Keno Nifty is a band made by the artist and part-time musician Ricky Alexander (also known as Chazz Forte online). It’s about a group of fictional musicians (left to right: Marlene, Penny, Apollo, and Niomi) who travel around, get into fights and use music as a coping mechanism.
Listen to the album while reading the text.
The most recent album “Am I Good Enough” was made during a very stressful time in my life. In 2018, without going into too personal details, a lot of negative things happened, and I needed to find a way to cope with everything going on. I discovered that music was an excellent way for me to get these emotions out, even without using lyrics.
Sound wise, I took a lot of influence from bands like Cornelius and The Go! Team, how they are able to mix different genres into a hodgepodge that’s unique to them. Shibuya-Kei has been a huge core element of each song, but there are elements of future funk, house, punk, trip-hop, drum n bass, jazz, bedroom pop, shoegaze, video game music, hip hop, j-pop, city pop, and emo all mixed into one. Being experimental with sound always leads to fun new discoveries, so I never limit myself genre-wise.
I think the biggest influence has to come from Gorillaz. Music and art wise, I’ve always been a fan of their work, and I wanted to create a cartoon band that put so much effort into their music as well.
I also plan on turning the album into a graphic novel/visual novel so that you can get the full picture of the themes I’m trying to portray while also expanding the world of Keno Nifty and each member. For updates on that, be sure to check out the official facebook https://www.facebook.com/kenonifty94/
As a whole, it’s just a quirky little album that’s not afraid to be in your face 🙂
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