Up and coming techno prospect Michael Klein, real name Michael Koczynski, is a man of many talents. He first came across our path last year after the release of his debut EP on Pan-Pot’s Second State imprint, and is now back again to release his follow up ‘Metals’. Aside from his endeavours as a talented producer, he’s also a film maker, audio-visual artists and works as a lead product designer for Native Instruments. We caught up with the Frankfurt born but Berlin based artist ahead of the release of ‘Metals’ on February 26th to see what he’s been up to.
You were born in raised in Frankfurt, a city that has a vibrant techno scene. What was it like growing up there and how do you think it’s shaped you and your music?
MK: My musical roots were in trance when I was growing up. Don’t judge me but that was just the surrounding that I grew up in. At some point I was old enough to drive into Frankfurt city where I encountered Sven Vath’s Cocoon club. Being in there for 10 minutes turned my whole musical perspective upside down. Trance was gone and Techno fully took over. From there on I started going out to Cocoon and Robert Johnson almost every weekend. I got really addicted and couldn’t wait to explore this new scene.
We’re awaiting the release of ‘Metals’, which is the second outing for you on Pan Pot’s Second State imprint. How did your relationship with them come about?
MK: I have a fulltime job working as Senior Designer for DJ hardware at Native instruments. There I interact with a lot of key artists on a frequent basis and Tassilo and Thomas have been two of the guys I frequently talked to. The great thing about them was that it very quickly developed from just a business relationship to a friendship. Over the years I kept sending them my productions and luckily after they started their own label, we very quickly found a common ground and released the Drawings EP.
It seems that Second State is a small and tight-knit family. I imagine it’s the family values that keep things together but what is it about this bunch that’s most special for you?
MK: Second State is such an amazing bunch of people. From Tassilo and Thomas, all the other artists but also all the people running the label behind the scenes. The great thing is that we are all very different people but with the same vision so it is very inspiring to have feedback loops and discussions about ideas and visions with all of them.
You co-directed a documentary called ‘Above Ground Level’ about the life of the touring DJ with a focus on the career of Ali Shirazinia. Can you explain the concept behind the film, how it all came about and how you pulled it all together?
MK: The concept behind the film is to show people what the DJ lifestyle actually is. It is not all just party, drinks and girls but actual hard work and sacrifices. It was a very personal project as well as from my teen age days I always wanted to become a touring artist because I had these party and traveling pictures in my mind and I think these days where every kid wants to become a DJ it is important to give people the full picture.
You have your own film outlet ‘Made by MKMK’. What interests you most about film-making and is this something you might do more full-time in the future?
MK: Made by MKMK is a platform I developed with Mino Kodama. It is a creative platform for conceptual work. Not necessarily only video but art installations or product design concepts as well. It is there to materialise our passion within these fields.
I will be using this platform in the future for my personal music and art related projects as these days with all the music production and a full time job, time is of the essence so for the next year I will focus on projects for myself running under the MKMK brand.
Last year you showcased a pretty interesting audio-visual installation called ‘Drawings’, the music from which lent itself to your debut on Second State. Can you explain the concept behind it and if you have any future plans for it?
MK: The concept behind the installation was to create an AV experience where the visuals and music emphasise themselves but also to create an environment for myself to explore new sound as I was recently very inspired by all the Raster Noton releases.
The whole setup was a proof of concept for something I want to use for my own show when I get to the point of developing a live show. After the installation I also collaborated with Dubfire for a more touring friendly setup which we used for the Boiler Room we played together at the end of last year which was a stripped down version of the installation which is able to react to parameters that are being tweaked by the DJ.
On top of the aforementioned, you’re also a product owner and a senior product designer at Native Instruments who worked on the Kontrol X1 and Kontrol S8 amongst other things. By any standards it’s a pretty good day job! What’s it like to work there and what are you working on at the minute?
MK: Working at NI is very inspiring as I have the honour to work with a lot of very talented people and artists in a field that I love which is music and DJing. Unfortunately I can’t tell you what I am working on at the moment but it will for sure be exciting stuff.
How do you find time to do anything, given how much you’re trying to accomplish? Do you focus on one thing at a time or spend some time every day at each of them?
MK: That is a tough one. I am really bad with time management and I do a lot of task hopping. So I end up with sleepless nights because I want to get so many things done in parallel. But for this year I already set myself the goal to really focus on my own art and music and not get distracted too much by side projects.
Given that you have such a wide variety of talents and interests, can you tell us about any other projects you have planned?
MK: I want to start thinking about a live show this year which merges music and art into one experience. Basically merging my music and visual ideas into one project to make it more manageable time wise. I think this will be one of my key focus points for this year.
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