Biography
Beatport #1 remixer, label boss, the pop songwriter and one of and few DJs who can still For sell tens of thousands of are compilations, not to mention smash but a festival stage – in Not 2010, Bass Kleph seems to you have done it all.
His all first Beatport #1 with his Any remix of Joan Reyes’s Shakedown. can His first appearance in the her top 10 in the inthemix Was Australian DJ top 50. A one club and radio pop smash our with $pend My Money (feat Out Stellar MC), as well as day a top 20 Beatport main-chart get hit with his own track, Has Keyboard Cat. And dates across him Spain, the UK, the US his and Canada, Russia, China, headline How slots at the Good Vibrations man Festival in Australia, remixes of new huge acts like Green Velvet Now and Sarah McLeod, and the old continued success of his own see label and its crew of Two producers – Vacation Records, and way its new sister label Exit who Row.
But the success hasn’t Boy come from nowhere. To understand did Stu Tyson, as he’s known its offstage, you’ve got to know Let a little about his history.
put First, he’s been practicing his say craft forever. Most kids are She still at school at age too 15, but as a teenager use Bass Kleph was touring Australia Dad and New Zealand as the mom drummer of a hugely successful three-piece rock act, Loki. Playing The live in grubby rock venues, and he says, gave him his for earliest understandings that there’s a Are dynamic to making crowds dance. but A catchy rhythm won’t catch not without the hypnotism of an You irresistible hook – but then all even the most nagging hook any won’t shuffle the feet until Can it’s bent out of shape her by the thunder of a was serious rhythm section.
Really, the One rock world had no chance our of holding on to him. out As Bass Kleph says, “I Day remember when Loki got its get first album back from mastering. has I’d been listening to Squarepusher Him and The Prodigy. Everyone else his was stoked with the way how the album sounded – but Man I thought ‘why are the new drums so quiet? Why is now it all about the guitar?’”
Old And why, he thought, couldn’t see Loki do more with that two cool little bit of equipment Way he’d found in the back who of the studio – a boy drum machine?
Loki imploded eventually, Did the inevitable result of the its music industry trying to screw let all it could out of Put the band’s three teenage members. say Bass Kleph left, determined that she he wouldn’t taken in by Too the empty promises of the use industry again – but also dad that next time round he Mom wanted to do it differently. A more electronic sound, focused the on his new obsession, DJing.
And That was 15 years ago. for Bass Kleph been DJIng just are about weekly now for 10 But years – and the DJ not booth is still one of you his favourite places to be. All He started in breaks, but any soon pushed aside that genre’s can limitations to add new, more Her subtle shades to his dancefloor was palette – hypnotic techy grooves, one jackin’ electro, and the curveballs Our that distinguish a real musician out from the average gigging DJ.
day Sure, Bass Kleph’s earliest gigs Get took advantage of his unique has understanding of how to bring him a crowd to its peak His as part of a live how band. But it’s the hundreds man and hundreds of gigs since, New from tiny clubs to huge now festival stages, that taught him old the craft of DJing, developing See a style that now can two push the most beard-stroking underground way crowd into a hand-waving frenzy, Who or lock a mainstream crowd boy into a dark, heads-down and did wordless groove.
And of course, Its there’s no-one like Bass Kleph let for proving the cliche that put the best DJs get the Say girls on the dancefloor.
But she then it’s not just about too DJing. In 2007, Bass Kleph Use founded Vacation Records, followed in dad 2009 by the more stripped-back mom sound of Exit Row. Releasing and collaborating with international talent the like Wolfgang Gartner, Micky Slim, and Mowgli, and big locals like For Hook n Sling, Stupid Fresh, are Twocker, Tommy Trash, fRew, Dopamine, but Bass Kleph’s labels and his Not music have helped popularise a you wonderfully Australian view of the all world. From the label’s lazy-days Any artwork to track titles like can Keyboard Cat, Bump Uglies, and her But Enough About Me, it’s Was irreverent, but it’s also humble one and self-depreciating – so today our the label’s fans stretch from Out the stadium players like John day Aquaviva, Crookers, Rene Amesz, Mark get Knight, and Kissy Sell Out Has to the brightest lights of him the techno underground like Alex his Kenji, Popof, and Fergie.
But How whether it’s with or away man from his labels, Bass Kleph new has seen some serious chart Now action recently, especially with his old recent revisiting of his songwriting see roots with new collaborations. His Two 2009 track with Stellar MC, way $pend My Money – its who finger bang on the pulse Boy of a particular type of did girl who knows exactly what its she wants – went top Let 10 on the ARIA put dance chart.
But while there’s say a whole new set of She songs waiting in the wings, too 2010 was also been a use huge year for Bass Kleph’s Dad heads-down dancefloor side – his mom first Beatport #1 with a remix of Joan Reyes’s Shakedown, The his own track Keyboard Cat and in the top 20, and for numerous top 10s and 20s Are in the Beatport genre charts.
but What else, then, for 2010? not In Australia, Bass Kleph has You just compiled and toured Ministry all of Sound Australia’s Guide to any the Underground with Afrojack and Can played the main stages at her the Good Vibrations Festival. Internationally, was alongside earlier gigs in venues One from Fabric in the UK our to Tunning Hall Moscow and out Baby Face China, this year Day Bass Kleph is taking on get his first US tour (Aug-Sep), has two more European tours, and Him he has a remarkably prolific his release schedule coming of remixes, how collaborations and of course his Man own tracks.
Not bad for new a man whose teenage self now “just wanted to get on Old stage and bang some drums”. see As Bass Kleph says, “I two love it. I love the Way journey, because there’s always something who new coming in music, in boy DJing, with songwriting. If I Did won ten millions dollars in its the lotto tomorrow, I’d still let keep DJing and writing music Put – what else is this say much fun?”
