MOUNT KIMBIE – 15 QUESTIONS

1. Where are you from and where do you actually live right now?

MK Dom: I was born in Chichester in West Sussex on the south coast of England.
My parents wanted to travel as much as possible when they were younger so we moved from place to place for around 10 years, Dubai, Turkey, Switzerland and England amongst others.
Right now I live in Brighton in East Sussex.

2. For those who don’t know you, can you tell us a little about yourself?

MK Dom: I am a part of Mount Kimbie, which includes myself Dom Maker and Kai Campos.
As well as making electronic music, we play a live show and occasionally remix other people’s tracks.

3. Tell me about your musical development: what is the music you grew up with and what are the first records that really struck you?

MK Dom: My musical upbringing mainly revolved around Kate Bush, in that she is the only artist I remember vividly from my parents.
When I was at school in England, I was all about hip hop, indie and grime music. Artists like TV on the Radio, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fire Camp, Pinback, Modest Mouse. We used to all go out and listen to very ravey, trancey tracks at the ‘club’ in Bognor Regis called Sheiks.

4. How did you get into electronic music?

MK Dom: I guess I was always more interested in the production and beats within the hip hop and grime that I was listening to.
When I heard Dubstep it was the one genre I had heard that was totally my taste.

5. Could you describe your current studio setup and what are you making music with?

MK Dom: I have a very good PC desktop computer that runs Fruity Loops. I use a guitar, Line 6 DL4 loop pedal, a MIDI keyboard and a microphone.
I’m looking to expand though, but not too much. I like working with equipment that has limitations.

6. What have you been working on at the moment?

MK Dom: I have been mucking around with some Footwerk/Juke tracks, most of the producers we know have been to be honest!
Aside from that, I haven’t been back in the studio for a while due to the effort that we are putting into our live shows. We play out live a lot and trying to improve the show and work out existing tracks in a live format is quite time consuming. Great fun though.

7. What are you promoting and what gigs do you have coming up?

MK Dom: We are on the home stretch before a lengthy winter break. We have a mini tour with Caribou coming up across November which is very exciting. I love the Caribou live show.

8. Are you dj-ing or do you play live music?

MK Dom: The show is very much a live show, we don’t look at a laptop at all.
It has given us the gift of copious travel which has been something we have both wanted to do for some time.
I like meeting new people and hearing new sounds from around the World that are special to people.

9. Your highlight and lowlight of 2009?

MK Dom: So much has happened in the last few years but I guess the highlight for us was playing at Ronnie Scotts in Soho. It was one of our first shows ever and we were absolutely terrified. Once we got on stage however, it felt great and the show went very well. Looking back I still can’t believe we played at such a prestigious venue. We were very honoured. Thanks to Mr Peterson!

Low point was centred around the volcano in Iceland. We had a horrendous experience trying to get to Ireland via the car ferry at Holyhead.
Verging on total breakdown, tears, laughter, violence, it really was awful.

10. What was your favourite track in 2009 and what is you favourite track this year so far?

MK Dom: Favourite track of 2009 was probably Turn Me Well by Micachu and my favourite track of 2010 is Alter Ego by Tame Impala.

11. What do you like to do in your spare time away from the music?

MK Dom: I play a lot of football, outside music football is a big big part of my life!
I play cricket in the summer for my local village team in Rottingdean. I go out when I can in Brighton with friends and I write fiction from time to time, something I intend to do more of in the future when I lose my mind blowing pace and nimble footwork on the ball.

12. What are one thing that Mount Kimbie are not and three things they are?

MK Dom: Mount Kimbie ARE NOT simply ‘post-dubstep’, disc jockeys or lovers of baseball.
 
13. What are you most proud of?

MK Dom: Our live show. We have put so much into it, and continue to do so.

14. What would you like to forget?

MK Dom: Our trip to Holyhead ferry port and the Spanish horror film ‘REC’.

15. Where do you see yourself in the next ten years?

MK Dom: Hopefully, doing exactly what I am doing now.

Author: Antonio Di Gioia Published: 23 November 2010