ANDES HIGH

Closing this month´s edition we have an interview to one of the finiest producers in the drum n bass genre in our city. We are talking about Kusillo, Paceño producer proud of his mestizo heritage and beatmaker with a high dossage of heavy bass lines and twisted drum rolls.

KUSILLO:

"I think we're experiencing a mistical ressurection with the music, recuperando our identity and we should be proud of the Drum n Bass pacenio y andino… fast patterns, Andean native instruments and heavy basslines that are now part of our life."

Bakuki: Tell me about first time you listened jungle breaks. first impressions...

Kusillo: I don’t exactly remember but I think it was near the year 2003 when I heard my first drum steps, I remember I was playing GTA3 when suddenly a dnb drumstep fucked up my brain forever.

B: So you got the first contact thru videogames?

Yeap, GTA3 he he

B: Remember the track?

K: It was a radio station.

B: Where were you living at that time?

La Paz. the year 2004... I met Starwind (Mike) he introduced me to new steps, shortly after that I had to travel to Chicago, to study, I met new junglists and I started to produce my first tracks.

B. What can you tell about jungle scene there?

K: I didn't met so many junglists. the few ones liked hip hop more than jungle. I know there´s a close relationship between the two genres, however; I was not into hiphop.

B: Was there a weekly drum n bass session were you were living?

K: I heard about some sessions, however 1 year i's not enough I was just getting into the scene.

B: Did you use to go out a lot or just produce at home?

K: Man I couldn’t drive that’s why I couldn’t go out very often, I just started producing the tracks at home listening to the music my friends brought to my home. During that time I was producing psytrance they introduced me to jungle steps deeply.

B: So you came a little early back home..

K: Yeah, I couldn’t finish my career (Computer Science), now I’m studing music.

B: Do you have any regrets?

K: No regrets, I enjoy living in La Paz, me siento mas libre aqui, de hecho hay más libertades en este país, that's the way I feel about living in here, anyway, living in La Paz gave me the inspiration for creating those fusion tracks.

B: I feel that coming back home gave you a new perspective on jungle breaks...

K: Exactly, the idea of the fusion, Psicodelia Aymara, Awayo & reflejos de un pueblo enfermo, you know if you go to a "party" en el altiplano, they get into a trance with alcohol, ravers do the same with other music and other drugs. But at the end "it's the same kind of trance that people enjoy"

B: Kusillo was producing other kind of tracks on diferent genres, what happend in the way... Why you chose to draw faster patterns to a sincope step?

K: Well, I started producing psytrance as “Elektrogen”, I still like that genre but not for me to produce it. It was not what I was looking for… I like faster steps variations in the drum patterns and heavy basslines.

B: Why is drum n bass so apealling to you? What do you see in DNB that you can´t get in psytrance?

K: Besides the rythm you know it’s more jazzy, it has a lot possibilities when you produce it, also I like to hear a heavy bassline, you know like having a bass talking to you...On top of that you can also use psytrance effects "encima" de los drum steps. I think I’m making a fusion with the two genres, you know it’s my influence, I think some people call it “neurofunk”. Also it's more urban... you know... as starwind said..." living in this concrete jungle"…

B: Kusillo has almost finished his first Lp, how many tracks are there in this project?

K: I think I got like 16 tracks, but the LP will have only 13, just a drum n bass/jungle LP, my down-tempo/ambient tracks will be released with Neurotrance Records.

B: Tell us a little bit about the production of this tracks. Where exactly in La Paz you produced them, and what equipment you used to produce these tracks. (sofware/hardware)

K: These tracks where produced at home (Miraflores), using VSTs en su totalidad.My equipment is just a notebook, also I got 2 MIDI controllers that I never use, I forgot about my piano keyboard, I rather use the piano roll and fill the patterns, you know like writing a music score, the other controller (UC-33) just got knobs and faders that I use to play my music live. About the software I started to use Renoise 1.9.0 like 3 months ago to produce just the drums, once I got the drums I use Ableton Live and the VSTs to produce the synths. Finally, Adobe Audition, to fix some things related to the wave files.

B: You have an upcoming show, where you will use one of this gadgets, tell us about it... When and were can we check out Kusillo´s Live Act?

I'll be estrenado my live act at 2 gigs, Samahain and Urbandance in November, you'll be listening to new tracks, 4 or 5 including a remix of Mago’s Black Magick and new styles of fusion between andean music & jungle steps.

B: So we´ll listen to a entire set of your tunes.. this must be one of the first La Paz jungle cats to do so...

K: Yeah

B: Why do you think other La Paz drum n bass djs don´t produce their own tracks?

B: I really don’t know, but I hope we’ll be hearing new producers and new ideas the following years. This is just the beginning.

B: Maybe La Paz scene is a little commercial so djs prefer to play other people´s tunes instead of their own...

K: That could be a reason, anyway I don’t care I’ll keep producing my own tracks…

B: Im a big fan of your work man... What would you say to young producers that want to start producing tracks in La Paz?

K: Just follow your dreams, hardwork and patience is the clue to success, so keep producing your music no matter what, y sobre todo keep it real. that's what I would say to any kind of artist, not only producers. And when I say keep it real it’s coz I’m a mestizo. I would say a proud mestizo , and my music is the result of who am I, no me hago al loco, I know myself, my roots so I know where I come from and as I said before I’m proud of that.

B: The live set you are presenting haz a remix from another jungle producer from La Paz...

K: Yep, Mago's Black Magick, I made that remix coz I like the drums in that song, it was a kind of inspiration too, for the last tracks I’ve uploaded to my website.

B: What´s the conexion betwen OI+BASS djs and you?

B: Well, I had an invitation from DJ QUIEN to join oi+bass crew, I started to hang out with some frinds at orange club, and those were the first times I heard dnb in La Paz, I didn’t know that I could find real junglists in town, this experience was the other part of my inspiration.

B: Will we ever see Kusillo playing other people´s tunes as a regular dj?

B: I think you'll only see me performing my live act. I like to "sacar todo lo que hay in my head" y ponerlo en mis canciones, maybe in the future I'll become a regular dj, it depends.. I don’t know what to expect form the future, esa situacion se puede dar como tambien no. But you know as Im producing my own tracks, el material se acaba, so you'll have to wait for the next presentation maybe next year, I'll be producing more tracks for then.

B: Awesome. Last thoughts. Why do you think broken beats will seduce the ears of young people in La Paz? What´s so different in our scene that other scenes don´t have..

K: Well, I think each scene got it’s thing , however sometimes people gets bored of the same old thing, and they look for new things, as I do for new sounds, so expect an evolution in Kusillo´s sound. Also, as I read somewhere, "I think we're experiencing a mistical ressurection with the music, recuperando our identity and we should be proud of the Drum n Bass pacenio y andino… fast patterns, Andean native instruments and heavy basslines that are now part of our life."