KR3TURE’s (pronounced “creature’) first show in Bend was just last January at the Volcanic Theatre and it was sold out. Electronic and modern live music fusion that defies any sort of category is what can be expected during a KR3TURE performance. All with the goal of connection.
The mountains of Santa Cruz is where KR3TURE calls home.
“[It’s a] very special place for me. I’ve spent a big part of my life there,” he recalled.
All you need is a guitar
KR3TURE got his first guitar for his 13th birthday. At first, there were lessons but pretty soon KR3TURE wanted to do his own thing.
“Even as a 13-year-old…I [was] like I’m over this. But I kept playing music on my own into high school and then in college is when I first started actually playing with other people,” KR3TURE told the Source. “I never intended to be a music producer. I never intended to be a music performer.”
During his college years, he would play at smaller gigs.
“I was in a funk jam band…[we] would play at pubs for beers.”
KR3TURE is a multi-instrumentalist. During college, he was gifted a saxophone, then learned how to play piano. Later, he met a singer he meshed with.
“It was just undeniably amazing music and a band came to us and shows came to us and opportunities came to us.”
The band was called Audiofauna.
In 2007, KR3TURE went to his first festival, Burning Man. He said this experience changed how he wanted to make music.
“[I thought] wow this is incredible…and witnessed the power of electronic music for the first time,” he said.
In a full circle moment, he then came back to Burning Man in 2009 to play his first ever original music as the Band Audiofauna.
The power of the garden
Surprisingly, KR3TURE doesn’t like most electronic music but what he enjoys most is “going to the garden and picking” different sounds.
“When you can borrow, it actually paints a beautiful palette in the canvas of a song.”
Then why electronic music? KR3TURE chose electronic music because he feels it gives the listener a full body experience.
“What you can get with electronic music… is the impact of the dramatic tension building…and the huge bass in the drops…that just doesn’t exist in live music,” he said. “Live music is more about the song, right? But it doesn’t have this sensory intensity.”
What is KR3TURE listening to these days?
KR3TURE’s go-to music currently? Ambient spa music.
“My nervous system is so fried these days with airports and being at loud festivals and events constantly,” he told the Source.
He also does some musician-based deep dives from time to time.
“Just this past week I’ve been listening to a lot of Olive Tree, who just passed. He was a local musician to Santa Cruz and we had some shared community.”
“I’m not a fan of that genre,” he explained, which is mix of pop and alternative. “But…I really appreciate the artistry and the melody and the production and I’m learning a lot…because the songs are well written and well produced.”
Early on, KR3TURE was listening to Pink Floyd.
“I was kind of obsessed,” he said. “And not in a good way.”
But since, he has expanded his horizons. Sophie Tucker is one singer he gave a shout-out to.
“What I really value is fun. It sounds cliche but it’s the fun energy of music. Sophie [has] got this fun, lighthearted energy and that’s kind of what I try to embody as well.”
A unique name
The name, KR3TURE, is unique. He told The Source that it was partly inspired by a friend who once greeted him with, “Hey, creature,” and partly by his love of nature. Together, those influences became the name KR3TURE. He keeps his actual name private.
“I’m also a plant ecologist by training and so I love fauna,” he said. “One animal’s name is a creature, right? So, I’m one animal and also, you’re a creature and were all creatures.”
KR3TURE’s ecology background shines through in both his personal life and his music. In fact, KR3TURE is a former UC Santa Cruz biology professor.
“I probably learned more from David Attenborough than I did from any of my formal education,” he said. “He says the word creature a lot, so you know, it just stuck.”
What can you expect from a live show?
KR3TURE’s website says, “making bodies move and spirits lift.” And it seems he does just that.
“My music is very like you can get down,” he said. “What I really appreciate is…root[ing] your booty on the earth…but also your heart in the clouds.”
KR3TURE says his most important part of his live shows is expanding the embodied experience and hopefully opening his audience up to some deeper wisdom based on their own experience. The goal is to make connections. Instead of standing behind a DJ table, he turns it to the side so it’s perpendicular to him, asymmetry or “Wabi-sabi” as he calls it. This gives him direct access to the audience’s vibe.
“I need to feel people if it’s five people or 5,000 people, I want to feel the crowd.” he said. “When I’m playing guitar, I want them to feel how I’m feeling in the music.”
He even took the Wabi-sabi inspiration and made it into a song with King Kairos.
“The guitar had a microphone in it, so it recorded all sounds, not just the guitar,” he said. In the song, the listener can hear King washing the dishes, and coughing.
“Instead of cleaning that up, or perfecting it, we kept it all in.”
Rings of Life
KR3TURE says that albums form only when inspiration strikes and for his music, never with a theme.
KR3TURE described his latest album name, “Rings of Life,” as a poetic way of describing tree rings specifically as a symbol or visual of each growth year. The thickness of the ring indicates water intake or the warm weather of a tree; every tree has a story.
“Just like rings on a tree, we have our own rings in life…our own stories to tell…our own scars etched into our bodies, he said. “We contain these kind of circle of ecosystems with family, friends, acquaintances and those that we impact.”
The album cover features a bristlecone pine, found in the Western U.S., KR3TURE’s favorite tree. It’s a tree known mainly for its longevity, the oldest of which is 4,700 and 5,200 years old, and its twisted, gnarled trunks that have fought to survive against wind, snow and rain.
“I have to feel it and love it,” KR3TURE said, when talking about his music. “And hopefully if we’re lucky, then that love transcends me and is felt and shared by whoever hears it”
KR3TURE
Fri, July 31 5pm
Volcanic Theatre Pub
In the Courtyard with King Kairos
70 SW Century Dr.
tixr.com
$32.43
This article appears in the Source July 9, 2026.
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