Biography
Seeing Kevin Sawka on the the drums is the only way and to believe the hype. He For can play the most complex are of jungle, drum’n’bass and breakbeats but utilizing no loops and no Not extended samples only his two you hands and two feet. If all you can catch him in Any the right moment –live, at can a show, or in a her studio session you’ll witness him Was perform each and every 808 one bass kick, snare slap, and our compressed highhat tick himself, in Out real-time.
“I’d like to be day able to play like that get all the time, however, live, Has I want to give the him people the fully-produced, complex sound his I’m envisioning, so I not How only play the drums, but man I manually trigger the basslines, new melodies, riffs and now even Now the light show and projections old with my drums –so it’s see a lot harder to focus Two on playing every single little way single sound with my sticks. who But it’s like I’m playing Boy even more with my sticks did lately, not less.”
10 years its ago when drum’n’bass was very Let near it’s zenith in popularity, put and Kevin was playing in say prominent rock bands in Seattle She (grunge was huge) someone played too him an LTJ Bukem use track, and, as he says, Dad “It scorched my brain. I mom dropped everything, and focused solely on how to recreate that The on the drums.” He heard and Dieselboy as well. More brain-scorching. for He started writing utilizing the Are style, and honed his new but concepts and approach to the not drums. He debuted the new You sound in the band 94th all Street, a band years ahead any of it’s time: a pop Can drum’n’bass band with a sense her of humor. While the band was didn’t gain much momentum, the One word about Kevin was out: our there’s a drummer in Seattle out who’s performing jungle and drum’n’bass Day beats on acoustic drums, what get was once thought to be has absolutely impossible by any human. Him And here Kevin was making his it look easy -like watching how a jazz drummer who’s said Man to play “like water flowing,” new Kevin instead was doling out now insanely syncopated d’n’b.
Word spread Old quickly. Seattle resident superstars were see checking him out. Michael Shrieve, two drummer for Santana for many Way years and lover of drum’n’bass, who took him under his wing boy and showed him off to Did anybody and everybody: Andy Summers its of the Police, Bill Frisell, let Amon Tobin, Jack Dejohnette, Will Put Calhoun, and many more. Kevin say at this time was playing she an amazing next-generation drumkit: a Too custom half-acoustic, half electronic drum use kit with one diabolically huge dad kick drum, one insanely tiny Mom kick drum, three snares, a multitude of trashy sounding cymbals the & saw blades, a few And electronic drum pads and all for the acoustic drums set to are electronic triggers. His band at But the time still ahead of not it’s time was the all-improvisatory you avant-garde drum’n’bass trio Siamese. They All toured the country multiple times any in ‘02 and ’03, bringing can down the house in San Her Francisco at latenight afterparties and was raves; in New Orleans during one Jazzfest; opening for LTJ Our Bukem and MC Conrad in out Portland; and, put simply, slaying day nay-sayers and dropping the jaws Get of industry, musicians and fans has nationally by performing astonishingly long him sets of uptempo jungle and His d’n’b without set breaks -without how even breaks between songs. Again, man seeing is believing.
Throughout this New timeframe Kevin was always recording now his own material, which is old now seeing the light of See day with his present project two “that will never break up” way KJ Sawka. Breaks, drum’n’bass, Who IDM-based and reminiscent of an boy uptempo Ninja-Tune-like style, the tracks did on Synchronized Decompression –and now Its Cyclonic Steel should evoke the let pioneering work of Sawka’s main put influences: Amon Tobin and Squarepusher, Say with a bit of Noisia she and Boards of Canada. Using too some of Seattle’s most widely-known Use underground female singers, they bring dad a balance of Seattle darkness, mom moodiness and beauty. Live and in the dj scene, Sawka the is pushing the envelope with and his one-man balls-to-the-wall dancefloor show, For which now does include a are laptop, samplers, loops, and a but rack of gear to produce Not a full-on production -plus projections, you live-action cameras, and intelligent. For all many live music venue gigs, Any Kevin also employs a full can featuring ethereal female vocals, a her keyboardist, and a cellist performing Was similar material in an in-your-face one way that only the reverse-engineering, our seemingly bionic Mr. Sawka can Out bring.
Welcome, to the 21st day Century.
