Katchphraze

Kallen Saczkowski, aka Katchphraze, is an urban artist unlike most. As he puts it, "It's like we want our rapper to have been shot, or to have tear drops tattooed on their cheek." Well Katchphraze has none of those qualities to his name, but he does have a fresh brand of hip hop just itching to be heard among a sea of artists waiting to be heard. Check it out!



How did you start to be involved with music? Was it something thatyou always knew you wanted to pursue?

I've been writing music ever since I can remember. When I was really young I had a toy guitar that I used to pretend I was playing on stage singing songs that I wrote. I'd say I really got into writing hip hop songs in grade eight, and I can remember the track that really inspired me to write was "Bow Wow Wow" by Funkdoobiest.

Before I hit high school I was starting to record myself on a mini tape recorder, but not really playing it for anyone. Once I hit high school I started to let people hear the tapes that I was making. Eventually I'd have to bug someone to play the instrumentals that I'd buy because I didn't even have a turntable, so they'd hear me recording into their speakers and the feedback was positive. I played it for a really close friend who I had found out was wanting to dabble in making beats, and the first track that we did was called "Ones N' Toos" which I released as a single a few years later. That was really the start of it. When we recorded the "Ones N' Toos" single, that was the first time that i'd ever been in a studio that wasn't a mic plugged into the back of a computer. I'll never forget the look on the engineers face when we showed up with a computer, lyrics and not a clue about what to do. He told us after we finished that based on what he saw when we showed up, he did not expect the music to be as good as it was.



Your latest album 'Eye Can See Now' is full of commentary and what I would affectionately call "wordplay". What were hoping audiences would get out of this album? Are you working on anything new right now?

Because Eye Can See Now took a while for me to finally finish, it I had a lot of material, and a lot happened in that time. During the writing process I moved across the country and then came back, I found out what I wanted to do as a career and went back to school, I took breaks, had set backs and worked crappy jobs. I tried to include all of that in the album. I had a lot to get out of my system and I really felt like I did that with Eye Can See Now. I wanted to be versatile, and show all of the sides of me. I have two projects on the go right now, one is with a producer by the name of Sy Wyld, who also happens to be the guy that produced "One's n' Toos". This is something that's I'm really excited about because we haven't worked together musically for a while and it's a real natural, like we never left vibe in the music. My other project is with a producer named Seaton. It's more musical; he plays all of the instruments live and it's a direction that I've wanted to go for a long time.



Where does most of your songwriting inspiration come from?

I'm inspired a lot by other people, and my own emotions. Usually I write when i'm overwhelmed with a feeling or emotion but it tends to not be right away. It tends to happen once I've had sometime to think about things. At first it's like there is too much going on and I can't make sense of it so I'll try to write but usually it's all over the map. It's when I see down and I'm not really trying to write anything, that my best work happens.

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Shannon Venasse

While she didn't start playing music the minute she was born, Shannon Venasse's ultra-smooth vocals, mature lyricism, and compelling song writing skills have turned her into a worthwhile ambassador of Eastern Canada's music scene. Check out what she had to say to theMOVEMENTZ.



How did you first get involved with music? Did you always know that you were going to pursue it as a career?

I got involved with music when I was in my early 20's. A good friend of mine at the time was dating a person who played the acoustic guitar and I always loved watching and listening to him play. I always thought that I wasn't musically inclined because in high school I was terrible in music class probably due to the fact that I was so shy. Another friend of mine started learning to play and I wanted to jam with everyone. So one day I drove to a guitar store in Toronto and bought my first guitar, a Yamaha acoustic and gig bag. It was a struggle at first for me to learn but I kept at it and got a guitar teacher. Before I knew it I was able to sing along with my guitar and it just progressed from there. I had no idea I was going to pursue music. When I was younger I wanted to become a police officer.



If you had to explain your sound to someone who has never heard it, what would you say?

This is always a hard question for me because I'm influenced by so many different types of music. I generally say it's pop/folk/rock. I notice that when people see a person especially a woman playing the acoustic guitar and singing they automatically call it folk music. But for me each song is so unique to itself and some are more pop/rock sounding, some more folk and some even have a new country sound to them. I would even put myself into the singer/songwriter category. My music is very acoustic guitar driven that's one thing I'm sure of.



Your debut album 'The Lion's Share' was released in 2007. What types of themes/ideas come across in the album?

I was never intending on recording a whole album but I just had so much to say at the time. I was going through a really hard time in my life back then. My mother was dying from leukemia and my partner of 5 years was leaving me for someone else. It was incredibly hard for me to do anything except write songs and be able to sing them. Most of my friends at the time didn't know what to do to help me so they just distanced themselves. I guess the songs were my way of getting them to listen and it was also stress relief for me at the time. If there had to be a theme it would be that life may try to drag you down but you can't allow it to.

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