Hailing from Connecticut, Kalimur are a promising band full of fresh talent and bursting at the seams, ready to ensure that they're heard in a clogged up industry where only few walk out of the other end unscathed.
Speaking to Brett Steinberg from the group, Female First asked all about the future for Kalimur, how they're hoping they can be successful with the release of their debut album and much more. Find out what he had to say below.
First up, just how would you describe Kalimur as a band for those who haven't yet heard your music?
Kalimur is a band of passionate friends who love making music together and love performing it for anyone and everyone. We write alternative indie rock music straight from the soul and genuinely want to connect and resonate with our listeners. The word Kalimur itself is made up and so it's inherently different and original. As a band we try to create music and interact with our fans with the same mentality of being/doing something unique for people.
Has music always been a passion of yours? When did you decide this was the career path you were going to go down?
For a while I, Brett, was hugely into sports as a kid. I hardly sung, but then my mom started prompting me to sing Billy Joel and Michael Buble songs with her on the piano as I started growing up. I ultimately started learning the piano and guitar in middle school and ran with it ever since. I realized I wanted to seriously pursue music around sophomore year of high school when I started recording music on my own. I've been pursuing it seriously for 6-7 years now. Tyler, the bassist, has always loved to perform. He acted in high school and has written music ever since then as well. Alex, the guitarist, has an uncle who lives in Nashville and has really inspired him as a musician. He picked up guitar around the same time I started learning instruments and locked himself into his room practicing for hours on end every day growing up.
How did you all meet and form the band?
Tyler and I met on the first day of college - we were neighbors in our dorm. We became best friends and he played some shows with me for my solo project for a while. Over last summer, Tyler and I were visiting a mutual friend in upstate Connecticut for her graduation party when we met Alex. We small talked for a bit and loosely kept in touch for a couple months. One day, Alex saw Tyler and I performing at an open mic at our university and reached out to us asking to jam. It was perfect timing because this was right around the time Tyler and I were looking to form a band together. We played with Alex and the chemistry was there!
Tell us a little about the creative process behind debut album 'Ghosts We Used To Know'.
The making of this album was unconventional to say the least. Tyler and I decided to really pursue this band seriously right before we had finals at university. We had started writing music together for a couple months now and continued writing songs during finals week. In between studying we would sit down and just write another song. It was a sense of escape for us to be able to get into a creative atmosphere in between opening textbooks. After finals ended, Tyler, Alex and I decided to record an entire record over winter break (a 6 week break from school). We set up shop in my home studio and recorded on my laptop from early morning to late evening basically every day. The funny thing was for most of it we were stuck in the corner of my room, which is pretty small to begin with, because the power of the front wall of my room went out right around when we started recording. It was such a bonding and growing experience for us as the band. We made our own deadlines and stuck to it when it came to what we wanted to get done. We didn't rush the process, but simply put in as much time in each day as needed to come out with a record we were proud of by the end of break. The album is therapy for us - both because we were able to immerse ourselves in a creative environment and also because we got to express pent up feelings we had towards our future and the relationships of our past.
How important is it for you to maintain creative control over the work you produce?
Extremely important. We are at the core of it creatives. We take great pride in the fact that our work under the name Kalimur is our own and it comes straight from the heart. If there's anything we strive to be, it's genuine and original.
Where do you draw influence and inspiration from for your work?
Musically, I (Brett) am into Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, The Script and tons of other groups. Tyler is into Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace and Imagine Dragons and Alex is into Hey Rosetta! and the Who. In terms of themes, the biggest one for me at least is the idea of our future and where we are heading personally and as a society. I also find relationships in any capacity to be hugely inspirational when it comes to songwriting.
If you could work with anybody going forward on new material, who would you choose and why?
Chris Martin from Coldplay or John Mayer because they both have inspired me to be a songwriter and take great pride in that. Their ingenuity in their respective genres whether it be lyrically, melodically, production-wise has been a continual inspiration and it would be fascinating to not only see the inner workings of such craftsmanship, but to be a part of it.
The music video for your track 'Shadows' is out now - what was the experience like of filming that piece?
It was just a lot of fun. Tyler and I road-tripped to Boston for a day and basically documented it. We looked around the city through the perspective of "what would look cool" and "how would this shot look?" Boston is a fantastic city and getting to be creative in such an environment with your best friend is just the best.
What challenges have you faced in carving out a name for yourselves so far? Would you say this is a tough industry to succeed in?
There are a ton of small challenges and road blocks every week. You have to face each challenge head on and maintain perspective of the bigger picture, the bigger dream. We are all full-time students, so finding time to dedicate to the band is not convenient, but are still working full-time on it, playing shows every week and promoting our music every day. This industry is extremely hard to make a mark on, but I believe persistence when it comes to promoting your music at shows and online as well as dedication towards creating the best music and records is hugely important when it comes to getting your name out there. Everyone who has made it has struggled at one point or another. It's about the daily grind within the grander vision of the project. Both are important to maintain.
Finally, what should we expect from you in the coming weeks and months?
We are coming out with our album, "Ghosts We Used to Know" via iTunes on April 21st. You can pre-order it now (itunes.apple.com/album/id973564679). We are playing a ton of shows around Connecticut and NYC to promote the record and will be playing new material at all of them. We can't wait to meet fans and make new ones on the road! Besides that, we're always writing new songs.
Kalimur's debut album 'Ghosts We Used To Know' is released April 21.