Gleb Kanasevich
Meet Gleb Kanasevich
Thank you, dear Gleb, for giving me the most perfect electro-acoustic brass drone project I never knew I needed this in my life.
Their latest release ‘If you want to be reborn, let yourself die’ has an absolutely massive presence. It is an album meant to be played loud as heck from that giant amp that Marty McFly uses at the beginning of the first Back To The Future.
Don’t waste any more time with me here get down there and read what they had to say.
A self-portrait by, Gleb Kanasevich
Would You Rather
Would you rather…
only be able to buy things with coins or by trading random objects? Please explain.
Definitely trading in random objects (found objects). I don't really believe in private property (I really believe in privacy, but definitely not in private property), so the idea of accumulating possessions/money makes me pretty anxious. I think pretty much every truly important object in my life right ended up with me circumstantially - either as a gift or just me simply finding it.
Some questions with Gleb Kanasevich
If you could create your own Ben and Jerry’s flavor, what would it be?
Either Jackfruit or Guava.
Who are your favorite musicians active in NYC right now?
Dreamcrusher, hands down. They're the best performer around right now, not just in NYC, but I think for me all around. John McCowen is a fellow clarinetist and has an incredible take on the instrument, for sure - just played an unbelievable set at Issue Project Room. I also really love Show Me The Body, Conduit, TRNSGNDR/VHS, The Austerity Program and a couple DJs - recently really dug sets by Syanide (a really cool take on noise and electronic) and Riobamba.
Have there been any recent innovations in music that you admire?
Innovations.... hmm not sure. I'm really not a gearhead, and aside from gear I don't think innovation really exists.
What has been your favorite performance to date?
My own? Probably playing a danger music show in a 10X10 office room at like 2 AM somewhere out in West Virginia a few years back. Also, playing a noise set last year at H0l0 during the halftime show and the 3rd quarter of the Superbowl, haha.
If another artist... I can name 5 :
Daughters set ca. 2006 at First Unitarian Church in Philly (a mixture of Canada Songs and Hell Songs)
Lingua Ignota at St. Vitus on tour with The Body and BIG | BRAVE in 2018
BIG | BRAVE opening for Sunn O))) at Knockdown Center in 2017, I believe
Dreamcrusher opening for This is Not This Heat in 2019
Orthrelm playing OV in its entirety, I think in 2006? Baltimore, MD opening for The Locust(?)
What are your thoughts on streaming platforms? Have they helped or hindered the industry?
They definitely made the mere idea of "art" interesting to navigate. Somehow, listening to anything on a streaming platform for me feels like a total stripping of any tangibility, even like the radio (you at least have to fiddle with it and stuff and commit to listening to it until something good comes on). Although streaming platforms probably made it generally harder for artists to actually make a living by making music, they really allow for so much oversaturation, that music has to be truly special in order for it to stand out. I definitely don't "like" any music anymore. I either absolutely love it or it just goes in the garbage bin at this point.
What kind of spaces do you want to take people with your music?
I like my music to slowly take up space and gradually become physically present. I think I'm starting to be able to achieve this place where I start from simply being present and then keep pushing the volume and gradually filling in the frequencies that make the whole texture feel louder, but it's simply filling out the frequency range. Once I feel like we've arrived at this collective physical presence in the sound, I love to just hang out and explore. I feel like the space I want to take people is both, introspective and social. I want there to be minimal physical self-consciousness, especially between strangers. So many people feel weird in concert spaces, and I aim to either try to take their minds off of it or just somehow make my set an unspoken ice-breaker (totally utopian, I know, but doesn't hurt to keep trying, haha).
How is the world going to end?
Suddenly, haha. I think actually the world won't end, it's just that we will die super suddenly and, in true human fashion, for a completely stupid reason.
Where do you normally go after a show, to a party or home to sleep?
Neither, I take a long-ass walk and think about what I just heard/saw or just stuff in general, often over one of the bridges from Brooklyn into Manhattan, and then I take the subway home :)
Have you noticed any effects NYC has on a developing artist?
The scene is much more cutthroat than anywhere I've ever seen, so I feel like the amount of schmoozing that developing artist is willing to do is greater than in many other places. It's also hard to break out of the really insular local scene and get people to travel even 30 minutes to come to see something, but that's just the nature of the city. I
Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)
Be weird. Go out to late-night shows! In the middle of the week! All the way across town. Go straight to work after that (or not). Buy your friends' work if your friends make artsy things.