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Kaning It - CGWW speaks to Prog/Electro House Heavyweight, Dom Kane |
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escrito por Sami Ayubi
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Friday, 01 de February de 2008 |
 | Dom Kane may not be familiar to everyone yet, but this guy's star is rising, and fast. His productions are a logical fusion of progressive, minimal and electro strains of House music, and have garnered huge support from A-list DJs such as Sasha, James Zabiela and Paul Van Dyk. With new release 'Contact By Satellite' about to hit the streets on his own label, Xeton, I hooked up with Dom to ask him a few questions about life as an in-demand, hot-shot producer... | | CGWW: Hi Dom, thanks for taking the time to answer these questions. So, for starters, describe the entity known as 'Dom Kane' for those not yet aware of you... DK: Well.... My name is Dom, I'm twenty-six years old, and I like to play with lots of gadgets with lots of knobs to twiddle, that make loud noises. CGWW: Where are you from, what do you like about it, and how has it influenced your music? DK: I actually grew up in the Welsh countryside where dance music didn't exist, but by chance some lads my age had moved into the area from London and had some decks and their family visited regularly with fresh new vinyl! This was when I was about nine or ten years old, and by the age of about eleven I'd finally saved up enough pocket money to buy them secondhand, only to find out there was a reason for them being for sale. They were wrecked! The pitch control had burnt out on one deck, so me and another mate, Jakes, thought we'd improvise (being the geeks we were) and stole the speed control unit from his dad's model railway set and wired it into the mains of the deck! It kinda worked for a while, at least to grasp the basics. When I first moved out of Wales, I landed firmly in Bristol, and I think you can still hear the breaks influence in my sets and productions today. Nowadays I travel a lot around the world DJing so I think my influences come from all over I guess. | CGWW: Ha! I bet Jake's dad loved you for that! OK, so how would you describe the music you make?
DK: To be honest, it kinda falls under various branches from Minimal to Breaks, and Electro to Tech-Prog... I just write tunes that I think will go down well in my DJ sets and make people dance. CGWW: You make it sound so effortless! You've been on fire recently but only in the public eye for a short space of time. What was your big break, or the tune that 'made' you? |  | | DK: For me, it's been such a natural progression that it's hard to pin-point really. I think the biggest leap I had was when I went on tour of Eastern Europe DJing at launch parties for a mobile phone company, and I decided to remake an old classic to have as my 'last big track' of the night. It ended up being Orbital's "Halcyon". Once I'd played it a few times, I realised how big the reactions were and sent it out to some DJ's and it ended up getting loads of support from people like Paul Van Dyk, to James Zabiela and Sasha. The next thing I knew, I got an email from one of the Hartnoll brothers who made the original track, letting me know I had their full support. That was a really big moment for me, as the track had influenced my life so much, so I really wanted to try and do it justice. |  | CGWW: Wow, it's praise indeed when someone of that calibre gets in touch to tell you they love what you've done to their work. I'd be stoked! I haven't heard your version yet but the original's a stone-cold classic, so hook a brother up! So, which other artists inflence or inspire you? DK: I don't think I really get my inspiration from individual artists, but more from the individual sounds. I often hear a particular sound that I like, and then get to the studio to work on its variations until I'm happy (or too confused to carry on!). CGWW: So, where's the maddest place you've ever played then? DK: In the last twelve months, I've played all sorts of places from the President's suite in an ice hockey rink in Belarus, to a tent in the middle of the Egyptian desert, to the Siberian outback! I think my maddest gig so far was probably last summer in Lipetsk, Russia. There's a few videos of this gig I've put up on YouTube and MySpace etc, but what you can't see is that the 'club' is about five miles deep in a forest in the middle of nowhere, and is actually on wooden stilts about five metres off the ground, with only one wall behind the DJ, | with the roof also being held up by more stilts.... Also what you can't see on the video, is that there are a few more thousand people dancing outside in the forest, and on the roof top, and there are pyrotechnics firing off either side of me.... Yes, pyrotechnics... In a big wooden structure... In a forest woodland... Haha! CGWW: Wow. sounds like you're lucky you didn't get burned to a crisp, heheh... So, talking about the production side of things for a minute, what studio gear are you using? Are you a Hardware or Software man? |  | | DK: I have a pretty good PC and Mac setup, and use Nuendo for my arrangements, which is basically Cubase for video, but I find it runs a bit smoother. As for outboard stuff, the main two synths I use are the Moog Little Phatty, and the Novation Xiosynth, but I also have various other bits and pieces and quite often do a lot of unorthodox stuff like plugging a synth into a guitar pedal etc... It's all good fun! CGWW: Aside from playing with your "Little Phatty" and plugging synths into guitar pedals, what does 2008 hold for you? DK: I'm currently remixing for Roger Sanchez's Stealth Records, and have another bit coming up soon for Sander Kleinenberg's Little Mountain Records, so I'm really excited about these. My remix for Stereo Hookers should be out soon, and I'm working on a couple of collaborations next month: one with Ricky Stone, and another with Aquasky.... On top of all this, I'm currently working on a mix compilation for my Xeton Records imprint, with a view to releasing that around April this year... So I think that's a pretty good start so far! 2007 was a rollercoaster of a year for me, with by far the biggest gigs and productions of my life to date. I just hope 2008 has more of the same really. | CGWW: Well, it's not even February yet, so I guess that if you've got Sanchez, Kleinenberg and Aquasky (who are personal favourites of mine) on board the Kane Train already, the rest of the year's only gonna get bigger! So I guess, to sum up on a somewhat random note, have you heard any good jokes lately? DK: I know loads of great jokes but have the world's worst memory! If I could remember one now, I'd tell you! CGWW: Fair enough, I suppose you're a DJ, not a stand-up comedian, after all! Anyway, thanks again for talking to us, and the best of luck for 2008. DK: My pleasure! For more info on Dom visit: www.xetonrecords.com and www.domkane.co.uk |  | | | |
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Modificado el ( Tuesday, 08 de April de 2008 )
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