Ketoloco Podcast 004: DEXTER KANE

It's been a while since our last offering but this podcast episode is definately worth the wait. Ed Kane has been part of the loco crew for years now with several Ketoloco performances under his belt both as "Kanio" and more recently as "Dexter Kane". His astonishing progression, musicality and versatility as a producer and DJ is reflected in his varying guises over the years. We caught up with Ed via skype while he's nearing the end of his current South Americas tour... 1) Tell us about your latest moniker; “Dexter Kane” and the musical direction you are taking with it. Ed: My music taste has changed drastically over the last few years and this project is a reflection of where I'm at right now. I guess the main influences would be deep house and nu-disco at this stage in time. 2) Recently, you’ve been commenting a lot on the issues with Traktor Scratch and praising the advatages of CD’s & vinyls over the programme. Ed: Yeah Tracktor hasn't worked out too well for me sadly. Just when I get over one problem another seems to pop up. I think I've probably been more unlucky than most, but I've seen a few other DJ's have issues while using it in a club. At the end of the day DJ'ing is my livelihood so I need something I can 100% rely on. The whole Traktor concept is just so fraught with potential for error, I've decided enough is enough. Now for the fun task of burning 9 months of CD's! Can't wait!!! :) 3) How was the mix recorded and does this vary from how you perform live? Ed: I can only work during the day in the studio because of neighbours and what with being away a lot my studio time is scarce. Because of this I do mix mixes in Ableton in headphones at times when I can't use my studio. As I've got 2 projects going at the moment I need to use all my studio time for making music, so don't record my mixes live right now. Ableton is great for this but I personally find the program too basic and fiddly in certain areas to use for production, so I use Logic. 4) What are your past experiences of Ketoloco? Did they influence the vibe of your podcast? Ed: I've had some great experiences playing at Ketoloco, most notably The Light Bar (London) and Kerbcrawler (Leeds). I did give some thought to those gigs when I was doing the mix, definitely. 5) How do you feel about acts that don’t make their own music and become successful by paying ghost writers to produce their records? Ed: To be honest it's been a big part of the scene since day one and always will. It's a little frustrating at times but I think it's important to just get on with your own stuff and not worry too much about what everyone else is doing. Plus I can get paid to be one of those writers which is useful if I never need an extra few quid! :) 6) You’re often touring the globe and regularly pop-up in places such as South America. Do you like/dislike the hectic schedule and are there any tricks to surviving it? Ed: I love DJing and making music but the travel is worst side of it. It sounds glamourous but it's basically just sitting around on your own for a lot of the time. On the plus it's made me appreciate certain things in my life a lot more, mainly how important your friends and family are. 7) What have you got coming up production wise in 2011? Ed: I've just finished a couple of new EP's which I'm just about to send out to some labels so keep you eyes out for those. Also just done a remix with Lee Brinx for our label 'Lower East' we run with Cozzy D, it's called Wildkats - Addict for You (Dexter Kane and Lee Brinx mix). There's loads of wicked releases coming up on the Label we've got remixes coming up from Lee Foss, Robert James, Richy Ahmed and Pezzner among others so really looking forward to getting those out. On the Kanio side of things I'm going back to a more techno-y sound with an EP on Blufin and a remix for Boris Brejcha on Harthouse, both will be out shortly. 8) Any special gigs on the horizon? Ed: I'm playing Paris in a few weeks which is always great. Such a beautiful city, may even take my girl and stay a bit! Cheers Lads :) x