ALMOST ALIVE (EVAN KANTER) ON ‘DEEP DOWN’
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Almost Alive’s new single is a full-throttle grunge statement… and it’s only the beginning. We caught up with Evan Kanter to find out what’s coming…
‘Deep Down’ feels like a real statement of intent - was there a specific moment you knew this was the direction Almost Alive needed to go next?
I’ve always tried to make music that I personally would want to listen to. The first time I created a true grunge track, I immediately felt there was something special there. It had that raw emotional energy and forward momentum that made me fall in love with rock music in the first place.
That moment really sparked the idea for Undercurrent. I realized I didn’t just want to make one grunge song - I wanted to make a full album that explored that atmosphere and sound.
Grunge is a sound with a lot of emotional baggage attached to it; Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden. What does that genre mean to you personally, and why now?
For me, that emotional weight is exactly what makes grunge timeless. Those songs still connect 30 years later because they feel honest and human.
Grunge was the first style of rock music I truly connected with growing up. It brings me back to hearing those bands on MTV or seeing live performances that felt larger than life. There’s nostalgia there, but also authenticity. A lot of modern music feels polished to perfection - grunge reminded people that flaws, emotion, and rawness can actually make music stronger.
The last couple of Almost Alive records went deep into cinematic, layered territory. How did it feel to consciously strip that back and lead with something this raw and immediate?
Honestly, it felt refreshing. After making two albums in that darker cinematic electronic-rock style, I wanted to challenge myself creatively and do something more direct and physical.
I still love the immersive, layered approach from albums like Pulse and Hypnotica, and I’ll absolutely return to that sound in the future. But with Undercurrent, the goal was different - less atmosphere, more impact. I wanted these songs to hit immediately.
There’s a real physical weight to ‘Deep Down’ - the guitars, the rhythm, the drive of it. How do you achieve that through an AI production process?
A lot of it comes down to experience and repetition. I’ve spent an incredible amount of time learning how to guide the AI tools toward the sounds I hear in my head.
With grunge especially, the challenge is making it feel human and energetic instead of overly polished. The prompts, arrangement decisions, lyric phrasing, and production direction all matter. My background in technology definitely helps me approach the process in a very iterative way.
And honestly, I just love this song. I’ve probably listened to “Deep Down” hundreds of times myself.
The lyrical theme - things beneath the surface you think you’ve dealt with but haven’t - feels very personal. How much of yourself goes into the writing process?
A lot of the emotional tone comes from trying to capture the feeling that classic grunge albums gave people. Those records were introspective, darker, and emotionally unresolved in a way that felt real.
With Undercurrent, I wanted the album to feel almost like a rainy Seattle afternoon in the ‘90s - reflective, heavy, and restless. Even when the lyrics aren’t directly autobiographical, there’s still a lot of personal emotion in trying to recreate that atmosphere honestly.
Almost Alive has always sat at this intersection of human emotion and machine precision. Does working in a grunge direction shift that balance at all?
Not really. The tools may be technological, but the emotional goals are still very human.
Whether I’m making cinematic electronic rock or grunge rock, the focus is always the same: energy, atmosphere, emotion, and memorable songwriting. Grunge just expresses those things in a more raw and immediate way.
‘Deep Down’ is the first single from Undercurrent - what does the rest of the album sound like in relation to this track?
I honestly can’t wait for people to hear the full album. Deep Down is a great representation of the core grunge energy, but there’s a lot of variety across Undercurrent.
Some songs lean heavier, some are more melodic, and others bring in more alternative or indie-rock influences. But the emotional thread stays consistent throughout. I wanted the album to feel like stepping back into a time when grunge and alternative rock completely dominated the culture.
Almost Alive stands for Technology, Creativity, and Family. Where does ‘Deep Down’ sit within those three values?
“Deep Down” really represents the intersection of technology and creativity for me. It’s one of the songs where people are often surprised to learn it was created using AI-assisted tools.
Family is still a huge part of the identity behind Almost Alive overall, even if this specific song isn’t directly centered around that theme. There are definitely other moments on Undercurrent where that side becomes more personal.
Your wife is a professional musician; does having that close to home change how you approach or evaluate your own work?
Absolutely. She’s incredibly supportive, but she also has very high standards because of her background as a professional musician.
Being around her - and around other musicians through her world - raises the bar creatively. It pushes me to think more critically about songwriting, melody, arrangement, and emotional impact. At the same time, she’s always given me space to build Almost Alive in my own way, which I really appreciate.
For someone who’s never heard Almost Alive before and ‘Deep Down’ is their first introduction — what do you want them to walk away feeling?
I want them to feel excited to keep going deeper into the project.
“Deep Down” is intentionally the opening track for Undercurrent because it sets the emotional and sonic tone for the album. If someone finishes that song wanting to hear “Hit Refresh,” “Orbiting My Own Life,” and the rest of the record, then I’ve done my job.
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