The title of Memory Bomb (Blue Note) is Kiefer Shackelford’s poetic shorthand for dreams—the ones that arrive during sleep, those rooted in longing and the precursors to our ambitions. Part accomplished jazz pianist, part relentless beatmaker, Shackelford works here with longtime collaborators Shibo and Carrtoons, bringing various vocalists, rappers and instrumentalists to a party whose soundtrack revolves around Kiefer’s unmistakable sense of harmony and groove.
The San Diego native is a product of UCLA’s Jazz Studies Program, where he was mentored by the likes of guitarist Kenny Burrell, pianist Tamir Hendelman and flutist James Newton. Away from campus, he got caught up in the Los Angeles beat scene, which inspired the creative duality that drives him. Quite a few Memory Bomb tracks began as beats quickly conceived in Carrtoons’ home studio in Beacon, N.Y., while others sat unfinished for months or more before the right collaborator came along. The contrast between programmed and live instrumentation is what gives fitful life to Kiefer’s first solo album for the legendary Blue Note label, with musicians improvising amid loops, samples and meticulously shaped textures.
Kiefer offers more on each track.
—Hobart Rowland
1) “Daydreaming”
“When I started making this album, this was the very first beat we made. It took 30 minutes. It was a sparkling little gift. Within the first hour of brainstorming, I knew what the sound of the record should be: dreamy, spacious, stony, twinkly and windy sounding. We sent it over to Cisco Swank, and he came up with a few different hooks and verses. We had a bridge we didn’t like, so we wrote a second one—and Relyae wrote to it. Luke Titus put some drums on it. I think it sets the tone of the album perfectly.”
2) “Nowhere Fast”
“Rae Khalil is so damn dope. I had this beat in six with an odd, funky drum-machine pattern, and she turned it into something soulful. Crisp backing vocals and two rap verses—which, again, over a beat in six is unusual. She’s one of the only artists who could combine all those uncommon elements so naturally and give it character, magnetism and action. She’s a legend.”
3) “Overture”
“Shibo and I had this X-Files-sounding beat, and it was great. But it felt like it had been made on a laptop—which it was. We needed it to sound more alive, so we sent it to Nate Smith and he recorded some drums. A big part of this record is the inclusion of musicians of the highest caliber. Nate is one of the best drummers of all time, and he’s at his best here … totally smacking. He sent four takes, and all of them were perfect—slightly different approaches that could’ve worked equally well. I also love Shibo’s bass playing at the end. It almost turns into a little bass feature.”
4) “Newlevels Newdevils”
“Epic, swirling, smoky sounds. Tony Stone wrote a beautiful melody with an octave leap in it. This is a song about ambition, grit, hopefulness and self-belief. Erick The Architect of Flatbush Zombies has a fire verse on it where he gets to talk some shit. I love Erick … coolest guy on the planet—and he raps his ass off. I love how the rhymes fall on different beats throughout the verse, and they tumble later and later until the beat cuts off—at which point he just keeps going. I love that he chose to do that.”
5) “Get To The Moon”
“This was the seventh beat we made at Carrtoons’ house. I loved the flute line I wrote, and it’s a three-bar beat, which feels circular—you get lost in it. It reminded me of Madlib at first. We struggled with what to do with the song for the longest time. In the end, I sent it to Relyae and told him to write something super dreamy. I ended up cutting up his hook so it didn’t feel like a typical hook. I wanted it to feel a little disjointed. Then we sent it to Amber Navran of Moonchild to write a verse and bridge, and she nailed it. Amber is such an amazing lyricist and vocalist, and she made the track exactly what it needed to be.”
6) “Memory Bomb”
“Flanafi came by the studio and recorded an insane guitar-synth pattern, which became the basis for this track. Shibo added some modular-synth sounds, and within a few minutes we had a super-warm, expansive sound palette. I wrote a lead melody and bridge and tracked some piano and synths on top. After sitting on the beat for a few months, I built up the courage to send it to Walter Smith III, who’s one of the greatest tenor saxophone players in the world. Looking back, that was super bold, but it was super worth it. He recorded not only an amazing solo but also volunteered an intro and outro that frame the piece perfectly. I decided to give the track the album title. It deserved it.”
7) “Entr’acte”
“In theater, the entr’acte is the piece of music the orchestra plays just after intermission. It’s meant to re-familiarize the audience with the play by replaying the musical motifs in the show. In my entr’acte, I snuck in melodies from ‘Daydreaming,’ ‘Can’t Let A Good Thing Go,’ ‘Get To The Moon,’ ‘Don’t Fail Me Now’ and a bunch of others. See if you can find them.”
8) “Busyforya”
“We made this beat at Shibo’s studio with Planet Giza. I love Planet Giza—Tony has so much steeze, but he also has an incredible ear for chord changes, melody and rhythm. The drum loop that Rami B and DoomX made was so dope, and we paired it with this crazy guitar sample that Shibo had on his hard drive. The song made itself. It’s about being obsessed with your career and becoming emotionally unavailable. It covers the more toxic side of following a dream.”
9) “Won’t Be Long”
“This song was originally a beat Shibo, Amber Navran and I started. Shibo and I tracked a ton of synths and samples, and then it sat on our hard drive for about a year. I sent it back to Amber and asked her to write to it. She took it to Phil Beaudreau, and they wrote this song and included some amazing orchestrations. It was an incredible blessing. They took it to such an incredible place.”
10) “Don’t Fail Me Now”
“I’m trying to sound like Herbie Hancock on Mr. Hands.”
11) “Can’t Let A Good Thing Go (Feat. Gareth Donkin)”
“This was one of the original 11 beats we made at Carrtoons’ home studio in Beacon. It fell into the same category as ‘Daydreaming’ and ‘Get To The Moon’—so sparkly and windy sounding. I sent it to Gareth, who I absolutely love. His music is so joyous, harmonically rich and grooving. He sings like Michael Jackson and writes like Michael McDonald. He sent back some of the most immaculately stacked backing vocals—just so awesome. It’s another song about ambition, but this one looks at it from a more positive angle.”
12) “As She Was”
“A sleeper for my favorite track on the record. Erik and I invited Omarijazz over to the studio, and he made these drums. They were pretty smacking, but I decided to go in a different direction and make something really smeary and wistful. Erik and I spent a couple of days adding a ton of texture and writing a beautiful melody. We also recorded Brandon Bae on guitar to add some flourishes. The piano solo here is low-key my favorite on the album. I think it’s very thoughtful.”
13) “I Let My Hair Grow”
“This is a track I made entirely myself at a time when I was very depressed. Sometimes I get so in my feelings that I’ll make music for weeks on end. During those stretches, I may not look at myself in the mirror for a long time—not because I’m avoiding it, but because I forget. One day, I looked in the mirror and my facial hair was super overgrown, and I realized I was moving through something heavy. I was carrying a lot, and the music was intense. This song felt like I was expressing that. It’s sad and longing—striving for something. But there’s also a feeling of focus and concentration that drives it.”
See Kiefer live.
