House Guest | Suzanne Kraft

Suzanne Kraft’s Green Flash EP was released on Gerd Janson’s Running Back, itself an act of high praise putting him amongst some very talented peers (Mark E, Todd Terje and Tiger & Woods). The EP dropped on the 15th of August and was met with instantaneous and heavy praise, from the likes of Juno’s Tony Poland and RA’s Nick Connellan. As an album it is at once devastating and understated. Each track unfolds in a slow and methodical way that draws you in inextricably. We spent the best part of two weeks trawling through this release, there is so much there.

Thanks for the chat Suzanne, and we're keeping the tape.

  Suzanne Kraft's Cassette For Patricia by PatriciaNeverLeavesHouse

So first things first, the elephant in the room, Suzanne Kraft… the man from LA? What’s the story?

I feel kind of bad when I get this question because I don’t really have an exciting answer.  There’s no real story.  Just a name I came up with years ago.  I liked the sound of it – I never really considered it a girl’s name as a whole.

What was it that got you into making music in the first place?

Growing up I always played music in school, thanks to a lot of parental encouragement and support, but it wasn’t until high school that I really got into production and experimentation.  Seeing what my schoolmate Zane (SFV Acid) was doing at that time was a huge inspiration to me.

Diego , pardon our French but, where the fuck did you come from!? You’d had one other previous release but were relatively unknown, then you dropped the mouth-watering slice of pure ambrosia that is Green Flash. What’s the story behind Green Flash getting picked up by Running Back? How did they find you?

From what I’m told, the chick who designed the Green Flash sleeve is a fan of dublab, a web-radio station I’ve been involved with for years.  She heard my stuff on dublab, showed it to Gerd and he reached out to me.  I flipped.

Suzanne Kraft - Turning

In the future are you likely to be daunted by the prospect of making music knowing what your audience is likely to be receptive to, or would you try and block that out?

No, not really.  The reception I’ve seen is really great and I’m really flattered but I’m not concerning myself with trying to ride a certain style to keep an audience happy.

As cliché as it may sound, where and from whom did you get your inspiration from for the EP?

Hard to say.  The tracks on the EP were all made at different times.  For example, Femme Cosmic was made in 2009 and Morning Come only a few months before the release.  Some influences that come to mind right now include Prelude, Factory records, dub, Lexx, Apiento and the Test Pressing blog, Seaside Lovers, Manuel Göttsching, the Womacks, and Change.

There is a bit of a bad taste surrounding the genre and even the word ‘Disco’. Did you have any reservations about releasing what is unquestionably a revival EP?
As long as it doesn’t sound like a “revival” record I’m happy.  It wasn’t made with any particular sound in mind – just something to move to.

Obviously it’s only early days but can you see yourself moving at any stage from 12” to releasing a full length LP? What’s on the horizon for Suzy K?

I’d really like to do a full-length, but I want it to carry some consistency.  Ideally I could just devote all my time to recording and put a whole album together in like a month or two.  But I don’t see that happening right now.  I’m in the final stages of working on another EP for a new LA-based label called Young Adults that I’m pretty excited about as well as a couple remixes for other artists that should be out in the near future.

On the sizable publicity wave of Green Flash are your planning a tour and if so could it grace our ever so distant shores!?

I’d love to do that.  But no tour planned yet.  If there’s anyone interested out there…. get in touch.

From the Discotheque Records Blog we see you get around a bit playing in LA. How do you approach your live sets and how does this differ from your production, do you resent some of these differences?

My live sets lately have been DJ sets of all original productions and edits + special ingredients and special sauces.  I try to re-work finished tracks as well as try out new ones in the works.

Speaking of Discotheque Records, it’s your own label right? What’s the story behind it - any upcoming releases we should know about?

Yes.  I started Discotheque in 2009 as a way to help get friends’ music out there.  I’ve been sleeping on it lately but have a couple releases planned for the beginning of 2012.

Suzanne Kraft - Morning Come

How do you usually go about putting a set together?

I’ll usually just have a few tracks in mind I know I want to mix together and the rest is pretty much just on a whim.

How and where was Patricia's mix recorded?

I did this mix on the computer at home.  I’d normally record a mix using vinyl and CDs but I didn’t want to risk the possibility of messing it up with bad transitions...

We noticed within a lot of the sets you’ve recorded, you’re moving quite fluidly between very different genres - we’ve heard you go from disco and balearia, into rap, rock, jazz - you have no bounds. How do you make a set flow whilst keeping it so exciting?
I just try to make a mix I’d like to hear.

We caught that alternate version of Green Flash at the end, how do you know when a song is finished, what led you to the final version as it is now?

It’s always hard for me to call a track ‘done.’  I feel closest to finished when I’ve gotten all my ideas down and then start taking things out – that usually tells me I’ve gone as far as I can with a track. There was a good 4 or 5 months between the version of Green Flash you hear in the mix and the final version on the EP. 

Just to close can you name for us:

an all time classic track

Eroc – Der Prophet

an artist to look out for
I’ll always have to say SFV Acid.  He’s a super close friend and an amazing mind.  Always look out for what he’s doing.

one musical guilty pleasure,artist or track
Cassie – Kiss Me

worst request you’ve ever had
“can you play something we can dance to?”

and finally, what does Suzanne Kraft drink?
O.J.

S. Kraft keeps a public face on soundcloud, facebook, tumblr and of course at  Discotheque Records

/w love aunt hazel & f