A bold and expressive project, Kinetic delves into the theme of motion as it relates to the human experience, channeling that energy through soaring leads, intricate rhythms, and immersive cinematic textures.
Renowned modern metal guitarists KEYAN (Australia) and Connor Kaminski (UK) have joined forces on Kinetic, their progressive metal three-track collaborative EP releasing everywhere today, featuring the incredible Adam ‘Nolly’ Getgood of Periphery and virtuoso Jack Gardiner.
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The EP highlights the powerful synergy between KEYAN and Connor’s distinct styles, resulting in a dynamic and layered listening experience. In this track-by-track breakdown, the duo offers a behind-the-scenes look at their creative process, sharing insights into how each song came together and how they bridged continents and time zones to bring ‘Kinetic’ to life.
Intro
Keyan: I got in touch with Connor all the way back in 2022 about this EP. We felt as though it was a perfect time for both of us to join forces and write music that was not only true to us, but also served both our supporters and like-minded listeners throughout our musical endeavours over the years. The theme of kinetic energy and how that relates to motion in the human experience is something we both felt strongly about. The track names and the tonal nature of the songs that house them were written to be representative of that.
Connor: Like Keyan says above, it was his idea for the collab EP and it was such perfect timing. I’ve never written a ‘collab’ EP before, so this being the first makes me very proud. It’s a body of work that I love and I cannot wait for everyone to hear it.
Swell
Keyan: Out of the three songs on the record, Swell is ‘my’ track in the sense that it was my take on the theme. The title ‘Swell’ was always in my head when writing the initial riff years ago, which I’m pretty sure is the last riff of the song. The idea of things swelling up and down, and the song having an enticing amount of ebb and flow is something that I try to incorporate in all of my music. The pitch/whammy flutters and orchestral swells within the song are somewhat of an on-the-nose homage to the title itself.
The creation process was not much different from my usual process which is locking myself in my studio and extrapolating one riff out a bunch of times until I find a song structure that feels natural. Writing this song in particular made me realise that I am very much a “if it feels right, it feels right” guy, which is weird for me to say as someone who considers themselves very quantitative and objective. Music seems to be a little different for me lately, and I’m excited to explore that even further in future releases.
Oscillate
Connor: Oscillate was one of those songs that just sort of “fell” out of me. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it really doesn’t. I believe Periphery had a similar experience with “Luck As A Constant”, where the riffs and sections just sort of wrote themselves.
I wanted a 95bpm groovy vibe, and I remember I had just received my prototype .strandberg*, and it was the first few notes on it. Combined with me just trying out the X update on Neural’s Archetype: Rabea, I found the vintage fuzz and octave pedals were doing something magical. I wrote that first riff in the intro right there on the spot with a fuzzed out tone. I think it’s a very good example of when the tone influences your playing! The riff is simple but groovy, as when you start doing intricate lines with that vintage fuzz, it sort of falls apart, but it sounds like a brick wall on single notes!
From there, I added an intro with UAs Rhodes 88 plugin, which I spent about 30 minutes at the keyboard figuring out what I wanted to do. What resulted was the intro you hear on the track now! Me being me, I always like to keep motifs as a throughline, so the rhodes returns in the 1st and 2nd verse, as well as the break! Once I had the chorus, I looked up at Logic and realised I had the backbone for a 7 minute track! Sometimes it really just happens like that!
Pirouette
Keyan: Pirouette is the marriage between Connor and I’s styles. Despite sharing the same space as progressive metal guitarists, there are differences within our approaches that we tried our best to exemplify within Pirouette. Whether it was the whammy driven drop-tuned and drop tuned riffs from me, or the proggy 7/4 verse with weird mode choices for the melody from Connor, we wanted to provide glimpses from both of our singles tracks, only to then smash them together. Bringing in Nolly and Jack was something that was discussed very early on between Connor and I, and we made sure to write sections that would allow them to flourish. As someone who is very influenced by both of them, I guess my underlying intention was to have their features and existence on this record as a full circle moment not just for me, but for anyone who has listened to my music or watched my content over the years. Their inclusion and willingness to be involved within Connor and I’s project was directly influenced by them.
The beauty of Connor and I being on other sides of the world meant that when one of us was going to bed, the other was just starting their day and seeing what the other person accomplished while they were asleep. Between all the google drive links, random scratch takes and 523 project files, Connor and I found a rhythm that just worked!
Connor: Even though the EP is 20+ minutes long, Pirouette takes up more than 50% of the overall run time! We wanted this entire song to feel like “prog Avengers” of some sort! Adam and Jack inspire me a lot, and they were both clear choices to have featured on the track. The very first second of the intro, you can TELL it’s Jack playing, and that’s what I love about his guitar playing. And Adam needs no intro, the guy is a legend. Having his guitar playing on a track of ours is still insane to me.
I also spent a lot of time adding orchestra to the entire EP, but a lot of that time was spent on Pirouette. I really wanted to add a lot of texture and depth to the mix, without it being overly obvious that you’re hearing violins and brass etc. I wanted to double up the layers and sound design we already had, which was a fun challenge. If you listen out for the orchestra, you’ll notice it throughout the EP!
Kinetic is out now, you can catch the EP on tour throughout June. Keep up with KEYAN here or follow Connor Kaminski here.
