Guitarist Kaki King is perhaps best-known for her virtuosic instrumental guitar compositions and extended technique, but she’s also written songs, chamber music, and film scores. She’s come up with innovations that change the nature of the guitar itself; she taps, she bends, she projects onto the guitar body, and now she has added a bridge called a Passerelle to her guitar. A Passerelle is a bridge that turns any regular six string guitar into a twelve note zither-like creation that can produce sounds reminiscent of the Japanese koto or Chinese guzheng, and sounds really cool when she bends the note.  

She uses the Passerelle on her new album Modern Yesterdays, made at the beginning of March in the year 2020, as the entire world changed. The album was perhaps not what she set out to make, but it is a guitar record with lots of sound design, influenced by the pandemic. Some of the pieces might also be related to her latest multimedia work, “Data Not Found” which involves projections onto a special guitar which, when certain notes are played, triggers certain images or visuals. (Coming soon, in the after-times.)

For this Soundcheck Podcast, Kaki King joins us to discuss Big Issues like getting COVID19, the mysterious creative process, and fingernail care. She also nerds out about her family of fretted instruments (guitars, modified guitars, high-strung guitar, harp guitar), and plays some new songs.  

Set list:

“Teek,” ”Puzzle Me You” “Doing the Wrong Thing”

"Teek"

"Puzzle Me You":

"Doing the Wrong Thing"