Exclusive Road to Gem & Jam Guest Mix: Kaptain

There is a palpable feeling of excitement in the air as Gem & Jam Music Festival approaches at what seems to be the speed of light. There is now only one week away until many will be venturing out to the Pima County Fairgrounds in Tucson, AZ to celebrate the 15th anniversary of one of the most iconic and memorable festivals in the Southwest. Featuring a lineup of extremely talented artists ranging from LSDream to Ravenscoon to Huxley Anne, there is something for everyone to enjoy throughout the course of the weekend. Whether you are going for one or all of them, there will definitely be no shortage of incredible music throughout the course of the weekend. We have the pleasure of bringing you our third and final mix in our Road to Gem & Jam Guest Mix Series. With a huge array of funky tracks to fill the day, this mix features tons of original tunes from Kaptain as well as some other heavy hitters from artists such as Daily Bread. This mix and the rest of the series perfectly encapsulate the joy, great music and emasculate atmosphere that Gem & Jam Music Festival has to offer each and every one of its attendees. If you haven’t checked out the other exclusive mixes in our series brought to you from Zen Selekta and Dredlok, make sure to go give them a listen for some absolute heaters! We can’t wait to see everyone next week at Gem & Jam Music Festival.

Diving Deep w/ Kaptain

1. What are you most excited about playing at Gem & Jam Festival?

Gem & Jam has been on my radar for a few years now. I think for most up and coming artists it’s exciting to be on big lineups at established festivals with bigger production and audiences. It’s definitely something I’ve been working towards for a while. This will be my first show in Arizona— it’s always fun to branch out and see what the music scene is like in a new place. Also, I have a ton of friends on the lineup so I’m just excited to connect and party with some good people and awesome artists.

2. What goes into preparing for bigger sets at these types of events?

Generally, my process for putting together a set is more or less the same whether I’m playing in front of a large audience at a festival or playing at a 100 capacity club. That being said, I think my mentality going into a festival is a bit different than playing in Denver (where I live). Typically at a festival, a big chunk of the people in the audience have never seen or even heard of Kaptain. Because of that I tend to give them what I think is the best representation of an energetic, fun Kaptain set. If I’m playing, let’s say at Cervantes’ in Denver, the audience is more established and I’m willing to experiment and get a little bit weirder.

3. What can attendees expect from your set at Gem & Jam Festival?

 Funky, soulful, bass-y, live electronic music. I think “live” means a lot of different things in the electronic music world. For me, it primarily is referring to the fact that I’m playing live synthesizer/keys the entire set. I use Ableton Live and “stem” my songs into different parts so that I can, for instance, manipulate the vocal of one track while I’m playing another track. It also allows me to make transitions that go beyond the constraints of the original recordings. And then on top of that, I play a lot of live edits/versions of tracks that I’m never going to release.

4. What’s next for your project? What plans do you have in the near future that you hope to accomplish as Kaptain?

As far as music, I’m currently in the mode of releasing singles and collabs and plan on continuing that for the short term. However, I’d love to make the time to work on an album eventually— I think even in today’s music landscape an album is still the ultimate musical artistic expression. 

As far as shows go, this year is going to be a big development year for me. I’m going on some runs of shows as direct support for bigger artists, and want to build my audience in the small to mid-sized festival circuit.

But in general, as long as I’m writing, performing, and making new friends through music, I’m happy.