Cool n’ conceptual talks w. TOKiMONSTA

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Cool n’ conceptual talks w. TOKiMONSTA

TOKiMONSTA is one of my favourite artists on the scene at the moment. Signed to FlyLo’s Brainfeeder – the intriguing producer has more than once caught me off-guard with her fascinating stylistic arrangement and asymmetrical melodic compositions. After graduating from the 2010 Red Bull Music Academy – she has brought us the stunning Midnight Menu and Half Shadows albums. Drifting somewhere between jazz, trap, quirk, ambient and a whole lotta bass, TOKi knows how to blow your mind open – and has no real issue with doing so.

I had a chance to chat to TOKi ahead of her upcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand (check ya tix here y’all). Jumping into a no holds barred conversation, things got interesting – if not a little academic – and we had no real issue with doing so.

In my opinion you’re an interesting example of intersectional music – your music is a real pastiche not only of culturally based genre but also subversions of gender paradigms. Do you see yourself as an amalgamation of different elements?

I guess so but I mean I don’t outwardly do it. There’s no intentions behind my music to be an amalgamation of different influences – I just a natural result. The music that I make, it’s a production of the things that influence me and a lot of those influences are related to my culture and my gender and so forth.

I think there’s something cool in that. We’re living in such a mismatched digital age that it seems pointless to draw influence just from one place. What do you think are the primary challenges facing music makers today – and how do you feel about the concept of originality?

We live in a different era to how we’ve ever lived before. If you look at the world, it’s such a stupid buzzword but the idea of ‘globalisation’ is true. There aren’t many ideas being made that cant be transferred over the internet. One struggle that I see musicians facing nowadays is over saturation. It’s weird because it’s a blessing and it’s a curse. For me I really like the idea that musicians can create music and it’s able to be heard. Imagine in the past, there must have been a plethora of music would have gone unheard because musicians wouldn’t have had a way to share it. Now we have different mechanisms to share music and that is a blessing. The other side is that we have a constant amount of music coming out and there’s a way in which the industry itself is starting to devalue music – because there’s so much coming out from so many different people from so many different places. That’s my main concern for musicians and everyone heading into the future.

As for originality, I think that it still exists but not in the same way that it did before. I’m a key example, y’know? I feel like am the result of everything around me and all the things I listen to and experience, but my experiences are now shared with everyone else a lot of people are starting to make the same types of music. People didn’t used to be interconnected. Like the people in Detroit developed Detroit sound and it wouldn’t have had too much reach beyond there. Now it’s like, if I grew up listening to animé soundtracks, there’s probably a kid in Poland who is listening to the same soundtrack – he might make similar music to me because we had the same influences. So it’s a different kind of originality that’s more multifaceted.

I find that really interesting – do you think that there can be a danger in taking a style or genre out of it’s social context?

Yes. And there’s a history of that, it’s always existed. A key example, is it happens a lot in fashion – where people will take things out of context. Just look at the Met Gala in New York, I think the theme was ‘Into the Looking Glass of China’, so these people came out in these dresses that were designed with China in mind – and there’s a fine line between what’s appropriate in the context of that culture and what is an appropriation or a mockery of it as well. With music you have something that comes out of a very humble beginning – look at Footwork that has come out of Chicago – people not from there hear it and think that it’s really cool and manipulate elements of it, not understanding why it was made and how the scene emerged. It’s also troublesome in itself to overcomplicate that stuff as well. Sometimes you like what you like and you move forward with it – so I’m torn between those two schools of thought.

There’s a lot of conceptual pulls. So we’re looking forward to seeing you here in Australia on your upcoming tour. You’re gonna see me frothing in the crowd. So I know you’re asked about your live show a lot and how it works. I watched an interview where you were talking about the concept of live remixing – when you’re doing that as performance, how do the concepts of spontaneity and improvisation integrate?

I think that there’s more room to be creative with a set up like that – you’re not just linking two tracks together (laughs). For me and my take on my live performance, there’s a few things I want to accomplish. I want the audience to enjoy what they’re hearing, the second goal is for me to enjoy what I’m doing, and the third goal is for us to have a shared experience that’s truly unique. If someone goes to my show two nights in a row it wont be the same. For me the improvisation comes from different elements I have set up. So I can pull in and out different layers of music on the program – I’ve set everything to a certain BPM so I can do things on the fly and no matter what i can bring in it’ll kind of work. I can definitely mess up and I’ve messed up in the past but if i’m mixing something live and something comes in that’s off key or not on time – I think that there’s some character to that. When I’m watching other musicians and they’re super pristine – even if they’re doing it live there’s something not super… I don’t want to say endearing – but when we’re musicians performing live and there are errors like a mic feeding back or something strange happening or someone tripping over a kick drum – those things are cool to me and they remind me that this is really happening, it’s really live. I’m not watching a DVD or a YouTube stream.

I agree. I think it’s an interesting throwback to the acoustic ages of old where you would get those endearing flaws. It reminds us that electronic music is really versatile and can be played with.

Exactly.

So now I’d like to talk tech – what is your favourite software or device to use at the moment?

Always Ableton – that program has revolutionised electronic music in a lot of ways. It’s interesting how many artists have switched over to that platform for producing. You know you have the production and live aspect – so even if you don’t use it to produce music you might use it to perform live. Either with backing tracks or launching clips. I use it for both. Originally I used Fruity Loops for production and I only used Ableton to perform live – this is like three or four years ago – but since then I’ve done everything exclusively on Ableton. It’s great, and has great qualities for me to use – but there is something that I can hear in the music, not just phonically but stylistically the way that people build their tracks – I can hear the Ableton workflow.

I also use Ableton and love it – I wonder with the recognisable workflow, do you think that’s a good thing or do you use different processes to distance yourself from that recognisable sound?

I guess with Ableton there’s the idea of looping right? Like everyone’s able to loop things over and over again – and that’s what I’m hearing a lot of the time. People pulling out things and adding them back. For me I guess – and I attribute this to my classical training – but with my music if I have something looping in the background I always make sure I’m freestyling the melodic component and making something that’s not repetitive. Whether that’s 16 bars of a piano solo – without wanting to sound too cheesy – but some element like that. Something that breaks up the monotony of the repetition. Obviously there’s different aspects. The idea of using live instrumentation and mic-ing things give a different phonic quality. A lot of those programs have their specific sound – for example you can often tell if something’s been compressed on Reason or with Fruity Loops – I just think Ableton has a sort of Ableton-y sound.

tokimonsta_mutek_2013

I think you can definitely use those concepts of asymmetry to break up Ableton – you can kind of dictate what you want it to do as opposed to letting it intuitively work for you. So to take this chat in a different direction – I wanna know who you’re listening to. If you were to curate a party – who would be on the bill?

That would be very difficult. Shit. [laughs] I cant even think right now. I guess it would just be easier to say idols. I would really want Bjork, she’s one of the few people that I look up to that I haven’t seen before. I just imagine her show should be amazing. It’s really hard to say who else because if it was me having my own event – it would be people performing live. Sometimes I like peoples records more than I like their performances.

Haha, I like that! It’s sassy.

Over the course of the years I’ve been able to see most people I really admire perform. So yeah, this one’s kinda hard and I don’t know how to answer it without making too much about it or offending someone or offending myself [laughs]. So for now I’ll just say Bjork, she would headline.

She would be amazing. Is there anyone who you’ve seen who has surprised you with their performance style?

Yes there’s always a lot. [pauses] Crapppp. It’s so funny because I see so many producers now – we all play the same festivals and I see people over and over again – I guess it’s always interesting to see someone who does something different. ">Flying Lotus’ current liveshow is pretty fucking amazing, to say the least, inside his cube.

It’s incredible.

I just sit there with my jaw open and think this isn’t fair? Why cant I have something like this? As for others, I’m trying to think back. The Weeknd’s show has changed a lot, it’s kind of become this big production which I really respect.

I find that live shows are increasingly integrating aesthetic production values, is that something that you look into with your show?

I do have a live visual show – I’m unfortunately not bringing it with me to Australia – it’s like a 3 to 5 meter panel and we have visuals projected. It’s sometimes two panels with layers depending on the size of the venue. It’s really cool to have a visual show – I feel as though it makes the performance distinctly a concert. When people see me it’s just me on stage with my stuff and you have to be realising – it’s not always super exciting besides from me being a dork on stage – but when you have a live visual component it really makes a distinction and creates an environment that is entirely immersive and plays with the idea that the senses really go hand in hand with each other.

Follow TOKiMONSTA on Soundcloud, Twitter & Facebook.

Follow Izzy on Twitter @Izzy_Combs

Check out the tour dates here.

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