SON KITE INTERVIEW by Aden
Looking back on Son Kite's recent and coming up releases/
A l'occasion de la sortie du DVD de Son Kite et du dernier album de la série Colours, retour sur leur dernières productions musicales et celles à venir.
1.You are now working on a new Minilogue Album. Minilogue is a more progressive house oriented project, so is Kooler. Does the difference between the two only resides in the fact that Kooler is a more solo project?
SEB: Since the summer 2004 we’ve focused on our Minilogue project since we more or less forgot about it since the Son Kite colours concept took all our time for one and a half year. Up till today Minilogue have been a so called progressive house act but today it’s just electronic music … sometimes slow, sometimes fast, sometimes minimal sometimes not, sometimes housy or funky or cheesy or deep or trancy …. our new upgrade of Minilogue is music and we will try to have a project without having to stay in one specific folder. I know that it’s not easy to do something like that since many people want to place every artist in a folder … let’s see if it will work. We don’t know if there will be a Minilogue album or not (depends on the market and the labels), we are just composing a lot of tracks that could work on an album.
2.Going back to the Kooler Album. Were Harold&Maud, and Super Star (both written by Marcus and Seb), composed at the same creative period as the Colour album?
SEB: Yes!
3.Could have they fit into the Colour album as well?
SEB: Maybe they could but they were meant to be Kooler ….
4.Were they meant to be part of Kooler from the beginning?
SEB: Yes!
[g][g]5.I find Focus quite close in inspiration to the two above mentioned tracks, because of its housey rythmical influence. Could this track have featured in the Kooler album?
SEB: No it was meant to be Son Kite.
6.Is the Housey influence in Son Kite due to Seb taste or is a common concern?
SEB: Both Marcus and I listen to a wide range of music. Since I just recently started to dj dance music (breakz, alternative house and electro) it was more often Marcus who bought all the dance records … so very often his choice of records become inspiration for the two of us (when it comes to inspiration from dance music).
7.One wholly acclaimed characteristics of the Son Kite sound is the specific attention you put on the tone of your percussions. Is it something you both share, or is it a concern that is specific to one of you?
SEB: I think so!
8.For example, there are many tracks which focus on that percussive tone element. Air Play, one example that comes straight to my mind, (published in the Footprint compilation, DS), can be paralleled to Made to Move in the Colour Album, because of its rythmic pattern made of percussion loops (sounding like timbales). Does this aspect correspond to a common sensibility or is it a more individual quality of one of you?
SEB: Both of us see the rhythm and groove as one of the main poles in dance music. Expecially the early Son Kite music had heavy tribal elements, these days we see the tribal elements just as one way to the groove and we don’t use them too often.
9.The blending of stylistic influences Trance, House, Techno etc., is something that is asserted by some of the most creative and respectable artists like Atmos in his last album, Freq for whom you did the mastering, Ticon with its side project NDSA, to name only but a few, and surprisingly, in the “Full on” Trance, is also claimed by artists like Sub 6! Do you think that it is a trend that will characterize the new directions of Trance?
SEB: This is an interesting question. I hope that most artists in all genres have an aim to develop and to be innovative. Marcus and I are all the time trying to do something new and different and we’ve always seen the crossover between genres as a good way to create new and interesting feelings in the music. The last two years this have been very trendy in all dance music … very easy to understand.
10.Isn’t this phenomenon a bit paradoxical at a time when most parties tend to specialize their sound?
SEB: In the early days of the electronic dance culture all genres were mixed … the party phenomenon itself was such a new and interesting thing for the people and I don’t think people were analyzing the music as much as they do today. To analyze, see things in a critical view and to stand for your opinion is all good things but I think people easy forget that analyzing and using your mind easy can block what you can experience in the music … a good balance between the mind and soul is good but I often see the mind taking over which means that people don’t let themselves experience new and for them not familiar music … this is a paradox since it’s the new and not yet experienced that can give you the strongest feelings, both on the dancefloor and in the sofa. I’ve always been “procrossover” for parties and clubs and when I speak with organizers around the globe I get the feeling that they are getting on the same track, I’m crossing my fingers. A really good festival that have always aimed for the crossover is the Fusion festival in Germany, a must for all dance music lovers that are interested to hear something new (for them).
11.Dado found the Colour album was making references to the 90’s Techno. Do you agree? Did you have specific producers in mind? Is this a part of the mixing of influences that makes up the style of Son Kite?
SEB: In the beginning of the 90’s Marcus was djing a lot of techno, trance and acid … this was the music that I listened a lot to when I was shaking my ass. We still listen a lot to this old records and since we like them very much we of course get influenced by it.
12.You are about to publish the fourth release of the Colour cycle and it is made of remixes of the CD. Did you commission the producers for the rmx or was it their initiative?
SEB: It was our initiative.
13.How did you chose the artists for the rmx in connection with the identity of each of your tracks?
SEB: We see the two remix singles in the Colours concept as a possibility to show people good music that we like, to get a new angle on our music. Since we listen to a lot different dance music we tried to find good artists in different styles. It’s not easy to get the artists you want since they have to be interested, they have to have time at the specific moment and you have to be able to pay their fee (some of the artists we asked take between 3000 – 5000 EUR for a remix … multiply that with 6 and you can understand it would have been a little bit too expensive).
14.Can you introduce the new name like Fredrik Holm “NOS”, or names less known in the Trance scene like Luke Chable or Shiloh, but better known in House? Who is behind Aztech?
SEB: NOS is actually very famous in the trance scene, not for his music since this is the first track he ever releases but for his extremely famous backdrops. Like us he’s travelling around the world every weekend to show his art. Music is his hobby and passion (I don’t know anyone with a bigger vinyl collection) and he have a massive 100% analogue studio with only old synthesizers, drummachines, sequences … no computer at all. Luke Chable is one of our favourite producers (there are actually a lot of good producers from Melbourne)… very trancy and groovy house … don’t know exactly what to say more than that he’s extremely talented. Shiloh (from Canada) is also one of our top favourites … from the beginning we wanted them to do a breakz remix but in the end they gave us a 4/4 mix that were too good to refuse. Some people will maybe say that this remix is a more commercial but the melodies and harmonies are so beautiful so they should touch everyone’s soul. Aztech is a young and extremely talented Swedish producer who is making all kind of electronic music. This remix is a deep downbeat mix, if you’ve heard any of the Chillosophy compilation that we released on DIGITAL structures you have heard tracks from him.
15.Remixing is one of your big creative activity, as you are about to release many rmx, for example Llopis in the next Set 3 at iboga, of System 7 and Analog Pussy, and it is meant to develop in the future with the joint DS/Iboga projects titled Digiboga 1 and 2. The first one will combine creative energies from Denmark and Sweden while the other one will break boundaries and bring the aesthetics of Prog trance to Fullon, and conversely. What is this experience bringing to your work? Is it a way of reasserting the issues of the future of dance music, seen as an increasingly blending of stylistic influences?
SEB: Yes we’re making a lot of remixes and we actually love to do them. If we had time we would love to say yes to many more remixes but since we have to do our own music as well we say no too many of the requests. The System 7 remix was a great honour for us since they are of our old influences and also extremely great people, if you have the opportunity to see Steve Hillage and his wife on stage you really have to go. James Holden made a remix of the same system 7 track and since he is one of our favourite producers and djs at the moment it was an even bigger honour. I know that this 12” have sold extremely good but if it’s not sold out I recommend all of you to buy a copy directly. The Son Kite remix of Llopis was made three years ago and the first Crosslink compilation that DIGITAL structures released together with Iboga were released at the same time. The Crosslink was actually my idea to create a base for local artists in Malmoe and Copenhagen to get inspiration from each other and also to motivate artists to start to work with each other. Since Marcus and I don’t own DIGITAL structures anymore the new Crosslink compilation is not in our hands but I think the idea is really good … to join progressive and full on artists.
16.In a previous interview you declared that you avoided vocals in your composition because it would deter from the emotion of the music itself. This resentment seem behind you as you recently confessed listening to a lot of vocal music from different musical genres, I guess in relationship to your creative work. Can we expect more vocal tracks in the future from you?
SEB: Different music has different aims and missions. In this way most music styles can be very good at its specific moment. If you can’t appreciate music at a specific time it doesn’t mean that it’s not good, maybe you’re just listening to it at the wrong moment. I love vocal music and I have always loved vocal music, what I meant in that previous interview was the vocals in music can take away the psychedelic opportunities, specific words and lyrics can put you in one direction and this lowers the possibility for the listener/dancer to use his/her own imagination and fantasy. All musicstyle don’t have the aim to be psychedelic and some music styles are meant to give people an idea about a specific question. The more music you do the more different feelings you want to touch … at the moment it’s interesting for us to work with vocals but only in some compositions, otherwise we’re still focusing to create a non vocal base where the listener is free to create his/her own ideas
Looking back on Son Kite's recent and coming up releases/
A l'occasion de la sortie du DVD de Son Kite et du dernier album de la série Colours, retour sur leur dernières productions musicales et celles à venir.
1.You are now working on a new Minilogue Album. Minilogue is a more progressive house oriented project, so is Kooler. Does the difference between the two only resides in the fact that Kooler is a more solo project?
SEB: Since the summer 2004 we’ve focused on our Minilogue project since we more or less forgot about it since the Son Kite colours concept took all our time for one and a half year. Up till today Minilogue have been a so called progressive house act but today it’s just electronic music … sometimes slow, sometimes fast, sometimes minimal sometimes not, sometimes housy or funky or cheesy or deep or trancy …. our new upgrade of Minilogue is music and we will try to have a project without having to stay in one specific folder. I know that it’s not easy to do something like that since many people want to place every artist in a folder … let’s see if it will work. We don’t know if there will be a Minilogue album or not (depends on the market and the labels), we are just composing a lot of tracks that could work on an album.
2.Going back to the Kooler Album. Were Harold&Maud, and Super Star (both written by Marcus and Seb), composed at the same creative period as the Colour album?
SEB: Yes!
3.Could have they fit into the Colour album as well?
SEB: Maybe they could but they were meant to be Kooler ….
4.Were they meant to be part of Kooler from the beginning?
SEB: Yes!
[g][g]5.I find Focus quite close in inspiration to the two above mentioned tracks, because of its housey rythmical influence. Could this track have featured in the Kooler album?
SEB: No it was meant to be Son Kite.
6.Is the Housey influence in Son Kite due to Seb taste or is a common concern?
SEB: Both Marcus and I listen to a wide range of music. Since I just recently started to dj dance music (breakz, alternative house and electro) it was more often Marcus who bought all the dance records … so very often his choice of records become inspiration for the two of us (when it comes to inspiration from dance music).
7.One wholly acclaimed characteristics of the Son Kite sound is the specific attention you put on the tone of your percussions. Is it something you both share, or is it a concern that is specific to one of you?
SEB: I think so!
8.For example, there are many tracks which focus on that percussive tone element. Air Play, one example that comes straight to my mind, (published in the Footprint compilation, DS), can be paralleled to Made to Move in the Colour Album, because of its rythmic pattern made of percussion loops (sounding like timbales). Does this aspect correspond to a common sensibility or is it a more individual quality of one of you?
SEB: Both of us see the rhythm and groove as one of the main poles in dance music. Expecially the early Son Kite music had heavy tribal elements, these days we see the tribal elements just as one way to the groove and we don’t use them too often.
9.The blending of stylistic influences Trance, House, Techno etc., is something that is asserted by some of the most creative and respectable artists like Atmos in his last album, Freq for whom you did the mastering, Ticon with its side project NDSA, to name only but a few, and surprisingly, in the “Full on” Trance, is also claimed by artists like Sub 6! Do you think that it is a trend that will characterize the new directions of Trance?
SEB: This is an interesting question. I hope that most artists in all genres have an aim to develop and to be innovative. Marcus and I are all the time trying to do something new and different and we’ve always seen the crossover between genres as a good way to create new and interesting feelings in the music. The last two years this have been very trendy in all dance music … very easy to understand.
10.Isn’t this phenomenon a bit paradoxical at a time when most parties tend to specialize their sound?
SEB: In the early days of the electronic dance culture all genres were mixed … the party phenomenon itself was such a new and interesting thing for the people and I don’t think people were analyzing the music as much as they do today. To analyze, see things in a critical view and to stand for your opinion is all good things but I think people easy forget that analyzing and using your mind easy can block what you can experience in the music … a good balance between the mind and soul is good but I often see the mind taking over which means that people don’t let themselves experience new and for them not familiar music … this is a paradox since it’s the new and not yet experienced that can give you the strongest feelings, both on the dancefloor and in the sofa. I’ve always been “procrossover” for parties and clubs and when I speak with organizers around the globe I get the feeling that they are getting on the same track, I’m crossing my fingers. A really good festival that have always aimed for the crossover is the Fusion festival in Germany, a must for all dance music lovers that are interested to hear something new (for them).
11.Dado found the Colour album was making references to the 90’s Techno. Do you agree? Did you have specific producers in mind? Is this a part of the mixing of influences that makes up the style of Son Kite?
SEB: In the beginning of the 90’s Marcus was djing a lot of techno, trance and acid … this was the music that I listened a lot to when I was shaking my ass. We still listen a lot to this old records and since we like them very much we of course get influenced by it.
12.You are about to publish the fourth release of the Colour cycle and it is made of remixes of the CD. Did you commission the producers for the rmx or was it their initiative?
SEB: It was our initiative.
13.How did you chose the artists for the rmx in connection with the identity of each of your tracks?
SEB: We see the two remix singles in the Colours concept as a possibility to show people good music that we like, to get a new angle on our music. Since we listen to a lot different dance music we tried to find good artists in different styles. It’s not easy to get the artists you want since they have to be interested, they have to have time at the specific moment and you have to be able to pay their fee (some of the artists we asked take between 3000 – 5000 EUR for a remix … multiply that with 6 and you can understand it would have been a little bit too expensive).
14.Can you introduce the new name like Fredrik Holm “NOS”, or names less known in the Trance scene like Luke Chable or Shiloh, but better known in House? Who is behind Aztech?
SEB: NOS is actually very famous in the trance scene, not for his music since this is the first track he ever releases but for his extremely famous backdrops. Like us he’s travelling around the world every weekend to show his art. Music is his hobby and passion (I don’t know anyone with a bigger vinyl collection) and he have a massive 100% analogue studio with only old synthesizers, drummachines, sequences … no computer at all. Luke Chable is one of our favourite producers (there are actually a lot of good producers from Melbourne)… very trancy and groovy house … don’t know exactly what to say more than that he’s extremely talented. Shiloh (from Canada) is also one of our top favourites … from the beginning we wanted them to do a breakz remix but in the end they gave us a 4/4 mix that were too good to refuse. Some people will maybe say that this remix is a more commercial but the melodies and harmonies are so beautiful so they should touch everyone’s soul. Aztech is a young and extremely talented Swedish producer who is making all kind of electronic music. This remix is a deep downbeat mix, if you’ve heard any of the Chillosophy compilation that we released on DIGITAL structures you have heard tracks from him.
15.Remixing is one of your big creative activity, as you are about to release many rmx, for example Llopis in the next Set 3 at iboga, of System 7 and Analog Pussy, and it is meant to develop in the future with the joint DS/Iboga projects titled Digiboga 1 and 2. The first one will combine creative energies from Denmark and Sweden while the other one will break boundaries and bring the aesthetics of Prog trance to Fullon, and conversely. What is this experience bringing to your work? Is it a way of reasserting the issues of the future of dance music, seen as an increasingly blending of stylistic influences?
SEB: Yes we’re making a lot of remixes and we actually love to do them. If we had time we would love to say yes to many more remixes but since we have to do our own music as well we say no too many of the requests. The System 7 remix was a great honour for us since they are of our old influences and also extremely great people, if you have the opportunity to see Steve Hillage and his wife on stage you really have to go. James Holden made a remix of the same system 7 track and since he is one of our favourite producers and djs at the moment it was an even bigger honour. I know that this 12” have sold extremely good but if it’s not sold out I recommend all of you to buy a copy directly. The Son Kite remix of Llopis was made three years ago and the first Crosslink compilation that DIGITAL structures released together with Iboga were released at the same time. The Crosslink was actually my idea to create a base for local artists in Malmoe and Copenhagen to get inspiration from each other and also to motivate artists to start to work with each other. Since Marcus and I don’t own DIGITAL structures anymore the new Crosslink compilation is not in our hands but I think the idea is really good … to join progressive and full on artists.
16.In a previous interview you declared that you avoided vocals in your composition because it would deter from the emotion of the music itself. This resentment seem behind you as you recently confessed listening to a lot of vocal music from different musical genres, I guess in relationship to your creative work. Can we expect more vocal tracks in the future from you?
SEB: Different music has different aims and missions. In this way most music styles can be very good at its specific moment. If you can’t appreciate music at a specific time it doesn’t mean that it’s not good, maybe you’re just listening to it at the wrong moment. I love vocal music and I have always loved vocal music, what I meant in that previous interview was the vocals in music can take away the psychedelic opportunities, specific words and lyrics can put you in one direction and this lowers the possibility for the listener/dancer to use his/her own imagination and fantasy. All musicstyle don’t have the aim to be psychedelic and some music styles are meant to give people an idea about a specific question. The more music you do the more different feelings you want to touch … at the moment it’s interesting for us to work with vocals but only in some compositions, otherwise we’re still focusing to create a non vocal base where the listener is free to create his/her own ideas
