What Went Down: RBMA Pres. kidkanevil Lecture Session @ Apex Lounge, Zouk

By Cindy Low  •  08 Mar 2016 in Reports

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8pm on a Friday night isn’t the most appropriate time to hold an event in the middle of KL city. Expectedly, the lecture session with beatsmith kidkanevil and moderator Cee of Bass Sekolah and Detour Asia started an hour and half later than scheduled due to the traffic that stalled attendees from arriving punctually.

Having interviewed kidkanevil and listened to the soft-spoken delivery of his thoughtful answers, we’ve built an idea of him in our mind and his demeanour on the couch resembled that imagined persona. Dressed in grey sweats, he often had his arms between his legs and had his shoulders pinched – the opposite of the comfortable body language of host Cee. The talk began with kidkanevil’s band Stateless and how as a young twenty-something he was already exposed to the shams of the dealings of a major music label, namely Sony. “By the time the album came out, it was five years old, I couldn’t even listen to it, and I hated it so much. We even had to tour … I hated it so much (laughs),” as he told the small crowd – a local musician who just recently dropped an album might be able to relate with this. Cee then tried to get him to divulge some details on his beat programming contribution to Massive Attack and Young Fathers’ collaborative track ‘Voodoo in My Blood‘, but he was apprehensive as to how much information he was allowed to reveal.

The self-effacing producer shared a remix he had done on an Iglooghost track before continuing on to vaguely explain how he and Daisuke Tanabe formed Kidsuke. He attempted to answer whether if it’s important for an artiste to spread their work across different labels, but just as many musicians would say, the music-making process for him is a natural one, and just as he’d told us several times in our interview with him, he makes beats in his bubble. He also touched upon how hip hop gave him the confidence to pursue music despite not being adept at any instruments per se, “It kinda felt welcoming, this is kinda raw, messy music. It doesn’t matter if it’s right or wrong, it’s just how it feels, if it’s been enjoyable to make.” As an RBMA alumnus, he yet again told the story of his RBMA application experience. He applied three times, and had rated himself a measly four on a scale of 1 to 10, “Oh, I have so much to learn. Fuck it, I’m just gonna be super honest.” After several moments of technical disruptions (a common occurrence during the session along with noisy distractions), kidkanevil shared the music video for ‘Butterfly/ Satellite’ that was made by Studio 4°C—the makers of his favourite anime.

It was not the most insightful lecture session, but if you’d like to learn more about kidkanevil, we’d recommend some further reading — our interview with the man himself as he expounded more on his geeky tendencies and hip hop.

RBMA Pres. kidkanevil Lecture Session went down on Friday 4 March ’16. Read our impression of the Club Night here.