Matthew Farrow aka Kepler. is Leeds’ newest minimal-producing export, and resident at Mass. The pair have a very strongly defined sound, taking inspiration from the obscure European, Villalobos-esque aesthetic as much as it does from the new school of terrace-party tech-house, and the classic deep house sound that permeates Leeds. This mix is geared towards dramatic dance floor moments, as well as ultra-late after-hours situations. Their next night, featuring Spacetravel of the legendary minimal label Perlon, is on 13th May at Wire, when Kepler. will be in support. CHRIS NICHOLLS had a chat with him.
Hello Matt, it’s great to have you here, thank you for joining me today. Congratulations on your most recent release Making Chords; it’s a lovely record mate.
No problem, thank you.
You’re originally from Nottingham. What brought you to Leeds?
Well, I actually came here to study. I did my third year of Uni, I did a music production course at Leeds College of Music and then I really got into the scene here. I started going to venues like Mint Club and I met some friends here and really loved it, so I decided it was a place I wanted to stay.
How did you find yourself in this deeper, more minimal side of house and techno?
When I first moved to Leeds it was the sound I was going out and listening to. I was going to nights like System and Butter Side Up at Wire and I really just fell in love with the sound.
So the sound was quite new to you when you moved to Leeds then?
Yeah, I’d been to other clubs around the country, I’d been out in London a few times but it was going out every week, and I think nights like System really educated me when I first moved here. I saw some great DJ’s and when I went home from nights in the club, the next day I’d be straight in the studio and it had changed the way I was making music, it made me think outside the box, it definitely opened my mind up.
Mint Club as you mentioned opened in 1998 and is now considered to be one of Leeds’ biggest music institutions. You became a resident at the club almost two years ago now. What would you say you have learned from sharing line-ups with some of the biggest artists in the game?
Certainly how to warm up properly and to respect the pace of the evening. That’s something which is so valuable to learn. How to control and understand your records and know when is the right place. And on a system like Mint Club you can really hear your records differently to when you listen to them at home, so you would get to know your records a lot better from playing them in a club like that on such a good sound system. But at the same time, playing with such a vast amount of DJ’s from all sorts of different genres, it sort of helps you to learn how to warm up for different people and different sounds so it helped me to grow my record collection and look at different genres and pull those into my sets, definitely, really useful stuff. Then there’s the opportunity to get to know a crowd so well. When you’re playing at the same venue week in week out you know what works, you know how to get sort of get the place moving, you know how to play to the crowd basically, and there is a Leeds crowd.
You’re next residency is with a new up and coming party called Mass. How did this happen?
I’ve been down to every party they’ve done. The bookings are absolutely the sort of sound which I love. I went to the first one which was at Freedom Mills with Molly and then I went down to Church when they had Fabe and I just got chatting with Joe and Marcos. Eventually, when my friends Liam and Jake became residents it just became a natural thing really, just through conversation. I went down to play at Mint Warehouse and I just love the vibe that they’re doing and they’re great guys, it’s all a very natural thing really.
So you didn’t know Joe and Marcos before the launch of Mass?
No no, just literally through the scene and that’s the powerful thing of Leeds music scene, you meet so many great people here who are like minded and it’s great for networking because it creates so many opportunities for you.
To share line-ups with some of the biggest artists throughout your residencies and then have them support your own productions is a huge achievement. Would you say that’s down to social media and the internet? How you can send your records to this league of people?
Yeah, it’s certainly a lot easier than I imagine it was back in the day when you’d have to send out test presses, that’s still something that I like to do is pass on test presses but the internet is a really valuable tool and I think people shoot it down quite a bit because it has diluted, certainly the commercial music scene in quite a big way. But, I think for underground artists it is really important. I mean it shouldn’t be the main focus of your career, but I think it can help you get your foot on the ladder and get yourself out there. It can help you get bookings and certainly when you’re sending music to DJ’s. I mean, having DJ’s like Raresh play my music was great and that’s just through the internet, it can give you big exposure that way.
That way you don’t need people or money behind you to access the top artists and labels
Yeah, and it’s a great tool for digging for music. It’s a great tool for learning how to produce as well. Although I went to university to learn how to produce, way before that I was looking at tutorials on the internet and I think it’s great to learn from the internet, it is really valuable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMB62CGQ_V8
How did your first releases come about then?
As Kepler, I literally just put some clips on Soundcloud and I had a lot of interest straight away. I had Rudy from Chicago who runs Silencio, he basically just emailed and said have you got any more tracks to send. I sent some over and I managed to sign two vinyl EP’s pretty much straight away and it was great at that point to think you know, I can actually push music out here, there’s a market here for me. So yeah, again the internet.
What’s the story behind the name Kepler? I know you changed alias from a name that originated from your surname but, how did Kepler come around?
I’m basically just a space geek (laughs). The stuff that I make has sort of elements of futuristic and spacey vibes. So I definitely wanted to go down that route and I just wanted a fresh start from the stuff I was originally making. Kepler is like a planetary system that has apparently is the closest habitable planet to earth so I went with that theme.
You played Gibraltar recently, is that right?
Yeah.
How was it to play somewhere like Gibraltar compared to home soil? Did it feel different in how the scene might be much smaller, or even bigger?
Yeah, the Gibraltans were massively up for it to be fair. I’m looking forward to going over there again in April this coming month. It’s very different everywhere you play but it’s great to go somewhere like Gibraltar and have a crowd that are open minded and willing to, be sort of taken somewhere with what you’re playing. It’s really great to go and play different places.
Would you say you take quite a personal, expressive approach to producing music?
Absolutely, I like to work on my own and I think the whole personal thing is really important because it is a form of expression, you know, whatever sort of music you’re making. And I think that it’s difficult sometimes for me to just put music out there straight away because it is something that’s personal. Quite often I’ll send music out to friends for them to listen to, and most of the stuff that I wasn’t sure about and I’ve sent to friends has been the stuff that has been, you know, the stuff that has been played by other DJs and stuff that’s done really well and got signed. So, it’s always good to have that ear from someone that you trust. But yeah, I think making music is definitely a personal thing.
How do you find balancing full time work with producing music? Because you’re a teacher right now is that right?
Yeah, it’s probably the worst job to erm, it’s quite intense. I mean, I’m working long hours, sometimes I bring the work home and stuff and when you’re DJing at the weekends and then you’re back to work straight away on a Monday it can be difficult. And then finding studio time as well but, if it’s something that you enjoy, you always find the time to make music I think.
You seem to have quite an open, celebratory approach to digging for new music. You post monthly charts of your favourite tunes and if there’s something new that you find, you’re looking to share it with people. Whereas, some people may take a more reserved approach, if they’ve invested time into digging then they want to keep it to themselves. What is your opinion on that?
Yeah, that’s a really interesting question actually. I always feel as though if a tune’s a good tune, I have no issue with sharing it, you know. And what seems to be a big thing at the moment is these limited presses; labels that are really pushing the hype. DJ’s seem to be steering away from a track just because there’s hype around it. But, I feel as though if it’s a good track, it’s a good track and I will play it if it works in my sets. And with regards to charts, I like to share the music that I’m enjoying at the moment. I like to support other artists in that sense; I often chart music from my friends and other producers which I feel as though I want to share that music with people. As a DJ I think the idea is to share music. I mean there are certain records that I’ve really dug for which I’ll keep to myself but I’m not really an elitist in that sense, if someone asks me for a track ID, quite often I’ll be happy to tell them.
That’s a really refreshing approach, because looking at the origins of house and techno; it’s about love and sharing, people coming together.
Yeah, absolutely. I think that some people pride themselves on having unreleased and unsigned music but I think the important thing as a DJ is what you do with the records that you’re playing and how you shape them together over the course of the evening to make it into a wider piece of music, a wider performance, basically that’s what you’re doing. DJ’s play records in different ways, a prime example of that is Villalobos. He can play a tune in a set and another DJ could play it and it will sound completely different and I think that is an important thing to take from that. It’s what the DJ is doing with it.
Would you say you have a particular method to digging for new music?
I like to share music with friends. There’s a few artists I like to share music with. People like Laughing Man and Vis from Dublin, they’re a couple of my friends which always send me new bits which is really exciting because there’s stuff that other people haven’t heard and I get the pleasure of playing them for the first time and testing them out. So yeah, I like to share music but then I guess, there’s loads of sources with online digging, things like Discogs. I can spend hours looking at new and old records on there; I don’t really have a strict way of screening music. For me if it has a nice rolling groove, captures my attention and will work in my sets, it will go in my collection. I try not to hunt down records in one particular style. Every day I’m on there checking out new releases. Places like Yoyaku are really good and Deejay, Decks.de. There’s various sources really.
Beside Gibraltar as you mentioned, what’s next for you this year?
There’s a few parties for Mass which is gonna be really exciting. I’m really happy to be involved in that. There’s the terrace parties at Mint Warehouse as well. We’ve got Villalobos back to back with Zip, Janeret with Varhat and also Barac. So there’s so many great things in the pipeline in terms of DJing, it’s gonna be a really good summer. And then in terms of releases I’m in the studio again, I’ve just signed a three track EP with Body Parts which is a label that I’ve really been into for a long time so I’m really excited to get that out there. I’m excited to just continue learning, I’m still very early in my career and still have a lot to learn and grow into. I’m gonna hit the studio, work really hard on my next release and take my time with that.
