News

Kyle Hall

Just 18-years-old and hailing from Detroit, Kyle Hall's been getting a lot of attention after releasing several EPs on his own Wild Oats label and his remix of Darkstar's Aidy's Girl is a Computer on Hyperdub. After that remix Hyperdub wanted a release from him and Kaychunk / You Know What I Feel (out March 15) is his first full EP for another label. We spoke to Kyle recently to find out more about him...

For those that don't know you, can you introduce yourself and your music?
I'm a black kid from Detroit that makes some interesting shit.

What was the first event you went to?
I'm not sure what the first event I ever went to was. That would be insane if I could actually remember the first event I been to. I've been going to events all my life.

One really memorable one was when my mom bribed the door man at Oslo's, a Sushi bar/club in Detroit, to let me in so I could see one of my favourite DJs at the time, DJ Minx. This was in 2005 so I was 14 at the time. That was a really fun night. To this day I still have a hard time getting into that spot as it's a 21 and up.

Also maybe the 2004 Detroit Electronic music festival where I saw my uncle Ray, DJ Raybone, DJ there, that was real fresh.

How did you first get into electronic music and then on into production?
Through my uncle, DJ Raybone, and my parents. My mother is a vocalist and I hung around her when I was younger going to studios and such. My dad is a real music head so he would play me a lot of old school joints like Kraftwerk and stuff like that. I just kinda hung around people and listened to different shit on my own via old records from my stepdad and the internet.

The way I got into messin' with beats was when I was younger, like five, my dad got me Casios and junk like that. I was always fiddling around with making tracks with tape and by other means.

Do you think your roots in music reflect or have some influence on the kind of tracks you're producing these days?
Yes, to an extent. I mean everything I hear and experience is relative in some way to what influences me but I wouldn't say me growing up with musical "roots" is directly why my music sounds the way it does today.

Right now I'm making dubstep tracks just cuz I feel like making the shit. Some times I make rap beats. I might start making trance songs if that's what I feel like... OK, thats a stretch, I'm not going to be making trance songs! But over time my sound has taken shape because of all the stuff I've been into. My music is a product of what I experience everyday.

Tell us more about your forthcoming single on Hyperdub and how you hooked up with them...
My new single that's coming out on Hyperdub I did because I wanted to do some faster different shit and put it out there for the world to hear. I just look at myself as a dude who likes making music no matter what genre.

So after I did the Dark Star remix Marcus and Kode 9 asked me if I was interested in doing some original joints for the label. I like the other shit on the label already so I thought this would be a good opportunity to expose what I do to a new audience that may not be familiar with my sound.

You also have a track coming out on Instra:mental's NonPlus+ label later in the year, can you tell us more about this and how it came about...
I have a remix project plus one of my science experiments I'm working on for NonPlus+. The track I'm remixing is Leave It All Behind. I just started chatting with them through MySpace and I dig some of the vibes their shit is on and they asked me if I wanted to put my touch on some things. I was like yeah I'd love to infect other people's shit!

How long does it usually take for you to produce a track, from start to finish?
It takes a month to a year, sometimes 12 hours but most of the time a whole day. I don't like coming back to tracks later, especially if I'm kinda just recording audio live, it's hard to do stuff over a span of time. I like to finish my shit in one go.

Tell us more about your Wild Oats label...
Wild Oats is MY SHIT! I invented it, created it and release on it and run that shit. I started it in 2007/2008 and my last record I released on it is called the Dirty Thouz. Wild Oats is focused on me and the people from the streets of the D. But mostly me. The shit on Wild Oats comes str8 from my body... everything. Wild Oats is for catching Kyle Hall in raw form. All other shit I do for other labels is Kyle Hall doin' other shit in Kyle MF Hall Style. KMFH!

You're still only 18, why do you think you've managed to get so far at such a young age?
The reason is I don't do drugs, I don't smoke weed or cigarettes, I don't drink coffee, I don't give my money away to bitches and I do what I want.

What are you currently working on in the studio?
Some stuff here and there, all kinds of different songs. I probably do one beat every day. Then I have some techno electro-ish concept projects that I've been working on, like BSMNT EKJ.

Done any interesting remixes recently?
Yeah, I just did one for Planet E of an old school Detroit jazz funk band called Tribe.

Anything else you want to tell us about?
Watch out for the big girls!