AFK will be featured for one hour on Organic Sessions. This show will air on May 12th at 12:00 Noon PST on Pure.FM with host Kennedy.
Category: Uncategorized
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AFK @ OMFG
Friday, April 18th at the Sunset Room with Freya, Joshua, Natron and Joca. Set from 10:30 PM til midnight.
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an interview with kazell
Who is Kazell? For one, he is someone who is traveling across North America on a spring tour, appearing at each stop with one of the most simultaneously daunting yet sought-after tasks – opening each night for Sasha and John Digweed. On another count, he is a prolific producer and owner of Influx Audio. Last week I had a chance to ask a few questions of the only person that Sasha and Digweed want opening for them on every stop of the tour..
But before I get to the interview, I have to mention that my new single, Seismic, is now out on Pacific Front Recordings and is for sale on Beatport, and rumor has it, iTunes is soon to follow. I wrote Seismic with Dustin H and remixes come from Stefan Anion, Shiloh, and Powerplant. Have a listen to Seismic. Hopefully I didn’t just break the internets with all these links.
And on to my interview with Kazell:How long have you been DJing? How long have you been producing?I’ve been DJing for 17 years and producing for around 5 years.What brought you to the US from the UK? How would you compare the scenes?I had wanted to visit the US from a young age and finally made it over in 1992, I came over with a promoter and another DJ from Manchester looking to set up some gigs in Miami. The Southern US was still developing when we arrived which was quite a contrast to what was going on in Manchester at he time. I think I was really attracted to the US scene when I arrived as it had a funkier eclectic edge.What is your philosophy on DJing? Why do you do it, and what do you hope others will get out of it?I think any DJ’s aim is to do something unique with their music. Although you’re mainly playing other people’s tracks its really satisfying to put a mix together that has your sound embedded. I hope that the people that come to hear me play leave ready for more!Between your tracks that you wrote with Mike Hiratzka and your latest collaboration with Habersham, your sound appears to be very diverse. How would you describe your sound as a producer?I like to mix things up in the studio and spend a lot of time hunting down diverse sounds to draw inspiration from. If I had to describe my sound as a producer I’d say its currently a blend of dub, funk and electronic house music but it changes all the time and I’m fine with that. I personally respect producers that keep evolving and trying out new things.How would you compare your sound as a producer to your sound as a DJ? Do you find your DJing influences your production, and vice versa?I think they differ quite a lot as I write lots of tracks that aren’t necessarily aimed for the dancefloor. I do sometimes come home from a good gig and try and capture a certain type of new sound i’ve come across though.What is the focus of your label, Influx Audio?Quality forward thinking musicHow do you see MP3’s effecting the underground music scene?I think Mp3’s have undoubtedly changed the face of underground music in a terms of easy accessibilty but illegal downloads are really killing the scene too.CD’s or Vinyl or Serato?CD’s and sometimes Traktor ScratchAs a DJ known for warm-up sets, you must have a different set of influences than most DJ’s who are associated with Sasha and John Digweed. Who are your influences as a DJ, and what effect have they had on your sound?Well the warm up sets are just a part of what I do as often headline too. For the warm up sets I like to play a lot of the deeper, atmospheric music that I collect. I think Terry Francis’s “Architecture CD” was a big influence in terms of a great chilled tech house cd as well as Swayzak’s first album “Snowboarding in Argentina”. The sound has changed quite a bit since then but the mood is still alive.What future singles do you have in the works? Any plans for an artist album?Habersham and I are planning a follow up “Paradise Rockers” single later this year and I’m currently working on a new band project which I’m really excited about. I can’t really say much about it yet but watch this space!Websites you’d like to plug?Well Kazell.com of course 😉 but I’d also like to give a plug to liquified.com, they throw some amazing parties and I’ve been there resident DJ for years, and mention my PR and marketing company, Volume Communications.Thanks to Craig and Ali for setting up this interview, and of course to Kazell for sharing his thoughts.
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AFK on Proton Radio
AFK on Pacific Front Sessions for March 2008. Special guest John Morgan AKA Powerplant. This show will be airing Wednesday, March 19th on Proton Radio at Noon PST.
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p2p music download ISP levy
Perhaps you’ve heard about this:
$5 a month for legal P2P could happen sooner than you think
What do you think?
What I see as issues:- There’s no quality assurance in P2P. This should strike the idea down on its own. I don’t want someone downloading a glitchy mp3 and then assuming that’s supposed to be a part of my song.
- Underground labels will NEVER see a slice of this pie. EVER. And it will destroy their revenue, utterly. Costs will not even be covered.
- How do you enforce this? Does everyone pay? How about those who want to support the artists in a more direct way – are they going to be double-charged? Is there going to be someone running around at the ISP level checking to see who is downloading music with P2P software and then checking to see if they are paying the $5 fee for approved P2P music downloads?
- This will destroy music stores that have worked hard to get people to pay money for music. A lot of valuable work will be un-done, and we will be teaching bad lessons when it comes to how our society values music and art in general.
What they appear to be arguing about is how to divide up the money. This is because there is no clear way to do this, and the only thing they can possibly come up with to do it will be a scheme that sees the rich getting the biggest slices of the pie, and the rest will be deemed “immaterial” and will receive nothing.
The only possible way they could hope to attempt to divide the money is by comparing relative sales per quarter and then applying that as a percentage determiner in who gets what. However, by approving a plan like this, you are cannibalizing sales, so your sales figures (which you base percentages off of) become instantly useless, because no one is buying music anymore – they’re all just downloading on the $5 plan. The truth is they have no plan on how to divide the money fairly, because there IS no way to divide the money fairly.
Ladies and gentlemen, this proposed plan is the equivalent of throwing a bunch of DVD’s in a ditch at the side of a highway and charging people $5 to dive in and see what they can get that isn’t scratched or messed up. I’m not putting my name behind it. This is a 100% horrible idea, and so was the CD levy, which, for the record, I have seen $0 from. I am a registered member of SOCAN, and I have registered works. The irony here is that I buy CDr’s to give away my own music on as a promo, and I have to pay a levy on THAT, and some of it ends up in Avril Lavigne’s pocket.
How wrong is that?
Just as wrong as this. -
Frisky Radio Artist of the Week
Frisky Radio will be featuring AFK as the Artst of the Week on March 11th, 2008 at 11 AM PST. More info is available on the Frisky Radio website.
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AFK on Frisky Radio Loves Canada
AFK on Frisky Radio‘s special on Canadian underground music, “Frisky Radio Loves Canada,” featuring a 60 minute set from myself along with Paranoid Jack, Kevin Shiu, Deadmau5, Mistress Barbara, John Morgan, Hatiras, Kristian Littmann, Mute and Laki.
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AFK and Kevin Shiu
Pacific Front Sessions January 2008 with myself and Kevin Shiu from Progressive Entertainment and Balance. Will be airing on Proton Radio at 12 PM Noon PST.
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Adam Freeland and AFK
Global Underground DJ and Marine Parade head honcho Adam Freeland with Gatringer and myself. Venue: Hush Nightclub.