They say if you like pop-punk then you should watch out for The Kanz. Familiar genres can also be heard but ultimately the listener is immersed in The Kanz‘s new futuristic party rock world and dramatic vision. An assured musical confidence creating a wall of sound encapsulating a deep inner reflection and at times a message of rebirth: a return to the true awareness of today’s human condition.

Lead singer Fabio Nania steals the show with his captivating presence and strong vocals and Francesco Di Cataldo (synth player) brings a brand new electronic sound that takes the punk rock scene to a whole new level of a party vibe. The drummer, Jan W. Ziebel and Italian bass player William Patini are completing this brilliant team.
The Kanz’s sound continues to assert itself with this powerful mashed-up genre born by the influence of punk rock, alternative rock, and electronic music. And it’s time to get to know them better! The lead singer and guitarist, Fabio Nania answered our questions.

Beginnings:

“It all begun as a small adventure in 2017 when I, Fabio Nania, lead singer and guitarist of the band, decided to leave my country of origin Italy where I was working as an actor in theatres, playing musicals for kids and occasional shows in summer resorts. I decided to dramatically change my life by coming to London, UK, and start a new punk rock band from scratch. I went to several live music venues in London attending random open-mic nights and live rock gigs in the London area. This gave me the chance to meet new musicians – kind of “crazy” and “out-of-mind” ones like me! – who shared the same interest for the underground scene and pop-punk music. Some of these encounters brought to life amazing friendships and committed musical collaboration. Eventually in 2018 the band was fully formed and after a few changes of members during the early months, the band confirmed the full team with William Patini on the bass and Jan Zwiebel on the drums. Also Francesco Di Cataldo, who was one of my best friends even before the London moving, joined the band as Synth/Keyboard Player. Since then, the band released the debut single “Relativism” on 26th March 2019, started playing gigs everywhere in London, and made quite a big statement in the pop-punk scene by releasing the video “Just Panic” which got more than 16K views on Youtube in just 2 weeks. During the same year our following on Spotify has grown a lot and we have been featured in several playlists and released more singles. We are very happy about how everything is growing fast!”

Behind the name:

We were sitting in a pub in Kilburn, London called “The Brondes Age” and discussing what could have been the official name of the band. We weren’t getting many inspiring ideas, probably due to the amount of alcohol we were drinking (laughs), but suddenly the drummer noticed some empty cans of coke laying on the table of the pub and shouted: “We could be the cans!” And I know It sounds total bullshit but I can assure you that in that precise moment the sound of that word unexpectedly fitted so well! It was direct! It was explosive! It was cool and most important it was easy to remember. So basically we just added a “K” and a “Z” to the name because those are two letters that have a peculiar sound that can possibly remind sci-fi, cyberpunk, futuristic samples often used in the production of our songs and showing off the ‘electronic’ vibe of the band’s sound. So there it is: The Kanz. I hope you like it. If not… whatever.”

Inspiration:

“Musical influences come from various artists of the punk rock alternative scene like Green Day, Blink 182, Muse, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Mindless Self Indulgence, Celldweller, Pierce the Veil and Nothing But Thieves. But the whole Kanz philosophy is inspired also by the pop-punk culture of American Pie’s Parties, electronic techno dubstep sound designing, alternative rock lifestyles and sci-fi, futuristic cyberpunk culture which can be clearly noticed in the artworks of our singles. I would say there is also a touch of ‘musical theatre’ vibe in some of our songs and I guess that’s because of my past works in the theater business and previous musical shows I performed in, that shaped a lot my background and musical influences.”

Teamwork:

“I am the main songwriter of the band. I write all the chords, melodies, structure, and lyrics delivering a clear idea of how the song should be and what vibe is intended. Usually I show off a draft to the other band members and then, after a quick listen, everyone in the band puts their own arrangement and additional ideas to the track. This way the song achieves a very unique style that is built upon different music genres coming straight from the different musical backgrounds of each one of us. That’s a very cool thing, in my opinion, cause in this way you can expect some very outstanding surprises in the composition of the song and also we do have a lot of fun by experimenting with different sounds, samples, libraries and so on. Nowadays technology is so widely developed that designing, creating, and developing a sound has almost infinite possibilities and I think that’s what makes The Kanz ‘s music so unique and fresh. It’s a sound that you really distinguish. And also, you can’t really tell what musical genre it is! Can you? (laughs)

We try our best to deliver the best quality music even though we know there is some really amazing music out there and the competition is hard sometimes!

We keep on doing our job as best as we can, always. Cause we love it! Also, being a professional musician is an important part of a band’s career because you can deliver professional and inspiring music only if you know how to use your instrument or instruments very well. Only by mastering your instrument developing your skills,  keeping the practice constantly you can really achieve the freedom of creativity, when writing down a new song or composing an arrangement. But I feel like that’s not the whole thing. An important part of the creative process, but also of the live performance, is your talent and how much love do you put in your music. How much of yourself you actually put in the song. Being honest with your fans. Knowing yourself and knowing them. Sharing your feelings. Listen to them. Talk to them. You know, music is like a relationship. You gotta work on it and know each other deeply. This way you create intimacy and unity between the artist and the audience. This way you can deliver a message and do something important for the community. A song can change a life. It has incredible power. And we, The Kanz are aware of this. That’s why we never release a song unless it has something to communicate that is very intense, either lyrically or musically. Also, our influences can be very different. I come from the pop-punk rock background while, William is more into metal, Jan is incredibly versatile and Francesco is into movie soundtracks composition. So as you can we all have different personalities and can give The Kanz something to make it unique and communicate with different people coming from different backgrounds.

When you attend a live rock gig, you can feel something different in the air that changes you forever. Something that unites everyone in the arena and that gives you the opportunity to share feelings in such and unique way. And so you do feel it inside, like goosebumps, a shiver… and it’s amazing! This unity, this sense of community, and huge energy that you can communicate through the music creating atmosphere, hype, and love. It simply sets you free. And I think you can achieve this only with rock music, or rock-related music. You can’t really achieve this with pop or R&B or some other mainstream stuff. All due respect for the other music genres of course. But rock music, and especially punk-rock are the key to reveal your true self. Cause you don’t have to hide right? You just feel free and you feel like you don’t have to put a mask on. You know what I mean? Punk rock is an attitude. We believe in this because thanks to punk rock music our life is much more fun, but it also gives us a chance to accept life no matter how much shit gets thrown at you. You can walk in the dark alone. You don’t need to be afraid. And with rock music you know there are millions like you that feel the same. Broken souls looking for the light. And so we say that we can look for it together, through the power of rock music. That’s the Kanz’s mission in my opinion. And we do it in our own way of course. Taking a step forward from the classic pop-punk vibe of the 90s-2000s and bringing it to the next level: the digital, cyberpunk, sci-fi era.”

Present & Future:

“Our brand new single was coming out on May 8th and it’s called “Leaving a Trace”.  It’s a new song that speaks about those moments when you feel lost and alone in this world cause nothing really makes sense. You really try in vain to compromise with the awareness of darkness that surrounds the meaning of life. But then, you wake up in the morning one day and you feel like you need to do something about it. You need to do an act of love. You need to leave a trace in this world, To give value to your existence and be remembered by the next generations. So yeah, it’s quite a deep message and a very peculiar song, I recommend you guys check it out. You can already pre-save our single on Spotify. The link to pre-save the track is in our Instagram Bio. 

So far we have been publishing on a single-by-single-release philosophy, that aims at keeping our fans engaged with new fresh music out constantly on all music streaming services so that we can actually show off to the world what The Kanz really is and why is it different and also to check if it really works! Right? (laughs) Never got a proper break in the last months, you know? So, for this reason we have been releasing a single every two-three months and I have to say this has brought great results with more than 50.000 listeners and 12.000 followers on Spotify as in 2020 and loads of views on Youtube. It gave us a chance to get the best out of every single song. We love our work and so we want to push every single with the right promotion campaign that each one of them deserves. We still have to release a few more singles this way and then maybe we will think about releasing a full album the next year.  We already have more than 30 songs ready to be recorded and we are very excited to be back in the studio to work on the new tracks! I really hope to get in the studio soon and have some crazy fun!”

The unfortunate COVID-19 related events are causing a huge damage in the music industry and we all musicians are getting affected by this. It’s a serious situation happening worldwide. It’s very sad, you know? We had to cancel all of our gigs booked for March, April, May, and June 2020. Moreover we don’t know how long the pandemic will keep us stuck in the lockdown. No idea of when we will be able to play live shows again in the country. Furthermore some of the band members were having issues with jobs due to the coronavirus situation that made the governments shut down all public places and they had to go back to their country to their families. Now they have to wait for the outbreak to slow down before being able to buy a ticket back to London. You know what I mean? It’s crazy. We are living in such difficult times and we are facing something we have never experienced before. The good bit is that we, as a band, keep on working on new material from the bedrooms/studios of our homes. 

As bandmates we keep in touch well, virtual touch of course, and share ideas about the new songs, the upcoming live shows, music videos, live streams online, and stuff like that. I think it is a time for all of us to develop more skills indoor, study more music production, practicing our instruments, writing more songs, developing skills, and promoting our songs online. And I would say it is also a time in which we all really need to be ‘virtually’ together and caring for each other to face this evil of the pandemic. So, we call each other, we text each other. We are good friends, and that’s the most important thing, you know?”

Photos by Luna Perri

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