Kelpe: “First the worst, second the best, third the one with the hairy chest, fourth the golden eagle”

It’d been a long, arduous four years since Kelpe released Cambio Wechsel, but at the start of this month, we received with open arms his comeback record, Fourth: The Golden Eagle.

Kel Mckeown, the maestro pulling the strings behind Kelpe, surpassed all previous endeavours with his new LP, showcasing an anthology of robust, razor-edged mayhem with slinking post-dubstep beats and luscious club hooks. He retains his dance chops, honing them for a 2013 audience – it’s rhythmic, pulsing, throbbing bass-heavy goodness on offer here. It’s not your stale Guetta-esque conveyor belt dance, this is bespoke, hand-crafted and injected with humane intricacies.

He’s taken a lot of time to craft this record. There was a large Kelpe-shaped gap while the London-based producer noodled around with other projects. “I guess that was about three and half years – time has flown.” says Mckeown. “In the spaces between some other work, several gigs and a few exotic holidays I’ve been gradually building this album. I did record and release some EPs on a few different labels whilst mulling over the idea of starting my own, which I finally did after much deliberation. That took up quite a bit of time too setting all that up too.” It’s been quite a gamble venturing forth alone, but one that’s ultimately paid off. “I am genuinely surprised that it seems to be doing quite well. Candidly speaking, this LP was rejected by over 20 labels before I decided to self release it.”

The album has been sculpted deliberately, confidently and with love – starting with lead cut, ‘Answered’. “I started it the day I got this new bit of kit called an APC40 which works with Ableton Live software. I just started recording in textures from different vinyl records, using the pitch control to get them in tune with each other, sort of. I then played in and looped up some bits of me playing the guitar, and then just kept building from there, adding more and more drums and synths. I worked on it for aaages.” This time, instead of helming the video duties, he delegated. “With the videos for this album I decided not to do anything myself and realised I knew quite a few people who were keen to do videos so left all the concepts and production to them. I have previously made my own videos but it takes up so much time and I thought it would be good to get other people’s perspectives on tracks. So, the idea for the video of ‘Answered’ wasn’t mine, it was from the director Jonathan Lieb.”

After the first track was complete, things started slotting together. “It’s all put together on a computer running Ableton, using synths, some drum recordings and other bits of software. I started with the track ‘Answered’ which set the mood but I put that as the last track and made another 9 tracks that I felt built up to it nicely in a similar tone, whilst exploring a few different tempos.” Rhythm has always been a focus for Mckeown. He’s pretty succinct in describing his favourite facets of his chosen genre: “Bass! And the way of having drums nice and loud in the mix.” And his favourite instrument? “The kick drum.” Enlightening stuff.

Obviously, such a prolonged length of time is going to have had an impact upon his sound and methods. “It has been gradually evolving a bit really, especially audible on the two EPs I released with Svetlana Industries last year. Tried to get things sounding a bit warmer, softer, nicer and more tuneful I hope, still with a bit of a gnarly edge at times.” The time spent away from Kelpe has also helped Mckeown expand his sonic horizons, which in turn has been brought to Kelpe. “I’ve been playing drums in a band a bit, totally different type of music – sort of Americana/country stuff. Although the drums is the least musical instrument in a band like that it helped me think about how songs are put together and how structures work, and about dynamics – building things up or being subtle et cetera.”

With producers and dance acts, there seems to be a fascination with collaborations – it usually seems to be a pretty worthwhile experiment: just take James Blake and RZA’s time together. So, did Mckeown work with anyone else? “Not as much as I should have. The only bonafide collab track that actually got released was with Coco Bryce – we have worked on another track together that should get finished soon. Of course there are other bits and bobs with friends that may or may not ever get finished.”

Many varied things have inspired Fourth…: “Autovision by Achim Reichel, One Word Extinguisher by Prefuse 73, Peel Sessions by Rechenzentrum, The Hanged Man by Bullet. And everything else that I listen to…” But despite the hodgepodge influences and evolved sounds. he’s self-deprecatingly unconvinced of it’s uniqueness. “I wouldn’t say it’s hugely different to some other stuff out there. But I guess a lot of other producers are quite focussed on fitting into a very specific micro-genre which I don’t really go in for so much.”

Fourth: The Golden Eagle is a particularly unusual title. There’s a heroic tinge to it; a triumphant twang. “It’s a playground nostalgia thing. At my school, if you ran a race and didn’t come first you would announce: ‘first the worst, second the best, third the one with the hairy chest, fourth the golden eagle’. I always just thought the latter sounded cool and sort of mysterious and majestic. I quite fancied going for an overly grandiose pompous title for this LP as I reckoned it could possibly be my best, just maybe.” He’s not far wrong. Although there’s a hefty wedge of seriousness going on in his music, Mckeown isn’t some stoic stony-faced type. In fact, his songs aren’t always about groundbreaking topics. Here’s one of the stranger subjects: “’Nat’s Twirly Mug’ – I lived in a house-share with a fellow called Nat(haniel) and he had a special tea mug that he’d always be twirling around his finger.”

Festival season is almost upon us. The sun is shining (well, we’ll have make do) and tents are primed for pitchin’. “In a couple of weeks I’m going to All Tomorrow Party’s curated by Deerhunter which should be excellent – I’m not playing and I think that’s the only festival I’m going to as a punter. To be honest I had holidays really early this year so I should be knuckling down or something. I’m keeping the summer open to plans and probably gonna do as many gigs as I can, within reason.” Alas, don’t expect to see Kelpe on any big stages this year, unless you’re around mainland Europe. “Traditionally speaking I don’t get booked to play British festivals, which is a shame. Festivals in Europe are better anyway, I’m playing Soundwave in Croatia which will be very nice. I’ve got quite a few other gigs in venues and Euro festivals over the summer and autumn.”

Even if you’ve had the honour of seeing Mckeown under his Kelpe disguise in action, don’t expect the same thing again if you have a second chance. “I do a few different things – playing live with a drummer, playing live on my own and recently starting to do more DJing again as well. The most interesting performance is probably playing live with my drummer, we’ve been playing together for over five years now so it’s really got to that point where we have a good understanding of each other.”

And finally, he’s graciously imparting some words of wisdom to all you bright young things out there itching to clamber into the role of producer: “Make sure you listen back to your tracks away from where you made them – go for a walk with them on the iPod.” You heard the man.

Fourth: The Golden Eagle is available now via Kelpe’s BandCamp.