Saltbreaker is the wordless music project by Detroit based producer John Hanson. His latest album “Canopy Static” is a lofi-ambient album imagined from the perspective of plants.
Drawing on the idea that electricity, memory, and unseen rivers of thought move through air, soil, and stems, the album offers a quiet meditation on floral consciousness. Minimalist and immersive, it features guitar, synth, vibraphone, and Fender Rhodes recorded between March and July 2025. Designed for relaxation, yoga, meditation, and creative practice.
I caught up with John to talk about his early musical experiences, how he started playing music and the making of the new album.
CMM-What was the first music that really made an impact on you as a kid and what artist or band did you enjoy the most?
John-Great question. I really liked music a lot when I was a kid and some of the records that I listened to the most of were The Cranberries, Tom Petty and the Beatles. I listened to a lot of punk, hip hop and techno through different phases of junior high and then discovered “Indie Music” in high school. Favs included Modest Mouse, Built to Spill, Belle and Sebastian and Radiohead.
CMM-When did you start playing music and creating songs?
John-I started playing guitar in junior high and joined a friends band playing bass over those years. We played together in High School and played a mix of covers and originals. Once I got out of High School is when I started to develop my own songwriting and composing practice. I remember staying up late into the night playing fingerpicked guitar with friends perfecting songs together. In my twenties I started writing more lyrical music in the folk vein. Growing up in Northern Michigan there was a lot of influence from the seasons and nature. In my mid-twenties I co-founded the band Photographers with Maren Hoopfer and we did all of our songwriting together. A lot of melodic lyrical harmony. Later I toured with Frontier Ruckus playing bass for a couple years before settling into my two solo producer projects Strawberry Heritage and Saltbreaker. It’s really been in the last 5 years that I have made my primary focus making ambient music with Saltbreaker. I have also been co-producing ambient records with a Bay Area producer named Antrew Taetz for our collaborative project called YIMES.
CMM-You recently released a new record called “Canopy Static”. What was the writing and recording process like? What gear and instruments did you use during the sessions?
John-That’s right, Canopy Static just came out on 8/1/25, it is super minimal and relaxing. In February I needed to move my studio across the neighborhood into a smaller and less conveniently sized space… but as they say limitations are great for creativity. In this new space I had less equipment and kept production simple. Using a small pedal board (Hologram + Digital Delay + Ditto Looper), I used mostly guitar through a Fender 2X12 Deville. I used a SM58 on the speaker… so very basic recording technique. I would also run a Korg Minilogue through the same pedal board and amp for the synth sounds. I have an old Ludwig Vibraphone that I used with a KM184 overhead on it. A Fender Rhodes was the electric keyboard sound through a DI and everything ran through my Neve preamps. I sparingly used the Arturia Analog Lab to add a little organ or drone here and there. And then one breakthrough I had which was a fun use of a VST was the Teletone Audio Ondine Synth and running that into the Halo Effect plugin from Sound Better to sort of get a speckled synth sound. That Halo Effect plugin really made a lot of exciting new things happen in the production of this album. It randomized certain sounds and played things back in different octaves… I had a lot of fun experimenting!
CMM-If you could do a score for any film director, who would it be and what would the film be about?
John-This is kind of a tough one… I think Terrence Malick just because his films are so beautiful and simple, but that attention to beauty is really important to me. I wouldn’t need a drama filled story, I think there is plenty of wonder in the world and in the simplicity of nature… so maybe a film about a young person who discovers true meaning and purpose through challenges they encounter in the city and in the natural world, reflecting the universal nature of the personal growth journey.
CMM-Anything coming up?
John-Yes! I host an ambient night outdoors in my backyard when it’s warm enough outside … So I am hosting one of those late September. It’s been my rejection of the “show” – I am intentionally creating a non-commercial space, that isn’t so much about people coming to be entertained, but more about coming together to build community, and have a meaningful experience. It’s super meditative and I invite several different ambient artists to join in the set, so it’s sort of like a rotating cast of improvising musicians setting drones and playing melodies for 4 hours…truly a thing of beauty.
I also have a new release coming out September 5th which is an album of remixes from my past album Glass Aviary. With that release, I also released all of the stems to my community for people to remix at will. I received several submissions and I am so happy with the result! The artists who contributed really crushed it and gave a huge shout out to the Grand Rapids, MI artists for coming in strong! Detroit made some noise too!
Also the 2nd YIMES album is in its final mixing stages now and I believe we will be releasing our first single later on in 2025 and then the full album in 2026. So definitely stay tuned for that one! A huge collaborative crew on that record including Pat Sansone from Wilco on guitar, and mellotron.
