KiNK: How I Play Live

For over ten years, KiNK has been one of dance music’s most captivating live performers. His energy on stage is matched by the driving techno and house that emanates from the speakers when he plays, both as KiNK, and under the Cyrillic project he launched in 2015.

But it’s the controlled chaos of his live approach that delights the dancefloor, his improvisation driven by a collection of consistent kit, the hub of which has remained the same since he started his live show a decade ago. We spoke to the Bulgarian DJ, producer and performer about the equipment behind his set-up, his relationship with the crowd and how playing live has changed the way he makes music. KiNK will be performing a live show at Terminal V alongside Helena Hauff, Lena Willikens and Moxie on Saturday 11th April and has his own Soundcheck event in London on 9th May.

What made you want to develop a live show? 
“In 2008, I had a few underground hits, the most notable ones were my collaborations with the British DJ and producer Neville Watson. At that time I signed with my first booking agent, Kai Fischer. I already had a long experience and a good reputation as a DJ in Bulgaria. I gained the self-esteem to try touring internationally. It was very difficult to make it work. I think it's because my diverse selection and intense way of mixing didn't fit the crowd's preferences at that time. 

“Kai saw my style more suitable for live sets and convinced me to give it a try. I guess, at that time, there was a higher demand for electronic live acts, so I became busy overnight. Playing live was not my first choice, I looked at it more like a door to a DJ career, but meanwhile, I had my live bookings. I was thankful that the promoters gave me a platform for my music and I felt I had a responsibility to deliver the best sets possible, so years of hard work followed. The more I developed my set-up, the more fun and more success I had, I naturally transformed from a DJ to a live act. 

“So all this happened because of my friend and agent Kai, the love of the crowd and my passion for music equipment, which I developed along the way, touring live. I still like to think of myself being somewhere in the middle, between a DJ and a live act.”

How did you first go about deciding what kit you would use?
“My goal was to put together a rig that enabled me to be as spontaneous as a DJ in terms of selection and free as a beatboxer with a loop pedal in terms of live composing. I imagined the DJ element to be like mixing locked grooves, taken directly from my tracks and the live composing element to be recording keyboards and drum machines. 

“As I had a very limited budget at that time, the solution was a laptop with Ableton Live and MIDI controllers. I picked up Novation Launchpad for starting the pre-recorded loops from my records, which is the DJ element, an Akai LPD8 and Novation X-station for layering live keys and drums, which is the live composing element. The Launchpad also enabled me to record what I'm doing with the Akai drum pads and the X-station keys. This was exactly 10 years ago. I tried many tools after that, but I stuck to the same philosophy and still the centre of my kit is my laptop, a Launchpad, drum pads and a keyboard.”

What were the main challenges at the beginning? 
“The main challenge back then was transporting my equipment and fitting it on stage, and I still haven't found an ideal solution, but understanding the problem helped me to set a few rules: to travel with hand luggage only, as few times my bags didn't arrive in time. To build my set in a way that I can fit it in my hand luggage. There is a limitation for the weight of the airplane carry-on bags for security reasons and you cannot just pay and take it with you. To bring most of the equipment with me, as often the promoters are hiring the wrong devices. To keep the set-up relatively small, because some good venues don’t have the option to place a separate table for my system. 

“To do soundchecks, not only because of the sound, but to secure my space in the booth. To use simple and popular pieces of gear, which I can buy at any time on the road, as the units are getting damaged quite often. To leave at home any devices, which I am not using during every set, for the reasons I mentioned above. Last but not least, I developed tinnitus the same year, when I transformed from DJing to live act. It was a stressful time. I stopped touring for a few months. However, switching to live had a positive result for my hearing, I had less pressure on my ears as I was using the headphones less.”

How improvised is the show and how much of it is planned in advance?
“My sets are not planned in advance, so I would paraphrase the question, ‘How many pre-recorded elements do I use in my set?’ I have most of my productions imported and sync’d in Ableton. The audio is taken directly from my pre-masters. 

“From those tracks, I take short loops, two-to-four bars long and that's what I play as a pre-recorded backing track. This part of the set is similar to DJing with loops. I can decide what to play on the fly and I can create interesting polyrhythms by changing the loop length, making alternative versions of familiar music. Then I have the full-on live part — my drum machine and live synths, which I'm recording. I would say on a normal set, sixty-percent of the time there is a pre-recorded loop running in the background, while I add more elements on-the-fly. Once or twice during the set, I would play a full track, very similar to the original version, and forty-percent of the set there would be just live improvisation with no pre-recorded layers running. This can vary of course, in favour of more improvisation. If I play with other fellow live acts, such as Henrik Schwarz or Frank Wiedemann [Åme], I just use my drum machine and synths, live looping what I do. If I play a gig, where the sound is too fast or too slow, I have to go towards improvisation, because I don't have pre-recorded elements on the same energy level.”

Tell us how you use the Pioneer DJ DJS-1000, if it’s still part of your setup. 
“I'm on and off with it, because I can't bring it with me, but this year I'm planning to use it more, because more or less it became an industry standard and it's not that hard to find it in clubs and festivals. Basically I can play live only with it, even without much preparation. Also it's a nice link between a DJ and a live set-up, so the DJS-1000 is a very valuable addition to my arsenal and I'm looking forward to using it more often.”

What would you change about your set-up if you could, even if the tech doesn’t exist yet?
“I would like to have software and hardware, which can record notes and delete notes easily. As long as I know in Ableton, deleting still requires interaction with the computer or hacking the system with custom code. Same for changing the pattern lengths. I would love to have all my MIDI controllers wireless. The tech is there and this would eliminate a lot of problems, like disconnecting from the system, because of vibrations or damaged cables during transportation. 

“I would encourage the tech companies to focus on simple, performance-oriented hardware with less menu diving, because we already have laptops and I don't think we need another laptop in a different form factor, but simple instruments, which are an extension of our body. At the same time, I would love to see more open and user-configurable hardware. I would encourage the companies to reach out early enough for user feedback, in the process of product planning and talking to smaller and mid-range acts. I don't consider myself a superstar and I already have less time to explore the tech possibilities. I can imagine for those who do 200 shows a year, it must be very hard to find time for the newest technology.”