Oral Histories Project: Fresh Kils
Oral Histories is a showcase of interviews, performances, and articles by and about improvising musicians, artists, writers and scholars. This monthly feature offers an intimate look inside the minds and practices of some of the many dynamic, innovative people whose energy and ideas make improvisation studies such a vibrant field of inquiry. The Oral Histories project provides a space for improvising artists to be heard in their own words, often in dialogue with other improvisers, scholars, and practitioners.
FRESH KILS: Control This!
Fresh Kils is an engineer, producer, and a master on the MPC (Akai’s Music Production Center). As one of Canada’s most creative hip-hop producers, his accolades range from a JUNO nomination to winning Toronto’s acclaimed Sound Battle Royale competition. Many of his productions are as one half of the Extremities, a producer/DJ duo, and recently Kils has produced beats for D-Sisive and Ghettosocks.
Here are a few are a few of his renowned MPC routines:
*The Price is Right Routine
*Transformers (CyberTron) Routine
*Funky Drummer Routine
The interview featured in this month’s Oral History was part of an outreach project by ICASP in collaboration with Immigrant Family Services called Control This! and took place in September of 2012. The goal of the project was to explore ways in which youth might learn to create improvised music using digital tools, particularly the MPC 500 and MPC 1000. With the assistance of Karen Kew, ICASP Postdoctoral Fellow Mark V. Campbell explored the MPC with 5 youth over the course of one month. The expertise of Controllerist Fresh Kils was brought in to enhance the final workshop. Mark V. Campbell interviews Fresh Kils about his process and controllerism in relation to improvised art practices.
A full transcript of the interview is available here.
In addition, check out the New Youth Radio interview about the Control This! digital music program with guests Mark Campbell and Andrew Kilgour here.
Photo Credit: Karen Kew from Immigrant Services in Guelph
