Meat Katie and Kid Blue Interview

Meat Katie and Kid Blue Interview

05 February, 2009
by: Lowri

I'm betting that anyone with more than a vague interest in dance music has heard of Meat Katie. Back in the late '90s, when the breaks explosion was hitting the scene hard and dominating dancefloors, when hundreds of hungry, young breaks producers were seizing the bull by the horns and making upfront tunes which tore clubs apart, his progressive, techy productions cut a distinct line and became known as something other. They had a more intelligent sound somehow, and were more enduring - less flash in the pan - with a deep, growling energy. Many of them were four to the floor but mixed so well with breaks that hardly anyone noticed.

Meanwhile, a young producer called Kid Blue was throwing parties in Leeds. They were the massive Technique nights which have gone on to become one of the most prominent and respected club nights in the city; a melting pot of underground sounds thrown down by headliners who are at the top of their game and have included Richie Hawtin, Luciano, Derrick May and James Zabiela.

Kid Blue went on to become resident at London-based label Chew The Fat! He soon began releasing on Meat Katie's label Lot49 – and the duo's latest venture is their bi-monthly club night held at London's best new club, East Village.

Their aim is to showcase the Lot49 sound; to mash up breaks, electro and techno into a heady brew which they dub 'tech-funk'. Last December's launch party was a seismic chunk of floor shaking mayhem, with many of the Lot49 DJs (including Elite Force and co-owner Dylan Rhymes) coming out of the stable to generally rock it. But that was just a taster, and their Valentine's Day party looks set to be the best yet. We met Meat Katie and Kid Blue to find out how – and where – things are going.


It's really interesting seeing the developments that have been emerging from the Lot49 stable lately. Genres diversifying and falling away - at the Christmas party last year I heard such a massive variety of styles. How would you describe your current sound?

KB: Personally I've become more and more influenced by techno in my sets and productions over the past year. I think that there's this post-minimal sound that takes a lot of the rhythms of minimal but combines them with really chunky, big sounds, which is what I've always been into. Lot49 encompasses a lot of different people doing loads of different stuff but it's a label I really feel my sound fits in well with. We're trying to reflect that range of music with the line-ups at the night.

MK: Lot49 is certainly a magnet for broad minded music follower, 'tech-funk' really sums up the vibe at Lot49, we bounce from techno electro to breaks (and beyond) pretty comfortably. As Rory says it's reflected in the programming and the guests on the line ups, personally I feel that makes for an enjoyable clubbing experience, hearing a load of music you might never hear if you only go to breaks nights or tech-house nights.

The London scene is a pretty fickle one: disco revivals, East London awash with electro and nu rave, M_nus madness; do you pay attention to tides and trends when producing or is it a natural process reflecting your aims as an artist?

MK: People that follow trends, really are just erm…followers, but it's important show your influences with pride. I couldn't care less if people think less of me because I like Holly Golightly, Popof and Prince, I try not to question it, just get my head down and produce, play and release stuff that makes sense to me, I'm not sure if you would call being yourself an 'aim'!
 
KB: Personally I try to avoid sounding too much like any one sound when I'm producing, so yeah I guess trends do influence me a bit. I think that if you listen to my tracks now as opposed to 3 years ago, you can hear definite similarities in structure and sounds, but the groove has changed over time – that's just a natural reaction to what I'm hearing and what I'm seeing working on the dance floor as a DJ, and that changes over time.

Lot 49 used to be known as a breaks label – is the move away from the 'breaks tag' intentional?

KB: I'm not sure, you'd have to ask Mark!

MK: Was it known as a breaks label? We don't shy away from breakbeat, in fact I really like breaks, but I also like lo-fi garage trash, adding tags over complicates things and confuses people.

Do you ever feel commercial pressure to do things a certain way? How relevant is 'the market' in what you produce?

MK: It would be nice to have commercial success, if it came along on my own terms great, but I'm not going to chase it, that's not why I got into music, the creative part of producing and even DJing to a certain extent is rewarding enough. I just don't ever want to get a normal job!

KB: I just try to make the best tune that I can at the time and hope it reflects what my influences and what I'm into at the time. If I did worry too much about what will sell at the moment, I‘d end up making fidget house bootlegs of old speed garage tracks. Or trance.

What influences or inspires you when you're producing?

KB: Big kick drums!

MK: I find porn and religion pretty inspiring.

To me, dance music by its very definition is underground – and it should retain an underground feel  when you're on the dancefloor. It's the place where you can be who you are away from the judgemental eyes of your boss. What's your definition and do you think you achieve it?

KB: I think the Lot49 sound is a direct result of Mark's A&R which is generally dark, funky underground sounds from across the spectrum. You turn down anything too melodic don't you...?

MK: It's not that, I just love late night, heads down music. Its such a personal thing, losing it and being in a world of your own. Lot49 really embraces the underground vibe; dark funk. In fact that's a good summary, thanks Rory!

The Ableton/deck divide – where do you stand? Do you use laptops when you DJ?

KB: I've just started using Serato and I love it, but I never enjoyed using CDs much, Serato for me is the best way of playing MP3s. You cut out all the time you spent burning CDs before, and I can literally go straight from Logic to playing a track out without it ever leaving the computer which is great. I don't think Ableton is DJing though, for me you physically have to be mixing between tracks on different players, whether that's decks or CDs, to be DJing. That doesn't mean people can't do amazing Ableton sets though.

MK: Yeah but someone can go buy Ableton or Mixinkey, jump on beatport for a few hours and can call themselves a DJ and more to the point have tight in time, in key mixes perfected with minimum effort. Somehow it feels like the art has been taken out of it by technology in some respects. I'm not knocking it though, each to their own. What's important is what's coming out the speakers, not how it reaches that point. I play off CDs myself.

Finally, I have to ask, what is going on with breaks? Do you think it will endure or has it had its day?

KB: Yeah I think it'll swing back a bit this year. Personally I'm not really playing much at the moment, maybe a few tunes here and there, I just haven't heard a huge amount of great stuff recently. NAPT are cool, really good producers, and Rektchordz is good, Hyperion are coming through too so there is some good music out there, it's just not that trendy at the moment, but all styles go through dips. There was a time fairly recently when techno was incredibly un-cool, so it's all swings and roundabouts.

MK: The label will carry on releasing breakbeat tracks amongst other styles if it's had its day or not. I have no idea if it will bounce back into popular favour again, but you could argue that it is still kicking, but in the form of Soulwax, Erol Alkan, SebastiAn, Justice, Fake Blood etc, to me that's as breakbeat as CTRL-Z, Plump DJs and Rennie Pilgrem, it's just not called breakbeat for some reason!

If you loved/hated/were sickened/inspired by this feature, then why not become my friend on spoonfed and let me know? Or alternatively, leave a comment below.

And click here to see all breaks events in London in the next month.

Lowri