artist Artisan Kane

Artisan Kane is the vehicle for synth texturalist Colin Janz and his singularly progressive brand of contemporary pop music. Effectively a solo project that finds Janz backed by a small team of associates led by co-producer Dave “Rave” Ogilvie (Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, David Bowie), Artisan Kane’s debut album for Famedia/604/Universal is packed with diverse moods, dizzying stylistic variation and a questing spirit. Some tracks are supremely melodic examples of modern popcraft that would fit seamlessly on mainstream radio. Others are layered with dark beats and ambient distortion in the manner of inspirational role models like Björk, Talk Talk and Radiohead. Holding it all together is an overarching conceptual theme that mirrors Janz’s own restless search for meaning and identity in a dehumanizing urban landscape. “The album is basically a series of journal entries written since I moved from the middle of nature to downtown Vancouver,” explains Janz, 26, an award-winning sound designer for film and theatre who grew up in a forested rural area east of the city. “Like a lot of people, I’ve found myself alienated and alone in the din of humanity. On one level the album is a simple collection of pop songs, but on another it deals with the dichotomy of nature versus technology – of trying to find solitude and soul in the chaos of the urban world.” Following an instrumental intro that hints at Janz’s passion for industrial music – he and Ogilvie recently remixed a track for Puscifer, a side project of Tool’s Maynard James Keenan – the album begins in earnest with the soaring vocals and driving beats of “I Believe In You.” Over 13 subsequent songs, the artist covers the waterfront from streamlined vocal pop (“Again,” “Before I Begin”) and piano ballads (“Question Mark”) to a slew of inventive departures highlighted by the choral majesty of “Time Has Taken,” the electro-pop anthem “Bittersweet Timezone,” the propulsively dark-hearted “Shadowlands,” and the symphonic, densely multi-tracked “Shot Myself.” Apart from a few piano lessons as a kid, Janz is a self-taught musician who considers himself more of a “synth engineer” than a songwriter. Working with a bank of digital keyboards, he steadily builds tracks by programming one sonic element after the next into a richly detailed whole. “I’m a very epiphanal songwriter,” he says. “I mess around for a certain amount of time, searching for the right combination of sounds and chords, and then ‘bam,’ I’ve got it. From there I can start adding depth, colour and beat.” Music runs in his DNA. Colin’s father, Paul Janz, was a high-rotation regular on Canadian radio in the 1980s before launching an academic career that now finds him teaching at King’s College at the University of London, England. At 15, Colin borrowed a synth from his dad’s home studio in Mission, B.C., relocated it to his bedroom and began remixing favorite Ace of Base and videogame tunes. “I learned by doing. At the beginning I created short vignettes and then graduated to longer pieces. I grew up listening to people like Trent Reznor and especially Björk. The richness of their distorted sounds was alluring. And big, rough beats have always called to me.” He began singing for the first time at 21 and started taking songwriting seriously in 2004. “I’ve tried to involve some aspect of hope inside the cloudy darkness that the past few years have been.” Studying great minds like the Danish existentialist Søren Kierkegaard helped his worldview evolve dramatically. “I’m no philosopher,” he says, laughing, “but I’ve read a bit and studied philosophy and theology at university (Trinity Western in Langley, B.C.).” And his compositional reach was extended while focusing on sound design at the Vancouver Film School; his work on Ori-Ben Shabat’s short film (and YouTube fave) Piece of Mind was named Best Original Score at the Canadian Awards for the Electronic Animated Arts in 2006. Beginning with “Question Mark” in 2004, the album’s songs were written and demoed in a home studio set-up based around a Macintosh and a Yamaha SY99. Sessions then shifted to the major-league Armoury and Warehouse studios in Vancouver. Ogilvie worked primarily as what Janz calls a “technical” producer rather than putting his own creative stamp on the enterprise. Colin’s brother Chris also co-produced a number of tracks. The album is written, programmed, sung and co-produced by Colin. For live shows, he calls on a variety of musicians to create a band context. After living with friends in the countryside in his early 20s, raising his own vegetables and cherishing close ties with the land, Janz has now acclimatized to city life. While the journey back to himself is the connective tissue that links Artisan Kane from start to finish, Janz readily accepts that the album will be consumed piecemeal in the iPod era. “The songs are designed to stand alone, but there’s also a bigger picture there for anyone who cares to investigate a little deeper. It’s a snapshot of who I am at the moment and where I’ve been. By the time I put out my next album, I’m sure I’ll be someone and somewhere else.” -30- ARTISAN KANE draft bio Jeff Bateman 250.642.2056 jbateman@shaw.ca 882 words Artisan Kane is the vehicle for synth texturalist Colin Janz and his singularly progressive brand of contemporary pop music. Effectively a solo project that finds Janz backed by a small team of associates led by co-producer Dave “Rave” Ogilvie (Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, David Bowie), Artisan Kane’s debut album for Famedia/604/Universal is packed with diverse moods, dizzying stylistic variation and a questing spirit. Some tracks are supremely melodic examples of modern popcraft that would fit seamlessly on mainstream radio. Others are layered with dark beats and ambient distortion in the manner of inspirational role models like Björk, Talk Talk and Radiohead. Holding it all together is an overarching conceptual theme that mirrors Janz’s own restless search for meaning and identity in a dehumanizing urban landscape. “The album is basically a series of journal entries written since I moved from the middle of nature to downtown Vancouver,” explains Janz, 26, an award-winning sound designer for film and theatre who grew up in a forested rural area east of the city. “Like a lot of people, I’ve found myself alienated and alone in the din of humanity. On one level the album is a simple collection of pop songs, but on another it deals with the dichotomy of nature versus technology – of trying to find solitude and soul in the chaos of the urban world.” Following an instrumental intro that hints at Janz’s passion for industrial music – he and Ogilvie recently remixed a track for Puscifer, a side project of Tool’s Maynard James Keenan – the album begins in earnest with the soaring vocals and driving beats of “I Believe In You.” Over 13 subsequent songs, the artist covers the waterfront from streamlined vocal pop (“Again,” “Before I Begin”) and piano ballads (“Question Mark”) to a slew of inventive departures highlighted by the choral majesty of “Time Has Taken,” the electro-pop anthem “Bittersweet Timezone,” the propulsively dark-hearted “Shadowlands,” and the symphonic, densely multi-tracked “Shot Myself.” Apart from a few piano lessons as a kid, Janz is a self-taught musician who considers himself more of a “synth engineer” than a songwriter. Working with a bank of digital keyboards, he steadily builds tracks by programming one sonic element after the next into a richly detailed whole. “I’m a very epiphanal songwriter,” he says. “I mess around for a certain amount of time, searching for the right combination of sounds and chords, and then ‘bam,’ I’ve got it. From there I can start adding depth, colour and beat.” Music runs in his DNA. Colin’s father, Paul Janz, was a high-rotation regular on Canadian radio in the 1980s before launching an academic career that now finds him teaching at King’s College at the University of London, England. At 15, Colin borrowed a synth from his dad’s home studio in Mission, B.C., relocated it to his bedroom and began remixing favorite Ace of Base and videogame tunes. “I learned by doing. At the beginning I created short vignettes and then graduated to longer pieces. I grew up listening to people like Trent Reznor and especially Björk. The richness of their distorted sounds was alluring. And big, rough beats have always called to me.” He began singing for the first time at 21 and started taking songwriting seriously in 2004. “I’ve tried to involve some aspect of hope inside the cloudy darkness that the past few years have been.” Studying great minds like the Danish existentialist Søren Kierkegaard helped his worldview evolve dramatically. “I’m no philosopher,” he says, laughing, “but I’ve read a bit and studied philosophy and theology at university (Trinity Western in Langley, B.C.).” And his compositional reach was extended while focusing on sound design at the Vancouver Film School; his work on Ori-Ben Shabat’s short film (and YouTube fave) Piece of Mind was named Best Original Score at the Canadian Awards for the Electronic Animated Arts in 2006. Beginning with “Question Mark” in 2004, the album’s songs were written and demoed in a home studio set-up based around a Macintosh and a Yamaha SY99. Sessions then shifted to the major-league Armoury and Warehouse studios in Vancouver. Ogilvie worked primarily as what Janz calls a “technical” producer rather than putting his own creative stamp on the enterprise. Colin’s brother Chris also co-produced a number of tracks. The album is written, programmed, sung and co-produced by Colin. For live shows, he calls on a variety of musicians to create a band context. After living with friends in the countryside in his early 20s, raising his own vegetables and cherishing close ties with the land, Janz has now acclimatized to city life. While the journey back to himself is the connective tissue that links Artisan Kane from start to finish, Janz readily accepts that the album will be consumed piecemeal in the iPod era. “The songs are designed to stand alone, but there’s also a bigger picture there for anyone who cares to investigate a little deeper. It’s a snapshot of who I am at the moment and where I’ve been. By the time I put out my next album, I’m sure I’ll be someone and somewhere else.” -30-