Kotchy interview

8Bitch cotches with Kotchy, whose current list of collaborations is enough to make most producers green with envy – Starkey, Reso, XXXchange and Yo Majesty! to name a few – and finds more out about his name, the state of Bass in the States and mash-ups of all varieties ahead of his appearance in the Hyponik room of Chew the Fat! on Friday…

HYP!HYP!HYP! AT CHEW THE FAT!

The spectacular Chew the Fat! launch is approaching with lightning speed and most of you will have learned the flyer inside out by now. Hervé and A1 Bassline will no doubt smash Room 1 but it’s the room next door that will excite lovers of broken, glitchy, crunky and funked up sounds.

Hosted by the excellent Hyp!Hyp!Hyp! collective, famous for their refined musical taste end encyclopedic knowledge of the vast spectre of beats du jour-from dubstep to garage, to dub, jungle, electronic, techno and good old fashioned hip-hop.

Hyp!Hyp!Hyp! is a brainchild of Hyponik- one of London’s leading street promotion brands and the driving force behind Dublime at Fabric. Louis at Hyponik describes H!H!H! as ‘Dublime’s annoying little bass-obsessed brother’ but despite their nights always being a bona fide mash-up, it’s THE place to be if you wanna embark on an adventure in modern music.

You can hear dubstep and grime everywhere these days but H!H!H! are something else – their selection is intelligent and one of the few places in London that will serve you just the right amount of bmore, electro, abstract hip-hop and weirdness beats you won’t hear anywhere else. As their current favourites, Hyponic crew list Guido, Reso, Raffertie, Gemmy and the Bristol crew, Kanji Kinetic, Starkey, L-vis 1990, Tomb Crew, Hudson Mohawke, Pangaea, Dress 2 Sweat, Civil Music, One Handed and loads more.

H!H!H! have hosted some seriously talented peeps recently including Rusko, Drums of Death, Reso, Tomb Crew, Paul White, Cursor Miner and Bullion… James Pants (and his fabulous teacosy bobble hat) rocked the last one and even the Stones Throw Don Peanut Butter Wolfe popped down to say hello!

On March 27^th they’re giving us Kotchy live, flying to Londinium all the way from Brooklyn. H!H!H! love him for his excellent live performances and fresh experimental production that perfectly fuses the UK and US sound. I hooked up with Kotchy for a lil banter and this is what we came up with:

For those unlucky people who don’t know you yet, please introduce yourself and tell us what you do…

Well, today I’d consider them lucky. My landlord is doing construction in my bathroom so I haven’t showered. I grew up playing drums, a lot. Now I write and record my own music.

Where does the Kotchy nickname come from?

I see you read my MySpace page carefully (wink wink). It’s a nickname my grandmother gave me when I was born, and my mom wouldn’t let it go… ever. That’s the short story.

You’re a bit of a multipractic what with being a songwriter, producer, vocalist… what instruments do you play and what’s your favourite piece of gear?

I play the shit out of some drums and hack my way around a keyboard and triggers when I’m making tracks for everything else. I’m old school, I play shit 89% of the time, not sequence. My favorite piece of gear? Hmmm… well, I just got a new vocal mic that’s a big step up from what I was using. Now all the sudden i can understand all my lyrics clearly. It’s a Gefell M71, but you can call her sugar.

Who inspires you musically?

Mostly people I see in scenarios that suggest they’re going through intense shit, and conversely, people who seem to lack the capacity to feel or notice much. Lots of visual art, Joerael Elliot, Swoon, Elbow Toe, i check woostercollective. com daily. Of course my lady and me being moody and opinionated.

You’ve released on Civil and Seclusiasis which are both smashing labels and have had some impressive remixers on board too… who have you worked with so far?

Yeah, I’m super lucky to have such a dope team backing me. The Seclusiasis crew are dope artists themselves and the Civil team are the hardest working, connected masterminds you’ll ever meet. I just finished vocaling a tune that Starkey did which I’m super excited about. Also just did vocals on a cover tune XXXchange did for his up-coming record on Mad Decent (watch out, gonna be a naaaaasty record). Now i’m workin on a vocal for a track for Reso, which is breaking my neck everytime I crank the track. Makes it hard to track the vox… Did an EP with Shunda K of Yo! Majesty, Benni E is on a track about to drop on my EP early April, I did a Tricky remix and just finished one for Fischerspooner. Then there are the warriors who slayed my originals on their remixes! Now I’m really trying to focus on my next record at the moment.

We absolutely love the stuff you’ve done with Starkey… have you two badboys got anything else planned?

Ha, read the previous answer. That’s cool you’re feelin it. He’s really the dude who got all this started for me, so yeah, there’ll be more. He keeps raising the bar (wait till you hear this new one)!

How do you think the UK scene compares to US? Which UK artists are you digging at the moment?

I fucking loooooove the UK scene! I was just in London a month ago and fell in love with it. People are into music and having fun. Such a creatively nurturing scene. I’m actually a bit jealous right now. Plus, as the Civil crew will attest, I have an unusual obsession with breakfast and London delivered! Full English breakfast! Fuck that food was fresh! Great, now i’m Jonesin’… oh, i don’t like scenes though. They’ve never liked me either, so it’s cool. US culture has been bummin me for a while, but there are pockets of people doin really cool things. I like what’s happenin at Basscamp in San Fransisco, Dub War in NY, Trouble and Bass parties, and Dutty Artz parties have been my favorite of late. Diverse crowd, diverse music. That’s how I like it.

Finally-do you know what a mash-up is?

Uh… please see ‘Bruce Fleetwood’ and my new one ‘Barbara Cocker’.

Ha ha ha, he won the last one – B’ruce Fleetwood’ is indeed a cheeky lil choon blending The Boss and The Mac… but we’ll teach him about a true London mash-up at The Arches in a few weeks!

x 8Bitch