Kilter On Sydney Nightlife: “We Have To Support What Is Still Left Instead Of Dismissing It As Dead”

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Kilter On Sydney Nightlife: “We Have To Support What Is Still Left Instead Of Dismissing It As Dead”

Kilter is an artist who truly embodies both hard work and natural talent, and over the past few years has gone from local bedroom beat-maker to an internationally recognised producer. And it really makes sense, the bloke has got it all down to a fine art.

Having just wrapped up a tour across Australia and New Zealand that spurred off the back of a successful European leg; we decided to catch up with Ned to chew-the-fat because, to be frank, it’s been a while.

Among talks of touring, his forthcoming album and local up-and-comers to keep an eye on, Kilter shared his views on the crippling Sydney lockout laws.

Be sure to catch him at Proud Mary’s this Saturday!

Stoney Roads: You recently finished up a stacked tour across Australia and New Zealand. It’s one thing to play sold out shows in your city, but what is it like to travel around playing to eager fans from different walks of life?

Kilter: It was a stacked tour! I’ve actually been lucky enough to tour Australia and New Zealand quite consistently over the last two years and one of the things I am finding most interesting about performing outside of my city is seeing my audience grow and change each time I visit. After touring as support for people like Little Dragon, Rufus and Hermitude as well as a few festivals it’s been really cool to see the fans I’ve picked up along the way get down to my own shows and allow me to play some big rooms myself.

SR: Your live show is a big part of the tour experience. You have a lot of gear on stage with you when you perform including the familiar drumsticks! For the tech heads out there reading this, can you speak give us a run down of what you use when you perform and what goes into a Kilter live show?

K: While it might seem like a lot of gear, the show has actually grown pretty organically so it’s not too overwhelming for me to perform. That said there isn’t much time for drink breaks! For the tech heads I run an all-hardware set up using a Roland 404sx and Roland SPD- samplers, a MicroKorg and Nord Electro 5 keyboards and a stack of drums and cymbals.

kilter

SR: Production wise, your tracks are instrumentally layered and quite textural. They also tend to follow quite a reoccurring tone of positivity. Your recent releases are quite uplifting in mood. Is this a purposeful aspect in production for you, or does it just occur naturally as you work?

K: I remember talking to Golden Features deep in a kick-on one night and he was pushing me to release the inner darkness but I think my sound naturally lends itself to a more positive vibe. Some of the new material I’ve been making is definitely edgier than the music I have out at the moment with a stronger emphasis on texture and grit rather than sunny festival music.

SR: On the topic of releases, ‘Fool For You’ has clocked in over 2.7m plays on Spotify, collectively about 600k plays on YouTube and 275k plays on the preview on SoundCloud. You’ve had your fair share of viral tracks in the past, but what does it feel like when something you’ve made grows into something so impactful on other peoples lives?

K: It’s great to know people are listening but it’s hard to put a face to those numbers. For me, it’s seeing the reaction of the crowd at shows when it starts to mean something special.

SR: Who are some artists that impacted you as an aspiring producer back in the day? What tracks really cut through and inspired you to make music?

K: I was thinking about this the other day and can remember listening to so much Basement Jaxx when I was younger. They had this crazy website that was a jungle full of things that you would click and a sample would trigger. “Good Luck” cut through among so many of their great songs. Hudson Mohawke’s 2009 Essential Mix was a big influence as well as anything from Flying Lotus’ “Los Angeles” album.

SR: The Australian electronic music scene and really just the Aussie music scene in general is quite tight knit, and you yourself have worked with a lot of Australia’s up and coming and established music makers. How important is this sense of community in the industry?

K: I think it’s really important and a great thing to see everyone supporting and encouraging each other. A big win overseas (tours, awards, chart topping hits) for artists like Flume and Rufus is a win for us all. Considering the size of the scene here we have made something pretty awesome on a global scale.

SR: As said, you have worked with and toured with plenty of Aussie artists, but are there any you would love to collaborate with? Be it up-and-comers or already established artists?

K: I’ve been working with a lot of contemporaries on new music so I think I would love to work with someone who influenced me when I was coming up. To pick one I would say Steve Spacek.

SR: You’re playing a Halloween event at Proud Mary’s on the central coast this month, and you have played a few rural shows during your recent tour. Do you think it is important to get out of the major cities sometimes and play some lesser ventured venues? 

K: Definitely. We are fortunate to have heaps of great live music in capital cities, so it is great to give the same experiences to more out of the way places. I’ve had some really great shows in the most unexpected of places.

SR: On that note, what is the strangest place you have played? Or what has been the weirdest experience during a show for you?

K: I toured Europe for the first time this year and played a show in Tunisia. That’s somewhere I never thought I would go. While trying to get there from London pretty much everything that could have gone wrong was going wrong but I finally made it to this amazing festival, ‘Ephemere’ on the beach in Tunis, and closed out the stage to a few thousand people at 3am. It was wild, weird but so good.

SR: Obviously as a Sydney sider yourself you’ve seen first hand how the lockout laws have effected the nightlife in this global city. As someone who has seen both pre and post lockout Sydney, and has been on both sides of the stage, how does it make you feel to see Sydney is such a chokehold?

K: I think it’s pretty devastating to see how much a city can change in just a few years. Like a lot of Aussie electronic artists, I cut my teeth playing in King’s Cross and wouldn’t be where I am now without that platform to grow, make mistakes and establish myself. I think that while it’s important we keep fighting to take back what we had we also have to support what is still left instead of dismissing it as dead.

SR: To wrap things up, what are you currently working on and what can the fans expect to see from you in the near future? Are there any potential updates on the debut album you can tease us all with?

K: I’m off the road now working on heaps of new material. Really happy with how it’s turning out and I think is a big step forward for myself. You’ll hear some of what I’m talking about before this year is out and then even more at the very start of next year!

You can catch Kilter at Proud Mary’s in Erina on Oct 29 for a spooky Halloween shin-dig, playing alongside Cloud Control, Remi and Yahztel. See more here.

For now, listen to Kilter’s latest single ‘They Don’t Know Us’ below, which you can also find here.

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