KaKaow

KaKaow (aka. Ricky Brant ) is a psychedelic and funk-infused multi-instrumentalist with over a decade of professional music experience. His work has been showcased in venues across Canada throughout his playing history including The Oasis - Halifax, NS, The Grand Theatre - Kingston, ON, and Vincent Massey Park - Ottawa, ON, during the Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival in 2014.

Brant’s musical abilities have been featured in various bands such as Shushlang, Caveman Techno, Spencer Evan’s Band, Fossils and Gospel’s, and The Hellhound Trail Blues Band.

While experimenting with sounds in 2016, Ricky found his love for piano. Soon after, he started his journey into advanced theory and synthesis. This remarkable refashioning inspired Brant to bring forth a solo career as the wonderfully original and invigorating “KaKaow” where he plays a wide range of instruments accompanied by a spectacular light show.

“I personally believe that music is made to release the soul and help heal. Growing up dealing with kidney disease, I grew up healing with music. This drove my life passion toward the love of funk, as George Clinton said “Funk not only moves, it can remove, yah dig?”.

With this in mind, he took in all the funky music he could get from James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic, Sly, through to the new generation of electronic music artists such as Stickybuds, The Funk Hunters, Opiuo, and many more and all in between.

Ricky feels that dancing and music has such a potent energy of connecting people that he needed to try to hone all his skills to create something out of this world and especially challenging for himself. He strives to always try to change and take in new elements of thought, design, articulations, and modulations into his musical work.

Releasing 2021’s “Steppin’ Out” and 2022’s “Earth to Station” albums, singles on Breakbeat Paradise Recordings - “Shimmer ft. Helena Hannibal”, “Fonky Kingston” and "All Dat Smack" and EP’s including 2023’s “MEMENTOS” and “Altered Dimensions" and more, KaKaow is solidifying his sound in a cosmic funk of psychedelic saturation, bombastic rhythms and groovy synth work.
Through all this, he creates what he calls an Electro Psychedelifunk experience; to bend the mind and perception of what sound can be, while playing synthesizers and guitar, and not to mention: making your booty move!

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