Artist News

Kid Koala working on loud and quiet albums

By | Published on Friday 29 October 2010

Turntablist Kid Koala has been discussing his current recording projects with Spinner, which see him going to opposite extremes of volume.

First up, he spoke of his ongoing ‘Space Cadet’ book and album, which he says is “the quietest thing I’ve ever done”, adding: “I’ve been working on it since 2004. The music is very lullaby-like, mostly recorded on acoustic keyboards with turntable woodwinds and turntable strings. It’s a complete anti-dance floor, anti-rock out kind of thing”.

He also revealed plans to stage some ‘quiet live shows’ around the release of the project: “I’ll do the show on headphones. Everyone will have a set of headphones, and we’re bringing in these inflatable pods that seat about 35 people per pod so everyone will have their own spaceship with all their friends. We’re gonna do this ‘quiet time’ concert for them”.

As well as this, Koala is also working on a new album with his project The Slew, the follow-up to last year’s ‘100%’, which was recorded with Dynomite D. For live performances of the first album, former Wolfmother drummer and bassist Myles Heskett and Chris Ross were also drafted in, and that rhythm section will now appear on the new Slew record.

He said: “The Slew’s the loudest project I’ve ever done. We wanted to make a record that our skater friends would enjoy. It’s the first record I’ve ever been a part of that doesn’t make people fall off their boards”.

The new album will also feature some guests: “We’ve got Jon Spencer and Mike Patton singing on a couple of songs. We’re still going through the process of recording a bunch of stuff. I’ve got a record cutter now. We bring Chris and Myles in, record them for a week. I find the parts that can work, then cut them to a record. I have to practice cutting those together on turntables, then we have to go back and record that for the bed tracks. It’s a longer process than your regular style of recording session”.

Both albums are tentatively expected to be released next year.



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