Kristoff Krane on Music and Arts Education
How did you get into making music, and how did arts education (or lack thereof) affect you and your music?
It started when I was six or seven. I would beat on pots and pans in the kitchen and drive my mother crazy. I found that I had a sense for rhythm. I joined the Boys Metropolitan Choir at the age of eleven and sang my heart out until I thought I was too cool to do so. At the age of thirteen I started listening to the Dangerous Minds soundtrack (most specifically Coolio’s “Gangstas Paradise). As time went on I combined the singing, rhythm and rap and began to freestyle with my friends at the park, parties, etc.
After exhausting this outlet I found that I had a niche for writing. I found writing to provide me with a sense of security and used it as a form of release as far as expressing my self which, at the time, was wrapped inside a confused adolescent core. At the age of nineteen I began listening to underground hip-hop (most specifically Eyedea, Oliver Hart, Atmosphere and Heiruspecs). I found that there was rap out there that was attempting to communicate a message and that was what I had always wanted to do….INfluence people in some way.
At the age of nineteen going on twenty I was put in a situation where I broke the law and wound up in a county Jail for four and a half months. It was an experience that really forced me to look inside of who I thought I was, dissect this image and attempt to explain the journey that I was on; it just so happened to rhyme.
It was then when I decided that I knew I would use music to impact others in a “positive way” ( in a way that would remind others that they are not alone with the pain they feel or the confusion which they may be going through). Here I am now… trying the best I can to do just that.
Well, having experience with the boys choir helped me have a better understanding of using my voice as an instrument and to treat it like one. Choir in school helped me in the same way. Basic art class in high school showed me that, “In the world of art… anything goes… anything can be used as a tool to help build one’s piece of expression.”
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