Had some bands that were on the verge of some big success and a lot of bands break up," recounts local musician Pete Kartsounes. "Longevity is the key to success."
A mainstay in Central Oregon's acoustic music scene since 2017, Kartsounes cut his teeth in Colorado's jamgrass scene where he "played with all kinds of people"—like Drew Emmitt from Leftover Salmon, Greensky Bluegrass, Head for the Hills, Sam Bush and Cornmeal with fiddle player Allie Kral (best known for her time in Yonder Mountain String Band). "I was smack dab in the middle of that bluegrass, jamgrass scene in Colorado," he tells. "I was kind of swimming in that for almost a couple decades."
He left Colorado in 2013 to travel the world, landed in Portland a few years later, and finally headed to Bend for a lifestyle that was more his pace. He's played festivals like WinterWonderGrass, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Northwest String Summit and Redmond's Cascade Equinox Festival, where he'll appear again this year—on Saturday, Sept. 21—making improvisational dance music under his DJPK moniker.
While in the Northwest, Kartsounes has developed a reputation as a multi-instrumentalist playing guitar, piano, harmonica, mandolin, banjo, cedar flute, percussion and more. He appeared at Northwest String Summit for almost 15 consecutive years and helped curate the Troubadour Lounge stage at Horning's Hideout. This side of the mountains, he's often found sharing the stage with the Alicia Viani Trio, alongside bassist Mark Karwan, and always loves an opportunity to play with rocker Eric Leadbetter.
A guitar teacher, world traveler and lifelong musician, Kartsounes released his first concept record, "Songs In The Key Of Love," in March. An album of 11 acoustic folk songs with graceful arrangements and a tender lyrical theme, he wrote the numbers over the years, ultimately compiling the collection to record, produce and play all the instruments himself. Read on to learn more about Pete Kartsounes and his music. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Source Weekly: Tell me a little bit about yourself: Where are you from and how did you learn to play music?
Pete Kartsounes: I've always been fascinated with music, always stealing my older brothers' guitars when they were gone because they didn't want me to play them. I'd be learning songs just by ear and always had a natural sense of music. I was in a traveling boys' choir when I was eight called the Appleton Boychoir [Wisconsin]. It's a pretty prestigious, well-known choir of 100 boys. That's kind of where I got my ear training and my musical training.
I grew up in the Midwest: Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan. When I was 20, I moved out to Colorado, kind of following the footsteps of John Denver, who always inspired me — somebody who was a singer songwriter, singing about the love for nature in the mountains, living in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado. And that's the life I wanted to live. I've always been a full-time musician since I was 19, so that's 30 years — never had a day job, all just music. And it's been a great ride.
SW: You've now been in Bend for seven years. What makes this music scene feel like home?
PK: There's no ego in this town. Everybody's really supportive of one another. You feel that, you see that, and it comes across when we all collaborate on music. Being a guitarist and being someone that loves to sit in with people, I get a lot of opportunities to play with a lot of artists, which is really cool. I've really gotten a chance to mold a nice musical family here. There's so many different venues that support live music and have live music.
SW: "Songs In The Key Of Love" is your first record in about three years and your 14th full-length album. What would you like to share about this new record?
PK: I haven't been as active in my singer songwriting as I have been in just making, creating content, creating music, creating music for dance and yoga. I was like, "I'm sitting on 150 songs that haven't been recorded yet," and a lot of them, I really like enough to put on an album.
I was on the road with Alicia, and it was late night and we're at the campground. Alicia was still awake, and I'm like, "Hey, can I share some songs?" I was playing all these really pretty songs for her, and she's just like, "Wait, you wrote that?" "Yeah." I played another one. She's like, "Oh my gosh." And played another one, she's crying. She's like, "It's so beautiful." I've got so many songs that are pretty songs, you know, love songs that I've written over the years. I want to do something with these songs, they're just sitting there.
So that night, I'm like, "I know what I'm going to do now: I'm going to make a concept album of love songs," and I'm going to try to make the prettiest album I can possibly make — by myself, playing all the instruments and all the production and all the engineering. I'm just going to do it in my home studio by myself. I'm going to tackle this one on my own and layer it and make it sound as pretty as possible. I had about 40 songs. I made a list. I went through them all, constructing a set that looks right and has the right flow and the right keys, the right topic. It's a concept album. And I've never made a concept album before. I spent the whole winter on it, about 74 consecutive days, every day, just putting this beautiful album together. I play all the instruments.
SW: You're clearly a multi-instrumentalist. What's your favorite instrument?
PK: I usually say singing. And then people are like, "Huh?" and I try to inform people that the voice is an instrument. You have to take care of it, and you have to practice, and you have to tune it — just like any other instrument.
SW: What's it like working with local guitar maker Preston Thompson Guitars?
PK: It's been a blessing. I'm endorsed by Thompson out of Sisters. You know, Billy Strings plays Thompson Guitars and Molly Tuttle. I have two Thompson Guitars. They built me [my first] one, and I just love it. It sounds so good and became my dominant guitar. They're just a wonderful small company out of Sisters that are just crushing the luthier, acoustic guitar scene right now.
SW: Tell me about your alter ego, DJPK.
PK: Out of Covid came my looping stuff with DJPK, which I like to say is "the groove looper" so people know I'm not a DJ. It's like painting music, essentially — super groovy, super fun, super funky and all improv. I play a lot of instruments with the DJPK act. I'm playing keys, I'm also using plug-ins so I'm using keys to control sounds [or samples of] instruments from India and Japan and China and culturally diverse music.
SW: You’re also a visual artist and made the video for your new single “Forever Changed.”
PK: I started a videography business where I've done a lot of videos for people like Eric Leadbetter —I've made a few of his videos for him. Done some stuff for [Portland’s] Band of Comerados recently and some small business videos. I got into entrepreneuring myself during Covid; it was a little tricky for us full-time artists, especially musicians when everything got shut down.
SW: What’s your earliest musical memory?
PK: My two older brothers listened to two types of music. My one brother was a big fan of Ozzy and Black Sabbath. I'm a huge fan of Ozzy. My other brother was way into The Beatles and Cat Stevens. And I'm way into that too.
My first concert was in 1986. I was 12 years old, and I ran away from home to see my first concert, which was Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica. And I got in really big trouble. I was 75 miles away from home and told my friend’s parents that my parents were picking us up so they got the tickets and took us there. I had to see Ozzy. I didn't even know who Metallica was. I met Cliff Burton and James Hetfield in the parking lot, they were skateboarding. I was this little 12-year-old kid with hair down to my ass. I got in a ton of trouble. Sorry, mom and dad. But, you know, it shaped a lot of my life as an artist and as a performing artist. I was just blown away. [3]
SW: Where can people hear your music?
PK: All my music is online for free. I sell my CDs for donation, and all my albums online are for donation as well. I would rather people have my music than not have it because they have to pay for it. I make this music for everyone. These songs come to me, through me, to give to other people. These songs were given to me to give to you, to help your grieving, or to help your love, or to help your day. I really feel like, as a songwriter, everyone gets their songs in different ways, in different places, and I've always thought that the songs that I have are songs that were given to me through the universe or whatever. They come out, the melodies come out, the lyrics come out, and they're there for other people to process whatever they're going through, because I write a lot about connection with yourself, connections with nature, optimism.
— Find out where Pete Kartsounes is playing at petekmusic.com and get his new record, "Songs In The Key Of Love," at petek.bandcamp.com.
