Feature
Not Quite 20 Questions with Eric Kleptone
(Photo by Tom Zed.)
I first heard The Kleptones because of the albums A Night at the Hip-Hopera and Yoshimi Battles the Hip-Hop Robots. Both are genius pieces of our modern data-overloaded mix culture. Pretty much everything else I've heard by The Kleptones since has had the same consistent standard of ingenius music usage, cultural criticism, and danceability. Eric Kleptone was nice enough to take the time to discuss his influences, his work habits, and digital culture.
HL: First, a simple question (that's probably not simple), analog or digital? Why? Do you prefer to listen to vinyl or mp3s? Which do you prefer to work with? How do you think digital music as far as availability and sound have changed the culture?
EK: For me, digital all the way. Obviously I grew up with vinyl and cassette, and I still have a few thousand slabs filling a wall, but as soon as I had enough cash to get my first sampler, I was sold on digital. I've spent too many years lugging big racks of synths and effects around, so now that I can do everything on one laptop, it's a dream come true really – The future I dreamed of has come true!
That said, if I had to choose between vinyl and mp3s, I'd probably choose vinyl, but only because mp3s can sound lousy at low (even 128K) bitrates – 90% of my own digital music collection is lossless, and I find it infuriating that there aren't more places to buy lossless music online - the file size isn't an issue now that broadband speeds have improved, so really there’s no excuse, unless you’re going mobile (and that won’t be an issue for much longer when cloud storage takes off). Also audiophiles can now moisten themselves with full 96Khz/24bit recordings – I’ve never been too fussy, although I did hear the SACD of Pixies “Doolittle” recently and it knocked me for six – awesome clarity and space.
(I should note here, before I get called out, that I am aware that the entire Kleptones catalogue is currently only available on MP3 – This is something we’re working to resolve by the end of the year!)
As for the way that the formats have changed the culture, it's really difficult to say, as I think we're still in the middle of a huge transition. I think it's sad that record shops are going out of business, as they're an important social hub, but I like the fact that the playing field has been levelled for a lot of artists – it's possible for them to get their product into all the same places as the bigger artists and labels and more besides.
Another odd aspect is that it's significantly altered the browsing experience for many – people generally know what they want before they go to iTunes or whatever. Hence the rise of music blogs - people want somewhere to go to find out what's new and good - none of the main music stores have managed to achieve that online as their taste can’t be trusted, so the fans have seized the power there also!
Personally I think that the online music revolution is instant karma for the way that labels handled the move to CDs - they overpriced them, ripped countless artists off by not updating their contracts and re-issued albums from poor quality masters, then tried to make you pay again once they realized they'd made a mistake. And they're still doing it – there are countless stories of artists being unable to get accurate accounting for digital re-releases, and it’s impossible to track all the places music is now being sold – as usual the labels use this to their advantage. They haven't learned anything.
HL: Do you find that your music comes from inspiration or perspiration? Is it a matter of hearing a snippet and thinking, "Hey, that would work great with this other thing" or a matter of trying to piece things together and gradually finding a way for it to work?
EK: You'll not be surprised to find out that it's a bit of both. There is always a seed of an idea - a sound, a progression or a groove that kicks it off, but after that time becomes elastic - it sometimes comes together in an hour, a day, a week, or it gets thrown in the "failed experiments" folder to be exhumed a year or so down the line. I never throw anything away - every once in a while I'll dust down some old stuff and occasionally something will lock together that I couldn't get first time round, or inspire something new.
When I first started there was far more of a "throwing shit at the wall" way of working, but the success rate is not always that good - I do like to have a bit of an idea going in, even if it's just a mood. That's what made 24 Hours fun to do as I was looking for tracks that represented certain actions in the narrative of the album - Going to work, being in a club, dozing off in the afternoon, lying on a beach with the girl of your dreams etc...
HL: How would you describe the music you make as The Kleptones? Do you call what you're doing mash-ups?
EK: I do call it mash-ups, but only as it's now entered the culture as an accepted term - people I talk to get it immediately. Not all of the tunes are mash-ups, but it's a good enough catch-all for now. That said, I don't think many other people do it quite the way that we do - one quote I liked from a review said that we made "mashups for people who don't like mashups"!
Also in the next year there will be more remixes, and hopefully some production work, so things are stretching out, which is great.
HL: Do you think what you do is an overt statement on copyright and remix culture or culture in general (I'm thinking specifically of things like Mad Groove, but just in general as well)? Or is it you just wanting people to have fun?
EK: A Night At The Hip-Hopera was definitely an overt statement about copyright – however, everything we do is a statement about that, I guess, just by dint of it existing - it's up to the each listener to decide what they think about it, but I’m pleased that it raises the issue in people’s minds.
The speech from 'Network' in “Mad Groove” [from Uptime/Downtime] was something I’d wanted to use for a long time, it just needed the appropriate music behind it. But I strongly identify with it. I’m pleased that the era of passive home entertainment seems to be on the wane.
There is a message behind most of the music, even if it's just trying to hold an audio mirror up to reality, as in the case of parts of '24 Hours', or holding one up to myself, as in the case of 'Uptime/Downtime'.
I do want people to have fun, but I want people to think while they're dancing - most club/dance music has no message whatsoever (apart from "woo yeah"), and I think that's a wasted opportunity - people don't want to be hit over the head with ideas, but surely it's possible to do it subtly.
HL: You're doing full on A/V presentations at your shows. Who did the videos? Do you enjoy doing a full-on show like this or a simple DJ set more?
EK: The video side of it live is handled by a chap called Pete Wallace, who is a very experienced video artist and VJ - He's created some of the video material and also got a few other contributors to chip in. The music videos for "Uptime/Downtime" were also created by a large group of volunteers, as part of a project suggested and overseen by Tim Baker (aka Instamatic, and the host of the Radio Clash podcast).
The AV set is a lot of fun, and still in its early stages - we're getting better and better with every show. I can't be as free-form as I would be in a regular DJ set, but we’re working on that! At the moment I probably prefer the AV show as it really blows people’s minds, but it's also good to play for three or four hours with no set-list!
HL: You have a wide array of source material. Are your music listening habits varied as well?
EK: Oh yeah. Everything that goes into the tracks is already loved by me - I can't use stuff that I don't really like, unless it's being used in a humorous context. So no Lady Gaga, sorry.
I listen to pretty much everything - I've always been inspired by DJs (both radio and club) that play across the genres - About the only thing I can't really stand is the nastier end of commercial pop - it's like aural Nutrasweet. Oh and I've never been able to get my head around opera – love the overtures though!
HL: Who are some people that have influenced your work in remixing/mash-ups?
EK: When I was in my early teens, a friend of my older brother made me a mixtape that he'd done just using the pause button on his tape deck. It wasn't dance music, it was a mixture of prog rock, ambient synth stuff and spoken word snippets - it absolutely blew me away, so I started emulating it in my own way (and destroying a few tape decks in the process, much to the annoyance of my father, who had to try and fix them!). That really got me started.
The next big influence was probably hearing The Art Of Noise and pretty much everything that came out in the first couple of years of the label Zang Tumb Tuum – Mostly the work of producers Trevor Horn and Steve Lipson. It was the first time I'd heard found-sound sampling and almost music-concrete techniques used in a pop context - that made me want to get a sampler. It was also the first time I’d been exposed to the concept of remixing – they released multiple versions of their singles, often containing very extreme reinterpretations of what was originally a three minute song.
The final piece of the formative puzzle was hearing Negativland for the first time, on (where else?) John Peel's radio show. The next time I was in London I found a copy of their "Escape From Noise" album, took it home, played it, and the top of my head blew clean off! The combination of humour and deeply creative cutting and pasting was, and still is, awesome.
Thinking about it, one connecting link between the above three was the way that the choice and juxtaposition of the source material was used to communicate the personality of the artists – electronic music up to that point (which I was also very much into) had always been criticised as being un-human – this seemed to rectify and even enhance the situation.
All these inspirations came into focus when I heard one of the first mashups that really defined the genre, Freelance Hellraiser's "A Stroke Of Genius" - that track proved that you could use this technique to create something that was (in my opinion) devastatingly simple, yet greater than the sum of its parts. Suddenly everything mentioned above came bouncing back up to the forefront of my brain and I realised that there was a great opportunity to utilise and build on it.
HL: Any artists/albums that you're really digging right now?
EK: Oh, all sorts. Arcade Fire, Besnard Lakes, Decemberists for when I want to bawl along; John Zorn, Inch Time, Trans Am when I’m tapping away and need buoyancy, LCD Soundsystem, !!! and a stack of “whatever it’s called this week” dance stuff when I need propulsion; that insane Bieber remix when I want to space out - That said, most of the new stuff I’ve been enjoying has been by established artists – there’s no-one new that’s really grabbed me yet this year – it is still only August though!
HL: So what do you do when you're not creating mash-ups/remixes?
EK: Sleep, eat, drink and fuck, like most other people. The Kleptones is pretty much full time for me at the moment, which is great, but I also nail together the odd website, do a fair bit of audio consultancy, and teach others how to use audio software!
HL: Any big projects coming up?
EK: The AV show has really been the big project of the year - We've dedicated quite a lot of time to getting it up and kicking, but now I'm going to start doing a pile of little projects - There's an album of off-cuts just out called Shits And Giggles – basically a stack of tunes that just never fitted on the albums, but still have redeeming features . After that I think I'm going to do a few EPs focussing on different styles and ideas - things that I'd like to try, but don't want to do a whole album of. Oh and some more remixes - The REM one I did for the X-Box game "Crackdown 2" has gone down well, and a few offers have come in off the back of that, which is nice :)
In between all of that, yes, there is a "next big project" in the planning stages, but that's going to be kept firmly under wraps for a while yet - it will be quite a surprise when it's released, but I think it will take at least 18 months or more to realise.
HL: Any words of wisdom you'd like to pass on to the readers?
EK: Never give up.
Categories
Newest Posts
Not Quite 20 Questions with Adam Forkner
Adam Forkner, he of White Rainbow, Purple & Green, and many, many others took some time to answer some of Hiram's questions about new psychedelia, equipment, and good times at crazy shows. | READ ARTICLE
Posted in: Interviews
Not Quite 20 Questions with Justin Duerr
Justin Duerr talks about the documentary Resurrect Dead, art, and music with Hiram. | READ ARTICLE
Posted in: Interviews
Profile: USF
Latest CISters USF (Jason Baxter and Kyle Hargus) lay down what they're all about. Grab their newest The Spray right now! | READ ARTICLE
Posted in: Interviews , Circle Into Square Artist Features
Not Quite 20 Questions with Cuzzo from Not the 1s
Hiram talks to Cuzzo (Eric Steuer of Meanest Man Contest and mic.edu) about his newest project, Not the 1s. | READ ARTICLE
Posted in: Interviews
Profile: Loden
Hiram talks to the newest beatmaker in the CIS stable, Loden. | READ ARTICLE
Posted in: Interviews , Circle Into Square Artist Features
Profile: Big Spider's Back
Hiram talks to Big Spider's Back about the upcoming album 'Memory Man' and how life's been treating him in the Big Apple. | READ ARTICLE
Posted in: Interviews , Circle Into Square Artist Features
Not Quite 20 Questions with Nathan Poell
Hiram talks to author Nathan Poell about his new book 'Post-Apocalypse Dead Letter Office,' regionalism, and how you brew beer in a pumpkin. | READ ARTICLE
Posted in: Interviews
Not Quite 20 Questions with Pollens
Pollens are a Seattle band that have an Afro pop-ish drone sensibility with 6 (although they only had 5 when I saw them) vocalists. It's one of the best things I've seen live in a long time. | READ ARTICLE
Posted in: Interviews
Not Quite 20 Questions with Grey Anne
Grey Anne is the kind of classic songsmith that puts heavy breaths in her songs. She's charming and witty and most of all she uses a loop pedal. | READ ARTICLE
Posted in: Interviews
Not Quite 20 Questions with Kasten Searles
Posted in: Interviews
