Opening for Kevin Saunderson this Friday at Neck of the Woods, is local electronic wonder K2K. Recently relocated to Auckland, K2K has been heavy on the electronic scene for a few years now playing at the likes of Laneways, Red Bull Sound Selects, Inky Waves and 121 events, just to name a few. Releasing her new EP titled Sugar two weeks ago, we caught up with Katherine to chat about being a female producer, opening for Kevin Saunderson this weekend and some of her new projects.
First of all, we'd love to know how you're finding Auckland! You moved here at the start of the year, and were based in Wellington before that, right?
Yeah I was living in Wellington for the past few years and moved up in March. It's been a really nice change so far, the winter has been way less gnarly and it's been good to spend more time with my Auckland pals. I love Wellington but it was starting to feel a bit too small. Auckland feels like it has more potential right now for me.
Do you personally think basing yourself in Auckland as an NZ musician, at some point, is important?
Well it's the biggest city so it inherently has more opportunities than other cities around NZ. There are more opportunities for gigs, meeting musicians and just getting your name out there. It really depends what your dreams as a musician are, but I think any NZ musicians who want to make it internationally should probably use Auckland as a stepping stone.
Let’s talk about Kevin Sanderson, you're opening for him this coming weekend! How are you feeling about that?
I've been looking forward to it for ages, Friendly Potential always draws good crowds and this gig in particular looks like it will go off as Kevin's such a legend. It's always a great time playing to crowds that are pumped and ready to dance all night.
Kevin Saunderson is constantly titled as one of the three main architects of Techno, pioneering the sound in Detroit with The Belleville Three. Saunderson is still consistently active in the international techno scene; whether he's playing his own shows worldwide or managing other artists over at his label, KMS records. His career has proved to have incredible longevity. As a producer (and vocalist) in 2017, do you often think or strategise about the longevity of your career?
Yeah I mean most of the producers/DJs you see are pretty young, very few seem to make a long career out of it. Especially females - I see so few older women DJing which is really sad. I think this is changing but it's still incredibly disproportionate. I'd like to keep DJing, making more tunes and maybe one day get to travel the world doing this, but I don't have some long term plan. I just want to keep on doing it as long as it's fun :)
You just realeased your first EP titled Sugar via Margins ; how long have you been working on this EP? How long does it usually take you to develop and finish a single track?
That EP was recorded over about 8 months, pretty infrequently though. I work full time so I have to fit music making around that. A track can take between a few weeks and a few months.
With the likes of Inky Waves and 121 (along with many other collectives) organising and curating shows, raves and parties around the country over the last year, it seems electronic music has really taken off, people want to dance! Which local producers, DJs and musicians do you rate?
Yeah, the scene for electronic music here has gotten pretty exciting over the last year for sure. A couple of my fav DJs and producers are Aw B, Borrowed CS, DJ Kush Boogie, Peach Milk, Hugo Jay, Mongo Skato, Sports Crew and Sandboards.
We've just heard about Night Pottery; a new ongoing project and label from the Inky Waves team. Can you shed some light on this and who's involved? Will the direction be the same as Inky Waves?
Yeah for sure. Night Pottery is myself, Oliver Johnson, Bryn Fenemor and Dirk Peterson. Inky Waves had started out initially as an offshoot of Inky Palms (a riso studio on K Rd) and was started with some people who are no longer involved in the project. We thought it would be good to start fresh, with a clear idea of what we were gonna do and what it was gonna look like. Night Pottery is going to be a party series, an online mix series and (in early 2018) a record label. We've got our first gig on October 6th with Chaos In The CBD and we're pretty excited about what's in store for 2018 for the label.