Growing up on a musical diet of Pirate Radio and shying away from his parents’ choice of aural delights (Queen, Phil Collins and Eurhythmics), KG has always had an ear for a well chopped breakbeat and a rib crushing bassline. Stumbling across London’s Kool FM inspired him to start collecting records of his own and by the age of 8 he had already begun to spend all of his pocket money on vinyl!
All of this hanging around in record shops led to a fascination with the art of DJing and before long KG was running his own events and working at Mickey Finn’s Kent based record shop Bitin Back: “I was always in there and one day Ollie the manager asked me to cover for him once, after that I would cover for him more and more. Then, when Ollie left to do other things, Mickey asked me to step in.†And step in he did until Mickey’s shop finally closed down as vinyl sales began to drop and the high street record shop became a thing of legend!
Almost any disc jockey in the World will tell you that the route from record collector to DJ is a long and winding road, stopping off at home Hi-Fi systems with dodgy decks on the top, passing through a pair of Soundlab DLP1600s and eventually ending up as one of the hottest young DJ / producers on the block… well that’s the dream anyway, a dream that is coming true for KG as we speak.
“I’d always wanted to make my own music, but I could only just afford those DLP1600s, let alone some outboard gear! I finally got a chance to start playing with beats when Reason came out. I used to go round to a mate’s house and we would try and make tunes. He helped me write a business plan and I got a grant from the Prince’s Trust, it was supposed to be to help me start a label, but I ended up buying a PC instead (which I’m still paying for).â€
“After I got the PC I would play about with beats and stuff, but I was still living at my parents’ house and they’d always tell me to turn it off! So instead of making music I spent my time experimenting, learning how to use Cubase, plug-ins and VSTs. Then when I moved out I was ready to get on it!†After finding more space to be creative away from the family home, one of KG’s first productions was quickly snapped up by Mickey for his ‘Urbanism’ project. However, KG was still finding it tough to keep the momentum going and decided a new computer would speed the process along.
“I went out and bought myself a core duo PC, it has the speed of a puma!†explains the man, and it’s certainly brought the best out in him. Since Christmas 2006 he has managed to create tunes that have been grabbed by some of the biggest names in the business, including Total Science for their Advanced label, Andy C and Red One’s Frequency and DJ Phantasy’s Easy Records. All of these versatile tunes are getting plenty of attention, and all eyes are on KG right now, he’s keen to stress that it’s his diversity that he enjoys: “I’m looking to push boundaries and not stick to one style, I want to come across as a versatile producer and I don’t want to be labelled.â€
If we’re not mistaken, we think you’ll be seeing a lot more of KG in the coming year, and with such a wide range of productions flying out of his brand new PC (which he calls Isabella) we’re sure he’ll be around for a long time to come!