Experimental horrorcore artist, glu, chats with musician, Giovanni From Kepler-22 about their collaboration on ULTRAGLU.
Melbourne extraordinaire, glu, pushes the boundaries of borders as much as he does with music. The artist teamed up with Giovanni From Kepler-22 (GK-22) to create VHS, a track from his debut record ULTRAGLU.
The pair chat over zoom, exchanging experimentally electrifying artists from Melbourne and GK-22’s hometown, Ottowa, revealing their thought processes whilst creating the music that keeps their listeners on their toes. Check out glu and GK-22’s discussion below:
GK-22: How you doing glu?
GLU: I’m good man, it’s fuckin late (laughs) but I’m good.
GK-22: (Laughs) Yeah I just saw it’s midnight over there, it’s a whole new day. [laughs]
GLU: Yeah for real. Thanks for doing this, it’s so cool to properly talk to you finally.
GK-22: No problem bro.
GLU: I feel like I’m so inspired by your work man it’s so sick. Legit when I first heard your shit I was telling everyone “Damn I gotta start a record label and sign this motherfucker, this shit’s crazy”. I heard Haha You Can’t Relate and I’ve never heard anything like this.
GK-22: (laughs) Damn thank you bro.
GLU: I think I really like that everything you make, every project, even though it’s all your sound, still has it’s own vibe. Yin has it’s own vibe, Study Series 2 which just came out has it’s own vibe, and the singles you released in 2019 like Pirate Bay have their own vibe too. Do you aim for everything to have it’s own aesthetic or is that kinda what happens through the process?
GK-22: I try to keep things interesting… the way I approach things now is like a season, like a seasonal method of putting out music. Every season has those 3 things, where’s it’s like there was the Study Series, the singles, which I call; The Care Package. For the last one, I released a song per week for 6 weeks, then Pirate Bay came out and then Yin [Or a Documentation of an Extreme] came out. Basically it’s just a way of [making] me putting music out in a more interesting way.
GLU: Yeah for sure.
GK-22: I also like patterns a lot so I try to play with that.
GLU: Are [patterns] something you just like in day-to-day or in your work to stay focussed?
GK-22: It’s something I like from artists I’ve looked up to. And just the way I view life in general, I just like the idea of patterns. Like in; Study Series 1 and Study Series 2, you’re gonna find a lot of similar things in both.
GLU: Yeah even with the art for those, the aesthetic is so similar. You just dropped another single [Gyubee], are you gonna do another care package or is that just a throwaway for now?
GK-22: I have no idea. That song I was just super stoked on it. It was like Haha, You Can’t Relate.
GLU: Yeah dude legit!
GK-22: Like I made it and I was super excited about it and I just didn’t even think about it. I was just like everybody needs to hear this, just put it out.
GLU: I fuck with that. I always sit on shit for ages, but I wish I could just put that shit out right away.
GK-22: I can’t, for some reason I don’t like sitting on things.
GLU: I don’t either man I hate it [laughs] but it always ends up being like…
GK-22: It always ends up happening?
GLU: Yeah it just turns into a bigass process. I don’t have a great ear for mixing so I always end up collaborating in that stage.
GK-22: Yeah, that’s good too though.
GLU: Yeah it is, having another perspective always elevates some shit to another level.
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GK-22: How long did it take to finish ULTRAGLU?
GLU: I think it started in May last year, then was fully finished by like March maybe? So we didn’t actually sit on it for that long, but I finished recording in October, so the mixing process felt hella long.
GK-22: Yeah. I haven’t heard everything yet, but Corner Store (At Midnight) is crazy!
GLU: Oh yeah it gets pretty weird later [laughs]
GK-22: I heard Corner Store (At Midnight) yesterday and I was like damn this shit is wild, cause like, whoever mixed it did a really good job because there’s so many wild sounds going on but everything still fits. Like even the vocals which are super affected out are still fitting, I was like “man this is crazy”.
GLU: Yeah Voidhood does all my mixing, he makes his own stuff as well. He’s amazing you listen to some of shit for real.
GK-22: Yeah send me some shit.
GLU: I will, he’s on another level, some of the weirdest shit you’ll ever hear.
GK-22: [laughs] That’s what I like.
GLU: I really like being able to do albums, I’m guessing you feel the same because with tracks like that one on Yin where there’s like a 6-minute freestyle, I forget the name-
GK-22: Oh, Eighteenth?
GLU: Yeah! That song hits so hard! With Corner Store and some of the later tracks on ULTRAGLU, I like having the format of an album where you can put that shit on that you couldn’t put out as a single.
GK-22: Yeah, it only works in context of a project. That’s true.
GLU: Are you gonna drop a project this year or you chilling?
GK-22: The thing is… I don’t think it’s fun if I say [laughs].
GLU: [laughs] aight for sure.
GK-22: When it comes to putting projects out I don’t to be like… this is what I’m working on. I like to finish it and THEN find out how I’m gonna roll it out, and roll it out that way… To me I see the rollout as no different to creating the project itself. It’s part of the art of it, so I try to make it… fun. I don’t wanna kill the magic of it. But yeah I always have shit, I just don’t know what I’m gonna do with it. Usually I just make the decision last minute.
GLU: I fuck with that. That’s so confident.
GK-22: [laughs] I wouldn’t use that word but yeah.
GLU: [laughs] From the outside at least.
GK-22: From the outside looking maybe, yeah. It usually ends up working out though.
GLU: You seem pretty grounded though. It seems like you’re quite spiritual. With covid and all that, what sort of stuff did you do to keep grounded through these times?
GK-22: Well covid didn’t really do much to me, it actually made life better for me for a bit cause I didn’t have to go to work [laughs] I could just stay home and I got to make a lot of beats for a lot of people. I’m a homebody. Staying home is what I do naturally, so the fact that I could stay home, and not need to leave was fire. But these days I’m going out more because I’ve been wanting to work with people more. Maybe it’s cause it’s been a year and a half [laughs].
GLU: [laughs] It’s a long fuckin time.
GK-22: At this point, I just wanna see people and work with people. But during COVID I did a lot of meditating and I did a lot of beat-making and cooking… Nothing really changed that much, I couldn’t see my friends but that was it.
GLU: For sure.
GK-22: I’m not a stressed-out person naturally too, so like, when things happen I’m just like, “aight”. How about for you, with covid, how did you navigate it?
GLU: That’s when I made ULTRAGLU, it was kinda what inspired it because I was so, like, cooped up. I’m alright at home but I’m always out doing and shit and I had all this pent up energy. I guess that’s why there are parts that are pretty fuckin extreme. I was like I need to just get this shit out [laughs].
GK-22: [Laughs] “I need to yell”.
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GLU: Yeah exactly, it’s pretty chill here now though. It’s just like; it opens, then it closes, then it opens.
GK-22: Yeah that’s what it’s like here.
GLU: We’ll get to performing again pretty soon though.
GK-22: Are you planning on doing a show for the project once it opens? Something mapped out?
GLU: Yeah, because of the lockdowns shit keeps getting pushed back so it’s probably not gonna be for a minute but… it’ll happen. It’s gonna be fire. What’s the scene like in Ottawa?
GK-22: It’s at a strange place. It’s like, you’re laying on a gold mine, and you’re not aware of it, and then you’re looking for goldmines outside the one you’re laying on, because you don’t realise you’re sitting on one. I feel like that’s where Ottawa’s at. Just because we don’t have the infrastructure yet like really really, doesn’t mean we can’t like, build it. Yknow?
GLU: For sure.
GK-22: It doesn’t mean we have to go to New York or Atlanta or whatever. I feel like a lot people here feel they have to get the approval of the businesses and companies of those places to be validated. But we’re becoming decentralised we don’t need to go somewhere. Yknow what I’m saying?
GLU: I mean, that’s how we linked up. With the internet, anyone can do any shit now. There’s a similar thing here where there’s a big scene but not as much money in it. The exciting thing with that is everyone isn’t scared to do some different shit.
GK-22: It makes it more experimental. Authentic.
GLU: Definitely.
GK-22: And with limited resources, it requires more creativity to use those resources effectively, which ends up creating new and better things. It’s exactly this. Instead of feeling like you need to reach out of your immediate environment, just look at what you have and see what you can do with.
GLU: Every new wave comes from the underground in some way. Actually what you been listening to?
GK-22: Oh shit I gotchu. There’s this song I found maybe like two days ago. 34hunnid. It’s by this guy [ayrtn & mulade]. It’s in 3/4 time.
GLU: Oh yeah I saw you post that.
GK-22: Oh man, that song is mind-blowing. I been listening to Gyubee on repeat.
GLU: [laughs] Rack the streams up, make that money.
GK-22: [laughs] Rackin the streams up. Lumberjack, the new Tyler song. Babyxsosa has this song called Get Off My Swag. Other than that a bunch of little songs. What’ve you been listening to?
GLU: Have you heard Bktherula? She’s fire. She’s got this new shit called Blue/Santanny. If you wanna hear some Aus shit-
GK-22: Yeah actually.
GLU: This album Melbourne 2 by these guys Too Birds. It’s fucking insane. That shit’s been blowing my mind. Voidhood’s, Dissociating, which I was telling you about before. What else I been bumping? That new Giovanni..
GK-22: [laughs]
GLU: Oh shit, this zoom meeting bout to end [laughs] is there anything else you wanna plug though?
GK-22: Just the website (DOJOCLUB.COM) if you wanna check out my work it’s all there. Oh yeah, and stream ULTRAGLU.
GLU: Based. Thanks bro.
GK-22: No worries man.
Have a listen to glu and Giovanni From Kepler-22’s track VHS, from ULTRAGLU below:
