Name: KAU
Members: André Breidlid (drums), Matteo Genovese (bass), Jan Janzen (keys)
Interviewee: André Breidlid
Nationalities: German (Jan), Italian (Matteo), Norwegian (André)
Current release: KAU's The Cycle Repeats is out via sdban. Catch them live at one of the following venues:

29.09 : Volta, Brussels (BE)
30.09 : Austral Boréal, Liège (BE)
04.10 : All Things Sdban at De Centrale, Gent (BE)
08.11 : Crossroads Festival, Roubaix (FR)
24.11 : Eden, Charleroi (BE)
25.11 : Popmonument, Breda (NL)
02.12 : Silly Concerts, Silly (BE)
06.12 : All Things Sdban at AB, Brussels (BE)
08.12 : CC De Factorij, Zaventem (BE)

Recommendations: Looptroop Rockers - Fort Europa; Murakami

If you enjoyed this KAU interview and would like to stay up to date with the band and their music, visit them on Facebook, and bandcamp.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

For me that depends totally on the type of music I am listening to. That’s what’s so interesting about music. It can be like a sonic blanket gently hugging you and filling the space around you with a warm and comfortable presence. On the other hand some music can create a feeling of melancholy within you like a wet and cold stone slowly tumbling down inside your body creating blue shapes every time it hits something.

I personally always listen with my eyes closed as I want the music itself to create the surrounding I am placed in. However it can be very interesting to see how the music itself will shape the surroundings that you are in.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience - can one train/learn being an artist?

My very first steps in music are deeply connected to my brother who is a guitar player. We would spend hours upon hours in the music room in our house playing and jamming together since we were very little. Later my good friend joined and a trio was formed (not KauTrio). I think this has created the most vital and important feeling I connect with music, which is creating something with another person or other people.

For me music is never a solitary experience. There might be parts of it which have to be worked on on a personal level, for example practicing or song writing but the true expression of music is always a communal one. I think that is an unchangeable aspect of music. Whether it is being shared with an audience or worked on with friends or acquaintances, it is a task that no person can do alone.

With regards to the being an artist question I’d say everyone has an artist within them because an artist can take infinite shapes and forms but not every person wants to or is able to express their artist inside. It is not something one learns, it is merely a way of self-expression.

However I do believe that one can train this part. It is impossible to fake but you can work on it to find your strongest and most expressive side and maybe the one that other people can connect with most.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

I would say I have to agree with that. Beginning of puberty is the time many people make deeper connections to their surroundings and find deeper meaning in music as well. As a child a lot of people play music but maybe haven’t fully grasped the reason why they play or what they want to express.

For Kau specifically this question is interesting because that is exactly the age that we met and started playing music together in middle school. It was an amazing and beautiful time as we could share all the things we wanted to musically express with each other and create a very meaningful bond and friendship.

Now almost 15 years later we are still very close and we still get to make music together all the time. A big difference might be the kind of inspirations and life lessons we bring to the table when creating together now.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

I think this links back to the previous question. Our music is all about being created together in a jam session environment. One person might bring an idea they liked or heard and then we develop it together, each person adding their own personal flavourings to it. That’s how we can motivate each other.

When you write music on your own you have to find your own sources of motivation. But doing it together really feels like working with a team. If one person is sick and can’t make it to a rehearsal that day, then two people still show up and work on an idea and maybe something new is created that day that wouldn’t have happened with the third person. Then they show up the next day and take that piece of music to the next level.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

Hmmm that is a difficult one but I’d personally go with the idea that you discovered it. It’s a bit like mathematics. It’s all around us and it creates the universe we inhabit and whenever a formula is invented it’s just another expression of our reality.

We don’t create mathematical formulas, we discover them and every time we get just a little bit closer to discovering the truths of our surroundings.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

Totally agree with that. The content of the song is important but what hits you first is the sound of the record itself. And there are a million ways you can interpret a chord progression or melody depending on the way it’s played and on what instrument.

In our case we played around a lot with different sounds as you can hear. Especially older analog synthesizers inspire us a lot. We have many variations of the sounds but ended up using the ones that inspired us the most for the album.

We would define our sound as a type of nu-jazz because we combine a lot of different elements together, whether it’s dance music or hip hop. The thing that keeps our sound consistent is the use of purely acoustic drums and analog synths.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

The question is very fitting since for the record The cycle repeats we took a lot of inspiration from desolate places and far-away spaces.

Every sample you hear on the record is recorded on a phone by ourselves since we wanted to add some of our own real life experiences to the album. It might be the crackling of a fireplace, strong winds, foot steps or the sounds of a table being set for lunch. All of these elements add a sensation to the music that is hard to describe.

I’d say even though they are not human sounds they add a kind of humanity to the music because they are sounds we have all experienced one way or another. They are musical because music is just sounds and frequencies mixed together in a harmonious and beautiful or sometimes not beautiful way.

What makes nature sounds so different from that? I think not a lot.

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

In this record we experimented a lot with long intros and also longer repeated parts.

A kind of main element we focused on was repetition or what we call a “cycle”.  Repeating cycles is how we think of music and that can include lows, highs, fast and slow. We go for whatever inspires us in that moment.

In this record we have calm and fast songs and slow and intense songs.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

I’d say for us personally one of our most overwhelming pieces to play live is the song “Kautokeino.” Every step of this song was added by one of our band members.



First came the idea of creating something based on a very desolate place in the north of Norway where we would like to go sometime soon. Next we figured out what kind of chord progression might fit this kind of environment. After this we wanted to create a lullaby type of slow melody that would fit on top.

Something singable and beautiful. It contrasts strongly with the intense and fast drum groove underneath.

Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

Not more than questioning people intensely about whether they like an idea or not.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

We try to take inspiration from every little thing we see around us. That also includes a lot going to concerts but also taking samples of every day things on the phone or trying to put a musical idea in a complete different context.

We can absolutely learn things about life by understanding music deeply. There’s music for almost every situation of life whether it’s guilt, embarrassment, happiness or anger.

I think also a deep understanding of music gives a kind of insight into the mathematics of the world since I believe they are actually quite deeply linked. Patterns and shapes come out of it and can be expressed musically in many different ways.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

If you want to be a musician that means taking it as seriously as any job and that can of course also mean making writing music a very mundane and maybe even boring task.

Sometimes you don’t want to go to work and sometimes you don’t feel like going to your instrument to work on something new. However it is always nice to work on music with a nice cup of coffee.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

Hmm a song that has been going viral this last year is “Snowfall” by oneheart.



I’d say that is an incredibly simple but immensely beautiful tune that has no lyrics no percussive sounds, just a very reverby synthesisers yet it evokes emotions beyond human comprehension.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

The musical environment should help people develop their own style rather than create an incredibly competitive environment.

Music has become a lot about numbers of listens for example on Spotify. I hope that we can give more space and maybe more funding to projects that might not necessarily attract main stream attention but are still very important to push music forward in an interesting direction.