Rising Stars: Meet Kanude Lightstone of Nashville, Tennessee

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kanude Lightstone

Hi Kanude, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Kanude began life in Kingsville, Texas on February 12, 1969 (born Chris Knudson) and was raised in a typically nomadic Navy household, living in places like Annapolis, Maryland and Hanford, California until his family settled in Houston six years later.

After a lackluster few years as piano student and building on his time as a small child listening to his dad’s Beatles, Byrds and Peter, Paul and Mary reel-to-reels, he found refuge in his first purchased LPs: Queen “News of the World” and Kiss “Destroyer.” He performed onstage in a variety of junior-high and high-school music-theater productions. Kanude concurrently dabbled in creating music by forming a pre-Beastie Boys, post-Kurtis Blow threesome called Grandmaster Funk using a Fisher Price “Scratchmaster” (self-proclaimed) turntable and Korg DDM-110 drum machine with a few classmates.

Kanude also performed for a time in a high-school cover band with classmates and spent his last two years of high-school at New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, New Mexico, his senior year rooming with fellow Texan, and future film actor Owen Wilson.

Upon graduating from high-school, Kanude worked that summer as a busboy at the now-defunct “Fast and Cool Club” in Houston with friend aspiring film director Wes Anderson. Kanude acted in a number of early videos and films Anderson shot before his breakout feature “Bottle Rocket.”

After an unimpressive freshman year at the University of Southern California, spent mostly motorcycling around without a helmet and shooting pool at Mexican dives with ex-roommate Wilson, Kanude took a year off from school, and switched coasts heading for NYC.

He ended up living at the West Side YMCA and working around the corner in a deli in the ASCAP building across from Lincoln Center. During that time Kanude became friends with Ultra Violet who had been a Warhol factory regular and one-time mistress of Salvador Dali. He also started his first songwriting collaboration with Oklahoman Barry Christopher whom he fondly remembers as “the black Jim Morrison.” Barry, a singer/songwriter based in Greenwich Village had posted an ad in The Village Voice for a songwriting partner to which Kanude responded.

After a year in New York, he returned to Texas via Pittsburgh and Winston-Salem, North Carolina with a friend and began focusing more intensively on music while a student at the University of Texas at Austin. There Kanude found early success as a co-composer/music producer on Robert Rodriguez’ critically acclaimed, low-budget feature debut El Mariachi released by Columbia Pictures.

After graduating from The University of Texas, and deciding to follow his songwriting and performing muse after an unsuccessful attempt to get composer representation in Los Angeles, Kanude returned to New York City in the Fall of 1993. Around this time, his “Val Holler” moniker was conceived: a combination of valhalla from his familial nordic roots, Led Zeppelin’s J. R. R. Tolkein-inspired Immigrant Song, and the old southern “Hollerin” that was, and remains, a form of communication in parts of the Southern US.

Back in Manhattan, he joined the band Mind Over that he had previously started with singer Christopher and keyboardist Shane Carson, and began playing during height of the grunge era as a 9-piece band in teh vein of Eurythmics and Roxy Music regularly at clubs around mostly lower Manhattan like The Pyramid on Avenue A, Don Hill’s and Downtime.

After unsuccessfully landing a record deal or touring opportunities, Kanude departed the band in the summer of 1995 and began performing as a solo artist, initially at open mics at The Sidewalk Café, and later at The Cottonwood Cafe on Bleecker Street and the original Sin-é coffee shop on St. Mark’s Place where acquaintance Jeff Buckley had recently been a regular and is documented on his “Live at Sin-é” EP.

Then performing as Val Holler, Kanude spent the summer of 1996 in Seattle performing at various local clubs like Sit ‘n’ Spin and the Tractor Tavern while
hanging out and living with his friends, the founders of Theater Schmeater, who dazzled local audiences with live renditions of old The Twilight Zone TV episodes.

In the fall of 1996, back in NYC, he met guitarist Allen Towbin (Plexus, Lure) and drummer Adam Chasan (Milton, Freeloader, Adam Green) and began performing as The Val Holler Band at clubs in the East Village like Arlene Grocery and The Living Room, featuring Towbin, Chasan and a revolving door of bassists. The group recorded a 6-song EP with Vinnie Nobile (The Pilfers) at Sub2H Studios on Mott Street in the summer of 1997.
After a brief courtship, Kanude married Austrian-born actress Julia Horvath in New York in the fall of 1997.

During the summer of 1998, he hired ex-Mary Me Jane bassist Brad Albetta to produce a Val Holler record at Albetta’s Monkey Boy Studios on Murray Street, a floor below Sonic Youth’s studio. The record entitled “Versicle” and released on Kanude’s own Lightstone Records imprint, featured drummer Tobias Ralph (Nena, Duncan Sheik, Plexus), flutist Richard Worth (Groove Collective), Allen Towbin (Plexus), Tim Bright (Lisa Loeb, Samsara) and sampled material from friend Bachir Attar of the Master Musicians of Jajouka from Morocco. The record was mastered by Greg Calbi protégé Emily Lazar at The Lodge.

After a major car accident in Arkansas while moving to Los Angeles with his wife Julia in the fall of 1999, some unreleased recordings with Theo Mondle (Beck) and a limited release Christmas CD “Light of the World” in 2000, he and his wife picked up again and moved to Berlin, Germany in the spring of 2001. There Kanude continued writing and recording prolifically, including material for other artists (actress Elke Winkens of Vienna, Greta Y Los Garbos of Madrid), while also performing as Val Holler with local German musicians guitarist Stefan Bühler, bassist Stephan Bleier and drummer Dirk Morning.

“It was a difficult time during and after 9/11 to be abroad as an American,” Kanude remarked privately. Having spent a year in Stockholm, Sweden in 1990-91, it was the second Iraq war that Kanude experienced while living abroad, which shaped his feelings about US foreign policy, war and terror in general. “Both my grandfathers were WWII pilots and my dad was a Navy pilot in Vietnam,” Kanude commented. “I respect and cherish that. But for me, the only battle worth fighting is the bloodless one of each man and woman taming the human heart, and eradicating discord within oneself.”

For personal and professional reasons, Kanude then relocated back to his native Houston, ultimately divorcing his wife Julia. He also ditched the Val Holler moniker after finding out that a bass player in the obscure late 1970s NYC punk band Wayne County and the Electric Chairs used the same name. Kanude realized the stage-name and moniker had become excess baggage with little commercial value.

During the spring of 2004, Kanude performed solo for a time at The Warwick Hotel (now Hotel ZaZa), which had a large, framed photo of Bob Hope behind the front desk. In the fall of 2004 and spring of 2005, Kanude collaborated on unreleased recordings with local singer/songwriter Kristin Clarke and producer Robbie Parrish (Ray Younkin, SkyBlue72) at Houston’s legendary Sugar Hill Studios. After that project fizzled out and the recordings were shelved, Kanude continued to perform solo at local clubs like Rudyard’s, Anderson Fair and Warehouse Live, while also making a presence each year during Austin’s SXSW festival, and gearing up a long anticipated next album.

On St. Patrick’s Day 2006, Kanude was performing solo at a show in Houston with The Packway Handle Band at The Last Concert Café. There he met his second wife, classically trained singer Elizabeth (Lilley Faye) Hansen, who was in the audience that evening. Kanude and Hansen were married in June 2007 and welcomed a daughter in January of 2008, and later a son in February 2010.

In early 2007, Kanude commenced recording his Kanude self/titled debut album in summer of 2007 with Eric Jarvis on drums (Laidlaw, Darrin Love) at Sugar Hill Studios engineered by future Grammy-winner Steve Christensen (Khruangbin, Steve Earle). He then took the tracks to Austin to record at bassist George Reiff’s home studio (Ray Wylie Hubbard, Charlie Sexton, Ian Moore), whom he’d met a the 2006 Willie Nelson 4th of July concerts in Fort Worth. Kanude also hired producer/guitarist Billy Harvey (Bob Schneider, Charlie Mars, Steve Poltz) and Eric “Roscoe” Ambel (The Bottle Rockets, Steve Earle) to lay down additional guitar tracks.

After completing production on the record, Kanude hired Lars Goransson (Blondie, The Cardigans) to mix the record in Austin, and Dave McNair (Angelique Kidjo, Bob Schneider) in New York City to master it for a September 2008 release.

In early 2009, Kanude and his wife and infant daughter moved to Los Angeles, where he showcased his debut at various local venues including Molly Malone’s, Good Hurt and The Knitting Factory. That summer, he and his spouse found out they were expecting another child and moved in Northern Virginia to be closer to her family for the birth of their son.

In April 2010, Kanude and his growing family moved to Austin, Texas where he had previously lived while attending the University of Texas nearly two decades prior. There he formed a new band while also booking and performing a contemporary music church residency series with local guest singer/songwriters at Saint David’s Episcopal Church downtown.

In the following years, Kanude’s track “Wheels” from the debut album was licensed to HBO’s successful series “True Blood” in 2011, and he worked on new music, releasing an album release of “electro-gospel” covers and a few originals entitled “Kingdom” in 2013. That album was recorded entirely in his iMac on a version of Logic Pro software, even recording the vocals into the internal microphone on the computer. The album was mastered by Nick Landis at Terra Nova in Austin.

In the Fall of 2014, he recorded basic tracks at Shirk Studios in Chicago, enlisting Jeff Buckley’s original drummer Matt Johnson who was on tour with Saint Vincent at the time, and local bassist Bryan Doherty (Hood Smoke). He later recorded vocals and overdubs with Steve Christensen at his Treehouse Studio in Houston.

After selling their house south of Austin in Buda, Texas in the summer of 2016, Kanude and his family moved to Newport News, Virginia briefly, Mendocino/Fort Bragg, California and Portland, Oregon between 2017 and 2019.

In the summer of 2017, his second proper album “Colors” started in Chicago three years prior, was released on his Lightstone Records and a limited run of 12” records was pressed. The album was mixed by Steve Christensen and mastered by Chris Longwood at Studio Dede Air in Tokyo, Japan.

While living in Portland, Kanude produced and performed a side project called LightBody Sound, which started as a synth-wave, dream-pop style collaboration between he and his spouse Lilley Faye. That self-titled album was released in the summer of 2020 on Lightstone Records.

During the Summer of 2019, Kanude and his family bought a house in Richmond, Virginia and once again moved across the country. A pandemic and lockdown ensued six months later. Kanude sharpened his skills as a track producer during this time gleaning tips and insights virtually from Ryan Tedder (One Direction), Charlie Puth and Louis Bell (Post Malone). He also released new esoteric works by LightBody Sound entitled “Breath
of God (and Ascension Odyssey)” and an EP “Harpejio” during this time.

In the summer of 2023, Kanude separated from his wife Elizabeth and moved full-time to Nashville, Tennessee where he had been back and forth since Americana Fest 2022. His ex and kids, now in middle and high school, remained in the house in Virginia that had been purchased in 2019.

After arriving in Nashville, Kanude joined the Nashville Songwriters Association and began performing regularly at many writers’ rounds. Quickly he found a drummer Bobby Blazier (Michael Martin Murphey) and guitarist Chris Rodriguez (Generation Radio Kenny Loggins, Keith Urban) whom he recorded new songs with and performed in September 2023 at the New Faces night as a trio at The Basement, owned by local music luminary Mike “Grimey” Grimes.

His latest singles in 2024 include “Catch One and All,” “Rise,” and most recently “Born Again in Tennessee (feat. The McCrary Sisters)” mixed by Grammy-winning producer Shooter Jennings at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles. That single was released on September 6, 2024.

Kanude and his team are planning more releases and tour opportunities for 2024-25.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Loaded question! I like to tell people half-jokingly sometimes: “I’m a 30-year overnight sensation.”
I think that about sums up your question! 🤣

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a hyphenate. And it’s really in the sequence of the natural order of creation and my experience:

• Writer
• Composer/Songwriter
• Recording Artist
• Music Producer
• Recording Engineer
• Mix Engineer

I guess I’m known for being fairly eclectic with multiple styles of music even side-by-side on an album sequence (across the larger umbrella of singer-songwriter rock/americana genres). When people ask me what genre music I perform, I say “Americronica.” It’s even the name of a song on my 2017 album “Colors.”

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I had a conversation with a co-writer of mine here in Nashville just this afternoon about how maybe in 20 or 30 years, I’ll be able to hire a couple of life-like androids that sweat, play their instrument like nobody’s business, are funny and cool, perform incredibly on stage. And then, after the gig, I can power them off and put them in a road case. Don’t have to pay for a hotel room, royalty splits, etc. Replace every human being in my band with a robot? Probably not. Would I consider the possibility? Perhaps. But then I’d have to train the guitar tech to also be a robot tech. Does that mean we have to pay him or her double?

Contact Info:

• Website: http://kanude.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/kanude
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/kanudeofficial
• Youtube: http://youtube.com/kanude
• Other: http://linktr.ee/lightstone