Vancouver's stunning scenery often overshadows everything else the city has to offer. However, beneath its outdoorsy persona is a thriving cultural scene. As much as The Local Visitor wants to introduce you to areas of Vancouver that you can't read about in your traditional guide book, we also want to introduce you to some of the people that contribute to making this one of the best cities in the world.
In a house tucked within the Kensington-Cedar Cottage neighbourhood lies a room filled with an array of music equipment and electronics. The room (and the instruments within it) belongs to Joel Jasper, aka Kalibo, a self-described 'bedroom producer' who creates tracks using a mix of home recordings and found samples to create a unique sound. The music is uplifting and full of vibes, drawing on '80s funk lines and moving percussion.
Joel's interest in dance music started at university where he started to make mixtapes and demos for house parties. He immersed himself in Vancouver's local music scene while advancing his musical education at home. He started to DJ at some of the more mainstream clubs and bars in the city but found he had little control over the set list, leaving him deflated with Vancouver's music scene and with his own creative development. In 2012, Joel moved to South Korea to teach English. It was there that he was able to find a venue for his musical creativity.
Joel started playing a weekly Friday night residency in Busan, South Korea, at an ex-pat bar fittingly called Almost Famous, which allowed Kalibo to have complete creative control. Having the freedom to experiment with an international audience reignited Joel's spark for DJing and producing. Upon his return to Vancouver, Joel organized a showcase of local producers and beat makers around the city. Meeting these likeminded people boosted his confidence in the scene and led to new collaborations. Joel continues to release new material frequently on his Soundcloud page and performs sets at some of the city's popular electronic based venues like 303 Columbia, Fortune Sound Club, The Waldorf, and Celebrities. He's working on a new live set using a control pad to trigger and manipulate his songs live, allowing him to better react to the energy of a show and to change his music accordingly. This method of preforming leads to more organic and natural feeling music, which would otherwise dive into the pitfall of structured and mechanized music.
When he's not performing or making music, Joel can be found at Third Beach along the seawall or hiking the Cabin Lake or Eagle Bluffs trails on Cypress Mountain.
You can see Kalibo perform this Sunday at The Waldorf before French House pioneer Fred Falke.
