In Conversation
with Kylyra
February 2008(Up-dated slightly 8th June 2009)
A little background:Some interviews I do with acts are acts I find and
interested by their music, I contact them quite quickly.
oher acts like alternative dance act, Kylyra
I do in a completely different way.
Some of you may or may not know but besides being
a interview master at ‘Setting Sun’ – I also run my own
poetry page on myspace.com and I like to try and network
on here to encourage people to read and offer feedback
on my poetry.
What has happened on this page is I had made a number
of friends on here who I talk to on a whole host of
topics some certainly more poetry based than others.
Ireland based Kylyra is one of them. When I invited
her to be a friend off mine she sent me back a very sweet
note and I started writing to her enjoying her
correspondence.
I only actually started listening to her alternative dance
solo music and her rock music with her brother
‘Deemed Psychotic’ a good month or two after I first
started writing to her and really enjoyed it to such a
degree, I thought to myself she in some ways is very similar
to me in the sense she is involved in a couple of bands,
writes poetry, is writing a novel and is also involved
in several other creative projects, I must interview
her for ‘Setting Sun’.
Of course Kylyra agreed straight away to the interview
and the rest is history as I like to say!
Her solo music myspace.com page is
http://www.myspace.com/kylyramusic
Deemed Psychotic – her other music project
can be sampled here
http://www.myspace.com/deemedpsychotic
Thanks to Kylyra for the interview! I certainly
hope to see your novel in the lights someday!
Since the original interview, as of round
about 9th June 2009, Kylyra has lived
as busy a lifestyle as I have with two
new projects appearing Technoky (
who allows Ky to explore her techno roots)
and Kypoetry (which allows Ky to explore
her poetry with futuristic beats).
Pop over to http://www.darkworld.com
to explore tons off free downloads.
Cheers
Andy N
Setting Sun:How are things and what’s happening at
the moment?
Kylyra:
Well, I think I've cursed myself with that old
Chinese saying 'may you live in interesting
times'! I've never been busier in my life. My
latest solo release, VOX, is getting lots of
attention; my videos out at Planet Mythos Video
on YouTube are getting viewed on a steady
basis; my band, Deemed Psychotic has a
growing number of fans; and my first novel
(The Demon of Petty Disturbances: Doh-da)
is with my new literary agent in New York.
Setting Sun:Next, can you tell us a little bit about your
music – who fired the starting pistol as I
like to say sometimes etc?
Kylyra:
I've always been musical, much to the despair of
my parents. They didn't approve of a musician's lifestyle
and actively discouraged me from taking it up seriously.
Luckily for me, they didn't quite succeed. My brother,
Tor, has always been my biggest fan. When he returned
home after a long absence in 1994 and found that I'd
given up music he just couldn't stand for it. He kept
encouraging me and did everything he could to get me
to do something - anything - with music. I dragged
my feet and resisted; he could get me to tinker
on a keyboard but only if there was no one
around to hear me.
Then Tor played Sven Vaeth's CD 'Accident in
Paradise' for me. I know it might sound cliché to say
that one CD changed everything, but it did. I fell in
love with Vaeth's sound; with the brilliant way on
that CD that he melded grooving techno with classical
pieces and environments. I knew immediately that I
wanted to do something similar.
I had several snippets of melody that I'd written and
sequenced ..s. My first attempt at my own recordings
was to combine these sequences with rhythm tracks
from a Roland MC-303 Groovebox (which I still
work with, by the way). I have to credit my
producer J.A. Bohr here; I probably would
have tinkered with the mixes forever and
never recorded anything without his prompting.
He helped me get my first release, 'first steps' out,
which included some great recordings I'd done
with him.
Since then it's been hard to hold me back. Not that
anyone at Dark World International has tried; just
the opposite, in fact. The entire staff keeps encouraging
me to go for exactly what I want on every song and
not worry about melding it into an album, or
keeping it within a certain time frame. It's very
freeing as an artist!
Setting Sun:Music-wise, what are your influences and who are
you listening to at the moment?
Kylyra:
I find I'm very influenced by what I happen to be
listening to while writing and recording music.
Probably a lot of these will seem strange, because
I doubt you'd ever hear them in my own stuff,
but here goes: Sven Vaeth (obviously), Descendents,
Heart, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Jane's Addiction,
Led Zeppelin, The Police, Janis Joplin, Nina Simone,
Ella Fitzgerald, Meat Beat Manifesto, Bjork,
Love and Rockets, Bauhaus, The Cure, Judas Priest,
Rush, Supertramp, INXS, Peter Murphy, New Order,
Echo & the Bunnymen, Tool, Temple of the Dog, and
everything in the Dark World libraries - Infinisynth,
Deemed Psychotic, Milwaukee's Black Orchid, Stygian Tars,
Future Dialogue, Tor's Angst, Doctor When, Johnny M,
Dream Quest, and my solo stuff.
I've also been listening a lot to killed by
9V batteries and Boozed right now since
I've got video projects with both bands going.
Setting Sun:Do you play concerts? If so, how does your
approach change to playing in your studio work?
Kylyra:
I haven't played a concert as a solo artist for a long
time. It's been something that's been nagging at
my mind, to be honest. I do have plans to
start gigging out with my next release
(called 'darkwold.com'), which I wrote while
I was recording 'VOX'. I'm scheduled to
be recording it this year. I've returned
to my techno roots with 'darkworld.com';
it's heavy on groove and has no vocals. So I'm
anxious to get out and have some fun.
When I do gig out, I think most people
(who have seen me in the studio) are
surprised at how relaxed and kicked
back I am. I'm a perfectionist to the
point of madness in the studio; when I
go live I know my limitations and
capabilities, and work a show that I'm
comfortable with.
Of all the ways music can be presented to an
audience, live concerts put the most stress on
showmanship rather than musicianship. I've
seen audiences go nuts over highly energetic
but crappy sounding performances and vice versa.
So it's very important to me to be extremely
comfortable with my set and my show; I want
plenty of time to interact with the audience.
Setting Sun:Probably my favourite song of yours is
‘The Urban Garden ‘ – can you tell us a little
bit more about that song?
Kylyra:
Thank you for mentioning 'The Urban Garden'.
It's an older piece of mine and originally from
the release 'first steps'. I wrote the melody
while living in Minneapolis. I found the city
nice for some aspects of living, but the views
out of the apartment were all concrete jungle,
so I created a huge indoor garden in the apartment
with over 100 plants ranging from tiny potted
flowers to a huge tree (over 6 feet tall) that I'd
found abandoned near the bins. My keyboard
was set up in a corner near the front room window and
I was surrounded by all these plants. Musically
'The Urban Garden' is a reflection of that room in
Minneapolis; a time capsule of standing amidst a
ton of plants while gazing down at dazzling concrete.
So basically you've got a simple, repeating melody
that floats over some rather bombastic rhythm tracks.
The song breaks into a short refrain section (echoed
three times to a greater or lesser extent) that, for me,
somehow completely expresses the bursts joy I felt
standing there. I did a number of different remixes
of that melody but none quite captured the feel that
'The Urban Garden' got. I can't listen to it without
remembering that room, and smiling.
Setting Sun:Also good to see you have a band going with your
brother ‘ Deemed Psychotic‘ – can you tell us a little
bit more about that also? How does it compare to
your own solo stuff?
Kylyra:Well, let me start by saying that fans of my early techno
material will probably get a shock when they hear
Deemed Psychotic! My solo material is based in dance
grooves, for the most part, but Deemed Psychotic is 100%
hard rock with a punk tinge to it.
I didn't actually think to myself that it was time for me
to go out and be a hard rock singer. It happened a bit by
accident; my brother and I were just jamming in the studio,
getting some energy out and I was feeling particularly...well,
cocky, for lack of a better word. I grabbed a mic (which I
usually don't do when jamming) and just opened up my
mouth and let loose. When the music stopped the room got
really quite and my brother just said 'I didn't know
you were a hard rock screamer'. We kept going, the record
button was hit, and things just took off. When the President
at Dark World International heard the roughs he loved
them and asked us to mould the sound into something
a bit more mainstream for the company.
We went back into the studio, this time officially as
Deemed Psychotic, and really began writing together
for the first time. The music just flowed out of us. My
brother would pick up his guitar and start strumming,
then I'd start to hum while gazing through some lyrical
snippets, and before you could say 'hit the record button'
we were off and running with something. We played to
our strengths in Deemed Psychotic; my brother played
all the guitars and bass while I did the keys and wrote
most of the lyrics.
We didn't stop writing music until we had enough
material to begin our third release; by then
we were pretty burnt out and Kris (the President) made us
stop even though we didn't want to.
Setting Sun:What’s next for you? Do you have any recordings
planned etc?
Kylyra:Yes, I'm scheduled to head back into the studio this spring to
finish recording Deemed Psychotic's second release.
I want to get some better vocal tracks done, and fiddle
a bit with some keys on a couple of songs. Then I'll be
working on my next solo release, darkworld.com, over
the summer and autumn. I've got several video projects
queuing up already, and I know I'll have work to do
on my novel soon.
Most of all I've got to stay loose over the next few months
and be ready to jump in whatever direction the wind blows.
I'm really lucky to have the support of everyone at Dark World
for all my projects, and that includes my writing.
Setting Sun:I normally ask people next where they are from and
what’s the local scene is where you are, but I already
know where you are from in Ireland so I can guess the
local scene is pretty quiet, so I’ll just ask you have you
being to any good gigs recently etc?
Kylyra:You've really got me smiling on this one; you must
be familiar with the Irish countryside! Yes, the
local scene is small and quiet, but as a
matter of fact I recently attended Eurosonic
in Groningen, Netherlands. It was a
mind blowing display of talent from around
the EU and included just about any genre
you could name: rock, goth, metal,
industrial, pop, r&b, folk, avant-garde,
techno, jazz, etc.
I had the go ahead from Dark World to take my
video camera and shoot for Planet Mythos Video on
YouTube. I've already posted a special video on an
Austrian band, killed by 9V batteries. I did a lot of
filming for them and hoped to get an interview but that
just didn't work out. They put on a really good show
and combined some noise/ambience pieces in between
their songs that really flowed well on stage. I can
highly recommend them if you're into
indie/shoegaze/punk bands; go see them live and get
their debut CD which is just great!
I also am putting a video together for Boozed from Germany.
These guys are into acid/blues/rock and really have a
well choreographed show put together! They tour
almost non-stop (it shows) and have a huge push behind
them right now, with a great management team at
Heart-Rawk and a number of corporate sponsors; I'd say
this is a band you're going to hear a lot more from
very soon.
Another band to watch for is Von Hertzen Brothers
from Finland. They took the stage at a large venue called
Vera and reminded me sharply of seeing Pink Floyd
years ago. They're big out on MySpace and
with good reason; just listen to their music!
I wish I'd kept better notes; I saw so many acts that I've
lost track of all of them. I can tell you this, having seen
Eurosonic last year: overall, the sound and the music
was 100% better this year. They really got some
great stuff in, and although they tend to be a bit
heavy in choosing Dutch bands and artists it's still
a fantastic event to check out what's hot all
over Europe.
Setting Sun:What would be your dream job if you were not a
musician?
Kylyra:Producing new artists. I've learned over the years
how much a producer can do on a recording, and
if I wasn't actively making music myself I'd be
behind the boards mixing. I'm slowly learning some
of the ins and outs of it while I record; that's actually
encouraged at Dark World so artists have a better
working relationship with the engineers
and producers.
Setting Sun:What would you like to be doing when you are 60?
Kylyra:Dating men young enough to be my grandson. ;)
Setting Sun:Lastly, what will you be doing when you
are 60?
Kylyra:Producing and pushing new artists in
between writing my 12th best selling novel.
