By Veronika Lancaster Deliyannakis
Kaley Kinjo’s been kicking around the Calgary scene for a while both as a solo artist and with his self-titled band.
He’s been on tour in Japan with his brother while they were getting back to their Japanese roots. Closer to home he has also played in several festivals. Kinjo won the best performance and second runner-up in the songwriting competition at the Calgary Folk Music Festival, setting a new record as the first person to win anything in two categories at the Calgary Folk Music Festival in 2007.
His musical versatility seems to come from a broad interest in music. He picks and chooses from ska, indie, folk, rock and even reggae to oddly colour his music resulting in a poignant, bitter and sarcastic mood set to such an upbeat tone for a subtle underlying message. Kinjo says there is no central theme or idea so he can make a lot with what he has.
“I tend to write music that’s upbeat and sounds happy, but the lyrics are a bit more dark and pessimistic and kind of angry,” he explains. “I would name it, well a lot of my music is sort of acoustic pop rock.”
His debut album hasn’t been officially released, but there may be a few copies hanging about at concerts to spread the goods to a select few before everyone else. Kinjo says the hype around the disc is building.
“I’ve been compared to Jack Johnson, but I’ve also been told I sound like Sublime,” he says. “I tell people it’s like Jack Johnson meeting Sublime over drinks.”
Kinjo plans to go back to Japan in the fall if possible and do some more radio shows as well as to release his cd in Canada and Japan. The singer even hopes to own his own recording company and to be able to help other artists in the future. For now, the Calgary chanteur is focused on the experience.
“Obviously everyone has fantasies of becoming rich and famous and selling lots of cds, going on tour, but I’d like to travel a lot with my music, with friends and just to share it,” he says.