Inkswel: Soul Connections

Can you take me back to the first time you got to play about with Hardware?

First drum machine I had was an Alesis HR 16! It’s a funny story actually, I was about 12 years old, my knowledge of hip hop came from my friends older brothers and Source Magazine, so I got it a bit wrong at first, like we all do! (Laughs). I thought a sampler (MPC etc) was the same as a drum machine. I begged my dad to buy me a drum machine, thinking that it would instantly make me classic hip hop tracks. Much to my dismay it only did drum beats, but this didn’t hinder me, I stuck at it even though I didn’t use it much at the time. But now that’s one of my favourite drum machines. A lot of peeps refer to them as the poor man’s 808. Great kick drums!I had a similar thing happen with DJing at the time also. 

Okay so onto a bit about Australia, what do you think the major difference is between the Australian scene and the rest of the world – Europe mainly

These days, it’s a lot better, a lot of great people making really amazing and world standard music. But I think a major problem Australia has had comes down to distance and demographics. We are very far away in terms of culture, as much as its a western country, Americanised as all hell, Australians laid back nature, has until recently kept us about 5-10 years in the past. This is still very evident today in our politics and I think music here reflected that for along time. But I guess with mass consumerist culture, spread by the internet, we have now caught up quicker, so things are on par I guess. We don’t have the same vinyl culture here though as Europe unfortunately, we have record stores and DJs pushing the vinyl thing for sure, but you can’t press a record and sell them all locally really, I guess with the odd exception of bigger indie bands, because people simply don’t buy vinyl like they do in Europe or the states. We have some great stores here, but your lucky to sell one third of what you press in Australia in comparison to Europe. This is mirrored in club culture also, Australia is bred on bar and pubs, nightclubs are just not the same – they exist, don’t get me wrong there are some great ones too. But venues that are just about ‘good music’ are limited here.

Yeah, so do you prefer to play the smaller, intimate gigs or large festival style events?

Intimate gigs for sure. You need to be able to interact with your listener, that is a big thing for me , sharing the music with them directly. I don’t do festivals very often, I don’t think eclectic vinyl sets really convert to that mass stage very well, with the odd exception I guess. I’m not against them for sure, I just prefer the smaller spaces and being able to go on a journey with a handful of people I think means a lot more. I feel like on a big stage it becomes more transient, almost more forgetful in some ways.

I can fully understand that. What is the inspiration behind then name?

To this day I’m not too sure to be honest, I used to be an MC in my hip hop days, I think it was a reference in a freestyle actually, around the same time I was involved in graffiti also, so it was a name for that for a while, but I gave up those elements early on to concentrate on production, the musical side always meant way more to me.

What are your aims for year ahead? In and outside of music.

Inside music. Whatever I can really. I just want to keep making stuff that keeps me and others interested. As much as I get pigeon-holed in the past with boogie, or hip hop or whatever, I’m not really having that. I’m trying to just make something interesting, whether its new or old in nature, I don’t have a formula with my music, I just vibe on whatever feels good at the time. So I’m blessed to be in a position to keep doing that, and Ill try my hardest to keep pushing that this year as much as possible. It surprises me daily actually that people genuinely are so interested in what I do, for me its all an experiment I guess, I’m not doing it for an outcome, just because I love doing it and can’t do anything else really. Blessed this year to already have a lot of things coming out from now until the end of year, and I am happy to say that each project is unique. There’s a few more 12s and EPs this year and then I might step back a bit and try and do something a bit more consistent and longer in length, I guess an album or something to that effect. But no promises, just moving with the current so to speak.

Outside of music, well my wife is about to pop out our first child, so very excited for that, that’s the next chapter for me really, excited to be pouring all my energy into that and music.

Seems like a good year is in the making for you. Inkswel’s next release is on the revered WOLF Music but until then you can check out or former single of the week in the No More Suckas EP on DT favorite Burek Records below: