Headed across the Tasman this summer to play Earth Frequency’s tenth anniversary event, New Zealand’s K+Lab has been keeping himself busy this year.
The last couple of years for K+Lab... it seems you’ve toured every part of the globe. How has the trip been so far?
It’s been insanely fun. The best part of touring has been meeting and performing alongside many of my musical heroes. If I travelled back in time five years ago and told young K+Lab what I’d get to do I wouldn’t believe me; I’d also be tripping balls that I can time travel.
As we near summer time, do you have any new tunes ready to be unleashed?
Always. The last month or so I’ve been keeping close to the studio and going hard on remixes. I’ve recently finished one for Opiuo and Gift Of Gab of Blackalicious as well as finalising ‘Spacedirt: The Remixes’, which is a compilation that features nine different artists remixing my album — some absolute bangers in there!
You’re the owner/ director of Junkfood Recordings... how busy does that keep you?
As of lately, very busy due to the pending remix album. But to be honest this year in general the focus hasn’t been so much on Junkfood as I had planned to release with some labels in other countries, which went really well. We’re still looking at keeping Junkfood as a record label, but it will soon double as a clothing label which we’re really excited about. Leon, the other half of Junkfood, always says: “T-shirts are the new CDs for musicians”.
Do you enjoy the process of assisting other artists by releasing their music?
Of course. It’s great to have artists from around the world join our family; exposing New Zealand artists to an international crowd is really rewarding.
You’ve recently moved from Wellington to Auckland... much change to your world?
It’s been good to be in the hometown of New Zealand’s most popular dance station, George FM. They’ve shown a lot of support since being up here. Being able to listen to George FM on a daily basis has been good with keeping up with what’s happening within EDM on a global scale.
The music scene in both cities... is it vibrant?
Very. Wellington has a lot of epic musicians living there that are playing on a weekly basis. There’s a place called the Matterhorn where you can rock in for free and see a funk band called The Eggs that features members from Fat Freddy’s Drop, Phoenix Foundation and Rhombus – always a good time. Whereas the scale of the shows in Auckland are a lot larger, and there’s a big, future-beats scene at the moment. While drum & bass gigs always crank over here.
Battle of the Tasman, forget All Blacks and Wallabies; the ultimate test... koala versus a kiwi. Who wins? Don’t fib, we already have the answer haha!!
Yeah, how’d you know a kiwi would win? High five! Well kiwis do have those long beaks; maybe they’d have an advantage there, but koalas are deceiving with their cuteness, then they get all stabby with those razor-sharp claws.
What’s the one piece of modern technology you wish you had never downloaded?
Probably Pro Tools. It just sucked to use for writing electronic music. I spent two years using it before switching to Logic. I think I’d have another album out by now if I went straight for Logic, haha! Hindsight’s a bitch!
Can a world exist without smart phones and ubiquitous apps?
Yes, it did. It was called the ’90s and it was the best!
You’ve played Earth Frequency before... what are you most looking forward to playing the event again?
The line-up is nuts! A lot of my good friends are playing this time around so it’s gonna be a massive throwdown! There’s a lot to love about EF: killer soundsystem, epic stage, tidy venue, phat beats, beautiful setting and great people. What more could you want from a festival?
Outdoor festivals... do you approach them any differently to a club show?
My club sets tend to be more grimey and I take an ‘anything goes’ attitude, but with festivals I like to plan it out a bit more to suit the vibe of the festival and bring in more live-performance elements.
What are you packing away for this visit... any new re-edits, re-rubs?
I’m currently redesigning my set at the moment to be more ‘live’, so I’ve refreshed some older tunes of mine and I might have a special guest join me on stage for the show. There’s always plenty of new and unreleased tunes in my set, but lately I’ve been trucking away at a bootleg of Roots Manuva’s classic, ‘Witness’.
Where are you in terms of recording another artist album? Similar to what you produced with ‘Spacedirt’?
I’m really excited to get started on my next full length LP. I’ll be getting stuck in once summer simmers down and festival season wraps up. It’s good to take the inspiration from performing a string of shows and translating that energy into an album. I’ll have a few months of studio time after summer before heading over to the USA, Canada and potentially UK and Europe.
Your dream in-studio collaboration... who are you moving planets to spend time recording with?
My dream would be to write a collab album with DJ Shadow, The Prodigy, Little Dragon and Method Man all at the same time. Currently I’m finishing up a collab with Stickybuds from Canada, a good part of this year was spent writing the ‘Le Shakes’ EP with Dylan from The Upbeats, which was my first vinyl release — stoked to have some wax on my studio wall. I’m currently on the hunt for vocalists to feature on my next album. The Mic Smith, Sacha Vee and Analog MC will definitely be making a return.
What’s the one item you can’t travel without?
For flying, I can’t live without my headphones aka the screaming baby, drown-out device. I like to write music in the sky, there’s something about knowing you’ve got a certain amount of time stuck in a seat that’s really great for writing music.
You’ve been touring constantly for the better part of four year now... at any point did it become like a 9-to-5 job? And did you have to slap yourself back to reality?
Never. It’s what I’ve wanted to do my whole life. While it has its challenges, there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing. I feel weird when I’m not touring, there’s this thing called post-tour comedown when you’ve had a stretch of gigs that were awesome and you don’t want the party stop; it’s hard to slip back in to routine after you’ve had so much fun.
When you travel, what occupation do you list when going through customs?
Designer, which is something I do on the side. I used to list musician, but I seem to be ushered through a lot quicker since the change.
K+Lab plays the tenth-anniversary Earth Frequency Festival, which takes place at Ivory’s Rock from the 13-16th February, 2015.
