AN INTERVIEW WITH PART 2 BY JONNY DESTEFANO & KRYSTI JOMÉI PHOTOS BY CORINNE MERRELL ART BY KID KOALA Iconic turntablist Kid Koala is a polymathic talent who transforms his life experience into art that connects people across the globe. His newest project, Creatures of the Late Afternoon, is a 2-LP record/full-on board game created in the midst of the pandemic. The album’s 20 tracks along with a hand-painted game gatefold cover and 150 cut-outable pieces is straight up groovy. But even more, Creatures serves as a reminder that even in the throes of it all, we’re in this together. We just need to tune in. We had the honor to chat with Kid Koala while he was in Montreal in between board game events. This is part 2 of our conversation, continued from Issue 115: Kid Koala: If you think about it like a stovetop. There’s always three or four things cooking here at our workshop and in our studio. Which burner we focus on just depends on what the deadlines are mostly. But then at the same time, you know what you’re genuinely just inspired to work on at the moment. Krysti Joméi: I love that. As artists, especially when creativity is your full-time job, it’s so easy to get stuck in the perfection loop. When you’re in that state of flow, that’s when it’s really meant to be. And that affects other aspects of your life because we’re not just creatives, we’re humans. We have mental struggles, emotions. I love the Emotion cards for the board game. We’re emotional creatures! Kid Koala: Yeah! What’s a track without emotion? I’ve even heard 808 tracks that have emotion. You need it. Otherwise, it’s not worth listening to in my opinion. It doesn’t matter what music you make. If I can feel that human spirit behind it — it could be how intricately the drums are programmed or how much detail or choices the human made behind it — that’s what I’m responding to, what I’m searching for. Any kind of music or film, I don’t have to get it. I don’t have to be like, oh, that’s my bag. But if I can understand the passion that went into it and the focus that went into it … I think that’s the challenge too. Sometimes you just try to find that ability to enjoy a work. Jonny DeStefano: I was looking at the backside of one of the new record No. 116 sleeves and it shows your catalog. When you began to now you haven’t lost the soul or the style. Some artists, they kind of fade away, but you just keep on delivering the goods. Obviously, that’s not easy. But you just keep on going masterfully. Like Beethoven or Mothersbaugh. Kid Koala: Thank you. I appreciate the positivity. People talk about authenticity or about all these things with what’s important to their art and I think for me, it’s just really letting life help you. I don’t fight where I am or how things are going. Let’s say, this hasn’t happened, but for example, I made a real super summer banger dance record and it just rocketed up the charts. I have no problem totally pulling the umbilical on that once winter comes around, make the opposite of that record. Not because business-wise that makes any sense, but because life-wise it makes sense. It’s more natural to me to just connect to whatever my actual experience is. They say write what you know or write where you are. And this is where I am, in Montreal. You couldn’t get me to make anything over 80 BPM in the winter. It feels like you’re faking it. It’s so cold. There’s no birds chirping, they all flew south. People drive slower. Even the traffic noise is more muffled because there’s 4-foot snowbanks everywhere. You know how it is, right? I’m not saying that people have to live here to understand the records that I make in the winter. I’m just saying I actually feel there’s an energy that’s not here in the summer, that if I’m really tuned in then it will be the best use of my studio time in that season. Similarly, in the summer, I’m the opposite. I’m just trying to rock beats and scratch fast. I’ve never had a problem with just trying to be that. I guess underneath it all I don’t think of it as business or strategy moves, I just think about it as tapping into what’s around me and responding to it through the tools that I have and I guess that’s sort of a freedom that is very important to me. And I’ve turned left so many times. Some people have followed me for 20 years and other people are like, what? I don’t get it, I’m out. But it’s one of those things where I’m not really thinking about it in terms of a brand or anything. Essentially I want to do stuff that feels playful for me because that’s enjoyable. I always
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