Los Angeles-based acclaimed pianist and producer Kiefer Shackelford, a.k.a. Kiefer was raised in San Diego by parents, who were both aerospace engineers and keen pianists, who both influenced him in their own way: His mother […]
Tag: CARRTOONS
Live Footage: FATHERS Live at Wonderland Park
FATHERS is a collective of acclaimed artists and producers, renowned for their jazz-rooted musicianship, their production acumen and their love of the possibilities one can create in the studio. The collective features:
Kenneth Blume, a producer formerly known as Kenny Beats, who has worked on efforts by Vince Staples, Denzel Curry, Rico Nasty, IDLES, Freddie Gibbs, Geese, Weezer and a long list of others, He has also invited Doja Cat, Thundercat and Skrillex to participate in viral, streamed concepts across both Twitch and YouTube.
Kiefer Shackelford, a keyboardist and producer best known as Kiefer. Shackelford’s own work has earned acclaimed for his uniquely atmospheric blend of jazz, electronic music and hip hop. As a collaborator and producer, he has worked with Terrace Martin and Anderson .Paak. He produced two tracks on .Paak’s Grammy Award-winning 2019 album, Ventura, including the album’s lead single “King James.”
Ben “CARRTOONS” Carr, a New York-based genre-blurring multi-instrumentalist and artist, who in addition to producer-led projects like last year’s Space Cadet has gained traction through his inventive socials, multiple NPR Tiny Desk Concert appearances and production work with George Clinton, Freddie Gibbs, Jadakiss, Usher, and Roy Ayers. With FATHERS, Carr takes up bass duties.
Nate Smith a highly-respect and influential drummer, songwriter and producer, who has collaborated with an impressive and eclectic list of artists including Michael Jackson, Brittany Howard, Jon Batiste, Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, Childish Gambino, Vulpeck and a growing list of others. Earlier this year, Smith won two Grammy Awards for last year’s LIVE ACTION, a guest-packed effort that showcased his gifts as a conceptualist and as the fulcrum of an astonishing network of artists.
FATHERS core trio — Smith, Carr and Shackelford — can trace their origins back to 2023: Smith assembled the core trio as part of his residency at that year’s Montréal Jazz Festival. Tours of the States and Japan followed, where the trio further developed their chemistry as a working group. “We all write, we all play at a high level, and we’re pushing each other to be better,” says CARRTOONS. “So we know going into anything that there’s going to be an inspiration and a push from everybody else, so that hunger that we all have independently becomes this super-being when we get together.”
The outfit’s self-titled full-length debut is slated for a Friday, July 10, 2026 release through Blue Note Records. Produced by Blume, the album was recorded at his Los Angeles-based Putnam Hill Studio in an impromptu two day recording session. And as a result, the material possesses the magical spark of spontaneity and serendipity, while fittingly showcasing the talents of three talented musicians vibing and pushing each other.
“I was 95 percent through building my studio, and I asked Kiefer if he could come by with a band and play some instruments,” Blume recalls. “We custom-built our recording console and hadn’t heard anything through it yet. So it was meant to be a test day to make sure the studio was up and running. Kiefer happened to be playing shows with Ben and Nate at the time, and in testing out the equipment we recorded these songs in 48 hours. Turns out the board works just fine.”
The album includes the previously creased “PEARL,” a bit of Bossa Nova-tinged jazz pop that channels Stan Getz anchored around a bubbling groove and a gently swaying and shimmering melody.
To celebrate the album’s release, the trio recently released a half-hour long performance and interview video that features the outfit’s core compositional and performing trio performing stripped down jazzier arrangements of their debut’s material shot at Wonderland Park. The live session showcases that material is equally underpinned by bop era jazz and J. Dilla productions and is rooted in the trio’s soulful musicianship and effortless simpatico. Throughout the session, each member of the trio intuitively knows when to lead and when to follow in service of the melody and the overarching song.
The stylized video was inspired by the Bill Evans Trio’s 1972 appearance on the TV show The Jazz Set and in some way it has a surreal, yet deeply cool air.
New Video: Miranda Joan Teams Up with CARRTOONS on Soulful and Flirty “Bada Bing!”
Miranda Joan is a rising, Montréal-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and musician, who spent her formative years in Vancouver, where she filled up diaries with emotions, thoughts and experiences that would eventually go on to form the basis of her songwriting.
The Canadian-born artist’s first experiences of music and performing came from high school drama and musical theater. Leaning into soul, R&B and jazz, she found a natural and fitting home for her voice. She began to shape her own sound rooted in intricate songwriting and playful production informed by her journals and diaries, as well as influences like Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Anderson .Paak, Little Dragon, and Robyn among a lengthy list of others.
Miranda Joan relocated to New York to study jazz. And upon her arrival, she opened her inquisitive sound and aesthetic to a host of artists and producers. And fittingly, the grittiness and intensity of the city filtered into her work and approach.
Eventually establishing herself in Brooklyn’s soul and jazz scenes, the Canadian-born artist is the co-host and co-founder of Brooklyn’s Femme Jam, the city’s first all-female led jam session, community initiative to create a womxn-led space with an emphasis on female musicians and artists that specifically fosters inclusivity. For the past eight years, she has been a music mentor with the non-profit SAY: The Stuttering Association for the Young, where she works with youth 8-18, who stutter.
As an artist and performer, she has provided backing vocals for The Killers, Shawn Mendes, Lorde, Kylie Minogue, Andy Grammer and Sly5thAve and the Orchestre National de Jazz de Montréal for a tribute to Dr. Dre. And through those experiences, she has been on national tours and played sold-out, headlining shows across the country, including her adopted hometown. Her full-length debut, 2021’s Windborne, the follow-up to 2019’s Still EP led to her selection as one of First Up with RBCxMusic Emerging Artists.
Both releases received radio airplay in Vancouver and Los Angeles — and that led to sync placement on Canadian TV show Strays. Adding to a growing profile, “Overstimulated,” and “I Love You, Dwayne” have received praise from NPR, Consequence, EARMILK, Exclaim! — and airplay from CBC and MountainFM in her native Canada, and Jazz FM’s Tony Minvielle in the UK.
Blossoming out of what was originally intended as a one-song collaboration, Miranda Joan has spent the past few years collaborating with acclaimed and rising New York-based musician and producer Ben Carr, a.k.a CARRTOONS on her forthcoming sophomore album Overstimulated. Simultaneously leaning into and letting go of the excessive and the overstimulating, the album sees the Brooklyn-based artist move towards a contemporary soul and jazz sound that meshes the electronic and organic. The album also features contributions from Sly5thAve, Jake Sherman, Ben WIlliams, Huntertones and Kristine Kruta. “It is an album book-ended by songs of affirmation, of rooting, of returning to and loving oneself, intertwined with the messy, chaotic and interconnected web of my hopes, dreams, imagination, love, and heartache”, Miranda Joan says.
Overstimulated‘s latest single “Bada Bing!” is built around a lush, Quiet Storm-like soul pop production and arrangement featuring an elastic, two-step-inducing groove while Miranda Joan’s sultry and soulful delivery coquettishly dances within the song’s groove.
Directed by Gigi Nettles, the accompanying video for “Bada Bing!” fittingly is a loving and playful homage to The Sopranos and features some of the familiar sights from the show’s introductory sequences with the Montréal-born, Brooklyn-based artist playing the role of Tony Soprano.