Drunken Kong will be back at Red Ruby Saturday, 20 April. If you like your beats harder than granite, melodies haunting and your times spent euphoric you gotta be there.
The Beat caught up with Drunken Kong to find out where they’re at right now.
But First Some History. The couple met at a party in Tokyo where Dee Singh (of Indian Japanese heritage) was DJing and Kyoko famously came up to the booth and asked, what’s the name of that track? He didn’t know at that point Kyoko was also a DJ producer, but quickly became aware of a connection. The next day they were making their first track together. Just for fun. This was in 2010 and Dee had just come back to Japan after studying music engineering in the States for a number of years and was already impressed with the electronic music scene he encountered.
What happened to that first track? Is it on YouTube or somewhere?
We never released that track as we were still figuring out how to work things out in terms of musical direction. It was more like a practice track.
Did you discover straight away that you had chemistry in the studio, or did it take time?
It was gradual. We had a few sessions until we completed our first track together.
Is it a joint, equal venture creating a track, or do you both have certain areas where you each focus?
Currently we work mostly separate since we have a child so it’s difficult for both of us to get in for a long time. I work on the music creation and Kyoko comes in more for the finalization of the track. Although this is the natural operation, we are always discussing as we move on with the track.
How has your music evolved over the years?
I think we are learning more to integrate different styles and elements into our music.
Since that first track things moved fast for the couple and they found themselves being booked as a duo under their funky name, Drunken Kong. The name was created from a playful combination of their initials, D. K. and was needed in a hurry when releasing their first track. They had no idea at that time they would be working together in the future, let alone the next 14 years travelling to all corners of the earth to spin records most weekends, residencies in the best clubs of Tokyo and continuing to release hot property, techno bangers every few months to an adoring techno loving public.
Do you sometimes wake up and want to pinch yourself to make sure it’s all real?
Yes, thats for sure. haha
How do you think about your life and fate, etc bringing you to this point in your life?
We feel everything is meant to be and happens for a reason so we believe it’s our mission in life to create happiness through sound.
Sorry to ask, are you two a couple, or just professionals?
We are married.
How have your latest releases been going? I noticed some changing sounds in the past couple of years and the last few eps. I Want to See. Succession. Walk in the Dark. And recently Higher State. They were all quite different, right? Walk us through that if you can.
We are very open when it comes to styles. We don’t want to be doing the same thing so we always try to do something new, which keeps it interesting for us too when producing.
How has the last year been for the Drunken Kong as a whole? You have been travelling a lot, right?
Yes it was a great year! Highlights were our debut EP on Drumcode, touring Europe, North and South America and playing at Ultra Japan.
And I see you are working on more new music. What can we expect?
There are some more releases coming up this year (VA, EP and remix works).
So, you are coming back to Bali and Red Ruby next week. You were here in ‘22 I believe. What do you think about Bali, have you spent much time here in the past?
Yes, we have been there for vacation before starting Drunken Kong so we have fond memories in Bali 🙂
And finally, what’s happening this year for DK? Anything special on the horizon?
As I said, we have some special remixes and releases coming up. Also, we’re very much looking forward to our upcoming dates in Europe and North America.
You can catch Drunken Kong at Red Ruby, Saturday, 20 Aril 2024. We’re told it will be the two of them this time. Don’t miss it!
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