“Shortcuts”—The New Single from PWNT and more about Kosta Galanopoulos
The new single from PWNT, “Shortcuts,” is the crank-able springtime nostalgia-infused drivin’ with the windows down track that you’ve been waiting for. As the man behind the music puts it, Steve Frieder’s sax solo at the end really “brings the full yacht rock potential, ya know?”
Click to Listen to “Shortcuts” from PWNT
Kosta Galanopoulos is a (funky and uber talented) musician based in Los Angeles, and his new solo project PWNT (Play What’s Not There) is ramping up for a full album release in June ’21 under Nashville’s Acrophase Records.
The newest single from PWNT is one that Kosta says was Frankenstein-ed after re-cutting drums over a years-old demo and reviving the tune with some fresh vocals and other bits. And of course, the slayin’ sax solo to close it out.
Kosta appears to live and breathe music; he always seems to be ‘in it’ as if he’s got a constant stream of mind-blowing music playing in his head at all times. He’s become a seasoned producer and is capable of making tracks from his home studio, where much of his own music is cut to tape. His day-job consists of making music for commercials, ads, and stuff like theme songs for podcasts.
He’s also frequently called upon for sessions, and chooses to collaborate with a number of singer-songwriters, friends of his, working to write, record and produce original music. He alluded to a project he’s excited to be working on with an emerging artist called Hether out of San Diego, who discovered Kosta online and hit him up to collaborate. Will Fox, Greg Dillon, and Jacob Peter are some other emerging artists that Kosta is in the midst of making miracles with.
In Kosta’s experience, a lot of the best things in life seem to come out of nowhere, which is how he describes the relationship between himself and his label, Acrophase Records. It was fellow musician and producer Luke Enyeart who connected the two entities, giving way to the powers that be to blow air into the sails of PWNT.
“They work with bands like Ginger Root, Fat Night … some really colorful artists,” Kosta says of the label. “…Somewhere in-between bedroom indie, but not really — besides, I don’t even like that term, ‘indie,’ I don’t know what that means. Is that a sound, or is it an independently recorded rock thing, ya know? … I just play music?!” [laughs]
“The guys [at Acrophase] are really motivated and do everything all themselves,” said Kosta. “They’re generating all this cool art around the music. I respect what they do.”
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The full-length album from PWNT is slated for release in June, 2021. Stay tuned, and in the mean-time, we’ve asked Kosta to talk a bit about what he’s been listening to:
“Everybody goes through their phases or whatever but my phases have been all over the place. I’ve been listening to Burt Bacharach’s first album, the orchestral kind of shit with really hip drumming — the arrangements are totally bananas. I’ve been bumping that a lot.
And Ike Turner’s solo stuff where he’s just shredding on piano has been totally on my brain. And then some Yusef Lateef — he was sax player in the ‘60s and ‘70s and he did some records for Impulse in the ‘60s that I’ve been bumping on repeat. The sonics and the sounds and the playing … it’s like the best drumming ever.”
