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Issue 44/ 2012 Kid Koala HOUSE / TECHNO 29 www.guestlist.net 7 Kid Koala is internationally revered for his unique mastery of vinyl, his ability to create mesmerising tracks and lightning quick scratch work. The man is on fire right now! Martin | martin@guestlist.net Hi, how are you today? Fine, thank you. What's the view like from where you are right now? I'm on the top floor of this hotel in Geneva in the breakfast room, with panoramic views of the city. I guess the word would be "breathtaking". How do you remember early days handing out demos of Scratchcratchratchatch? Actually, I left a few copies at 3 or 4 local record shops to see if anyone would be interested in hearing it. When I went back a few days later all the shop owners said they had sold out and wanted me to bring them more! All the other tapes they had available were mixes with summer those "jams" on them etc. Mine was more of a collection of narrative turntable experiments that I made on a 4 track recorder. Today's technology makes it very easy for people to share music now, i.e. SoundCloud, Myspace. Do you prefer new technological age? Or was it better when you could trade physical cassettes and CDs? I remember the first time on a this I played in Detroit a girl asked me to sign her dubbed copy of Scratchcratchratchatch Maxell cassette. I was astonished that it had reached Detroit because I had never played there before. She said a friend of hers had picked up the tape from one of those 3 shops in Montreal and enjoyed it so much that he dubbed it on a blank cassette, put it in an envelope, stamped it and sent it to her. She in turn copied it for a bunch of her friends and they'd all been listening to it for months! Plus they were all at the show! I had somehow found an audience in a city I'd never been to. Nowadays, sharing music is much easier, but I still think it's the enthusiasm of your friends who know your tastes whose opinion you'll trust the most. Most of my stuff has caught on bottles of Koala drink all over my basement studio. And was the 'Koala' costume a later addition or has it always been there? I lost a bet and now have to wear a koala costume on stage for 100 shows. It's a long story, but I was stupid enough to make the bet so now I have to hold up my end of the bargain. It wasn't that bad in the winter but during some of the outdoor shows this past summer I was absolutely MELTING! So you grew up in Canada. Was turntablism a big deal over there when you were young? If I got into that music through her influence. How did you get into scratching? What equipment did you learn on? I was 12 when I started scratching records. One of the first times I scratched a record was on this DIY gramophone science kit I had as a child. It came with a flexi record with some sounds on it. I was fascinated by how the words sounded when you slowed them down or played them backwards. We have packaged the 12 bit Blues album with a similar science kit so people can some quiet radio static. I made my first slipmat from a waxpaper burger wrapper from A&W. You have worked with Amon Tobin in the past, a man whose live shows are famed around the world for their otherworldly quality. How was that? Amon is good friend and an amazing producer. We made a track together called 'Untitled' because we were both too lazy to name it. We will be doing a whole album together soon. You often incorporate a lot of disconnected samples into your " I lost a bet and now have to wear a koala costume on stage for 100 shows. It's a long story, but I was stupid enough to make the bet so now I have to hold up my end of the bargain. that way. Word of mouth seems to work both in the digital and analogue domains. Where did the name 'Kid Koala' come from? My mother used to buy this sugary Koala juice drink when I was a kid. If you came over to the house you were always offered it as a beverage. My friends in high school started calling me 'Koala Kid' because there were empty not, what sounds were? There weren't any DJs in town that could show me the ropes. I wasn't old enough to get into the clubs to see hip hop concerts. I pretty much had to learn a lot of " the scratch techniques by listening to records and experimenting. I heard a lot of classical music because I played the piano from a young age. My older sister listened to a lot of New Order and Depeche Mode. build their gramophone. own I wanted cardboard to provide that opportunity for the next generation of kids because it's so much fun and still amazes me. Thomas Edison was a genius. My sister also had a hifi system in her room. It was a turntable, radio and cassette player all built into one machine. When I first practiced scratching I didn't have a mixer. I would just switch the sound from phono turntable to music and make it work, while keeping it fresh and funny. Is humour important to your style? My first 3 albums might fit more in the comedy section than in the dance section. It was more informed by being raised on Monty Python and The Muppet Show than by club culture. They were storytelling records essentially. The Slew was more of a loud rock record. Space Cadet was a classical piano/turntable soundtrack to the book of the same name. That story was about life, death, and cycles of generations. Many people have told me that Space Cadet had made them cry or compelled them to phone and reconnect with their parents. I thought that was an amazing response to the work. Turntables are chameleons and I'm glad that they can run through that wide range of emotion. You recently said Blues were a major influence. Who are your favourite Blues artists? Tell us a bit about the album '12 Bit Blues'. Charley Patton and Son House are a couple of my favourite Delta Blues singers. I made 12 bit Blues by using an outdated 12 bit machine called an SP1200. It's an iconic machine that was used to make many classic hip hop records. I was finally able to get one about 3 years ago, but instead of making a hip hop record, I decided to make a blues album. What have you got in store for the remainder of 2012 and next year? I'm on the road with the 12 bit Blues Vinyl Vaudeville Tour. It's a show that we've created complete with dancing girls, puppets, robots, turntables and giant gramophones. It is quite a spectacle and a hilarious night of entertainment. After this tour, For mor information check out www.kidkoala.com Deltron 3030 will be releasing