We had a chat with Canvas this week. The Jamie xx and James Blake inspired melodic and soothing indie duo's sound is yet to reach the masses yet but we believe that when it does, Canvas are a name you'll be hearing plenty more of. Due to this, we thought we'd grab a word with the pair in question.
1. Who are Canvas?
Canvas are a bedroom recording duo, made up of myself (Daniel White) and Ryan Bunney. The two of us make instrumentals and work with different vocalists to give each song its own identity. We are both coming up to sixteen years old and have been playing music together for a year and a half, and have recently found the direction that we wish to take our music. Upon finding our sound and knowing what we wanted to do with our music, we decided to fall under the name of Canvas.
2. Who are your biggest musical inspirations?
We get inspired by who we are listening to at the current time as we always discover new artists and listen to a wide variety of bands and singers from different genres. The two of us share a similar taste in music which must naturally play a part in our sound. Whilst on a day to day basis, we share a similar taste, we both have other genres that we draw inspiration from. Personally I love electronic music due to the production side of it, so I get a lot of inspiration from that particular genre. Artists such as Jamie xx, Caribou and James Blake who are huge favourites of mine, seem to give me lots of ideas for beats and sounds when it comes to working on new tracks. I started to produce this type of music due to a general interest in the sound and the endless possibilities that can be done with it. When making music, it would be natural for Ryan to take inspiration from certain indie/alternative bands as he works on the guitar riffs and note/chord sequences. Bands such as Alt-J and The xx give ideas for note sequences, whilst the band Milky Chance play a huge part in the chord progressions. When Ryan began to learn how to play the guitar, he concentrated on learning classic rock riffs and acoustic melodies as he felt that the difficulty of those songs would help to improve his guitar skills and techniques, as they are challenging, yet fun to play. Even though Ryan learnt those types of music on the guitar, our music doesn't portray those genres. At times it is hard to pin point where you have picked up the sound that you are looking for when in the process of producing a new song.
3. How would you describe your sound?
Our sound is a combination of acoustic drum kits, non-complex electronic sequences and pure guitar melodies. Within our sound we include a selection of ambient pads and low velocity bass arrangements to build what we call our sound. Over the last year, one effect that has stood out for us when making our music has been reverb. It's used on the guitar, bass and certain drum sounds to give our content an atmospheric feel. As far as vocals go, it's hard for us to comment on the sound as each vocalist that we work with brings something different. As already said, it's hard for us to pin point exactly what sound we have as we are inspired by different genres.
4. Where do you see yourselves in five years time?
Moving on from being a bedroom recording duo, we would love to have an album under our belt whilst gigging at various venues and forming a following. We both have a passion for our music, so if in the next few years people enjoy listening to our material it would be a very humbling feeling for the two of us. As a duo we are always looking to improve our music, so in five years time we aim to expand on what we are currently working with, whether that be sound, knowledge, or vocalists that we decide to collaborate with. The two of us feel very bright about our future and are very excited to see what happens in the upcoming years.
5. What's next for Canvas?
We have some instrumentals that we are planning to finish and are looking to start working with the vocalists for those tracks in the upcoming weeks/months. We are currently in the process of finishing songs which are scheduled to be uploaded onto Soundcloud in early 2015 that we are very excited to share. Ryan and myself are soon to be studying music, which we hope will help us to gain a further understanding on what are passionate about most. We are going to continue writing and producing music whilst learning as we go.
Huge thanks to Canvas for the interview.
Listen to Canvas via Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/canvas_music
Follow Canvas on Twitter: @CanvasMusic_
Subscribe to Canvas on Youtube: youtube.com/channel/UCaAESXi82DCSi2hA8BmVLkw
Posted by Charlie Ireland.
RIFFED x