Meet Sebastian Konnackel of Kitsune in Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sebastian Varghese.

Sebastian, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up in Oman, a small but beautiful country in the middle east. I had a penchant for rhythm for as long as I can remember. As a child, I would constantly drum on everything around the house including plates, couches, tables et cetera and anything else I could get my hands on. My first introduction to an actual drum kit however, happened when I joined my school’s Brass band in the 4th grade. That’s when I actually sat down with a kit and realized, “Hey, I might not be bad at this”. Unfortunately though, my bandmaster didn’t quite see my potential right then and made me stick with playing the Trumpet, which I continued to do so for the next three years, even though I was quite terrible at it. He did eventually relent though, and let me play drums for the band. By then, I had already taught myself quite a few songs and I’d like to think I was quite decent at the instrument.

That didn’t last very long however, since the school disbanded the brass band since the bandmaster had fallen ill and had to return back home unexpectedly. I didn’t have access to a kit after that and despite repeated attempts, my parents refused to send me to a music school and as a result, I ended up taking a very long break from drumming. I managed to pick it up again when I was doing my Bachelor’s in Electronics and Communication engineering at BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore. That’s when I started forming my own bands and started playing shows around Bangalore. This was also when I started developing an interest in audio engineering.

I heard about Musician’s Institute in LA during the final year of my Bachelor’s. Not really having an interest in pursuing a career in Electronics, I decided to take a leap of faith and applied for the Certificate Program in Audio Engineering. Once I graduated from my Bachelor’s, I had about six months before I had to move to LA to attend Musician’s Institute, and I spent this time working as a freelance writer for organizations like Textmercato and Pepper Inc.

My time at Musician’s Institute completely changed my life. I played for a variety of bands from the school including Saint Ee Ha, Scofield et cetera while honing my skills in Audio Engineering from the amazing faculty present there. This is also where I met my incredible talented current bandmates in Kitsune. We dropped an album “Nothing makes me Happy Anymore” in December 2019 and have subsequently released a few singles including “Dear Mom”, “Grief” and “Blackpill”. I’ve had the pleasure of working with some amazing musician’s, almost all of whom I met at the school.

During my certificate program, I also interned at Tim Pinch Productions from April 2019 to July 2019, where I did the live mix for and recorded a series of legendary Jazz artists like John Pisano, Steve Hass, John Leftwich, Dan Sawyer, Ken Wild et cetera for John Pisano’s Guitar Night at Vivo Rancho Cantina, Burbank.

After my six months Certificate Program in Audio Engineering, I did a three month emphasis quarter in Post Production Engineering as well at MI. This opened up a whole new world for me in terms of Audio Engineering. By the end of the quarter, I had worked on a video game, “The Friendship” as an SFX artist and as an Assistant Audio Editor for a fantastic short film “Fruitless”. I subsequently worked on a few more films as a Foley Artist after I graduated from MI like “Getting It” and “Dye Red” and a few other yet unreleased short and feature films with my classmate from MI, Mathias Villeroy at Ugosound Studios in Burbank.

I have also recently dropped a single with my close friend and bandmate from Saint Ee Ha, Kazuki Tokaji called “At the Helm of Despair” featuring bassist Sola, engineer Keioh and the world-renowned keyboardist Derek Sherinian, who has played for artists such as Dream Theatre, Planet X, Sons of Apollo and countless others.

Has it been a smooth road?
It has been anything but a smooth road for me. Convincing my parents that I wanted to be a Musician and Audio Engineer was perhaps the hardest struggle that I’ve had to overcome. It took a very long time, and I had to teach myself everything I knew about music and start playing shows with bands I had put together back home to prove to them that this path could be a viable option for me. However, since then, they’ve come around and now support me in all my efforts.

Besides that, moving to the United States and starting from scratch was the next struggle. I had to come out of my previously introverted shell and teach myself how to effectively network and build contacts in order to be a part of all the projects that I ended up working in.

Can you give our readers some background on your music?
Me as an artist, primarily identify myself as a drummer. I specialize in modern metal drumming, mostly progressive metal. However, genre is no bar for me and I have played for artists from a variety of genres such as pop, reggae, hard rock et cetera. My ability to play all of these genres despite being a completely self-taught musician is perhaps what I am most proud of and at the same time, I feel it is what sets me apart from most formally trained musicians.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Most of all, I love the cultural diversity that LA houses. I have met and interacted with people of all cultures and all walks of life throughout my stay here in LA. Also, the food. This is the only city that I’ve lived in where I can have English cuisine for breakfast, Japanese for lunch and Arab for dinner, all while only having to walk a few blocks between each restaurant.

And honestly, there’s not much to dislike about this city. The high cost of living is probably what bothers me the most haha.

Contact Info:

• Phone: 3239482457
• Email: seb.varg93@gmail.com
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN4AM6mR-XLlQ6Yzh5SdNyw

Image Credit:
Jessica Christian, Jean Kim

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