{"id":150265,"date":"2019-02-15T11:25:54","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T03:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thehoneycombers.com\/hong-kong\/?p=150265"},"modified":"2019-04-25T17:46:58","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T09:46:58","slug":"mount-kimbie-interview-british-electronic-duo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehoneycombers.com\/hong-kong\/mount-kimbie-interview-british-electronic-duo\/","title":{"rendered":"Raw and splendidly ferocious: Electronic duo Mount Kimbie talk about their creative journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are a wide range of music festivals in Asia<\/a>, and we’re blessed with opportunities to see bands from across the globe perform in Hong Kong, including Alvvays<\/a>, Beach Fossil<\/a> and Wolf Alice<\/a>. Having made an appearance at S\u00f3nar Hong Kong on 17 March, 2018, we interviewed Kai Campos from Mount Kimbie, the internationally-renowned electronic duo, to find out more about their latest album Love What Survives and how they examine success in their creative career.<\/span><\/p>\n

An interview with Mount Kimbie\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Bright trembling synths, hard-hitting percussion, sounds weaving together as a set of retro-sci-fi soundscapes \u2013 electronic fans are probably no strangers to Mount Kimbie from London. Often glossed with contemporary groove, their new material also features a number of great vocalists that naturally engages listeners with a powerful dynamic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kai Campos and Dominic Maker from Mount Kimbie (Credit: Mount Kimbie via Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hi, Kai. Thanks for chatting with us. Your latest album Love What Survives seems to expand further with its futuristic and postmodern soundscape when compared to your previous album Cold Spring Fault Less Youth. What\u2019s your own vision of this record?<\/b><\/h3>\n

The record came about after we had been playing a lot of shows together, and we became more interested in what we\u2019ve learnt from performing live more than from being in the studio. It was kind of a search to find this kind of energy that we haven\u2019t really used in recording before. <\/span><\/p>\n

Love What Survives seems to have incorporated more \u201cpost-punk\u201d elements in a broad sense. How do you take that label, do you agree or disagree with it?<\/b><\/h3>\n

I think post-punk is one of those terms that can get quite easily thrown around at times. I\u2019m uncertain because it might not be very specific (not that it has to be) but the term can get overused. Although there are elements of sounds from what would be considered classic post-punk records that we\u2019re very influenced by \u2013 things like Joy Division in our cultural DNA \u2013 apart from that, there isn\u2019t like a ton of records that I could say we\u2019re very influenced by. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes when you wanna make something, it\u2019s not like you are a student, so you don\u2019t want to make a record based on the stuff that you do know but rather with stuff that you don\u2019t know about, and at the same time trying to figure out yourself a bit. I don\u2019t have a problem with the label, but I don\u2019t understand what it means either <\/span>(laughs)<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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When Kai and Dom work together as Mount Kimbie, they share how they want things to go in a way that is almost nonverbal (Credit: Mount Kimbie via Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How do you structure and layer the tracks from Love What Survives? Are there certain feelings or emotions you try to convey?<\/b><\/h3>\n

There is some bits of music that you write and they don\u2019t mean very much to you, and there\u2019s some music you write and it feels different. I think that\u2019s probably because you manage to tap into something that is true, or that it feels good to express. When we started writing, we definitely didn\u2019t have an idea what that is going to be, or what it is that we look for. Sometimes some songs really capture this feeling that you have, that\u2019s quite often caught in between two feelings or even among five feelings. It\u2019s normally me trying to touch on that and sometimes it just naturally sounds like a feel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having featured a number of amazing musicians that you\u2019re also close friends with \u2013 like King Krule, James Blake, Micachu \u2013 how do you stay level-headed and efficient in terms of creative process and production?<\/b><\/h3>\n

Everyone we have worked with is very professional and very interested in making good music, trying to make a good record. There is always something that is incompatible, but making the record is like a chance for every one to kind of come together for a couple of days and see what would happen. <\/span>What makes a good collaboration is that its result is always quite surprising to the both of you, and it\u2019s something neither of you would have done by yourself. Usually when somebody else has an idea, you hear it and you get excited about it in a way that is unlike with your own ideas. Because you\u2019ve been with your ideas from the very beginning, you know how you got there, but when somebody else hears it, they don\u2019t know how you got there.<\/span><\/p>\n