Hopefully by now you have a version of the award winning SONAR X1 running on your machine, because A&M/Octone recording artist K’NAAN wants to hear from you; musically. With this exclusive opportunity through Cakewalk, Roland, Indaba Music and A&M/Octone, you can sign up for this contest and download the actual stems to craft your own work of art. If that work of art is chosen by K’Naan and his label, it will result in a nice chunk of cash or a Cakewalk/Roland gear package for you.
You have most likely heard of K’Naan who is one of the most unique artists out there today, but if not you are about to. His new record is exploding onto major radio stations on a daily basis and his new single featuring Nelly Fertado and Nas is also gaining chart momentum on the video side of the spectrum as well.
“Love is harder than war,” says K’NAAN, explaining the direction he takes on his new album, Country, God Or The Girl. “I’ve had the chance to write about my experiences in a difficult and violent life. But when the suffering and the pain is something that comes from within me, it’s harder to react and to write about that.”
With his new songs—including the album’s irresistible, empathetic first single, “Is There Anybody Out There?,” featuring Nelly Furtado the Somalian-born, Canadian-based singer and MC turns his attention to the most universal emotions and experiences of them all: the personal relationships which everyone struggles with and rejoices in. At the same time, though, he never loses the greater sense of the world that has defined him as an artist. On Country, God Or The Girl, K’NAAN says that it marks his attempt to address “the internal wars, rather than the external ones, which I’d been preoccupied with on my previous albums.”
The album is K’NAAN’s first full-length work since his multi-platinum global smash single, “Wavin’ Flag.” After a remixed version of the song was selected as Coca-Cola’s theme song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup campaign, the song reached #1 on iTunes in 18 countries around the world.
“’Waving Flag’ made me more confident in how I approach music,” says K’NAAN. “No one believed that song could reach so many people or become such a phenomenon, which made me doubt myself a bit, because I really thought it could touch people. So now any reaction to a song of mine doesn’t bother me, because I think it’s more likely that people really do hear it the way I’m hearing it.”
The enormous success of the single opened up countless doors for K’NAAN, as reflected by the caliber and range of guests who appear on Country, God Or The Girl, from Nas on “Nothing to Lose” to Bono on “Bulletproof Pride,” plus appearances by Will.I.Am, Keith Richards, and B.O.B. But it was the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour, which traveled to 86 countries, that the singer claims made the greatest impact on his music.
So to celebrate his new single, K’Naan has released the track stems to us to try to find a creative soul who can give it a different life. Now is a great time to pick up a flavor of SONAR X1 and start making professional music; starting with a little help from K’Naan.
