A QUICK CHAT WITH KIYANOSH

Congratulations on your latest release ‘KARMA’. Is there something unique about the way you create your music?

-       Not inherently, I really don’t believe in a particular process. Sometimes the song is written and recorded that same day, sometimes I feel the need to rehearse the song for days on end before I can even start recording. Usually when I’m feeling a beat I’ll write to it, and I never rush the writing process. If I don’t have anything to say in that moment, that’s fine, no point trying to force something out just to fill the page. I think if you let time do it’s thing it’s a really strong indicator of whether you’re onto something, cause if you don’t love it while you’re making it then who will? I also feel like after you’ve written and recorded your vocals you need to tee up some sessions with the producer and turn it into an actual song. A lot of hip-hop essentially ignores structure & dynamic when it comes to the production especially, it’s 2020 and we’re still rapping over 4 bar loops for 4 minutes?! Nah man.

You’re Iranian living in Sydney with family overseas, what’s it like living so far from family, especially during these tough times?

-       Oh man, it’s brutal. I love both sides of my family so much and Iran holds such a special place in my heart, but you do what you can. I’ve got a bunch of Iranian homies here in Sydney so hanging out with them really makes you feel at home, talking shit just hits different in Farsi.

Do you think your latest music differs much from past releases and how?

-       Incredibly. I think I’m finally realising my own sound and styles and learning to be more comfortable and confident in myself. Up until about a year or 2 ago I was kind of just winging it song by song, figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Before now, all of my solo music was considered pretty exclusively “lo-fi” and “jazz rap” and just a lot more monotonous in general. But when you listen to ‘Dying Alone’ you’ll notice that every song is wildly different to the next and that’s kind of a testament to what I’m saying. I wanted this project to really show people the range of sounds, genres and styles we manipulate to allow the specific feel or expression we want for that particular song. Cohesion is everything to me, but sometimes you just have to present these wildly different sides of yourself as a sort of Smorgasbord for listeners to get a gauge of what you’re trying to do with your music.

You cover a very wide range of genres in your music such as hip-hop, jazz, soul and electronic. Can you tell us why you choose so many different genres and what they mean to you?

-       To be honest I’m pretty anti-genre when it comes to the creative process. Imagine making something special that sounds genuinely unique and different and having someone ask, “what genre is this?” like who cares?! Are the genre police on their way? It’s such a weird habit people have, putting these objective labels on subjective expressions, it grinds my gears. So to answer your question, it’s not so much that I choose so many different genres as much as it is just me collaborating with a bunch of really unique producers that all have really different styles and influences, and as always I just go off what I feel. Whether it leans more towards jazz or soul or electronic or whatever, if it hits the spot my brain just starts writing before I can even make the decision, and if it doesn’t then my brain just goes blank, so I always go with my instincts.

Tell us some of your big goals that you would love to achieve in your music career!

-       Oof, big big tings innit. I’m finishing off my debut album and working on a really special live show experience for my shows. We’re working to keep growing our ‘Spretbot Syndicate’ label and collective and just keep releasing great music. We’ve also got a lot of artists still working on their debut releases and I couldn’t be more excited for them. Besides that, I’ve slowly been transitioning more into film & music videos over the past year or 2 so directing more music videos for other artists would be a dream really. Eventually I want to grow Spretbot Syndicate into a full-on production company as well and create a sort of tunnel between music and film, because the two really do go hand in hand to me and I would love to establish our own community in that world and make it easier for other local, independent artists to get that leg up that we’re all looking for.