Today, we sat down with Charles from Ckraft to talk inspiration to write music, heroes and much more! Be sure to check out Ckraft’s music below on Spotify after the interview!
Interview:
What is your inspiration to write your music? Is it your surroundings?
Charles (the bandleader): Hi there, thanks for having us today! I’ll talk about my band CKRAFT, a five piece instrumental Jazz-Metal band, heavily influenced by melodies from Middle Ages.
What triggers the inspiration for me is to witness other bands playing a live show, or discover a record that I didn’t know and have my mind blown, then I think “hey, I want to write crushing riffs as well” or “oh, if it was me, I would have done it like this or like that” etc. I tend to go out a lot to see bands play, it’s an endless source of inspiration. This, and life events of course.
About another – non-musical – source of inspiration: I think musicians and composers are very similar with craftsmen, in the sense that we all use noble material – for us, the culture of jazz and that of metal for example – just like craftsmen would use different varieties of wood, minerals, etc. and create something unprecedented directly from these materials, combined with their art, their expertise and experience. That’s why I named this band CKRAFT, along with the fact that “Kraft” in German, means strength/energy/force! And there you have it, a mixture of “craft” and “Kraft”.
What type of music did you listen to growing up?
I grew up listening to metal, it was the only music that would really make sense to me as a teenager. I’d spend hours listening to KoRn, Slipknot, and especially Gojira. Their album “The Link” really changed my perception of music and I still listen to it as an adult with the same passion and awe. Later in my formative years, I saw a jazz big band play live and I was blown away by the exuberant freedom that this music was projecting from the stage. Sooner or later I had to blend these genres!
Is there someone you looked up as a hero?
Charles: I already mentioned Gojira’s guys that blew my mind as a kid with their album “The Link”, so I’ll quote another band that I discovered a bit later, through one of their record that is probably one of the CDs that I listened to the most in my entire life, that’s Mr.Bungle’s “California”. The compositions, the arrangements, the production and the sound design were just incredible at that time, and are still incredible today. The way Mike Patton and his friends squash and mix together different genres of music with abrupt but brilliant transitions made so much sense to me, and I think really encouraged me to do my very own thing. These guys are really my music heroes!
If you weren’t a musician, would you be doing today?
If I hadn’t gotten into playing music, I think I would be doing another music or arts related job, probably on the production or press side. Music is just too important for me that I can’t picture my life outside of it!
What advice do you have for our fans out there that want to create music?
I really don’t feel entitled to give advice to anyone, but I guess if I could give advice to my younger self for example, I would tell him that absolutely no one is going to magically discover him one day, that he has to put all his efforts into genuinely making his own music and putting it out there, that practising his instrument isn’t everything. I would tell him about marketing and press relations… and he would certainly brush me off! Haha
Also, do what reaches your heart, do what you feel you can wake up to, every single day of the rest of your life, and have a deep respect for the artistic material you’re using.
Again thanks a lot for having us today, please make sure you stay in touch with us! We’re always keeping this following link updated with all our latest releases and events to come: linktr.ee/ckraft.music
Music:
