Entrevista exclusiva: King Unique [Bedrock]

Escrito por María Bello Miércoles, 15 de Febrero de 2012 18:00

Entrevistamos a Matt Thomas, mejor conocido como King Unique. 

A pesar de su saturada agenda, el dj y productor del Reino Unido accedió con gusto a contestar una entrevista exclusiva para GTObeat.com. Esto fue lo que nos contó.




1. At what age did you discover your passion for electronic music?

15 years old I think. I saw the film of Jarre playing in Houston – buildings lighting up, millions of people filling the streets & these guys all playing with machines that went ‘boodooloo-woodooloo-doodooloo-spoodooloo-EEP!’ I wanted those machines very badly - next birthday I got a Casio HT-700 & I was hooked.

2. We know KU started with Matt Thomas & Matthew Roberts, tell us how did this duo start and why you decided to separate?

It was 1997, Matthew was already making a name in house music as a remixer & had just remixed Olive’s “You’re Not Alone”; I was working in Liverpool on the studio scene, doing assistant engineer jobs on all kinds of bands that came through. He was in for a digital-editing session with a friend of mine (also called Matthew obviously) and Matthew R mentioned his need for a good synth programmer to work on the remixes. Making strange electronic sounds has always been my speciality so we got in touch but didn’t pin down a session as we’re both fairly useless about that sort of thing. Then “You’re Not Alone” went to number 1 in the UK, with Matthew’s remix on the package and I thought ‘I really must give that bloke another call’ ☺

We separated because Matthew had had enough – as simple as that. He quit music and became a designer & I took KU off in my own direction. We’re still friends & still in touch – in fact he’s just come up on fbook chat now.

3. Which artists had an influence on your production career?

I can think of hundreds of records that have influenced the sound or style of what I make so that’s quite hard to answer; the producers that first got me interested in electronics were the 70s synth dinosaurs – Jarre, Vangelis, Ash Ra, though the dreamy psychedelics of guitar bands like the Chameleons & Spacemen 3 also proved a big influence. I encountered my biggest influence – Brian Eno – around this time, & from there I got into The Orb & the ambient KLF albums. Then came the crossover indie-dance stuff – ‘Screamadelica’ being the most important – then Leftfield finally joined the dots for me as far as club music was concerned. It’s funny as I lived virtually on the doorstep of some of the seminal clubs of the UK house scene but the whole thing just didn’t appeal to me for years; despite having lived in Liverpool for 3 years the first time I ever set foot in its iconic super-club Cream was when KU played there.

4. Until now what is your biggest achievement?

I don’t have anyway to measure it really – most money I made? Biggest crowd I played to? Most record sales? Most fun? Actually I know - making a living for 15 years simply by making music. That’s the big achievement.

5. What do you think about DJ MAG and its top 100?

It reflects the business end of the dance scene more than the music side. Before the ‘commercial takeover’ of the last few years it was just a fairly trivial marketing & pr exercise; now it’s helped create the niche for a marketing-lead dj career where the music is secondary to the amount of hype that the act can generate.

6. Which dj or producer would you highlight for his/her work these days?

Henry Saiz, Marc Marzenit, Guy J, Luis Junior, Sei A, Jamie Stevens, Stimming & Maetrik

7. What do you think about the Mexican talent on the scene?

I must admit I’m terrible at keeping track of where producers & music come from; well, it’s not that I’m terrible – I just don’t really care. It never seems to me that being from a particular country is a barrier or a boost to success anymore – we all have access to the same technology, we can all stream dj mixes from soundcloud to hear exactly what djs are playing, watch gig clips on youtube from all over the world. Yes it’s handy if you can go clubbing in Berlin or London but it’s far from essential. KU became successful with the two of us sat making music in a small village every day for years – apart from the gigs we played I don’t think we went out clubbing more than two or three times. We could have been anywhere.

8. Apart from electronic music, which genres do you listen to (and name a few artists too please)

I don’t distinguish between electronic & acoustic, just club & not-club. Recently I’ve been listening to Petrels ‘Haeligewielle’, Max Richter’s ‘Infra’, ‘Valse Avec Bachir’ & ‘Henry May Long’ albums – all good music to work & think to. I’m also still playing Apparat’s ‘The Devil’s Walk’ fairly regularly.

9. We know you have played in Mexico City, would you like to play in another city of the country?

Absolutely, I just played Playa Del Carmen for new year’s eve & then went exploring the ruins at Coba – I’d like to play anywhere with good ruins & pyramids near by, particularly Aztec ruins. I read William H. Prescott's ‘History of the Conquest of Mexico’ some years ago & I was fascinated by it.

10. Which software do you use to produce?

Ableton for the last couple of years, before that Logic since the mid 90s - & before that I started on Cubase on the Atari ST

11. Tell us something about broadcast 21, it is something a bit different from what we’ve heard and you gave a description of it being chilled out, deep techno and progressive. What kind of feedback have you received about this?

I listen to much more diverse & often deeper music than I can put into a typical club set – I decided that I wanted the KU Broadcast mixes to reflect that so Broadcast 21 (and now 22) both have these elements – and the feedback has been fantastic.

12. Where did you find all this inspiration for producing your tracks and remixes?

Anywhere except dance music – 95% of it bores me to death. I’m still just in love with sound really so strange sounds, or strange techniques for making sound are what inspire me. If you put me in front of a piano & ask me to play – boring. But give me a broken synthesizer that plays every fifth note out of key & every seventh note silently, feed it into a computer where it is cut into millions of tiny micro-second clicks, shifts it to different octaves & then puts it back together again – then I can sit and play for hours.

13. What would you be, if you weren’t a dj and producer?

I’d stop being purely creative & do something with a different part of my brain. Maybe archaeology? Something that requires deductive reasoning plus a bit of physical labour – I’m a little bored of clicking a mouse.

14. Which are your next projects and future plans?

Lots of remixing – I have new singles from Guy J, Luis Junior, Jody Wisternoff & Andre Sobota all lined up. Plus I’m finishing the new KU single for Bedrock - lots coming soon ☺

http://soundcloud.com/king-unique

Facebook.com/KingUnique

Twitter.com/KingUnique

Myspace.com/KingUniqueUK