Track By Track: Kalani – Rain Man

It’s accomplished work for what is an impressive debut.

We invited Kalani to talk us through the record, reflecting on what it means and why.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to speak about something that took up such a huge amount of my life. It’s not something I do often and it’s a pleasure to be able to share some knowledge and anecdotes for the music. I hope this provides some interesting insight into my creative process!

Safe Passage:

I wasn’t planning on making an album when I wrote this one. I’d been trying too hard to make club music for a few weeks and nothing was working so I sat down and decided to try and make something completely different. I was a bit stressed out at the time, so I wanted to create something gentle and soothing to let your mind wander to – the title seemed fitting for this reason!

Four tunes later, it became apparent that this would be a great opener for something. I sent it with a few other demos to the label and to my surprise, they listened that evening and suggested turning it into an LP, kicking off the start of a very long project that took many hours of work and late nights to complete.

Lumin:

This track was one where I wasn’t thinking too much about what I was doing or trying too hard to make anything specific. In fact, the whole album (nearly) was an attempt to not overcomplicate things and instead try and focus on simplicity.

I’d been listening to a lot of Aphex Twin at the time, and the whole track basically appeared after one relaxed session sat at my desk in my bedroom. 808 drums, a chopped breakbeat sample, soft pads, a 303 emulator (no hardware was used at all in the making of this album) and some background ambience shrouded in heavy reverb came together very quickly in a straightforward arrangement.

Sleep:

Sleep wasn’t originally meant to be in the album. It was an old demo from a couple of years ago and I debated if I should include it in the demos playlist I sent to Max and Mitch as I wasn’t sure on it yet. I’m very glad I did in the end because they really enjoyed it and it’s probably now my favourite track of the LP – I think the writing is the strongest in this one.

It’s another very simple one: some layered pads based around one minor chord, a breakbeat sample, flanged 909 hats, a granulated trumpet melody and a warm bassline in a linear arrangement.

I first tested it out during the opening set of one of our club nights at the Eagle Inn a long time ago now (shoutout LIGHTSPEED) and realised no further tweaks were needed.

What Do You Mean?:

This track came from one of my favourite methods of production.

The method is essentially: start with a loop. Finish the track. Realise it’s not there yet. Use the same elements again to make a completely new track. Rinse and repeat until you’ve got something very detailed that you’re happy with.

This means all the hard work has gone on over an extended period, so it doesn’t feel like a sprint to get it finished. The sound design essentially takes care of itself, and you don’t feel like you’ve wasted time afterwards because everything you’ve built gets used.

The arrangement came from one late night sat in bed on my laptop. Sometimes it’s nice to just zone out and make something, especially when it results in something you think is worth releasing! Despite being quite an intricate track, I think the elements work together cohesively which I’m really pleased with.

The pads were made using rapid arpeggiators on a synthesizer with a very high release time, with the filter cutoff set at a very low frequency to give it that submerged feel. Then I added loads of modulation and automated literally everything a huge amount throughout the track.

Changing the time setting on a tape delay can create an interesting warbling texture that I applied to the tail of the breath sample, and the pitched down pluck is from a synth with the pitch automated using a saw down LFO on a timer of 4 bars.

Bonus point to whoever works out where a small section of the plucky melody comes from (hint: it’s also an underwater themed breakbeat track).

Solar Swimming:

This one came from the best place possible to make tunes: sat on the train.

I have no idea why, but something cool always comes out when you sit down on a train and try to create something. My theory is that you don’t think too hard about what you’re doing, and you simplify things because the background noise makes it hard to hear the fine details of what you’re making. This results in you having a more solid core before you add the more intricate elements.

I kept a nice warm crunch on the drums which I tried to keep consistent across the whole album to give everything a cohesive softer finish instead of something super high definition and digital sounding – not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just what I wanted to go for with this record to give it some character and texture.

The high-pitched noise was made by mapping an LFO on Logic’s inbuilt sampler to the filter cutoff and setting the resonance at max, and the rest of the track is built around automated soft synths sent to lots of high feedback tape delays, narrow but large reverbs and a dubby bassline.

Rain Man:

The title track for the album. It came from another late-night session sat in bed on my laptop with the goal to create something you could play in the early hours of a big dark room to set an atmosphere. It was very different to anything I’d made before it at the time, so it really caught my imagination.

This one is a solid DJ tool that goes well with techno and more leftfield genres. It’s fun to switch up the vibe with and give people a breather before diving back into something a bit heavier. I used it for exactly that purpose in my most recent guest mix which should be out soon, if not already!

The mixdown was hard to crack and took a long time to get right. Getting the balance between the murky lower-mids without making it sound too thin whilst maintaining its punch was tricky.

The switch between four-to-the-floor and breakbeat kick patterns drives the track forwards and there is a frequency modulator on the entire synth bus which helps glue everything together.

Moon Dance:

This track was one of my favourites to produce. It’s actually a re-hash of the elements of the penultimate track Holographs.

It’s another track meant for taking the listener into something deeper and more hypnotic, using lots of synth automation, modulation, tape-delays and foley to bring the atmosphere together in a cohesive way. The drums roll on continuously and the synths were meant to sound like they’re drifting in between each other. I did this by drenching them heavily in reverb, delay and subtle modulation.

It’s a good tool for giving people a breather before diving back into something more energetic. I feel like this one would work at a festival stage in a cool setting with crazy visuals!

Selectors:

Another one for the club, Selectors took the longest to finish. It went through many variations before I could finally crack the mixdown, arrangement and have a core that I was fully satisfied with. The lead resonant synth was the starting point, with the pads, melodies and rolling bassline coming in afterwards.

I have no idea what it sounds like to new ears because I spent a stupidly long amount of time fine-tuning it. That’s always a strange part of producing, and probably why all my favourite tracks from myself are the simplest ones – because they take a lot less time to complete so you haven’t over-listened to them by the time they’re finished.

This was the last tune to be completed in the album. I was actively trying to create tunes that fit in with the rest of them at this point which was tricky and sometimes leads to frustration because creativity can’t be forced. It was a good lesson to take a step back sometimes and just relax – you can always come back to things in the future when you’ve learnt the right skills to finish them in the way you originally intended!

The melody and chords that come in about halfway through really brought everything together and were the final pieces of the puzzle.

Holographs:

Another one of my favourites of the LP. This one was produced using a lot of granulated effects on various percussion elements, background foley, many layered pads and a deep sub bass.

I fine-tuned this one in between walks up and down the canals in Manchester I’m lucky enough to live by. It’s a lovely spot, especially in the dark with the streetlights reflecting off the water. This tune was meant to try and capture a bit of that.

It was peaceful going up and down there at night in between sessions to listen to the progress without a screen in front of me, and I hope that the music reflects that mood and can provide you with a bit of stress relief when you’re listening to it!

Rose Petals:

Finally, the ambient closer. A plucky modular synth, a choir emulator and swirling pads come together to end on a serene note.

I hope it provides you with some comfort and closes things out nicely. It felt like an appropriate end to the journey that I’m grateful to be able to share on a label that I love so much.

Buy the record HERE.