CHAIRMAN KATO INTERVIEW

I didn’t know what to expect when I arranged to meet Chairman Kato in his East London studio. The only pointers lay in his music and his reputation for being something of an offbeat kind of individual. So it was with some degree of curiosity that I waited for his phone call outside the tube station not far from his East London studio. And what was his music telling me about Kato the person? I won’t lie – it’s taken me months to wrap my head round Chairman Kato’s latest release on Pictures Music. The EP’s intensified sounds and texture, its original production and a generously heaped spoonful of that certain something which makes every Kato track stand out from recent releases, had me thinking I might be meeting someone who would be complex, maybe even difficult.
So big relief, then, to find that Chairman Kato, has only one, not two, heads, dresses like he’s nothing special and lives on the same planet I do. Introductions made, we head back to Kato’s extraordinary centre of operations, a well-appointed studio above – wait for it – a synagogue. En route, Kato’s the one asking the questions, putting me at ease and by the time we settle in his studio and I switch on my two voice recorders – no way was I going to miss a word of this – I’m sufficiently comfortable to start asking the questions that would, hopefully, open up this very interesting producer for subscribers to DIN. Sitting in a studio cluttered with equipment – the one where this elusive producer often works until the early hours of the morning – I start by asking Chairman Kato where he grew up?

Birmingham.

What was that like?

Everyone disses Birmingham – like, I met this Canadian girl in Thailand who was slagging off Birmingham and she’d never even been to Birmingham. So I’m used to that. I don’t really know what it’s like any more – I’ve not been for 11/12 years. But when I was growing up there, it was great. The underground music scene at that point was really really exciting.

What kind of stuff was coming out back then?

It wasn’t so much what was coming out, it was the venues and the kind of DJs. There were two clubs in particular that were my first real watershed musical experience. I was in these shit bands playing my shit songs and then I went to this club called The Nutonik and I started seeing DJs. They were playing Hip Hop, Funk and House and they were scratching and and they were putting it together as if that was the most natural thing and I thought that was what was done, I thought that was the standard. I thought OK, so when you DJ, you throw Hip Hop and Funk and House and everything together as if that’s natural, you know? So I got into this habit of doing that. I dropped my guitar, started DJ-ing really ’cause of those clubs being so influential for me.

Any other places important to you at this time?

There was this place called The Medicine Bar, which is still there. At that point it was Birmingham’s best kept secret. It was amazing, just the people you’d be seeing there. That’s how I got into Electronic music, through those places. It was a real head-turner. I bought some decks and got into DJ-ing in my last couple of years at school.

How old were you?

I was seventeen.

Okay. So talking of influences, what was the first record you brought?

The first record I ever bought was this Donovon song called Sunshine Superman. Which is this classic, psychedelic kinda tune from the 60′s.

Thought it was gonna be something quite guilty!

No, my conscience is quite clean on the vinyl side.

What’s your favourite record you own right now?

Ah man, you really gonna make me choose out of all of them?

[Kato looks over to a large shelving unit packed with vinyls... There is a long pause.]

Shit.

There must be one.

I reckon it’s Spaces and Places by Donald Byrd. If I could find it, I’d dig it out for you.

And when did you start producing?

I’ve always been making music. When I was a teenager, I’d use people’s four tracks – four track tapes. I really liked having recording equipment. Then, when I went to Leeds, I was DJ-ing and promoting stuff and I wanted to get into more production. But it wasn’t really until the last three or four years, that I realised I had to stop everything and concentrate on my production. That’s when I started to develop a sound.

What was influencing you just then?

I was listening to a lot of film scores actually. A lot of film scores. John Barry, Bernard Herrmann, Ennio Morricone, the usual. There was a shop there that sold film scores and I used to go down and chew the owner’s ear off. Just talk to him about stuff. That was a big influence on me. I was trying to make all this down-tempo electronic music really. Even back then, some would say it was very dark.

And what’s your current set-up?

In terms of production, it’s laptop, tape machine, synth. I’ve been using a lot of guitar and bass recently. Just the usual, I try not to get into a habit of using one thing all the time because you start to get a little tunnel vision. So I just use synths and whatever.

You do live sets, don’t you?

Yeah, using this light controller thing, this 8×8 controller. I’ve created a loose template of what my set will be but it’s completely different every time, because I’m just improvising with it. I think live sets are really important. A lot of people aren’t doing what I call ‘live music’. They’re not improvising, not being what I call ‘live’. Triggering sounds is not really live. My set is all about improvisation. There are things that I’m doing that are completely different each time – I’m making it up as I go along.

I read in an interview that you play films in the background when you’re recording? 

Often it’ll be two in the morning and I’ll have Terminator on, with the sound down. There’s a film called Tetsuo The Ironman, which has been a massive influence on me. I just like to have something visual, just something going on, keeping the cylinders firing.

When did you begin work on your most recent release on Pictures Music, Wildfire?

Last summer, last August/last September. We wanted to take our time.

How did you go about producing it?

There were a couple of tracks that were lying around and I thought I could build the rest of the EP around them., I thought No Coincidence and Thudd could be the bones of it. I built Streets Of Rage, Gemini Eyes and Fighting Fire around them. That EP is very much like an account of my feelings about living in London that first first year. It’s an expression of how I felt – which was very mixed. First year in London was very hard. You can find that you love it and really hate it at the same time. Your normal spectrums of emotions are so much more exaggerated, I think. Well, that’s how it was for me, having lived in Leeds for 10 years. So, Streets of Rage is about London. It’s not about the video game, that’s just a bit of a pun. I’ve settled down a lot since and got more into a groove with London. I feel much more at home.

 What do you think of the ‘London underground scene’?

Scenes are for press really. When I go to a club, it’s not like I’m hanging out in the corner with certain scene players. It’s not like that at all, in fact, we’re probably we’re not even talking to each other usually, just in our own studios working on our own stuff. There’s a healthy amount of activity going on and that’s great. I try not to think too much about what I’m hearing. I go to Plastic People and absorb stuff – without even thinking about it. It’s starting to affect what I’m doing in the studio. Wildfire‘s pretty slow – I’ve been doing stuff at 140bpm recently and that’s London. It must be the London influence.

Where do you go, when you go out?

It’s all about Plastic People for me. It’s just been a massive influence, you just pop down and see Floating Points or Theo Parrish, who’s been a massive influence on me. Theo Parrish is a big influence on my new EP. It’s second to none, that place.

You’ve got a forthcoming release on Awkward Movements, Science & Romance. Tell us about that.

I’m really happy with it, with the songs. I think that songs on an EP should work together as a unit and I think they do. I’m looking forward to it and the label’s behind it. I’m just waiting on some remixes. So yeah, looking forward to it coming out.

Talk us through how you go about making a track? 

I try not to think about it. The moment you think about it, you can’t write. What you wanna do is, sit down, put on some music, have some tea, eat, read your emails, read the news, buy some music, download some stuff, then eventually, at some point, you’ll feel like ‘OK, I’m ready’. Otherwise you have blank-screen syndrome, where you turn on your computer and you look on the screen and nothing comes, you get into a block, start hating yourself. You need to feel inspired first. You will not write a note until you’re inspired, 100%. To avoid the syndrome, I recommend just sitting down, chilling out, listening to some music. When you’re ready, you’ll know. Then go. Trust me.

We’ve heard that Alex [Pictures Music] takes the piss out of you…

Always

…for putting too much ‘noise’ in your music. 

He thinks it’s funny. He thinks that I’ve got the opposite problem to most producers, who are trying to find space in their music when they’re mastering their stuff. I think it’s important to stuff your sound, so the lines between the different sounds get blurred. For me, that’s essential. I get really disappointed, you hear music and everything’s clean and has its own place. I hate that. I like there to be a little too much.

What are you listening to right now?

Actually I’m not really listening to what people call Electronica right now. Joy Division, Lee Scratch Perry. Black Ark In Dub – I cannot stop listening to that album, it is fucking amazing. He was a scientist with a sound, there was a proper sound there and it was just heavy. Liquid Liquid, this sort of Punk-funk band. Holy Other, that is really good. Dr John, The Doors. Blur, been listening to Blur again, don’t know why, just have to. Blawan, he’s good. Andy Stott.

Any collaborations, releases, remixes etc in the coming months?

Yeah, I’ve actually got a lot of material and my problem is now, I don’t know what to put out first.

Can you tell us about Underbelly?

Basically, I’ve got a really good relationship with the owner of Teasmith, which is this tea house in Spitalfields. He lets me use the space underneath the shop and it’s amazing ’cause it’s in the middle of Spitalfields and I’m able to just do what I want in it. It’s ridiculous. Me and Chris Stoneman were just spending time down there wondering what to do. He’s an animator, I’m a musician, so the obvious thing to do was put the two together. We were just gonna have a screen with animation and music. But I went further and further with that idea and said we should build a really weird structure. So we erected a structure made out of industrial polyethene – you know, the stuff they use in crime scenes – and we built this space you had to walk into. Then there was a big animation and music for about five minutes, on a loop. I loved it. I loved the whole thing, the experiment. It was stressful, it was a leap into the unknown but it was just endlessly rewarding for me. I loved the fact that it was there, I could share it with people. My parents came down to see it. It was brilliant.

What about this Underpin, which is coming up?

Underpin‘s a group show. I brought together eight people, people I’d met randomly over the last couple of years and said ‘Hi, do you remember me? I’m putting on a group art show. Come be a part of it.’ They’re people I really respect.

Is there a link between your visual art and your music?

There probably is. A lot of people said Underbelly was dark and in keeping with my dark music. A friend of mine said he felt emotionally violated when he went to Underbelly, the same way he felt when he listened to my EP. People make what they want of it and I’m cool with that. The thing that links the two is that I’m putting real personal feelings into both. Subconsciously, there will be a link. Your personality is gonna be splattered over whatever you’re doing, for better or for worse.

Any other interests?

I like going to see films. I like going down to the British Film Institute on South Bank. I go and see a lot of art. I like taking friends to exhibitions and stuff. London’s just amazing for that. Outside of music and art, I don’t really have time, I’m staying up all night doing music. I don’t really have that much time to go golfing.