Homemade Weapons steps up with his first release for Samurai, the Kintaro ep. He is enigmatic as the music, and is as removed as you can get from an outsider’s idea of a ‘typical’ D&B producer, preferring art which emerges uneasily and may in turn reflect this on the playback. It infiltrates by stealth, creeps up on you… watch out!
Did the ep evolve over time organically or did you set OUT to create this entity?
It was never meant to be an ep: it just came about that way. Worked out well because the collection reflects a particular moment in time for me.
What inspired the title?
I played a lot of Mortal Kombat growing up.
A lot of the time I’ll reference it quickly for project names that usually end up sticking… Hotaru, Saibot, Shao Kahn, etc.
I get great images in my head from this, so what sort of visual art inspires you?
I was always intrigued by the scoring in horror films. For example, if you mute The Shining while viewing it you lose the sensation of suspense, terror, etc. I aim to re-emulate some of those atmospheres and intensities with the hope of creating some sort of mental imagery for the listener.
‘The Gauntlet’: could you take us though the tune, in terms of inception and creation?
There was an early version of it that you may have heard on a mix Clarity or I did last year maybe. The idea behind it came from doubling the movement on the same lfo used in the Mind Control tune of mine. From that, It eventually evolved into what it is now. It’s simple, complex, and disorienting at the same time… Very tough to listen to for a long period of time in headphones.
I hear there’s something equally disorientating about you?
I have a Plankton tattoo.
When all this is taken into account, a unique picture emerges, so what would you say you wanted to bring to D&B, as an artist?
The stuff I make reflects the material that has inspired me over the last 20 years, particularly the 90s. There was a time during the early 00s that I was really bored with D&B because it had seemed like a lot of the music stopped telling a story and everyone was trying to make the same tune with an even bigger drop. The stuff that I was making didn’t really fit, so I took a break from DJing and focused on other music projects. I’m basically picking up where I left off.
But overall I come from a musical family, and DJing has its limitations. Learning how to make the music just seemed like the natural thing to do.
This is one way of expressing yourself then, D&B… but you have a diverse music past?
I’ve been in a lot of different music projects for years. The last live instrumentation project I did was playing drums in an atmospheric post rock sort of thing. Prior to that I did vocals in a few death metal bands.
You can cultivate and change a DJ set depending on live tools, mood and venue but it’s possibly hard to do that in a live rock setting if you’re constrained by a setlist for eg…
I wouldn’t say rock is limited in it’s ability to layer, but live music does require more individuals to do what one can do alone when DJing. I think the greatest advantage of being a touring DJ is you’re never stuck with the same group of people in a confined area for a long amount of time. Also you get your own bed and shower.
Speaking of rock: you’re based in rock-cred capital Seattle… what’s the D&B scene like?
I think Seattle is similar to others cities in the US as far as D&B goes. There’s always a scene for the more popular sounds, and there’s always a smaller group that support the not so popular sounds. I think the big difference I’ve noticed is the audience for the latter over seas is much larger and accepting.
Any shouts?
Bigs to Presha and SMG for standing behind the After Dark and Kintaro EPs. Loxy, Gremz, the rest that support. Thanks for listening.
Kintaro
