Hall of fame

As if Eastern Electrics Festival Afterparty wasn’t already as crammed as a Central Line train during rush hour – albeit one full of sweaty, whooping house and tech-heads – Detroit wonderboy Kyle Hall is the next to be thrown into the bubbling party chowder.

In addition to the Eastern Electrics Festival, which runs from 11am to 10pm on Saturday 4^th August at Area 12 on the Greenwich Peninsula, EE+ will be setting up shop at London's Proud2 from 10pm to 7am. Primed for 20 hours of continuous clubbing, it's a challenge we expect droves of London heads to rise to. Kyle Hall is one of many first-rate DJs gracing Proud2, along with Art Department, Damian Lazarus, Blackhall & Bookless and more.

Only 21 years old, Kyle Hall already displays the refined musical tastes and meticulous dance knowledge of peers twice his age, bringing the deep and soulful sounds of Detroit to clubs across the world. As well as putting out records and selling apparel out of the website for his label, Wild Oats, Kyle certainly has a lot on his plate for a man barely into his twenties. We managed to catch him on his way to Southport Weekender’s Suncebeat Festival in Croatia, where he talked music, movies and a soon-to-land collaboration with FunkinEven. Oh, and hedgehog training...

How's it going Kyle? The sun finally came out in London last weekend. Have you had a chance to savour it yet?

I’m good. I haven’t seen the sun yet, but I’ll be heading over in the next few days so I'm sure I’ll get the chance to enjoy it then.

We hear you’re still based in Detroit. What have you been getting up to there?

Yes, I’m still in Detroit. There's no place like home! There are loads of things I've been doing here: Putting on my monthly night "Fundamentals" with Jay Daniel at Motor City Wine, spending time with my girlfriend, record shopping, keyboard lessons, shipping vinyl and t-shirt orders for the Wild Oats website, going to see the new Batman movie with my dad, visiting my mom, dentists and audiologist appointments, getting haircuts from my uncle DJ Raybone (shout out!), listening to records, and last but not least making music... Oh, and contemplating training my potential new hedgehog to hunt centipedes.

Tell us about your travels. Where have you been? Where are you going next?

Most recently I was in Amsterdam at the Pitch Festival. Now I'm heading to Croatia for Suncebeat and next I’ll be heading to the UK and Germany. 

When did you drop 'Xero/Get Down' onto Wild Oats?

Actually, ‘Xero’ and ‘Down!’ were released last year but I started selling some copies I had left on my website for folks who wanted to grab a copy and but didn't want to pay $80 on Discogs. Along with that I started selling Wild Oats t-shirts, tank tops and a limited edition clear vinyl, butterfly-etched version of Jay Simon’s WO-7J ‘Faith’ 7 inch.

There is a lot of funk, disco, house and even jazz in your music. Where do you get these influences from, and how much would you say your music is rooted in the original sounds of Detroit?

Uhh... I don’t know! I don't think that's for me to determine or to say. If it sounds like it at all, that’s cool! I get my influences just from buying vinyl records and listening to them. That's the main way I consume and learn.

What's next for Wild Oats? What and who are you releasing?

For the upcoming Wild Oats record I’ll be releasing a project from FunkinEvil, which is a collaboration between me and my good friend from London, Steven Julien, aka Funkineven. That will be out mid-to-late August. After that I have another interesting project on the books with another buddy of mine.

What other material can we expect you deliver in the next few months?

People will just have to wait and see! There should be some new things for sure...

Are you looking forward to playing Eastern Electrics in August?

Yes, Eastern Electrics will be dope!

Just when we thought we couldn’t have any more love for the Eastern Electrics bunch, they've only thrown us a bindle of goodies to give one lucky DJ Mag reader, including...

2 x Eastern Electrics Festival Afterparty tickets

1 x bottle of vodka

1 x signed Kerri Chandler 12” vinyl

1 x copy of Jamie Jones' album, 'Tales From The Crypt'

1 x copy of Amirali's 'In Time'

For your chance to win, just answer the following question and send it to [email protected] before Friday 3rd August...

This year’s Eastern Electrics Festival will be held in which part of London?

1. Woolwich

2. Greenwich

3. Shoreditch

Words: Owen Hughes