09:Interview 1 — Nigh Magazine

Josiah Gladwell aka K-Lone
Interview (2021)

First, I would like to ask about your background. As a child, what sort of musical environment were you raised in?

My parents were always really supportive of getting me into music and so I started off with classical, then got into drums and started playing in bands, which is where I think I fell in love with writing music. I found having the knowledge of how drum patterns worked really helpful when I first started writing as the rhythm is a great place to start a track.

Could you tell us about the earliest memory you have in which you were moved by music? Also, around what age did you start choosing the music you wanted to listen to, and what was the first album you purchased?

I remember quite clearly one of the first albums I had was R.E.M. on a tape when I was probably about eleven or twelve and had my dad’s old tape player. I think it was some of the first melancholic music I’d heard and was at a slightly confused age, so maybe slightly overly connected to it. As I got a bit older, like most teenagers in the 00s, I listened to a lot of American bands and got into a lot of pop-punk stuff like Sum 41 and Green Day. I recently found all my old CDs and it’s great to roll around in the car listening to these nostalgic albums that still definitely stand up today in terms of great songwriting.

Please tell us what made you become interested in electronic music, and about the how you progressed from that into pursuing a career as a DJ. When you first stood at the booth as a DJ, surely you were nervous?

One of my first introductions to electronic music was through a blog called palmsoutsound that would compile free download compilations of a variety of stuff like French electro and techno, after that then I started to get into bassline through some of the Ministry of Sound compilations, and that naturally led onto dubstep. I think as soon as I got into electronic music I was pretty desperate to get behind the decks. I was quite used to performing music from a young age so I haven’t ever really been that nervous but it probably helped that some of my first gigs would have been at mates’ parties, often to a fairly empty room while I’m sure I played some pretty terrible music.

For the first track you created yourself, what sort of feeling did it have, and what types of equipment did you use to create it?

I first started writing on Logic and was pretty obsessed with Mount Kimbie & Burial at the time and their use of found sounds and noise as an instrument. I’ve always done everything on the laptop pretty much, it’s fun to get hardware equipment involved in writing but I tend to avoid anything that slows down the writing process, and sometimes that can be setting up outboard gear when I have everything ready to go at my fingertips on my computer on the Logic Synths and VSTs.

From your past difficult experiences and failures, were there any that connected like a stepping stone to your present work? If so, please tell us more about them.

Definitely cleared out a few rooms while DJing (quite a few times with Facta as well haha). I think it was definitely good because when you’re starting out you just want to play whatever you love regardless of whether anyone else is enjoying it. I think the art of DJing is finding a sweet spot where you can read the atmosphere and play what you like but also what’s appropriate, rather than just for yourself.

I believe that you have experience as a DJ from various parties and events, but of these parties, which has left the greatest impression on you?

Definitely my most memorable gig was at Reconstrvct in New York, the promoter Luke (big up) had got myself, Facta, Rhythmic Theory, Hodge and KemAL out from the UK. I think for myself I’d only had a couple EPs out and was amazed to be invited. Luke’s great because if he liked something he’d get the artist out to play no matter how big they were, and the night had such a solid following he had a lot of freedom with the line-ups. It was in a warehouse in Brooklyn with an amazing sound system (Tsunami sound system) and I had half my set hosted by LA rapper Ill Chill who I’d done an EP with. The atmosphere was amazing and felt like you really could play anything, and the other guys did some of the best sets I’ve ever seen.