Kawnar

As an artist and local performer Kawnar, aka Connor McFarland, is hard to pin down. Throughout his musical output, the 21-year-old effortlessly switches between the roles of MC, songwriter, guitarist and producer.

His style is equally transient as he borrows heavily from hip-hop, dance, pop and even rock. Kawnar primarily made his name as an MC and producer with his 2008 debut Unclear and his collaborations with rapper/producer P.D.A. But the label of rapper or MC is something that Kawnar has been avoiding for years because of his Caucasian heritage, being called a rapper had negative connotations and stereotypes he said.

"I wouldn't have a problem with being called a rapper if it wasn't condescending in a way," he said.

Since the age of 14, he has diversified his musical resources teaching himself to play the guitar, bass and piano. He later attended school for audio engineering and recording; all in an attempt to escape being just a "white rapper."

His new release, BE DFFRNT, is to further remove himself from labels as he adds healthy doses of modern rock and pop to the mix. Part of the reason he stretches genres so far on the EP is to further prove he is not a one-dimensional rapper, he said.

The EP's namesake is a reference to the stylistic departure that he has taken during the creation of the record as compared to previous releases. Although it's called BE DFFRNT, he said, it's actually the most normal sounding project he has done in terms of style.

Kawnar will be formally releasing the EP with a free show at Bob's, which is next door to Cain's Ballroom, 473 N. Main St., on Friday, June 18. Sheree Chamberlain and The Ne'er Do Well are also scheduled to perform.

Aside from BE DFFRNT's mainstream pop style approach, the record is also his take on what the radio programming should sound like, he said. The result is an interesting mesh of diverse songs that have a catchy beat-driven production in common. Although every track on the EP is unique, most would nestle nicely in their own way next to the playlists of today's pop radio.

The upbeat "Timeless Sync" is a particular standout track that modulates from a funky dance floor verse full of synth stabs reminiscent of Justin Timberlake's solo material to a sweltering anthemic chorus.

"Wings of an Elephant" is a more laid back song led by a melodic bass guitar and a bass drum figure that has the rhythmic one-two punch of a well-trained boxer. Kawnar's staccato verse vocals are well augmented by a soaring smooth chorus where he sings, "Girl you're not that beautiful/ Girl you're not that beautiful/ So get your head out of those clouds."

Kawnar cited genre-bending artists such as Gorillaz and Andre 3000 as personal influences, which provides clarity for his own work. Both artists mentioned are able to experiment and absorb inspiration from a variety of styles of music, while retaining a unique identity. Kawnar's attempt to do the same is apparent in his catalog.

The 2008 EP Unclear is sample heavy and the most hip-hop oriented of all of his output. Kawnar calls it a "glorified mixtape" that he could not sell because of legal reasons, so he gave it away for free. Although the beats and keys of the album hit hard and often there are tinklings of guitar that would later become a much more prominent place in his music.

The beginning of 2009 found him collaborating on A Hard Week's Night with P.D.A. The 13-track project is a modern hip-hop recreation and sampling of classic Beatles tracks all done in five days.

It was a "weird idea" Kawnar said, that grew out of obsessively listening to The Beatles album Abbey Road for a week straight. "We locked ourselves in a room literally and just made music for five days," he said.

Also in 2009, Kawnar entered a songwriting contest to create a new theme song for the television program Lost. He came in second place, and his song received thousands of hits on the Internet. He saw an opportunity to incorporate the new season of the show into his songwriting for a kind of built-in exposure.

"I'm a big nerdy Lost fan," Kawnar said. The concept was to write a song every week lyrically based around the newest episode of the show. Unfortunately, fans of the program were too busy obsessively analyzing the show itself to pay much attention to his compositions. He lasted seven episodes.

"That (project) was a huge failure," he said with a laugh. The music he did compose demonstrated experimentations in tone and atmosphere and a diversification of instrumentation, which probably played a big part in his transition to the songs of BE DFFRNT.

Considering the origins of some of the material for the EP, it makes sense that BE DFFRNT would be Kawnar's most pop-orient work to date.

Last summer, he was approached by a music placement company in search of original music for commercials and films. One assignment he received involved writing pop music for scenes in a Disney film. Two of the songs he wrote for the project became the first two songs for BE DFFRNT. At the time, it occurred to Kawnar that he could make an entire EP in the pop genre that he was experimenting with, and the foundation of BE DFFRNT was formed.

Kawnar plans on revisiting his earlier sound and making a hip-hop and sampled-based Unclear 2. But he has to get back into the mindset of rapping again.

As a result of making pop songs, "every time I make music now I want to sing over it," he said.

But as always, he continues to be an artist in transition. The whole pop music stuff? "It's not a permanent thing," he said.

Kawnar will be performing a free show at Bob's Friday, June 18 with Sheree Chamberlain and The Ne'er Do Well.
- Urban Tulsa

This whiz kid calls himself Kawnar – but almost nobody else does.

Yet.

“Well, everyone always mispronounces it,” laughed the young Tulsa musician, producer, singer and songwriter.

So let’s say it together: “Conner,” as in Connor Scott McFarland, 2007 East Central High School graduate.

Yes, 2007.

The ambitious 19-year-old began rapping at age 8, and “went pro” at age 14 when he recorded his first song, he said.

But he’s more than a rapper. He’s a wizard of sorts, using his charisma as a charm, unifying an eclectic – and burgeoning – local music scene.

“My life has momentum, I can feel it,” he said during a recent interview at the downtown Tulsa World newsroom offices. “The scene is awesome, there are so many talented people here.

“Musically, in a bigger sense, Oklahoma’s often overlooked, which I don’t fully understand. People actually assume that I live on a farm,” he laughed.

Nope. He’s a clean-cut young white man, living in a bustling ethnic enclave smack in the heart of this metropolitan city.

And, the son of a drummer and harmonica player, Kawnar definitely
inherited a love of music – and dedication. In his short lifetime, he’s taught himself how to rap and sing, as well as how to play guitar, piano and bass.

Today, he owns his own in-home studio (“I saved every penny I earned since my first job at age 14,” he said) and has earned his broadcast and sound engineering certification from Tulsa Technology Center. He also records, mixes and produces music with local tastemakers such as P.D.A. and Malan Darras.

Friday, Kawnar will release his first full-length album, “Unclear,” at a CD release party at King of Clubs in Claremore. Often labeled a “hip-hop MC,” Kawnar crushes that constrictive perception with this disc.

Vocal raps, harmonies and melodies flow through the 16 tracks, which are layered with an energetic and comprehensive array of music samples, loops, beats and organic instrumentalization.

Standing at about 5-foot-8, Kawnar has created a record that looms large as a genre-busting powerhouse. Nothing about this album is predictable.

The disc opens with “Intro,” an exotic drum-and-bass piece that fl oats like exhaled hookah vapor. From there, “Unclear” combusts with a hot mix of R&B, pop, rock, rap, hip-hop, jazz, funk and soul.

“I used to do a lot of that ‘gangsta’ stuff, too, but you know, I didn’t feel respectable doing it. It wasn’t me,” he said. His lyrics are not free of curse words or harsh language – but they do not degrade women or glorify violence.

The banal, big-booty predictability of most popular hip-hop is cleverly averted on this disc.

And for good reason.

“Someday, I want to be the ‘ghost writer’ who writes someone else a hit song. . . . I want to be ‘man behind the curtain,’ ” he laughed.

The musician brought in a host of Tulsa hitmakers for this project, including hip-hop virtuoso P.D.A., rocker Congress of a Crow’s Danelle Phillips, rapper X-Cal, pop maestro Malan Darras, acoustic bluesman Ira Burton, Brandon Davis of alt-rocker My Solstice and more.

“I wanted to take some of them out of their elements,” he said.

“Simply put, they far exceeded my expectations.”

So much so that, if you didn’t read the track listings first, you just might miss their contributions – which is a remarkable feat in itself for Kawnar, considering how strongly these popular acts have identified themselves with their fans.

Always moving forward, Kawnar’s already working on his next project, which will be more R&B and rock-in- fluenced, he said. He plans to release it later this year.

“With this first disc, my goal was to create a buzz,” said the savvy songwriter.

“This next one’s gonna be even better,” he promised.

And by then, we’ll all undoubtedly know how to pronounce his name, too.


--Jennifer Chancellor - Tulsa World

My first exposure to Kawnar was via last year's Tulsa Original Music compilation. His track "Cocaine" was far and away a standout on the disc, an unbelievable catchy tune that bounces on an old school rap vibe while touting the addictive qualities of myspace.

When I finally met the face behind the music, Connor McFarland, he wasn't quite what I expected. He's an unbelievably talented 19-year-old bursting with energy, excitement and a refreshing love of music that is instantly contagious. It's hard not to get caught up in his enthusiasm when talking or just hanging out with him.

Even more surprising on first meeting is the breadth of his talent. Yes, he's a rapper who brings the fun and flow back to hip hop, but he's far more than that. While simultaneously recording three albums worth of material at the same time, he has tapped into his hip hop side for the current disc, Unclear, his inner pop and rock self for the forthcoming Making Sense of Nonsense, and even reworked some of his favorite songs to fit his personality and style for a disc to be eventually released as Eccentrik Kovers.

Yes, that's right. He's got plans to drop three completely different CDs on us in a six-month span, with the potential to tap into a huge cross section of local music fans. For the time being, however, it's time to focus on his debut disc, which features the song that caught my ear in the first place.

I jumped into Unclear and found it to be everything I had hoped for and been looking forward to--and a whole lot more. Not only is the disc built around an engaging mix of samples and beats, but it also plays to a variety of influences and draws from a pool of Tulsa's most engaging young artists.

Kawnar draws from the local pop, rock and experimental landscape. Cameos by Phantom, X-Cal and P.D.A. fit well with the overall focus of the album, but the addition of local rockers Danelle Phillips and Brandon Davis, indie folk-bluester Ira Burton and musical savants Malan Darras and Tim Casey make this a well rounded disc that can appeal to anyone.

Making the pieces fit

"It's like a puzzle," Kawnar told me. "You see a track listing and you just know this goes here or there. I see colors when I make music. I don't know why, but I see colors, and the colors tell me what number a song is going to be. Like, immediately, when I made "Cocaine," I thought of three--track three. Eventually, everything just falls into place."

Perhaps part of the reason it works so well is because Kawnar openly admits "I'm my biggest fan, dude. I listen to myself. I listen to myself. I'll be at work and just listen to my CD over and over and over again trying to get it right figure out what it is that I want changed."

Those changes are then quickly implemented, as McFarland is also his own producer and engineer. That's extremely impressive for a 19-year-old who's been doing this for five years and is so dedicated that he's poured all of his money and saving into recording equipment, assembling a studio setup that includes a full Pro Tools setup and a 26-channel mix.

While Unclear may be a studio creation, that doesn't mean Kawnar doesn't intend to recreate it in a live setting. The samples may dictate that some songs may need backing tracks, amongst Kawnar's alter-egos is the live performer that doesn't just rap, but also embraces live instrumentation. As such, his live band includes former Failsafe and Agony Scene drummer Pete Webb and Tucker Carter, the bassist for punk band Bill Murray's Prostate and lead singer in hard rock act Optimistic to a fault.

That may also explain Kawnar's affinity for collaborating with rockers like Brandon Davis of My Solstice, utilizing his true singing voice on "Puppy" and Malan Darras on "Create," which is built around a sample of a Tim Casey song. According to Kawnar, he came together with Casey as result of UTW naming them the two outstanding contributors to the previously mentioned compilation disc. After sampling one of Casey's tunes with a hearty nod of approval, Kawnar met Darras at an awards ceremony last year and the two immediately hit it off.

"He's been a like a big brother to me and just taken me under his wing," said Kawnar. "And he's by far one of the easiest people I've ever collaborated with. Once we talked about doing something together, I emailed him a track to listen to and he sent it back that same night with the vocals done and completed. That's just unheard of."

To close out the disc, Kawnar worked with Congress of a Crow's Danelle Phillips on the ambient and expressive "Lost," which also features a cameo by P.D.A. The collaboration produces stunning results, beautifully blending Phillips' voice and pop and rock vocal stylings with a hip hop sensibility that bridges the gap between audiences. The included appearance by P.D.A. just seems all the more appropriate here as he's been at the forefront of Tulsa's genre-crossing movement.

In fact, Unclear presents one of the first artists I've experienced since P.D.A.'s release of Act II last year that could successfully follow his trailblazing lead while still creating their own path. Unclear channels more of an old-school rap feel and keeps a lighter tone than P.D.A.'s virtual morality play, but Kawnar definitely has the charisma and talent to be a major player in the Tulsa music scene.

Kawnar's Unclear CD release party is at the King of Clubs this Friday night, February 22, in Claremore. Doors open at 6:30pm, with the show starting at 7pm, and the $5 admission includes a copy of the new disc. The bill also includes performances by Ira Burton, X-Cal, Trauma, and Optimistic to a Fault.

With any luck, we'll also get a preview of what he's already got in the pipeline for his next release. As an added bonus, rumor is there may even be complimentary beverages in the upper level for the over 21 crowd.

-G.K. Hizer - Urban Tulsa Weekly

The most impressive of the unknown quantities, however, is Kawnar his song "Cocaine" is the surprise treasure of the bunch. Grounded by slick beats and a simple, yet catchy guitar sample, Kawnar's slick rhyming immediately evokes Speech, Young MC, and early US3 as he declares that "Myspace is starting to become my cocaine..." - Urban Tulsa