KiNK Interview

Strahil Velchev is KiNK, the Bulgarian house DJ who has experienced a rapid rise to the forefront of club music. Just as excited as the crowds he plays to, KiNK loves music, instruments and experimentation, which is why he has played the world over. With a set at Horizon Festival in his home country, we got the inside info from the man himself about what to expect at the winter festival, how he plans to set the crowd alive, and what he has planned for the year ahead.

Hi Strahil, How are you today?
I’m ok, I had a bit of a cold last week so I’m recovering! Overall, I’m good.

Where are you speaking to us from?
I’m in Sofia, in Bulgaria.

Looking back, what was a highlight for you in 2014?
I released an album which was a bit more challenging and special compared to my other records. It sounds more experimental because of the way I produced it, I wanted to be a bit more limited in the studio, I used very few analogue gadgets or synthesisers. I decided to produce everything with limited choices, and this is the result; it’s not an easy-listening project, not for everybody, but it’s for those who are looking for something different and original. And my music and what I do reached some companies who manufacture instruments, and that’s something very interesting to me and nice to talk to people who make the instruments that I use for my music. That was something new for me and I’m happy to be noticed by people who produce the machines that I like.

So getting on to 2015, you’ll be playing at Horizon Festival in your home country, but what are you looking forward to most this year?
I’m looking forward to making more danceable music, because last year my energy went into promoting the album, which was a bit more left field, obscure, and now I want to come back to producing music for the dancefloor and learning new techniques for production. I’m excited to make new music. And also, it’s a bit early to announce, but I’m thinking about a different project with a different name more in the techno direction. It’s not going to be a project that I’m going to release music from; it’s just going to be a different type of performance. It’s a little project for fun, but you never know what’s going to happen in the end.

You also played Horizon last year; how would you describe it for anyone who’s thinking of going to Horizon 2015?
First of all, the location is extremely beautiful; I go there with my girlfriend for vacation in the winter and it’s just great. The festival attracts really interesting types of people. You have a lot of foreigners, and normally you don’t see that many in this part of Bulgaria, but then you have the locals, it’s a healthy mixture. That’s what I like, the nature, the location, and the people. And the selection of artists and DJs is really good.

You have such a signature sound; do you remember the point in your life when you became enamoured with electronic music?
I’ve always been into danceable music; when I was a kid I was into disco, and later on I liked hip hop, but I remember in 1992 there was this radio station for dance music on Bulgaria national radio, and they played a track that nowadays would be described as commercial EDM, ‘Das Boot’ by U96, and the DJ called it techno and I really loved it, so that was the moment. Quickly afterwards I discovered the commercial version of techno and then Detroit techno, jungle coming from the UK. I see now many people arguing about commercial music versus underground music, and while I definitely don’t like commercial dance music, I think it’s a good start for the kids to then discover us – the higher quality!

As an electronic artist, it’s fascinating how you manage to transpose this to live performances, and it’s not often something you see from DJs; what is it that makes you want to perform in this way, and not simply drop tracks?
I like improvisation, and I think it’s important for the artist to have fun on stage, especially when you have a busy schedule and you play two or three times a day, you’re tired and often you just want to sleep, and then it doesn’t make sense to play. You should go on stage and be excited and have fun because this is what we do; it’s not just a job, it’s a form of entertainment. To entertain a crowd, we have to entertain ourselves, so I play in this way, I take those challenges and I improvise because it keeps me focused and brings a lot of fun for me, and then I give a positive message to the crowd.

Do you carefully plan your sets or do you ever wing it?
There is some sort of pre-prepared elements, because when people invite me to play in certain cities, they expect me to play tracks that are familiar, so I still use some elements from me released music, but there’s not much planning. I have melodies from my tracks that I can drop anytime, but the rest of the time I use my keyboard and instruments to create sounds on the fly. But, of course, I have some routines that I repeat more or less every show. There is one routine I’ve done for four years now, where I do a track with a typical bass sound, so I give the crowd one of my devices, and they touch random buttons, and they generate the bassline. It is something unexpected, every time is different, but at the same time people know when I bring out the controller, they know that now is the time for them to make the bassline.

Does that enable you to interact with the audience?
Well, when I was younger, I was curious to see what the DJs were doing, and I always wanted to contribute, and now I give the people a chance to see what I’m doing because I think some of them are like me, they want to participate. That’s why I do it.

But you’re not able to do that during festivals are you?
No, you’re right, I’ve found it’s really hard to do during festivals and I have to think about a different type of live show for festivals. The way I perform, I’ve found it’s tough on a bigger event, because improvisation brings mistakes, which is not a problem when people are in a club and they can see what’s happening, but when you’re a little dot far from the crowd, people want to be carried on one groove without problems, so I have to change in the next year, make a proper festival set that is perhaps stronger, maybe a little less improvised.

Eastern Europe has really made a name for itself on the festival circuit scene now; what is the dance scene like in Bulgaria?
It was very developed in the ‘90s, I guess because electronic music was very new at that time and it was in the moment when we turned from socialism to a democracy, and the borders opened and we were allowed to open to listen to anything we want and information was coming in freely, so people in the ‘90s were excited for the future, which includes electronic music. In the mid-2000s the scene went down a little bit, because it wasn’t new anymore, and right now the scene is not that good, so I’m very happy that festivals like Horizon are happening. This will hopefully turn people towards this type of music. We need to educate the new generation to this type of music with events like Horizon.

You’ve performed all over the world, where has been the most memorable location for you and why?
That’s a question I can’t answer! Every DJ has different territory which is strong for him; I would say mine is Germany, England and North America. But I really can’t name one location or club, everywhere is amazing and as long as my music is popular in a specific location, the night is great!

Listen to KiNK ‘Detunator’

Don’t miss KiNK at Horizon Festival 7th – 13th March in Bansko Ski Resort.