... (Loud beeping sound goes off when screen recording starts) ... Krysti Joméi: There we go. Robotics. It’s like a sample. Jonny DeStefano: It’s like “Robo Hotel.” So funny by the way. Kid Koala: Do you know Jhonen Vasquez? He was the creator of Invader Zim. He did a book called Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Squee!, and all. Krysti & Jonny: Oh! Yes! Kid Koala: He’s a good buddy of mine in LA. I met him at Comic Con. I was just a huge fan of his comic books when I was in college, and I heard he was doing a signing. I went and there was this huge line all the way down around the building. So I brought him a cassette, a mixtape I basically said, yo, big fan of your work. I don’t have anything to sign. I wanted to give you this tape. Anyway, he listened to the tape, he got back to me, and we’ve been friends ever since. But he sent me a text after [Creatures of the Late Afternoon] came out, and he’s like, dude, stuck in traffic listening to your album. I want to hear a whole album of just “Robo Hotel.” I want to know what this hotel looks like. I want to know what the middle spaces are. And I was like, dude, if you draw it, I’ll record it! Krysti: I love the lines of “Who’s DJing?” PHOTO BY AJ KORKIDAKIS “Someone by the name of Kid Koala.” Jonny: “Never heard of him.” (laughing) Kid Koala: It’s all real life. That actually happened. Well, it happens more often than I’d like to admit. But it was one of those things where I’m going to the States, for instance, and I’m just at immigration. I have an O-1 Visa, which is as they call it “an alien of extraordinary ability” or something. I don’t know, surgeons and movie stars and some musicians and stuff. Jonny: NASA musicians. Kid Koala: (laughs) I get to the counter and they say, so I see you have an O-1 Visa. What do you do? And I’m like, I’m a scratch DJ. And they say, oh, really? You must be pretty good if you have an O-1. I was like, I don’t know. Some people think so. I have a bit of an audience here. And then he goes, what’s your DJ name? And I’m like, Kid Koala. And then he’s like, I’ve never heard of you. (laughing) I just love the quick cut down. I just had to put it into a song. Krysti: So how we went about exploring your new album, we were listening to your music and I had the best time in the world cutting out the pieces for the game. And the first thing I was thinking is, I know you have the hidden game tracks on the record, but did you create the album for the game or are they two separate entities? Did you create them in tandem? Kid Koala: It all began to combine and congeal as it started. Some of those tracks did begin just from a song or a sonic perspective. It was just like, I want to try this. During the pandemic I remember acquiring a Soundcraft Series 1, which was a little mixer that Lee Scratch Perry had in his studio. It’s one of the first portable consoles, like vintage early era. I remember seeing all these videos of Lee Scratch Perry where they were dubbing stuff out, overdriving all the preamps. And so when I found one, I said, I want to make a turntable ska tune but through this mixer just to see what kind of mojo it adds. So that would be an example of something that started as, I just want to try something musically. That ended up being the “Jump & Shuffle” track. But once that was done, there’s other tracks that were starting to come into play. And I think one of the watershed moments for me in the process was when I was talking to the team behind The Storyville Mosquito and Nufonia, all these these live puppet film productions that we’ve been doing in the last 10 years or so. Jonny: Yeah, those are amazing. Kid Koala: I can’t wait to bring one to Denver. I really want you guys to see it. So basically, we had talked about, well, we’re on tour with Mosquito now, and some of the presenters that have already presented it are like, hey, what’s next? (laughing) We just spent three years building this show! Well, I asked the puppeteers, hey, what do you guys want to do next? Even from a collaborative standpoint, what kind of stuff do you want to try? And they’re like, oh, it’d be cool if we were were able to break away from the sort of more sitcom style miniatures and actually have a No. 115 JONNY'S BAND KRYSTI'S BAND
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