I asked old Santy Claus for a little bit of music gear this past Christmas. Shocker, right? But this year it wasn’t a request for some gazillion dollar guitar or synth or the like.

I asked for a Korg Kaossilator. It goes for a little over a hundred bucks, fits in the palm of your hand, and is pretty simple. And very cool. And how did I decide I would dig one of these things?

In summer 2011 I caught Keller Williams at a show in the Outer Banks – pretty much by accident. He played a song called “B.I.T.C.H.”:

(If you haven’t seen Keller play, it’s worth noting that he plays an entire show by himself, looping drum parts and layering bass and guitar and vocals. I’m not a huge fan of hippie music, despite the best efforts of @unclecrappy, but from a musician and performer standpoint I was totally digging the show. Enough to see him again back here in Cleveland at the Beachland Ballroom late last year.)

So in the midst of this show he pulls out this little square touchpad-looking thing and starts swiping his finger around and dropping just sick, sick leads. You can hear what I’m talking about in the middle of the tune.

I spent a few months on and off searching the inter nets trying to figure out what that instrument was. That’s how I found out he was playing in CLE, and I tried to be very observant when I saw him again. But I was still a little too far away to get a good look at it.

I finally found an interview with him in which he mentioned that his favorite new instrument was the Kaossilator. Bingo. And then I knew it would make a great little addition to the songs I work on – and maybe for live performances with Skinny Moo, who knows?

Santa delivered. It is as awesome as I had hoped it would be, and I’ve already started incorporating into tracks that we’re working on now.