Mixtape: when the road calls by Dans Karagannis
Groovy, floaty, synthy, dreamy soul for groovy, floaty, synthy, dreamy souls.
This month’s mixtape1 comes from Dans Karagannis—a writer, director, photographer, and friend based out of Los Angeles whose work focuses on the city’s niche communities and the evolution of their ragtag, non-conforming cultures.
The music snobs out there2 should know that Dans also has legitimate industry credibility, as evidenced by her tenure at California’s world famous Amoeba Music and her time spent photographing all your favorite musicians, from Brian Wilson to Karen O to Spoon.
Dans is the definition of a hustler.3 She has irons and always keeps them in the fire. Whether she’s venturing around Venice to capture the beach’s iconic skate scene, or developing a movie (that she wrote and is slated to direct) about her time at Amoeba, she’s always floating, bouncing, on the move. And so we’re extra thankful that she carved out the time to share with us the music she turns to when she needs to retreat and keep herself grounded… by riding out to the desert.
Give when the road calls a listen and read our discussion below.
Listen → when the road calls by Dans Karagannis
GREEN BANANAS: Walk us through your mixtape! Or should I say drive us through it.
DANS KARAGANNIS: My appreciation and curiosity in music has skyrocketed over the years. Previously I was centered around rock and roll. Then the second half of 2019 and into 2020—because of quarantine, the pandemic, and completely unrelated reasons—music became a life line. I dove deeper, so much deeper, into music, not just sonically, but through the meaning, the history, the stories. This draw, this need, it expanded my prior umbrella of mostly rock and roll to the vast umbrella of soul, funk, psychedelic soul and funk, groove, rhythm and blues, and disco, whether straightforward, layered, or abstract.
At the time I made this playlist I was prepping for a solo desert trip to ground myself from the transition of 2020 into 2021. My need at the time relied heavily on tones that encompassed both groovy and chill. These tunes washed over me with a sense of ease as heading down that desert road and what it meant to be out there with an open mind.
A solo desert trip!4 So what does that look like? How does this music fit in?
This mixtape provided a dreamy, floaty space while welcoming a desert stay. As I spent my days and nights in the crisp air. In the quiet, in its peace. As writing, as photo'ing. The AirBnB was hella groovy, endless ambient and mood lighting, like living in a gentle, warm, transformative, art installation that was utterly inspiring, surrounded by panoramic views of open desert and mountains. This music carried me through. That be on the road, as entering this space and moment. At sunset. Through the late night. Driving deeper into the desert to catch and sit with the sun as it rose. As embracing. As taking in the Now.
Beyond this trip, I've listened plenty, mostly tuning in before bed, when winding down, reading, journaling, sitting in the comfort of stillness and breath.
What was the first song you added to this mix?
“If Not For You” by Shakey Graves. I've always loved music for the words and poetry element, although this mixtape was more reliant on evoking a feeling through sonic textures. This Shakey Graves tune relies on blues, in a way that I feel awakens those desert senses of open spaces, open adventure, a wild wild west, while still being upbeat and making that first song choice all the more inviting.
It’s important for the opening track of a mixtape to be inviting, but now that you mention it, it’s just as important that the first song you add to the mix is inviting to you, too. So do you have a favorite moment on this mixtape?
The transition from Michael Kiwanuka’s “Place I Belong” into Jungle’s “Casio” gets me every time.
I really don’t want to use the words “chill” or “vibey” to describe this mixtape (mostly because I don’t love the words “chill” and “vibey”), but also because even though this mixtape is chill and vibey, those words fail to capture the full essence of this mixtape. The sounds here are just a little off-kilter, a little haunted. What I’m trying to say is that it sounds like there’s a ghost trapped in your mixtape.
Damn, a ghost trapped in this mixtape! I’d be curious to hear more of your experience with this.
I mean, if you insist: First of all, it’s not a scary ghost. I’m not sure it’s necessarily a friendly ghost either, but the ghost is definitely present. “Hot In The Shade,” for instance, sounds a lot like some kind of haunted hula.5 And then there’s that Shaky Graves song which is kind of like the ghost of Radiohead’s “Creep” which is actually the ghost of “The Air That I Breathe” by The Hollies…6 Or, it could just feel eerie to me because I’m not familiar with most of the individual songs on this mixtape, yet I still feel like I really click with it. In fact, I have this strange impulse that I could make another version of this mixtape using none of the same songs or artists.
YES! Which is precisely what happened to me, my continued rabbit hole, it's a really fun rabbit hole to be in.
Rabbit holes are an interesting image to bring up here because, to me, this mixtape is about searching for something, but it’s not about chasing anything. There’s a casual confidence at play here, as if the music is saying, “Yeah, I’m looking for this thing, but I’m just gonna let it come to me.
Love that.
You used to work at Amoeba Music. It’s obviously had a major impact on you as you’re making a movie, INSOMNIA!, about it—but how did working there impact your taste in music?
Grad school is when I transitioned from mostly indie music to rock and roll. So working at Amoeba, you have yourself rock and roll paradise. Got my first turntable, was building my record collection, in addition to what my Mom gave me of theirs—which was all your must rock bands like Zeppelin, The Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, The Who, The Beach Boys. My love for Stevie Nicks and Bowie imploded.
It wasn't until I bid my farewell and set out to write my feature INSOMNIA!, inspired by my time at Amoeba, that's when I got real lost in it. Amoeba shifted something in me, turned on this innate curiosity for that world, music, in all of its nuances. Then with my psyche living there since, as writing and getting this film made, the curiosity has grown far beyond what I could have ever imagined and I'm better for it.
Okay, you mention Bowie. I thought for sure there would be a Bowie song on here considering you made a movie based off his character Major Tom from “Space Oddity.” How close was Bowie to making the cut?
The Starman wasn’t close, he’s a rock and roll alien.
So what’s next for you and where can people find your work?
Next for me! INSOMNIA!’s cruisin’ and groovin’. Got my fourth and fifth short films lined up. And growing upon an on-going photography series called VENICE, which focuses on societal themes and the skate scene of Venice, CA. You can check out this series and poke around my shorts at dans-karagannis.com and can find me on Instagram, too. Feel free to say “hi!”
Thanks again to Dans for delivering a great one. She really is busy and we really do appreciate her spending her downtime sharing with us how she spends her downtime. It was truly a risky move—I mean, if she’s not careful while she’s developing INSOMNIA! she could develop insomnia!
Housekeeping: As the weather gets warmer and the world starts to open up again, we’ll be scaling back the mixtape schedule here from twice per month to once per month. That said, we’re taking inspiration from Dans and already have a couple of irons in the fire for the next couple months.
Alumni Spotlight: Our pals Anna, Niki, and Forrest over at Little Fish in Echo Park were just featured in the Los Angeles Times for their fish sandwich! If you haven’t already: go get a sandwich, subscribe to their food newsletter, and check out their Green Bananas mixtape—it’s dance music for doing the dishes.
Also, you know, subscribe here for more mixtapes like this one. Big things coming next month. Big things.
Stay safe. Stay sane.
FYI, Green Bananas are now delivered monthly.
Or, everyone subscribed to this publication.
Specifically, the definition of hustler that says, “an enterprising person determined to succeed;” not the definition that says “a prostitute.”
I’ve heard of desert island songs, but desert “I” land songs?
I’m not saying any of this makes sense, but ghosts as we know them do share the same sinuous body movements as the hula dance.
Publicly disclosing here that one day I’m going to steal that Shakey Graves song and put it on a mixtape with “Creep” and “The Air I Breathe.”