Amygdala is definitely one of the best albums of 2013 and it was a very long, nine-year wait in between albums for DJ Koze fans. And it could well be another nine; “This is my cycle now, nine years. Maybe I can shorten it to eight years or eight and a half years.”
Koze “didn’t expect” the success of Amygdala “because it isn’t straight, obvious, pop up in your head record. It’s just, I don’t know, just not so obvious and not strong enough to get attention”. His own perception of his music is a stark contrast to my own, but as a man who says he’s “full of fear” it is not so surprising that his success continues to surprise him.
Making a point to not “work with clichés so much and rather classic ideas” in his lyrics and production as well as “always trying to provide shades in music in an organic way” is a huge part of Koze’s signature style. While he continues to push boundaries he holds on to the sobering reality that “it is not so easy to make something new and fresh which is also tenable”.
His thirst for introspection is obvious as a man who is “always interested in the invisible energies, instincts and feeling and following impulses.” He credits his career, if not wholly at least parts of it to “just being aware and [allowing] many magical things [to] happen and if you don’t deny that it’s possible there are many open doors for you”. Koze isn’t by any means a spiritual person and insists “you don’t have to be an esoteric, goa, yoga bitch, selling chains and smoking weed, it’s just a way of thinking”.
While it is hard to imagine the producer being phased by much, he is a self confessed hypochondriac living with “fear everyday and a fear of people”. A revitalising bout of confidence is unfettered when it comes to his record label, Pampa Records that he runs with his friend, Marcus Fink. “We have a small roster but we’re all friends like Isolee, Robag Wrhume and Ada”. Once again his unrelenting need to seek a point of difference in an industry where “there are so many releases everyday” is a feature of his record label. “We’re some kind of bored from much of electronic and dance music and we really think [Pampa Records] has something uncommon. It’s special… with much love for detail and sound and architecture and it’s always warm, soulful and never random. This is what we are all searching for.”
It’s really what we’re all searching for in music, isn’t it?
BY KISH LAL
