By Patrick Michalishyn
Those who tuned into CKUW 95.9 FM on the morning of Friday, April 22, heard nothing for an hour and a half from midnight on. But from the void comes everything, and Radio Schizophrenio host and Stylus writer Patrick Michalishyn had secured an interview with Kid Koala, and proceeded to drill him for several hours until they left the station to get Breakfast Nips. These are some excerpts of that interview.
[After a couple of songs, Patrick apologizes for being late, but talks at length to Kid Koala, Eric San, about hoop-dancers at the show, touring constantly, and the koala suit that San has to wear for 100 shows because he lost a bet. The Winnipeg show was number 33.]
Stylus: Are you in the mood to listen to anything?
Eric San: Do you have anything cued up? Actually, what we were just listening to was Money Mark! He was a mentor of mine in 1998, very much so. That’s a funny story of how things happen in the music industry. He was playing as a part of the Beastie Boys band, playing keyboards on Check Your Head and Ill Communication, and those records, and I just loved all of the stuff that he did on those records. On their website, they said Money Mark just put out a 10 inch of his stuff—and you had to send a cheque. So I sent it to get this 10” record of Money Mark’s solo stuff called Mark’s Keyboard Repair on Pinto records. And I never got the record. I was just crushed. That was the first time I sent away money for anything.
Stylus: What a bad experience, what a souring experience.
ES: Yeah. Anyways, fast-forward a few years. The Beasties came through for Ill Communication, and the promoter was a friend of mine, and he said, “Hey do you wanna meet the guys?” And I was like, cool. And so I met Money Mark that time for the first time and I said, “Mark, I sent you a cheque like four years ago, and I never got my record!” And he’s “Oh really? Man, keep me posted and I’ll send you a record.” Anyway, I had a tape, called Scratchcratchratchatch and I handed him a copy of it, and it had my number on it.
Fast-forward a couple months again, and I totally forgot about this transaction. Then I get a call at my house. He says, “Hey is this Eric? This is Mark.” I was in this band called Bullfrog at the time, and there was this guy named Mark also in that band. And I was like yeah, sorry, we should get together and rehearse, blah blah blah, thinking this was Mark from my band. He goes, “No this is Mark—yeah, Mark from L.A.” I said, “I don’t know any Marks from L.A.” He said, “Money Mark!” I almost dropped the phone.
I say, “Hey, what’s up? Why are you calling me?” He was like, “I listened to your tape. I really dig it.” He said, “I’m going to do a tour for Push the Button,” which was his second album that he was putting out. “We’re gonna do a tour with the Beasties, with them, opening for them. Do you want come to play turntables in the band?” And I was like, yeah, let’s do it! So he was one of the first ones to take me under his wing and teach me about music and playing live and all that stuff.
Stylus: How does feel to meet a hero, and, instead of just being a super-fan, to start a working relationship with these people?
ES: Well I’m still awestruck by all these dudes. Coldcut, who owned Ninja Tune records—they were one of the reasons I started scratching. So to be touring for them and recording for them, it’s like total dojo-master-student style.
I’m just going to record stores with these dudes, or Mark, going to keyboard shops or Salvation Armies, pick up an old synth, and be like, “Have you heard this record? This why it sounds like that.” They’re just encyclopedias of knowledge. I mean, before I met Mark, I didn’t know what a blues scale was! I knew what it was, but I didn’t know the actual notes. I studied classical music exclusively before scratching.
[Musical Break. Pat relays some frightening tales of hosting late-night radio, and talks at length about Salisbury House, which is when they decide to go for nips. Questions continue.]
Stylus: You play with the Gorillaz!
ES: I don’t technically play with the Gorillaz. The Gorillaz are cartoons.
Stylus: Don’t make me look stupider.
ES: Okay, I did some recording with the people behind the cartoons. They are still cartoons. Dan the Automator actually hooked me up with that gig, to segue into the CD you’re holding in your hand [Deltron 3030]. He called me and said, “You’re in London, I’m in London, come down to the studio. I’m working on this record called Gorillaz and we need some turntables!” I went down and it was Damon Alburn’s studio. Jamie Hewlett—who drew all the Tank Girl stuff, and designed the Gorillaz characters—he had his studio upstairs and that was exciting on a couple different levels.
Stylus: Segue! Back to—
ES: Back to Dan the Automator! He is also one of my mentors, along with Money Mark. He came to my first New York show when I was touring with Ninja Tune. He had just put out Dr. Octagon at the time and a couple other things under Dan the Automator, but I was aware of his work and a fan of his work. We met there and hit it off right away. A couple years later, we working together for Handsome Boy Modeling School, and we did a song with Del [tha funky Homosapien]. Del was talking about this character that he wanted to write for this character in his mind, named Deltron Zero, who lived in a post-apocalyptic age. And that’s where this idea for Deltron 3030 came around. And we did that record, I believe, in 2000. Right?
Stylus: I’m looking, I’m looking. You caught me off guard.
ES: We actually did 12 shows with that record. Unfortunately, Winnipeg wasn’t one of them.
Stylus: So, they’ve been saying for the longest time that the new [Deltron] record will be coming out soon. Wikipedia has been giving me the updates.
ES: Wikipedia? How would they know? Who is that anyways? I’m checking my emails—and it doesn’t seem to be coming out any time soon. [laughs] The beats are done. I’ve done one layer of turntables—this is a fact, these are all facts—Del has written about nine of the tracks.
Stylus: Out of how many?
ES: Well we have 14 that we’re going to whittle down to 11 or 12 good ones. The last I heard, Del is going to finish his lyrics on a few things, and then Dan is going to fly out to Montreal and I’m going to do some counter-point turntables for the choruses and outro sections. Then we’re going to mix it, and put it out.
Stylus: And which album am I holding now?
ES: That is the Slew, 100%.
Stylus: And whose brainchild was this?
ES: That was a project of Dynomite D, from Seattle, and myself. And that started about five years ago. See, all the records I’m involved with take at least five years to complete! That’s just part of the process. I’m like the Miyazaki of records.
Stylus: Art takes time.
ES: Well, it’s the process. We have to make source vinyl, cut that to vinyl, and reassess it for turntables live, which is how we did The Slew. We didn’t use any drum machines or computers for any of that. It was all just vinyl.
Stylus: With a live dr—
ES: No, actually the live drummer and bass only came into the picture for the tour. That [album is] all records. But if you listen to the new Slew album, which we’re also working on right now, it does feature drum and bass parts from Chris and Miles, formerly of Wolfmother. But again, we’ve decided to keep that hip-hop turntable stead again, take their drum and bass parts, solo them, and reassemble them off turntables. Then you get that hand-cut flow, which I think is pretty key to The Slew.
Stylus: So, can we get some exclusive info on this record? Like sometimes Pitchfork comes out with news of a record, and say that it’s exclusive information. Then you would tweet and say, “Actually I broke this news all on CKUW 95.9 FM months ago, bitches.”
ES: [laughs] About the Slew. I don’t know, what do people want to know?
Stylus: Jon Spencer is rumoured to be on this new album.
ES: Yes, Jon Spencer has agreed to sing on some Slew stuff, as Mike Patton has as well. [Patrick quietly gasps] They were both fans of the first record. I think just because I know Mike and John, and they’d seen us perform, they were down even before I sent the record to them. I worked with Mike Patton a little bit on Lovage and his Peeping Tom stuff, but Jon I haven’t worked with, but I’ve been a big fan of his stuff. I think they’re going to add another level to The Slew trip.
Stylus: “Slew trip.” Well said, Eric.
[Another musical break, and Patrick and Eric talk about CKUW’s range, one of the hoop-dancers, calls in, and Pat and Eric talk at length well into the night.]
