“I’ve never really known if I had a fan base there at all really. It’s only really recently, since I’ve been self-releasing – I’ve literally been posting records out myself. Before, I didn’t really know whether there was anybody listening.”
Autonomously releasing Fourth: The Golden Eagle is not any sort of rebellious move. McKeown has always had a decent level of control over his career and he’s quite comfortable having executive power.
“The more I do myself, I realise how it’s not actually that hard to do. It just feels like you know everything [that’s] going on. I’ve never had a manager. In the end I think if the right person doesn’t come along, you’re better off doing it yourself, as long as you can be vaguely organised,” he says.
Given this longstanding independence, putting music out without the assistance of a record label seems to be a natural progression for McKeown. He explains that releasing his music in a DIY manner wasn’t always the plan, but it’s proving to be an advantageous decision.
“It’s not been a lifelong dream but it’s working out quite nicely. The fact that I needed to release this album really made me like, ‘OK, I’ve got to do it.’ It’s been quite rewarding to do it that way and I’ve actually really enjoyed doing it.”
Kelpe’s stylistic trajectory might have assumed a different shape had he been snagged by a manager early on. Even though Kelpe records have been released by some big name electronic labels (most notably DC Recordings and Black Acre Records) McKeown has never been tempted into commercial conformity.
“When I was with DC Recordings they’d definitely give me a lot of guidance. It would never really be trying to make it more commercial and I’m really pleased that I haven’t really tried to go in a super commercial direction. If somebody tried to make me make really cheesy pop music then I wouldn’t really go there,” states McKeown.
Kelpe’s music has always drawn from a diverse array of genres, fusing glitchy electronica, low-key ambience and classic R&B to carve out his own distinct identity. On Fourth: The Golden Eagle McKeown says he aimed to assemble the strongest features of his previous work into a confident and relatively accessible piece.
“I tried to focus on having really strong melodic elements and also just keeping it quite organic; trying to combine electronic sounds with organic sounds. I tried to stay on the line in between being a little experimental but also accessible enough to not alienate audiences.”
McKeown started Kelpe as a solo venture and even though drummer Chris Walmsley (Psapp, Broadcast) regularly appears on stage with him, in the studio it remains largely a one man project. Despite this, McKeown indicates he would like to involve more people in the future.
“I really like the idea of collaborating and I’ve been saying this for years, but I just find it so hard to actually finish things when it’s with someone else. Whereas when you’re on your own you can just go ‘alright, I’m going to get this done.’ Hopefully one day I’ll break out of it. It is a bit of a trap but there’s still plenty of time left.”
For now though, McKeown will make the long journey down under on his own and he explains his on stage approach.
“Largely all the sounds are triggered by fingers pushing buttons, as much as possible really. I did go through a stage where everything was completely triggered, but there will be bits where I’ll leave a section to play for a minute or something, to just refresh. A lot of the time people basically think you’re DJ-ing, so sometimes they just want to hear something that sounds good rather than looks impressive to the eye.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
