DSF Q&A Sessions Vol. 13: Akira Kiteshi (closed)

[Disco Nutter]

After honing his skills in the badly lit basements and velcro floored clubs of Edinburgh, Akira Kiteshi AKA Tommy Forrest has pulled off a meteoric ascension of nose bleeding proportions. With his debut release, Pinball smashing is way out of the Hip Hop scene crashing through the walls of Dubstep and high-jacking the decks at many an electro night. Now recognised as a leader of the new tear out movement & supported by a roll call that includes names like Mixmaster Mike, N-Type & Mary Anne Hobbs every new Akira creation is anticipated across the electronic music gamut. Far from the shy screen tanned studio hermit Tommy has also firmly established his skills on the wheels. With shows through out the US and Europe there are very few pin free countries on the map hanging in the Akira Kiteshi lab.

DISCOGRAPHY:
Releases:
Boom N Pow - Black Acre 2009
Jeremy Kyle - Team Acre 2009
Pinball / Noglitch Part 1&2 - Black Acre 2009
Zeuxo - Not On Label 2009
Ming The Merciless - Special Branch 2010
Shree Bang Special - Bad Acid 2010
Remixes:
I Was Wondering - WIDE 2008
Better With You (Akira Kiteshi Remix) - Boka Records 2009
Bun-E Mixes #5 - Bun-E 2009
Stripper Theme - Giant Pussy Records 2009
Gammera - Lower Level 2010
Production:
The A - Loop Theory - Saving Grace Music 2009
Appears On:
Is That You? - Champion 2010
Tracks Appear On:
An-Ten-Nae Presents Acid Crunk Vol 2 - Muti Music 2009
Snarebrained Not On Label - (Found Self-released) 2009

LINKS:
MySpace
SoundCloud

Ask awaay forum!

[Disco Nutter]

I'll get the things rolling with the usual one:

What's your studio like? What software do you use, what hardware?

Cheers!

[Phigure]

Big ups for doing the Q&A!

This one gets asked all the time, but I feel it's a good one to ask none the less.

How do you typically start working on, and progress, a song?

[Depone]

Nice one for doing this.

I know you get passed tracks from me, but i've always wanted to know how many demos/tracks you get sent from unsigned artists a week?
Seems an odd question but the amount of tracks I send personally to people and dont get a reply, im always thinking... gah! im just one of those 30+ tracks he/she gets sent daily. Are the figures that high? or am i dreaming?

anyways, sorry for the odd question.
Peace!

[Disco Nutter]

Actually on his SoundCloud he says that he gets 300 msgs a week from people asking him the check their tracks out. So I would bet the answer is "a lot"

[nowaysj]

Did you have a single moment in your production when your tracks just jumped up to the next level or was it just a continual, incremental process?

[legend4ry]

I was going to ask who you are, cause I don't have a scooby doo but I thought that would come across rude and its probably my fault for not paying attention to the dubstep scene...

Lets see a screenshot of one of your released tunes (the project file).


Whats your general process for making tracks?

[gnome]

Musical background? I know its large I read a post from you mentioning splicing reels together. So i just want to know how you got where you are now

[AnalGangstaHo]

Same as above really. I'm presuming the Vads remix was one of your first releases and is how I first heard about you , albeit by accident(I was after the Pain Struck Stanley Dumb version!), and have noticed your productions getting stronger and stronger and also hearing more of you, most noticably via regular plays on, aswell as your mint mix on Electronic Explorations. Let's face it Rob Booth don't play no shit and in my eyes if you get played on EE, well, you've made it!

[sixth sense]

thanks for doing this Q&A!

[akira kiteshi]

I'll get the things rolling with the usual one:

What's your studio like? What software do you use, what hardware?

Cheers!

Hey!

My studio is basically the spare bedroom of my house. It's total chaos! full of records (about 2000 in the studio and another 8000 spread over 2 houses) , synths and modules, drum kit, cello, various guitars and tape machines, decks and mixers....and up untill recently had 1K of sub bass in it.

My main tools software wise are Renoise and Reaktor. I have other vst's, mostly Native instruments and Spectrasonics stuff but I don't really use them that often. Most of my sounds come from my Korg MS10's and my MS20, Roland 202 and my stylophone. I have a Novation Bass Station as well that I use the CV and Gate on to control the Korg's via midi.

[akira kiteshi]

Big ups for doing the Q&A!

This one gets asked all the time, but I feel it's a good one to ask none the less.

How do you typically start working on, and progress, a song?

Hey man

I don't really have a set way of starting tracks. I always start with a blank canvas. Sometimes I'll just be chopping a sample in Reaktor or the MPC which is how Lorraine Kelly came about (I think it was a Pink Floyd sample) other times I'll start by programming a drum part or miking up the drum kit and bashing it about and chopping it up.
A lot of the time I'll just be playing about on one of the Korgs and record random sounds in to Renose, stick a shit load of effects on them and start re-sampling them....

[hakka]

Can i have your address please?

[akira kiteshi]

Nice one for doing this.

I know you get passed tracks from me, but i've always wanted to know how many demos/tracks you get sent from unsigned artists a week?
Seems an odd question but the amount of tracks I send personally to people and dont get a reply, im always thinking... gah! im just one of those 30+ tracks he/she gets sent daily. Are the figures that high? or am i dreaming?

anyways, sorry for the odd question.
Peace!

Hey hey Dep!

Yeah I get sent a lot of tunes mate! I try my best to listen to as many as possible but it's real tough! Some days I don't get sent many, maybe 10 or so but other times it can be as many as about 30 or more!
I love checking out new music and artists and if I'm really feeling something I'll drop a message to the artist, but I never get the time to listen to all of them. God knows how John Peel must have felt!
Don't get dis-heartened if you don't get replies from the people you send tunes to mate. If the quality's good it won't go unnoticed man!
I'm hardly a big artist and I get sent lots so imagine how many some of the big guns get sent!

[akira kiteshi]

Did you have a single moment in your production when your tracks just jumped up to the next level or was it just a continual, incremental process?

It's definitely a gradual process! I'm still learning new stuff all the time that will hopefully improve my production. I've been writing stuff for about 14 years now under various aliases and writing different genres of music really helps with learning different techniques etc. Every day is a school day in music production!

[akira kiteshi]

I was going to ask who you are, cause I don't have a scooby doo but I thought that would come across rude and its probably my fault for not paying attention to the dubstep scene...

Lets see a screenshot of one of your released tunes (the project file).


Whats your general process for making tracks?

haha! Nah not rude at all man. My name is Akira Kiteshi, I'm from Scotland (as you can tell by the name) and I'm an alcoholic.....oh yeah and I make electronic music. I've been producing for 14 years, djing for a little longer. Dunno if this will make much sense to you unless you use Renoise, but this is a screenshot from Pinball.......

[jameshk]

Big up for doing this, had a listen to your soundcloud and there's some fucking amazing tracks on there, Nice bro.

My question is, whats you're musical background, how did it start? Im assuming dubstep wasn't your first genre.

-hk

[deadly_habit]

never knew you used renoise, big ups to so another user! congrats on the wedding btw.
curious about a couple things, the beginning of the special branch mix. was that live recording into a mic messing about (and what was the first tune)? also on stripper did you mic up a blown speaker for the bassline or just use some sort of digital clipping or something like that?
ez,
mike
(one day i'll send ya a tune pack of shit i'm happy with so you can have more to listen to )

[nowaysj]

What's your favorite track that you've produced? Why?

What currently active artist or group do you look up to? Like the one that makes you feel like you're still a student and they're the teacher?

[naus]

hi there,

Cheers for this, very interesting...

You mentioned that you chop your samples in Reaktor...What ensembles do you use for this? Also, what are some of your favourite ensembles in general.

Cheers in advance!!