Kodak To Graph does something that most producers neglect: he adds texture. His tracks sound multidimensional and phat in all the right ways. His latest album, ISA, was clearly a platform to allow him to freely explore the creative depths of his production. We caught up with him to chat about SXSW and the music that inspires him.
He’ll also be playing Rock & Roll Hotel on April 2nd with Big Wild and OBESØN.
Listen to the entire interview here.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/190847321″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Have you been testing out new material?Â
I’m playing about 5-6 new songs from the record mixed in with some remixes and older tracks as well. The new Hundred Waters remix and a couple others. I’m playing about half of the record that’s out now.
Are you a big Hundred Waters fan?
They’re from Gainesville, FL which is where I was living for four years and they were the first ones to take me on tour. Such sweet people. Love those guys. They just played in DC, actually.
Yeah! I was there. You have a show coming up in DC, too.
Every time I’ve come to DC, I’ve played at DC9. It’s a little cozy small spot.
What do you have coming up in 2015?
I just released the record about a week ago. I embark on my first headline tour in four days and I’m going to be doing that for about a month and a half and then I’m going to come home and write a little bit. I have a few festivals over the summer and I’ll probably start touring again in the fall and hopefully release more music by the end of the year. Just keep playing shows and keep playing music. It’s going to be interesting for sure.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/168036149″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
You have an interesting approach to music.Â
I come from a place where there was no electronic music growing up so everything I learned was over the Internet. I come from listening to rock and psych music and learning how to mix those techniques in electronic music. Then I did this more future bass stuff later on. My style is definitely always changing. The big umbrella term is experimental electronic music.
So what’s your music background?
My dad is from Iran so he always had old Persian pop music and traditional folk music. My mom was into Michael Bolton and country. My older brother introduced me to electronic and rock like Sigur Ros. Then I got into DJ Shadow and Bonobo in high school and that was my first introduction to electronic music. There was a lot of music going on in the house. All of my musical background came from what I learned from my brother. Haha there’s probably still a MySpace out there with some early early produced music.
Go cop his new album ISA.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/86482924″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]