Wednesday, September 29, 2010
{The Blue Banner}
Page 15
Campus Spallight
Adam Gross/staff photographer
Daniel Kairoff uses his laptop to produce original electronic music during Don Winsley’s performance at the Garage last week.
UNC A student infuses music with technology and design
AIvssa Spencer
AFSPENCE@UNCA.EDU
MANAGING EDITOR
Friends and family know Daniel Kai
roff as a UNC Asheville multimedia arts
and sciences student by day. By night,
they know him as one half of the electron
ic band Don Winsley.
“I first started playing music in middle
school. 1 started messing around with this
computer program called Fruity Loops,
and I made weird sounds and tried to see
what the strangest thing I could possibly
do was,” Kairoff said. “I gradually simpli
fied that down to making beats and melo
dies.”
Don Winsley consists of Kairoff and his
friend Glenn Yoder, who plays drums.
Kairoff’s instrument is a little less con
ventional.
When on stage, he attaches his keyboard
to his computer and produces sounds with
toe use of a synthesizer.
“Using just my computer as an instru
ment on stage is very new to me,” the
20-year-old junior said. “It’s tough to de
scribe exactly what I’m doing when I get
up on stage with a Macbook Pro, because
for all the audience knows, I could be
playing solitare up there. The way I look
at it is the computer becomes my band or
my orchestra, and I’m conducting it and
telling it when to go and what to do. It’s
not really a musicianship, per se, but more
of a craft.”
Kairoff said he started playing bass gui
tar in high school and has since learned
several instruments,'including guitar and
drums. He writes all of his own music.
“I always grew up with music in the
house,” he said. “My father is a classical
pianist, and so music came really easy to
me. I’m just now learning piano, interest
ingly enough.”
Playing in bands is nothing new to
Kairoff, who created funk bands in high
school with his friends. He said Don Win
sley is a newly formed band.
“We’ve had two or three shows in Ashe
ville with this project,” Kairoff said. “I’ve
played a little bit in Winston-Salem, and
somewhat in Greensboro. Before this
(Don Winsley), I was in a band called
Gold Bricks, and we did a good bit of
shows in Asheville.”
Although he enjoys performing multiple
shows per month, Kairoff said he is wary
of playing in the same city too often.
He recently played in Asheville at the
Garage with fellow UNCA student Ian
Galdy and performed at Signal Fest, a
musical festival in Chapel Hill, last week
end. Funk and disco are among Kairoff’s
favorite genres of music, although he said
classical composers influence him the
most.
“From a compositional standpoint. I’m
influenced a lot by Stravinsky,” the Win
ston-Salem native said. “I used to listen to
him as I would fall asleep as a little kid. I
also love the complexity of Bach. I don’t
want to compare myself to anything that
lofty or incredible, but if I could combine
the energy I feel when I listen to Stravin
sky with the intricacy of Bach, and a lot
of Baroque composers, then I think that’s
what I would hope to do.”
Kairoff, who is pursuing a concentra
tion in animation, said he chose to study
MMAS in part because the field has many
similarities to music.
“Composing music is design, in a basic
sense,” he said. “I’m designing a space,
especially with music production. It’s not
a visual space, but it’s a space nonethe
less.”
Kairoff’s talent in art extends beyond
music and graphic design. He said in his
spare time he draws. Additionally, during
the summer, he taught guitar lessons to
children in the south of Haiti for a month.
“I love to do everything with a high lev
el of energy,” he said. “That’s very impor
tant to me. ^^vant to continue with music
after college, whether it’s promotion or
performance related.”
Don Winsley’s next perfoniiance takes
place on Halloween night at the MoogFest
afterparty.