songs
but have between those songs, yeah, some moments of freedom.
So it's okay if it doesn't work.
If there's a night I'm not as inspired as the other night,
I'll still give it a go.
- But isn't that scarier?
I mean, when you're in a studio and it's not working,
that's one thing, but when you're playing
in front of a tent full of people at Coachella.
- Yeah, I know, but I want to have fun so.
- That's a good attitude.
- One quick question I have for you is after seeing you
a few times, it's very clear that your musicianship
goes beyond just the music you create
but also kind of the visuals that we see there.
And that's also true with some
of the YouTube videos you've done.
I'm wondering if you could speak a little bit about
what component that plays overall
and how you plan that in advance.
- Well, so I started playing instruments before producing.
And to be able to produce, I went to a sound engineer school
'cause that was lacking for me.
I knew, even if it's my own theory,
I don't know which chord is that.
I don't know how to read music.
But I understand music as a language.
But I didn't understand sound.
So if wanted to compose, mix my songs, master my songs,
pretty much do everything from start to end,
I needed to get that knowledge.
So I went to a sound engineer school.
And the only sound engineer school that I could go in
that was not private, that I didn't have to pay for
was a cinema school.
So I did cinema school and I was a sound engineer for cinema
and that's where all the visual stuff came from.
It's because I learned cinema.
I learned how to film, how to edit,
how to direct, everything.
And I was working with directors.
So then when I needed to make visuals for the live show,
make visuals for my video clips, it was pretty easy.
It made sense.
So yeah, that's where it come from.
That's where it comes from.
- You mentioned that sometimes you collaborate
with other artists.
And so with your style being very heavy in improvisation,
how much are you conducting when you're working
with other artists versus just kind of everyone on stage
going with the flow?
- I don't really conduct
when I'm collaborating with another artist.
The way I did most studio sessions I did with other artists,
it was just press record and we just make music
for like hours.
And when there's like a good idea, we stop.
But all the studio I did are pretty much all improvised.
The studio sessions I did with other artists,
the base of the workflow is improvisation.
And just, yeah, just mess around until
there's something powerful that comes out of it, you know?
Because when we start a studio session sometimes
with someone, you know a little bit, not that much.
Sometimes it's like you don't really know how to approach it
and so improvising is just a way to say
let's just have fun, you know?
Let's just have fun,
and something comes out of it most of the time.
Every time comes something out of it.
This is a jam I did with my friend Darius from Paris,
my friend Crayon, and my friend Wayne Snow.
And we were just jamming in Paris and found this jam
and worked a little bit on it.
So I'm gonna play it.
(upbeat funky music)
♪ So you, so you, so you, so you, so you, so you, so you ♪
♪ So you know, yeah you know what I'm talkin', talkin' 'bout ♪
♪ Talkin' 'bout you and I, you and I ♪
♪ So you know, yeah you know what I'm talkin' ♪
♪ talkin' 'bout ♪
♪ You and I, you and I ♪
♪ So you know, yeah you know what I'm talkin', ♪
♪ talkin' 'bout ♪
♪ Talkin' 'bout you and I, you and I ♪
♪ So you know, yeah you know what I'm talkin', ♪
♪ talkin' 'bout ♪
♪ You and I, you and I ♪
♪ I've been waiting all day, all day long ♪
♪ I've been waiting for some, for someone ♪
♪ I've been waiting all day, all day long ♪
♪ I've been waiting for some, for someone ♪
♪ I've been waiting all day, all day long ♪
♪ I've been waiting for some, for someone ♪
♪ So you know, yeah you know what I'm talkin', ♪
♪ talkin' 'bout ♪
♪ Talkin' 'bout you and I, you and I ♪
♪ So you know, yeah you know what I'm talkin', ♪
♪ talkin' 'bout ♪
♪ You and I, you and I ♪
♪ So you ♪
(audience applauding)
- Give it up one more time for FKJ, everyone.
(audience applauding)