Conversations and Afterthoughts on Sunsetting the Craftal Project
With nearly a decade of considerable effort under his belt, the multifaceted producer Ian Mckenna recently announced the retirement of his storied Craftal moniker. Much to the surprise of his longtime fans and collaborators, McKenna recently publicized the resounding decision to seek out new musical horizons. Consequently, The Rust felt it as necessary as it is enticing to sit down with Mckenna for an exclusive one-on-one discussion about the future of his music and what his Craftal project was really all about.
Authored by Alyssa Barnhill
With nearly a decade of considerable effort under his belt, the multifaceted producer Ian Mckenna recently announced the retirement of his storied Craftal moniker. As a musical entity, he’s an embedded Denver staple, and widely respected across a sea of contemporary acts and producers. Much to the surprise of his longtime fans and collaborators, McKenna recently publicized the resounding decision to seek out new musical horizons, and announced the closing chapter of the Craftal project.
Craftal’s range stretches across a slew of tempos and rhythms under the permeable glitch music umbrella, and has maintained and massaged a particular appeal towards the audiophile scene. With the project at the height of its impact, a clear call to another slice of the musical pie has pushed McKenna to sunset the Craftal experiment indefinitely. To fans, Ian’s last release was suspiciously sweet, aptly named This Was All A Test. One can’t help but speculate if he had been mulling over the decision to change projects for a while. Was it all a test? And if so, for what? The framing raises a few poignant questions.
The grand farewell for Craftal is set for December 15th at The Black Box night club here in Denver. The highly anticipated show will feature other psychedelic favorites such as Base2, Sylph, and Wij. Accompanying a “most righteous” sonic lineup, the event will also feature a full A/V presentation through every performance, provided by the artistic anarcho-collectivist project neuro.studio, in order to amplify the immersive visual experience. In a statement provided to us by its members, neuro.studio stated that “2022 is our first year involving ourselves in this space as a collective since the launch of neuro.studio. We are incredibly proud of what our team has accomplished so far in such a short amount of time, and will be continuing to aim for setting the bar higher with each iteration of our involvement in the music scene. As for Craftal's last show at the Black Box on 12.15, we are simply ecstatic to be involved in celebrating Ian's last set as Craftal & will have a unique VJ pairing for each musical act.”
Consequently, The Rust publication team felt it as necessary as it is enticing to sit down with Ian Mckenna for an exclusive one on one discussion about the future of his music and what his Craftal project really was all about.
Alyssa: What did the Craftal project mean to you?
Ian: To me, I mean, I made up the name and the whole project when I was 20. When I learned how to make digital music and was really getting into everything. I was falling in love with psychedelic bass music culture and the art scene and everything. Now, I am just kind of finding myself falling out of love with it.
Alyssa: Any particular reason?
Ian: I am trying not to be jaded, but I am definitely falling out of love. It also represents my 20’s in a weird way. I am going to be 30 in April. Not looking forward to it.
Alyssa: So are you looking to find something more fitting of this time in your life?
Ian: Yeah, that and honestly I am just feeling like the bass music scene, at least from where I am sitting, is kind of like an overripe peach. I am just not having as much fun going to shows and honestly I don't fully understand the drug choices of everybody. People doing drugs isn't ruining my time, it's just one part of why I am just not as inspired by the scene anymore.
Alyssa: I understand that. The music has always been a huge draw for me.
Ian: I really love the inherently abstract and fundamental nature of dance music. And what I mean is music without words in general, because music transcends language. Abstract expressions can be very beautiful. You don't want to preach to people, you don't want to commit to saying something that is outdated, but you want to reach people.
Alyssa: Completely, where do you find yourself leaning now?
Ian: I find myself more interested and inspired by artists that are trying to say something. Trying to say things. Risking being preachy, and risking saying the wrong thing. And I don't know, I am finding that more interesting. I am still going to keep doing weird sounds, sound design, and electronic music because I love it… I just want to try doing something different in my 30s.
Alyssa: What is the name of the newest project? What are you going for?
Ian: I have been trying to brainstorm for a couple of months now, and nothing is really sticking. A friend of mine told me that marketing is an art. The more you are overthinking it, the farther you are getting away from the relatability of your thing. I will probably end up using my real name, honestly. I don’t know yet, it’s all kinda meh. I don't mind sticking with my real name, that's fine.
Alyssa: So, I asked you about “This is all a test”, the last time we spoke for The Rust. Does that feel like a thread of truth from before? You used it as the title of the latest compilation you just put out.
Ian: I thought that it was kind of a funny coincidence that I named that song that, what, two years ago now?
Alyssa: Yeah something like that.
Ian: Yeah, I thought that was a funny way to tie it all up in a bow.
Alyssa: I thought so too. Would you say making music as Craftal was like an incubation phase for you?
Ian: I sure hope so. Yeah, I hope that everything I make is the incubation for the next thing.
Alyssa: Do you think similar elements of sound design will always be a theme in your music?
Ian: Probably always. I love music made with passion and heart, you know? I am hearing some really interesting stuff being made by, like, kids. You know, people born like 2000 and later, they are just like smashing everything together. It’s interesting. I would like to expand beyond the sonic palette that I have been comfortable with the past few years. But that's going to take some time. The new stuff will have me singing so that will be different.
Alyssa: That’s very exciting, I think a lot of people share that want for a little more passion, and I am excited to hear what it sounds like. When can we expect more from you?
Ian: I am a slow worker, so I don't have any dates. But definitely next year for sure. This was a good year, I played Tipper and Friends.
Alyssa: I know, I missed that one entirely. How was it?
Ian: Oh, that was amazing. That was a bucket list item. The whole team there treats all their artists better than any event that I have ever been to in the last nine years, or played at in the last nine years. Yeah, that was just an amazing time.
Alyssa: That's amazing. I am glad you are not going anywhere. I am sure I will still see you out.
Ian: Yeah, I am not going anywhere. Just looking to do something different.
Where Ian goes from here is anyone’s guess; music reflects the most exploratory and inquisitive part of ourselves. When we feel something different that has a magnetic quality, it’s extraordinarily human to answer the call of that attraction. Ian’s adventurous ideas, conversations in creativity, and motifs within his music remind us that creativity and expression live and grow with us daily. It’s the kind of perspective that transcends scenes and subcultures, even if it often incubates within them. Regardless of what sonic landscape Ian’s journey takes him on, or where it takes him for that matter, we’ll be in lock-step right behind him for the curious resolution to this next transition.
GRAB TICKETS for the final Craftal performance on 12.15 HERE
FOLLOW Craftal: Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Spotify
Craftal Marries Flavor and Simplicity on “Smack Dab” EP
For Craftal’s music, the details are the big picture, and that dynamic is the bedrock of Smack Dab. He flexes flavor and simplicity through powerful songwriting and jovial modes, showcasing a fresh take on his unique blend of glitch music.
Today’s bass music landscape has a bit of an infatuation with all things dark, serious, and sometimes foreboding. It’s the kind of emotional tension that can breathe life into such a digital, precision-based genre. Shirking off the sometimes formal stiffness of his contemporaries, the Colorado-based producer Craftal eschews dark and mysterious in favor of pure flavor on the Smack Dab EP.
Part of the allure of Craftal’s music is the almost flippant nature of his productions. Slapstick, left-field rhythms, textures, and samples have been a mainstay in his tunes for years, but the contents of Smack Dab mingle his music’s unique attitude with powerful songwriting and jovial modes. “Smack Dab” hits home with a funked-out meandering bass line, channeling straight groove and bereft of any flashy trappings. It’s refreshingly austere, showcasing a stark contrast between Craftal and many of his peers. Contemporaneous producers often get caught in the details between the details, and the end result can be a washy mess of textures and compression. For Craftal’s music, the details are the big picture, such as with “Apprehecension”. Instead of hiding the glitches and warped shards of audio behind a slew of layers, they’re on full display. The powerful undercurrent of the track carries straight through every texture and stab of synthesis, and that dynamic is the bedrock of Smack Dab.
Craftal has developed a collection of pocketed tunes across the course of his career. He’s had releases hosted at Aquatic Collective and here at The Rust Music, showcasing glitchy, high fidelity production melded with fluid songwriting and arrangements. His cautious approach to the music he unveils has paid off yet again with an honest, virile array of compositions. If you’re in the market for fresh arrangements and tactile sound design, you’re sure to find what you’re looking for inside Smack Dab.
FOLLOW Craftal: Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Spotify / Facebook
Craftal - Boxed In EP
A clog in the creative canal can constrict many musicians. Any artist, for that matter, must navigate boulders and board ups that would block the path to expression. In this context, the title of Craftal's latest release - Boxed In - may be misleading. Boxed In reaches out and embraces the broadest universe of patterns, textures, arrangements and sound designs to date.
A clog in the creative canal can constrict many musicians. Any artist, for that matter, must navigate boulders and board ups that would block the path to expression. In this context, the title of Craftal's latest release - Boxed In - may be misleading. Boxed In reaches out and embraces the broadest universe of patterns, textures, arrangements and sound designs to date. Anything but restricted, Craftal’s creativity darts out in dozens of directions across four glitch hop and halftime tracks.
This comes courtesy of Aquatic Collective - it being their lucky 13th release. This group of artists, originally inspired by the fact of the ocean is 95% unexplored, probes more terrestrial territory with Craftal. His music is grainy, in your face, and less, well, aqueous than their usual offering. The spirit of artistic exploration between two matches up one-to-one, though.
Precise, mechanized sound design is Craftal’s forte, and he flexes it over kinetic hip-hop and halftime beats. He first began sharing tunes four years ago, releasing a stream of singles, one EP, and a mix for Wormcast since. A series of exciting sounds appeared on “Coming Down the Hatch”, a quick spin of works-in-progress released almost one year ago. Surprisingly only one of those WIPs made the cut for Boxed In. This almost certainly signals that someone is sitting on a stash of unreleased songs. But what about the tunes that were released?
“Oscillopathic” and “Best Intentions” stand out, while “Alpha Bitsy” and the title track lay, not for lack of luster, in the cut. Our modus operandi is to always offer something diverse in sound design, but the sheer amount of differentiation in Craftal’s music sets it apart. One-off spectacular sounds that amaze then appear never again are common across the EP. The word and song “Alpha Bitsy” is applicable here, as Craftal’s grooves generally grow by stringing together many small bits and pieces of extraterrestrial sound.
“Boxed In” and “Oscillopathic” tread heavily through the low end as these bits traipse in the higher registers. The swamp pervading “Oscillopathic” is particularly moist and filthy. A high point arrives fifty-five seconds in when a scaly synthesizer syncopates for just a moment with the halftime drums and unlocks a mighty sway. But it's too brief. Maintaining this movement throughout the track could have made for a more addictive listen, but it’s a mighty and mind-blowing moment nonetheless.
Craftal, who hails from Boulder, Colorado, has ability on the oscillators that's difficult to deny. However, he’s only begun being booked to perform. Solasta Festival, Stilldream Festival and stops at Denver's Cervantes Other Side and Black Box form the bulk of his gigging resume. Intuition suggests this resume may grow in 2018 to the benefit of crowds everywhere that seek the squelch. In addition to a potentially unreleased trove, Craftal now has four more heaters from Boxed In to let rip when he does begin taking the stage more frequently. Stay chooned for that.
FOLLOW Craftal: Soundcloud / Facebook / Instagram
FOLLOW Aquatic Collective: Bandcamp / Soundcloud / Facebook
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