Flare /flɛː/
1. noun: Sudden recurrence of an inflammation or other medical condition "Corticosteroid treatment for Crohn's or Colitis flares"
2. verb: Burn or shine with a sudden intensity
3. DJ: Flare is a well known DJ and most known for his invention of the flare scratch.
A word with the Distortion Daddy, Kaelin Bougneit aka Zero Tep…
Yo! Kaelin, how’s it going? Welcome for the second time. So for those who don’t know, where in the world are you from? And what’s your day looking like?
Hey there! Glad to be back! I think you guys have a great mission!
I'm originally from Wisconsin but I live in Portland, Oregon now. Today is a weird day. I'm a little sick so mostly I'll be playing on a friend's Minecraft server and trying to keep my blood sugar down. Recently, I've been watching some John Carpenter movies I never got to and I think Prince of Darkness is next on my list. ;)
How would you describe your mix? How did you find cramming a whole bunch into 10 minutes?
Oh, it was a lot of fun! I used to make mashup albums when I first started tinkering with electronic music, so this is a little bit of a throwback to that in some ways: fast-moving with lots of rap vocals, mixing beats with each other to try and make it sound seamless. There's a new beat of mine bumping underneath an M.I.A. song and I swear it sounds even better than the original.
Who would you say are your biggest musical influences?
Rock music, for a start. Lots of people getting into making electronic music and hardcore hip-hop nowadays would probably have picked up a guitar or drum kit twenty years ago. I actually played (and still play) some rock and metal, but electronic production really scratches the same itch. Beyond that, jazz and funk are big influences as well as experimental electronic music from any time period. I like colorful stuff that has a sense of place or personality.
As a man of many talents, production, Dj and vocalist. What albums would be your top 5 digs from the crates, if you had to pick your desert island discs?
That's a big question haha! I'll try not to think too hard...
Miles Davis - Get Up With It As much as the live records in those later years are great, 'Get Up With It,' has some meticulously assembled recordings that no one will ever be able to touch. "He Loved Him Madly" is proto-ambient, peak-psychedelia, and excellent music for thinking.
Tarzana - Alien Wildlife Estate This is one of those records with a very strong, visual sense of location. Like fictional folk music from an alien planet. Great music to get lost in. This is pretty squarely in a subgenre of electronic music called Fourth World, which informs a lot of the music I create under my birth name, Kaelin Bougneit.
Daniel Bachman - River Another really visual record, but this time it's a solo guitar album from a talented Virginian composer. Something about being stuck on a desert island makes me think I should pack away something distinctly American and this is my choice.
Negativland - True or False (Live in Evanston, IL, 2000) This is a bootleg from a tour these hilarious audio terrorists did in 2000. I'm not even sure if the location is correct tbh. You can track down plenty of recordings from this tour online but this is one I like a lot. Here's one I found on Archive.org that contains a lot of the same material but sourced from different recordings. Recommended for jaded Western ears and anyone bored with their everyday listening.
Kero Kero Bonito - Time 'n' Place Hot damn, name me a better pop album from the last decade!
You've recently released a new album Distortion Daddy Does Club Crimes, featuring some seriously dirty bass and a whole bunch of distortion. What was the process like in creating the album? And which is your favourite track to perform to your audience?
'DDDCC' came from a desire to go back to simple beats after my last album, 'A Trick of Physics,' which was a jazz record and very much the complete opposite. Instead of laboring over songs for months, I tried to make most of these demos quickly, usually in one or two days. No overthinking; if something sounded good, it stayed. So it's a little messy and overblown, which I think is perfect for the style.
I haven't gotten many chances to play these tracks out, but "Doomguy" has been a secret weapon since mid-2016. Every time I played it someone would come up on stage to ask what it was. That always made me happy!
What is in the pipeline for yourself, any future projects or events you want to shout about?
More Distortion Daddy material, for a start! Early 2020 will see a new Zero Tep mixtape and EP and then after that I hope to release some other material on my label, Subviolet Records. A new Kaelin Bougneit album as well as an album I made with my roommate.
We want Flare4Flare to keep growing, who would you like to challenge to bring a mix to the tables?
I feel like my friend Create (mindofcreate on Twitter/Soundcloud) would have some interesting choices! He co-owns Cirx Records and they put out some really diverse music. Also my friend Microphyst creates some incredible electronic music of all kinds and I think he'd give you a mix full of adventurous tunes.
Lastly, before we got in touch had you ever heard of Crohn’s disease?
I have, but it encouraged me to look further into it! I've never seen an advocacy organization that does what you do, and it's very inspiring. I'm a type 1 diabetic, so I can sympathize with disorders that are "invisible" to most people but affect your quality of life every day. It's nice to have a little levity when you're dealing with that stuff!
For more information on Zero Tep check his Bandcamp here or via Instagram here
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Words: Matt Strutt , Kaelin Bougneit
Images & Video: Zero Tep Cover: Chris Colouryum/Russell Mount Audio Edits: Flint & Steel
Contributors: André Leitão
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