Karneef maximizes his Montreal experimental roots and 'ultra-tuff jazz-pop' energy

In the afterparty haze of the early 2010s, in a tangle of shared gear, questionably legal venues and cramped apartment studios, a community of musicians in Mile Ex — powered by hard drives, MIDIs and cracked studio software — recorded the spirit of the moment.

There and then, alongside buzzing names like Grimes, Purity Ring and Cadence Weapon, Phil Karneef programmed his own quietly influential presence in Montreal’s experimental music scene.

A decade later, the singer/composer posted up at the Barr Brothers’ studio, surrounded by Grammy winners and L.A. jazz prodigies, bringing to life and shaping the character of pieces he initially composed by himself with his headphones on.

The title of the resulting album, It’s How You Say It, kinda says it all.

To Karneef, the means of deployment matter as much as the music. His jazz doesn’t march to the beat of genre or trend, but on instinct, precision and an ongoing curiosity about how sound is shaped, as well as how it lands.

Raised in rural Ottawa, Karneef started playing guitar at four, drums at nine and was fluent in computers before he could read.

His father ran a tech company dealing in Sun Microsystems machines and telecom infrastructure at the dawn of the 1980s.

“Communication was just such an integral part of everything that I did, even from such a young age,” he said.

Spending teenage summers downloading cracked sample libraries and pirated software, Karneef built a portfolio that would finally get him accepted into Concordia’s electroacoustics program in 2004.

But before his studies began, he was a frequent weekend visitor to Loyola Campus.

“(The electroacoustic students) were doing these playback diffusion concerts,” Karneef recalled. “It was before (Dolby) Atmos or anything like that. Just as many speakers as they could get their hands on, patched together through an analogue console.

“The sound would move all over the Oscar Peterson Hall. It was the craziest sound I’d ever heard,” he recalled.

From Commodore 64 to cracked Cubase, through analogue consoles to Pro Tools quantization, there is a distinct discipline in the way his programming gets with timing and tone that, today — nearly a decade removed from his last recordings — is further informed by personal, experiential upgrades.

With the initial composition on It’s How You Say It complete, Karneef sought outside input. He reached out to alto saxophonist Nicole McCabe, one half of the L.A.-based duo Dolphin Hyperspace.

She asked if he’d also like her bandmate, bassist Logan Kane, to give the tracks a pass. The pair returned inspired, elastic takes.

“At first I was like, ‘No, this isn’t what I wrote!’” he shared. “But the more I listened, the more I realized what they were doing. There was beauty in it I hadn’t even considered.”

That pattern repeated. Longtime collaborator and bandmate, drummer Max Lazich, patiently and precisely recreated certain programmed patterns live. Brad Barr, who shared studio space in addition to contributing to standout track “Back to Block,” lent perspective.

Over time, improvisational additions began to stick. Bass solos became melodies. Horns doubled lines that didn’t exist before.

“It’s the closest I’ve ever come to collaboration. They all added things that (challenged me) and made me go back and rewrite my own parts.”

Over the course of months leading to the arrival of the album, Karneef took opportunities to play the new sounds out live, debuting at last fall’s edition of POP Montreal. The live experience brings together drummer Lesage, saxophonist and “CEO of the band” Evan Shay, 2025 Grammy nominee Housefly on keys, guitarist Ryan Nadin and bassist Rodolfo Rueda.

At the helm, with his processors, his mic and an earnestly calculated, almost-but-never-quite over-the-top vocal delivery, Karneef exhibits a duality of presence that showcases his role as master of ceremonies with his sheer appreciation for the intricacy of the players surrounding him. He is part frontman, part fan and all charisma.

That cohesion is reflected on the album, which mirrors a musical personality that is precise, layered, unpretentiously serious and yet confidently unrelenting.

“It’s complicated music. And we’re trying to play it like pop. Weird pop. But the message is getting across. That’s what matters.”

He describes himself as a director, both in the studio and on stage. But he also sees the limits of control.

“In the studio, it’s for me,” Karneef explained. “Live, it’s for the audience. If I have a good time, too. That’s a bonus.”

As challenging as it was for Karneef to let go and give the talent he is surrounded with space to truly become part of his process, he smiled while acknowledging the lessons of the past and the achievement of the present, and a project he is proud to share.

“(Early on) I didn’t really appreciate what was going on around me,” he said. “I was constantly comparing myself to others. It put me in a place of superiority, and also made me feel like a giant imposter.”

But now?

“To have other songwriters lend themselves to what I’m doing compositionally — that’s what I’m after.”

It’s How You Say It doesn’t seek attention. It earns repeat listens by refusing to waste a second; dense and deliberate without being needlessly clever or over-thought.

“I used to think no one was doing what I was doing, that no one got it. But that’s just not the case. And that’s such a relief.” ■

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Karneef opens for Clown Core at MTELUS (59 Ste-Catherine E.) on June 26 as part of the Montreal Jazz Fest. This article was originally published in the June issue of Cult MTL.

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