Way Cool Music - Musician Interviews

Jason Kanakis

You may not recognize the name Jason Kanakis, but chances are if you’re a fan of Cary Brothers or Joshua Radin or you spend any amount of time at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles, then you probably recognize his face. He’s the tall, blond guy off to the side, playing guitar and bass, singing harmonies, and rocking out while the lead singer steals the show. But with a larger-than-life personality, it was only a matter of time before he took center stage and came out of the shadows. As the emcee for the nationwide Hotel Café tour in 2005, Kanakis grabbed the attention of audiences and showed that it takes more than a cute front man to make a good show. Without a stellar support team, all you have is a singer with a guitar.

During SXSW, Kanakis spoke with Way Cool Music about playing with some of our favorite artists, touring in the Internet age, and getting a good haircut.

Way Cool:

Tell us a little bit about your background.

Jason Kanakis:

I was born in Chicago. My parents are of Greek descent, which is really important to everything I do. It means I went to Greek school as a kid and learned how to speak Greek. I had to go to a Greek church and be surrounded by Greek people. When My Big Fat Greek Wedding came out, it hit a little too close to home!

I’ve been playing music since I was a kid… piano, clarinet. I played the clarinet all through high school, and almost into college because I was offered scholarships to play clarinet and bass clarinet. But, I started playing guitar when I was 13 and then started playing classical guitar when I was 14 and had broken my leg. The guitar has pretty much ruled my life since then.

WC:

Have you been able to use the clarinet in any of your rock and roll life?

JK:

I have done one studio session where I actually mentioned that I played clarinet and busted it out. I occasionally pull it out just to play. If there are any dogs in the room, it has such a lovely tone, it sends them running. That’s when I knew it was time to quit. I would be practicing and my dog would come right up to me and (howl). And I was quite good. When I played the guitar, the dog would fall asleep or the cat would come in and they’d lie together. Pull out the clarinet and the dog (howls) and the cat would run away.

WC:

At what point did you realize that you were going to be a professional musician?

JK:

When I took organic chemistry in college. Even though I was a music student, I was still pre-med. I thought, even though I was studying music, that I would be a classical guitar-playing doctor. By the way, I keep talking about classical guitar, but it was really like Hendrix, Zeppelin, Ozzy, Metallica and Eddie Van Halen. I was a total metal head. But it was the classic rock before I became a metal head. I always had my rock and roll fantasies, and I always thought I’d be a guitar-playing doctor. But, then I took organic chemistry and thought, “Maybe I’ll just be a rock star who’s taken organic chemistry.” It was clearly a weed out course, and I was weeded out! I passed, but just barely.

WC:

Where did you go to school?

JK:

Northwestern University.

WC:

And is that where you met Cary (Brothers)?

JK:

Yeah, and Josh (Radin) and Zach (Braff)… the whole crew. And Rachael Yamagata. That’s where I got to know all of them. Cary and I actually had a band together in college, TPO (Ted Passing Out). It was a joyous, debaucherous band that never rehearsed. We’d play our dozen or so original tunes and then it was whatever Velvet Underground or Allman Brothers tune we knew. It was all over the place! It was a typical fraternity party-playing stupid band.

WC:

What can you tell us, very briefly, about the history of metal?

JK:

That it rules all things natural and unnatural. That it’s so evil that it transcends evilness. No, I’m going to stop. I can tell you that it’s coming back, and not in this neu metal Limp Bizkit crap way, but there’s going to be a resurgence. I mean, where’s the next Saxon? Where’s the next Maiden? At this point, it’s gotta come from the youth. There are 15- and 16-year old kids now who are listening to their parents’ metal records and thinking, “This is cool!”

WC:

Maybe their uncles, not their parents.

JK:

Right, their uncle! The burn-out uncle who still drives a Camero. They’re going to find it, and not in an ironic way. They’ll take it and embrace it. It’s coming back! Was that brief enough? It’s an intense question, and I don’t know if words can even describe it. I could do an interpretive dance, but I don’t know how you’d transcribe that.

WC:

Whom else do you play with other than Cary?

JK:

Joshua Radin, who we just mentioned and who just signed a record deal with Columbia. I play with Waz. He’s a good friend of mine who used to play in Pete Yorn’s band. He’s a great singer/songwriter. I’ve played with Aqualung. And on the Hotel Café tour, I played with everybody, so I guess you could say that I play with Butch Walker and Imogen Heap and all those folk. But not regularly, that was just for that tour. I play with a woman named Kat Parsons in L.A. I used to be in a band called Amory and we were the quintessential opening band for everyone else. We toured with a lot of big late ‘90s bands like Joan Osborne, Fastball, and Vertical Horizon. I did a lot of touring in that band before Cary’s thing got going. And, of course, I play with myself. And by that I mean home alone with my classical guitar. I also play with a very talented violinist named Melissa Reiner.

WC:

Why did Amory break up?

JK:

I think it’s just one of those things. We had been doing it for so long. Lance (Konnerth), the guitar player, went to play for Enrique Iglesias. He’s a very talented musician and things were pulling him away because he needed to get paid. So, he kinda went into session-guy land, not too dissimilar from what I did. The singer of the band, Shawn Edgar, just had a lot of solo material he wanted to do, and he’s still doing it.

WC:

Then there’s you, Dr. Kanakis.

JK:

Then there’s me, Dr. Kanakis, which is an ode to my father, who actually is a doctor. I just stuck with the ‘Doctor’ to make myself sound more important! If I ever release a solo record, which I plan to do someday, I think I’m going to title it Dr. Kanakis.

WC:

Do you have material for that record already?

JK:

I have a lot of stuff for that record. Some of it might be metal…

WC:

You mentioned playing with Aqualung. Talk a little about playing on Letterman with him.

JK:

First of all, everything you’ve heard about Letterman and the studio being ice cold is an understatement. It’s like an icebox. It’s freezing! But, it was interesting. Cary and I were doing a gig in Birmingham, Alabama. We got a call asking what we were doing in five days, which was nothing. They asked, “Do you want to come play Letterman?” That was great! So, Cary, Marco (Meneghin) and I have become their U.S. TV Aqualung band. Whenever they play a TV show, we’re there. It was a great experience. We never talked to Dave. He has bodyguards and people aren’t allowed to approach him. I think he’s had some problems with that, though. Paul Shaffer, on the other hand, couldn’t get enough of Dr. Kanakis. He was like, “Oh, you’re the talent!” I was like, “Paul, I love you, but if you touch me again, I might call security.”

WC:

Matt (Hales) couldn’t remember who the guest was that night. Do you remember?

JK:

I remember it was the Christmas toy episode…. Oh! It was Stephen Colbert, who was quite funny.

WC:

Now, on a completely unrelated note and not for the record in any way… In the picture on your MySpace page, why does Cary’s head look so big compared to the rest of his body?

JK:

Ha! That’s from the Leno show, not Letterman. And I think this should definitely be on the record. Cary is somebody who is by no means rich, but has made enough money that he could pay for a professional haircut. His hair used to be much longer and he had that whole Jesus look going on. After a series of “you look like Jesus” comments, he took cuticle scissors and cut his hair. Now he swears that people keep telling him how great it looks. I’m sure it’s some female that could tell him to get an inverse Mohawk and say that it looks great. But, that’s not what anyone tells me. He’s like Prince Valliant. He’s got amazing hair; it’s thick and dark and no receding hairline like mine. If he just layered it a bit, it would look so much better!

WC:

Was he drunk at the time?

JK:

No! He was completely sober and I watched him do it. He’s not very house broken. He’s definitely somebody who is going to have to marry someone or have a live-in maid. Right now, I’m the live-in maid! Ha ha…but that is also how I like it.

WC:

What’s your biggest rock star moment so far?

JK:

Honestly, probably being the music director for the Hotel Café tour. What that meant was that I got to play with everybody, so I was constantly on stage. I got to be the emcee, which wasn’t planned, but we wanted to keep the flow of the show continuous. Since I was stage managing and near the mic and always on stage, I just started saying some things. It was quite fun. So often I’m the side man and to suddenly go up and be the center of attention and talk was great. People would come up to me after the show and say, “Dude, you were great as the emcee. What do you do? Do you work for the venue?” And I’d say, “No! I was playing up there, too.” “You played!?!” They were so shocked! That was the whole point. They didn’t recognize me from having played all night, but they knew I was the emcee. The people who really paid attention knew, but to the casual observer, nobody cares until you start to speak into the microphone. So, I learned something there. It’s better to be the front man!!

WC:

Other than being a performer, what other aspects of music have you been or would like to be involved in?

JK:

Well, I’ve had a unique experience. I was basically living in Chicago and Cary and I released a record in college and I had the realization that I knew nothing about the record business. So, I started interning at Virgin Records for a couple of years and then ended up working for my first two years out of college for Virgin doing radio promo. I got immersed in the old school radio guys. Very few of them still exist in the music world. I did that for a couple of years and learned more than I probably ever wanted to know about the industry. Then I transitioned from that into Internet marketing. I’ve help build a couple of companies that do that and I still freelance on the side to help pay the bills.

WC:

How do you feel about the proliferation of digital recording in the industry?

JK:

To be honest, I think it’s been fantastic in that it’s forced the record business to reevaluate itself. It’s trimmed the fat of a lot of record labels where there were a lot of vestigial organs attached. It’s made them try to change their business model. I think it’s funny that you have companies whose only model was to sell a $16 product. So, you put the artist in the position when they sign with a label that if they don’t go gold on the first record, it’s a failure. That’s messed up. If you sell 20,000 records, that’s a lot of people buying your music and you should have a career. So, I think it’s been great.

Of course, the digital age has allowed artists to tour so much more effectively and get the word out. I can remember trying to send out flyers and having a mailing list and sending things out via the mail! Now, that’s simply archaic. I think it’s fantastic for independent artists. It’s a transitional time, but it’s been a good thing.

WC:

If you weren’t a musician, what do you think you’d be doing with your life?

JK:

If I didn’t have music in my life, I think I probably would have gone into medicine because I have massive amounts of respect for it. My father, though exhausted from how much he works, still loves medicine and enjoys using his mind to heal people. The other thing I could see is teaching. I teach guitar and it’s something that I do for extra cash, but I mostly do it because it keeps me engaged in the instrument. But, if I didn’t teach music, maybe I’d teach history.

WC:

Now it’s time for seven questions.

1.	What's the worst job you've ever had?
	I was a dishwasher at a rib restaurant. I used to have to clean out the baked beans and, once a week, scrub the grill for $5.00 an hour. It was unfit for any human and total third-world conditions. I had to take the industrial size vats of grease and bake them in this special oven to kill the germs. Inevitably, to pull it out, I’d just grab it and scald my hands. It was awful.

2.	What's your favorite movie quote or song lyric?
	I’m trying not to do the obvious Spinal Tap quote because that’s too cliché. Probably the quote that’s on my MySpace page, “Michael Bolton is a no talent ass clown,” from Office Space. I use it all the time.

3.	Who would you want to star in the movie of your life?
	Liam Neeson… or Yanni. I could tell you more about Yanni then you’ve ever wanted to know. Yanni is basically a failed metal rocker. He was in a band, Chameleon, which was a prog metal band. If you see a picture, there he is, a Greek guy with long hair and a mustache. It looks like he’s standing there wearing a Member’s Only jacket with a wool sweater on underneath. But, oh no! That’s not a wool sweater! That’s real Greek hairiness.

4.	What's your favorite TV theme song?
	I wanted to say the A Team theme song, but I’m actually going to scratch that and say the Barney Miller theme song.

5.	If you were a superhero, what would your name be?
	Thor Papadopoulos.

6.	What do you want to be when you grow up?
	An armchair world dominator… or an adult.

7.	Finally, why are there so many songs about rainbows?
	‘Cause they’re pretty and they lead to a pot of gold.

To find out more information about Jason Kanakis. visit his website at www.jasonkanakis.com.