ARTIST OF THE MOMENT: Ben Kaczor
reading time: 17 minutes
Vinyl collectors are eagerly awaiting the arrival of one of the most captivating albums of winter 2022: Ben Kaczor's "Petrovo Uho" on Dial Records. In May, this beauty will finally see a physical release, allowing listeners to immerse themselves in its atmospheric soundscapes and “drifting melancholic pads” (Inverted Audio) as spring brings longer and sunnier days. The album was inspired by feelings and memories from a trip to Croatia, making it feel like we can reacquaint ourselves with it, accompanied by the reflections of the Sun on the water. Ben Kaczor’s specialty is to produce and play music that is the catalyst for both inward exploration and outward expression. The longstanding “Elysia” resident has also released noteworthy podcasts that are on high rotation (check out his mix for Delayed here ), is working on a live set, and planning further releases on his own imprints KCZ/CZT. We spoke with Ben via Zoom in his studio and had an excellent conversation about the magic "accidents" that made "Petrovo Uho" happen, creative flow in general, and more.
Hey Ben. I heard you are a member of the In Bloom community and the mentorship program run by Sebastian Mullaert. We interviewed him earlier here on the blog and it’s very interesting to get to know the participant side of the program. How is it attending?
Yes, that's right. In Bloom is a big bloom for me (laughs). I started two years ago with the first class as I was interested in getting into the creative flow more from the healthy side of life than from the “rockstar, alcohol, party” - vibes. Sebastian helped me to understand myself better when I make music and to find ways to step over the bad habits that I have in the studio. I guess many people are struggling with finding the creative flow and are also too hard on themselves. The course brings less from a technical perspective, but on the spiritual side, it's a big hack! You learn to be nice to yourself and that influences the music a lot. That’s what made the difference for me. Not so long ago, I thought about studying music to learn and understand music theory. At this given time I never really understood that there are alternative ways of teaching with an approach that favors a freer form of learning. When I think about school back in the day, it was an experience with lots of pressure and exams. This, in combination with creativity, doesn’t work for me. In contrast to that, what Sebastian does is to give you a hand and teach you stuff, but you are free to do with it what fits for you and at your own pace. It is great to experience a new side of learning.
The mentorship program has different artists participating from across the world in the course, or did you do a one-to-one mentorship?
Yes, the course has 10 lessons and I was with 35 participants from all over the world. In a way it was weird to me because it was the first time that I had school online, I never used Zoom before. Even now it’s still strange to communicate via computer. Then you sit there and have 35 creative hats from all over the world present, and at some point, things start to fall into the right place; it's very connecting because you see that everybody's struggling with the same thing. I guess that's why they mostly join Sebastian's course. You see how happy everybody gets when they understand how easy it can be to just be creative. That was a beautiful experience. I remember feeling very inspired and happy after the first class, that I'm just right here and I think all the others felt that, too. This created a great energy that went through the world, even via computers.
How do you connect with the other artists? There’s probably a broad range of electronic music represented which possibly also means you learn something from the participants, too? Do you tend to collaborate even with some of them?
Not in the first class. Many people were sympathetic and nice, but this only happened to me when I went to the retreat in Sweden. Because I was always focused on Sebastian, I didn't use so much of the potential to connect with others. The second class we are doing now is more about collaboration. We are a small group and some other people joined the course. For example now in the new group, there's Karl / LB Honne from Zurich who runs Project Indigo and Niculin Barandun who's making music with me - and some other people from around the globe.
You just mentioned LB Honne - a good segue to ask you about the scene in Switzerland. It’s definitely on the music map. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? It appears that there is a focus on music that is more on the deeper end of electronic music. How do you experience that?
I can speak from my personal experience, as I have lived here in Basel for the majority of my life and it has always felt good so far. I was very influenced by the music scene at that time. Speaking from the present, I can't judge whether there is a deeper electronic focus. And then again, you always move a bit in your own bubble, but I think there is a diverse, enriching variety.
Last year you released your album “Petrovo Uho” on Dial Records, and I heard that it came through almost magic circumstances. How did you meet Pete and David from Dial?
Yes, it was all kinda magical, but I also have to give some props to Sandro Weber who creates the artwork for Dial. He's from Zurich and he found my “Sun Chapter One” album and passed it on to Pete and David and they liked it. At some point, they both followed me on social media and then I thought, wow, that’s nice! One thing led to another and David asked me for a remix of his album “La Collectionneuse”. When I sent the remix I also took the opportunity to send over some demos, too. It was tracks that I made over time, many of them being connected to the trip to Croatia. David thought instantly that this was “album material” which was to me a pleasant surprise! I was not expecting this at all because every music creator may have experienced rejection in connection with labels. This was one of the reasons why I founded my label KCZ / CZT. With Dial, it all felt natural and nice. Even now, everything that is happening is just right. Also, the happy mistakes felt right: At first, we didn't plan a vinyl, it was only a digital release and then I got funding support from the city`s Musikbüro Basel, so we could do the vinyl which will drop at the beginning of May. Later, the remixes will follow, too. It's a nice release plan without planning it.
It certainly sounds like that. Are you able to share a little bit more about the remix project, or is it still secret?
The remix project came after a gig with Pete. We sat down together, had a coffee, and I asked him what the next release plans for Dial are. He told me that there's not really a plan per se, but that he really likes the idea of having remixes after an album – as they did with David’s album. So I asked him if we could do that with my album, too. I have a lot of artists in mind that I would like to promote or whose music I love. And then he said yeah, sure, we can check that. I really appreciate the trust I got from Dial to be able to ask 15 artists for a remix.
How is it to hear the tracks remixed? It’s your productions and they are personal, having memories accumulated and then you give them to somebody else to give it some different form. Was that scary when you opened the first files?
No, I think it's a beautiful thing to share all of those! It was very nice of David to give me the opportunity and trust to choose the people myself. Dial is a great label with such an impressive history of artists participating, so I think, in a way, it's super nice to draw other artists into the project through my album. I like the idea that for the remix EP, it will be more or less half women, half men represented and mostly my favorite artists. It’s also a good mix of growing artists and bigger ones. You have Molly, but also “middle” ones like Martinou and more growing ones like Honorée. Sharing all the stems, maybe I'm not sure if I would do it for every production. For example “Sun Chapter One” was a very personal thing. I wouldn’t do it for that album, but for the Dial album, it felt right. Especially this collective feeling.
You mentioned earlier that you're also working on a live set. Is that also angled around the album as well?
Yes, I think I would play some stuff from the album, but I'm trying now to set it up so that it's half improvised and half prepared. I found a lot of tracks recently that were just half-finished, so I try to bring them also into the live set. Maybe at the end it will be a new album coming out of this live set.
It's a good way to test stuff and see how it works. You're playing mostly in Basel and Berlin. Where do you hope to bring this live set? Are there any locations or circumstances where you would ideally see it?
I would love to play at some festivals. Festivals such as Waking Life, whose program and audience appreciate the deeper sound and have a strong connection to nature, are the right places for me because I think my music works very well outside. That's one aspect of a broad spectrum that I find fascinating. I think it all depends on the setting. My approach is that the live set is built up to be flexible and to give me space to improvise and react to my surrounding, to make it adaptable to many venues. I can't say that I prefer this place or that place. I enjoy traveling and experiencing the world, and I also love to return to places, revisiting them. So I would love to do an Asia tour again. Returning to TAG Chengdu for an all-night-long set would be fun. I made many great memories over there, and it’s surely one of the best clubs I’ve been to.
In 2018, you worked at TAG Chengdu as a programmer. Do you miss that curation side or programming side as you focus on your music production now that you are back in Europe?
I have to be honest, when I was working there, TAG Chengdu was very established, and there were a lot of requests. I didn't have to search for people to play there because many artists had it on the radar. I don't miss programming because I'm still doing it. I'm still doing some small events, more focused on the ambient and experimental side. The events that I like to create are not only focused on club music. I like to arrange small concerts and help to give people gigs that are touring as ambient artists in Europe and are on the road. And I love to hook them up, place them in a bar somewhere and hang out with them and listen to the concert. My friends also involved me in building a collective in Basel where we want to focus on ambient and experimental events, but with the opportunity to host people for a maximum of one week so that they can explore the city and the scene and then create the concert based on their time they had in Basel. That's a new thing we`ve been working on.
A short artist in residency in a condensed way, basically.
Yeah.
Are there any acts in the ambient and experimental world that you say, wow, the world needs to hear this?
There is one in Berlin, and his name is Alf Brooks aka Boniface. He's running an event series & label called Straysignals. While living in Berlin, I got in touch with him through a friend in the indie rock scene. I'm very interested in both worlds, the electronic world and the rock/ alternative world. When they come together something interesting can happen. There are a lot of artists in that small experimental indie rock scene that don't have a big reach. I mean, people in the post-rock scene that tour with a car in Germany, sleep on the floor and maybe get 200- 300 euros for six persons. Those musicians blow me away sometimes! I feel bad when I just come with my USB stick and get the same amount as the fee that a whole band gets. That’s why I would love to spotlight that scene a bit more.
Do you plan to feature more music outside or on the edge of electronic music for your label? What are the plans there?
Yes, that's why I split my label into two parts. KCZ is just a short version of my last name, and there is more club music or danceable music. CZT stands for Cinematic Zone Trip. With this label, I'm also doing this small ambient event. And there I'm very open and I have some stuff in the pipeline. For example, one drummer from a post-punk band called “Harvey Rushmore and the Octopus”.
I love that name.
Yeah, it's a cool band. We had our rehearsal rooms in the same building and once their strobe was broken and they had to go on tour to Berlin, and they came over and asked me if I have a strobe. And I was like, no, I don't have one, but can I join you on tour? And I just went with them. It was a beautiful time.
A propos cinematic - you also create music for videos and sound installations. We would love to hear more about that.
This is a dream I have and I love to make videos for little commercials, more in the art scene. I just opened up the project that I did a year ago for the Vitra Design Museum. They had an exhibition based on the furniture separated by colour. There were seven different colors with the furniture and I made music for all of them. I created a two-hour live set - “ambient for reds” and all other colors. And I just found it and I was like, damn, I have to put that maybe on a tape or somewhere because it's some cool stuff! A gallery here in Basel asked me if I want to do a soundtrack for a trailer video - these kinds of things I really like to do.
We covered a lot already, thanks so much. I was wondering though if there is a topic around life as an artist that is important for you to talk about?
I'm hoping that the future brings a rethinking of the club culture we have now. For example, I think many people, including me, - that's why I'm also super attracted to Sebastian Mullaert’'s approach -, are trying to get away from things that destroy us. We would like to be healthy and happy. I hope that the future generation - and I also believe it's going to happen- decides to put more attention again on the music and sound quality.
What is it doing with my body? Can we not just dance during the day and have a good sleep? Everyone needs to have a routine. It fucks me up: every Monday I need the energy, on Wednesday I'm back to normal and Friday or Saturday I party again. So I think it would be cool if more promoters and clubs rethought how we could try to build a more healthy clubbing scene. Then it automatically will be more focused on sound again. I don't say that it's not focused on sound at the moment, but I felt it was a bigger focus 10 years ago when I started to listen to music. And now, you have to put stickers on people's phones so they don't use the camera. In my opinion, that's not the right way to go.
It's a good topic that you mentioned here and I have the same feeling. Music should nourish your soul or bring you in touch with yourself. People are so blasted away by lights and sounds and drugs and no sleep that it becomes more destroying than nourishing. That is often also reflected in the sound that is played. Fast-paced edits, less storytelling. I feel though that there is change coming.
Yeah, I think so too. But it's niche at the moment. When we, as persons, don't have space for ourselves, we can’t have space for soulful inputs. I had a crazy experience when I went to Sebastian Mullaert and Matthew Jonson at ELYSIA when they played live all night long. I told my girlfriend this is the same feeling if Prince of Denmark would play eight hours live because it was so deep and went straight in for me. The people behaved strangely, though, because half of the people could take it and were happy, went super deep and stayed connected. On the other hand, it felt like the people who maybe took a bit too much drugs or whatever, were more confused with this kind of music. I think they felt that something wanted to go deeper inside or that they had a mirror with this music. I don’t know if I explained it clearly, but you could feel something more intimate. And I believe if you do not accept yourself, it's way harder to get intimate with music.
My experience at Circle of Live was that some people want the climax to happen immediately, but that is not what this flow is. That's not what flow is about. It always is a journey.
Yeah. And this was interesting to see.
Then it raises the question of how you deal with that as an artist that wants to bring something different. An artist that loves to do this journey and is exposed to a crowd that maybe not used to this approach or has not experienced it a lot. How do you deal with it?
That's very tricky. I think for me as a DJ, I don't choose too much what style I'm playing. I try to decide at the moment, but it's really a matter of balance, too. You cannot only play for the crowd. I also have to play what I feel is right.
Someone said once that part of the responsibility of the DJ is education, I forgot who it was. It’s not only crowd-pleasing, but there's also taking them places so they experience something new. That's probably something that still has a lot of value.
I think it's beautiful to play the wizard as a DJ - but on the good side. Sometimes I think some people enjoy it when they can make weird things and then people are a bit like, ooh! I like to do that, too, but not to the extent that you're almost confused. These magic tricks as a DJ can be big fun, but they have to come out of some spontaneous improvisation. I love tricks, but even more if they bring some warm and beautiful moments to the floor.
You don't want to “fuck” with the crowd, right?
Yeah, and if so, only in a nice way, I think;-)