Gonzales 'n' K'Naan

Gonzales often says that his Solo Piano songs are 2-3 minute pop songs played on the piano. At the heart of that assertion is that fact that a good melody is universal – from Mozart to Smashing Pumpkins;

it’s coded in our constitution. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Canadian artist K’Naan picked up a couple of Solo Piano snippets to use on his latest album. What should be surprising is that way, way more artists haven’t done the same! Gonzales recently tweeted that his piano ‘ghost’ appears on two track of K’Naan’s latest album

Proud to be a part of @knaan ‘s new album (my piano ghost is on “Gold in Timbuktu” and “Waiting is a drug”)

— chilly gonzales (@chillygonzales) November 2, 2012

Here how “Armellodie” (from Solo Piano) was used as a theme for K’Naan’s song “Gold in Timbuktu”

K’Naan also used an “Oregano-like” sample as a backdrop to his song “Waiting is a Drug”. Gonzales indicated that he re-recorded the sample to better suit K’Naan’s song

There’s no doubt that the pure pop potential of songs from Solo Piano II will also be realized and sampled on subsequent records. Some people will abhor the idea of Solo Piano songs being used to underscore pop songs, but as Gonzales likes to say, the best way to save music is to make it a product of modern times!