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Caktuz Talks Biggest Audience Yet, & New Indie Film With H.P.E News [PRESS]

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HIGH POINT — When Caktuz was growing up listening to music and discovering his talent for art and illustration through the local public schools, he tried to fathom where his imagination might take him.

Later this month, his destination will reach a national TV audience on a VH1 channel show based on the popular film “The Breaks.” With the biggest platform in his music and video career, Caktuz will play songs and act as part of a band on the TV series version of “The Breaks.”

The episode will be broadcast at 10 p.m. March 27. The series premier of “The Breaks” drew an audience estimated at 2.6 million.

Immediately following his appearance on “The Breaks,” Caktuz will release his latest visual album “W A N D E R L U S T” online. The video album, essentially a 90-minute movie, was filmed in High Point and features a dozen or more of his family, friends and local fellow artists.

“To me, this is all a dream come true,” Caktuz told The High Point Enterprise.

Like so many instances in the professional world of performance, the opportunity for Caktuz on “The Breaks” came about through personal connections and perfect timing.

His break in “The Breaks” emerged through a telephone conversation he had with Dan Charnas, the co-creator and executive producer of the show and a longtime friend and professional associate. Caktuz said he called Charnas on a Sunday at his home late last summer to catch up on their lives and projects.

Just as the conversation was about to conclude, Charnas asked Caktuz what he was doing musically. Caktuz replied that he was playing with go-go bands in Washington and working on a documentary about the musical genre.

“He said, ‘Really?’ Let me ask you a question,’” Caktuz recalled. “Would you be willing to put together a go-go band for a show? They were looking for a go-go band for that particular episode — it was scripted. So I just happened to call that day out of the blue.”

“The Breaks” is set in New York in the early 1990s as hip-hop and rap are evolving into music with wider appeal. In the episode March 27, Caktuz plays as a member of a go-go music band. Go-go is a style of music dating from the 1960s and 1970s that emerged out of funk and remains regionally popular in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

Right after the show concludes, Caktuz will tap into the timing to release “Wanderlust.” The visual album, filmed in High Point, traces a street hustler turned musician returning to his hometown that is engulfed with an ominous presence. “Wanderlust” also spotlights a love story and a touch of the fantastical.

“Through the story there’s drama and scenes. The music is mostly a character that drives the tone, the emotions, of the story,” Caktuz told The Enterprise. “In some parts there are total musical montages — in between, it’s dialogue.”

Caktuz, who lives and works among Washington, D.C., New York and other venues, proudly proclaims and celebrates his High Point roots and ties.

Filming scenes for “Wanderlust” in the city and featuring High Pointers in the videography allow Caktuz to pay homage to the hometown where he grew up, where he listened to old-fashioned vinyl albums as an adolescent from his father’s extensive record collection.

With both “The Breaks” and his “Wanderlust” video album, Caktuz wants his fans to realize his High Point roots. “I definitely take High Point into account in everything I do,” he said. “North Carolina is home, and I’m going to push that to the forefront.” SOURCE

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