allsorts: Kloke - Circuit Theory EP preview

I first met Andy Donnelly aka Kloke in Melbourne a few years back, when he relocated from the UK. Upon hearing his early music – Maki being a favourite of mine – I knew this producer’s star was on the rise. The coming weeks will see the release of his solo EP on Granholme so we thought it would be a great time to reconnect with him to see what he’s up to.

Great to see that Circuit Theory is finally getting a release. How did you get hooked up with Granholme?

Through Martyn basically – I’ve been sending him tracks for a good few years now & he’s always been very supportive of them. When I finished Circuit Theory & To The Rescue –another track on the EP – he passed them onto Graham who runs Granholme & is also involved with 3024, he got in touch and we went from there.

Tell me a little bit about the tunes, your process for writing them and what you use in your studio.

Some of the tracks on the EP were made a couple of years ago now so I don’t really remember specifics… But basically I tend to generate about 10 ideas a week which then get narrowed down to about 1 every 4 months that blossoms into a finished track. So it’s often a slow & painful process! Sometimes there’s a specific vibe I‘m after, other times it’s just nice to start something with no predetermined ideas and a sense of freedom. I’m lucky enough to have a separate studio space at the moment so all my hardware is set up there, but due to time restraints & other responsibilities I tend to do the majority at home.

I noticed on your soundcloud that you make Hunkstep. Great name for a genre! What is Hunkstep exactly?

Ha! You’ll have to ask Granham about that.. I think that’s on the Granholme Soundcloud.. I’ve no idea what hunkstep is – maybe it’s an offshoot of brostep?!

Are you still working with Entrada Recordings? How is that going?

Entrada was always more Leo (Moyza) & Ben’s (Wijay) thing – they just released a couple of things of mine – I did get more involved and we had a few plans in motion but time & money became a factor and it became more of a podcast thing in the end. Maybe it’ll resurface at some point… (note: check here for a radio show that Entrada did with myself and Fiend on KissFM a few years back in Melbourne)

What’s the future hold for Kloke?

Well in the beginning it was like my little dubstep (before the term became associated with moshpit transformers music) side-project which was very much inspired by early Digital Mystikz, the stuff Kode9 was playing & injecting a healthy dose of detroit techno – something which obviously everyone and their dog also jumped on. At the time I had a few other things on the go – bands and stuff, and had spent years experimenting with d&b, techno, house, dub, downbeat stuff etc. So it all just clicked & I realised I could incorporate everything under one roof without it ending up too IDM-y…if that makes sense.. But to answer your question I’m very open-ended about what it can be now – it doesn’t just have to be about techno or ‘bass’ (or hunkstep) or even dance music necessarily. I’ve been making lots of beat-less ambient/textural music recently which I might do as a free download album or something. I think it would all be a bit boring & pointless if I had a definite plan anyway..

Kloke recorded this little EP preview mini-mix.