Ned East – better known by his production moniker, Kilter – has been blazing up and down the east coast for the past few years.
His commitment to making a name for himself and playing as many shows as humanly possible seems to have paid off, with East now being booked as often in cities like Melbourne and Brisbane as he is in his hometown of Sydney. Staying true to his roots, East describes the sentimental value of one of his favourite local venues, Oxford Art Factory.
“It’s been a while since I’ve played there, but I think Oxford Art Factory is always going to be a special little venue for me, because it was a journey for me playing there,” he says. “I started off playing in the side room at first, and then eventually worked up to playing the main room myself and selling it out, so it’s probably my favourite in terms of sentimental value, in addition to the fact that it’s just a great space – it looks awesome, sounds awesome and is really fun to play in.”
East rose to fame relatively quickly, barely managing to finish his university media degree before music took over his life, becoming a full-time occupation.
“I used to work as a bartender while I was studying at uni, but towards the end of uni I started doing the music thing and it began to take up so much of my time that I was just scraping through uni with passes. After I finished my degree I continued working as a bartender, and it was a little bit longer until I began doing music full-time. I’ve been doing music full-time for a few years now and it’s really chill – I can’t think of a better way to live. There are definitely ups and downs because it’s hard to keep a rigid schedule, but I enjoy it.”
For most of us, being able to afford to be a career musician is the ultimate dream, but East remains realistic, admitting the lifestyle can be hard to maintain. “The problem with doing the whole music thing full-time is that you can actually do anything whenever you want – you can decide that you’re going to have a chill day and do nothing, but sometimes you have to force yourself to keep grinding through, which sometimes can be hard work.”
One hot topic for East is the recent media hype surrounding drug use at dance and electronic events. It’s something both he and his peers feel passionately about, as any decisions made by government and the authorities could ultimately affect their livelihoods.
“Everyone that I’ve worked with or alongside has their own opinion about what should happen regarding drug use at shows, because these drugs do play such a large role in our work. The problems that they had at Field Day which resulted in calling for harsher cutbacks on festivals worries me, because that could end up killing festivals. Obviously these harsh measures would affect us producers, potentially even more than it affects the crowd. It’s something that all of my peers and myself are keeping track of.”
When asked about festival pill testing sites as a potential solution, East is hesitant to agree they may be an effective way to avoid overdoses. “I believe it’s pretty important that something is done, because it’s obvious that right now what we’re doing isn’t working. I don’t know whether pill testing is the exact solution because I don’t know whether people will feel safe to go to a pill testing space. I know obviously they can’t be arrested in there, but I wonder whether the police may stake them out. I agree with the idea that sniffer dogs shouldn’t be used – clearly that’s forcing people to freak out and dump all of their gear. If they can find a way to make pill testing work where there are no legal ramifications, I think people might be willing to try it.”
For Kilter fans, 2016 should be a good year, with East confirming he’ll be putting out some tracks in the near future. “I’ve been really quiet for the last year and I only released one single in 2015, mainly because I’ve been greedy and hoarding everything for 2016. I’ve got heaps of stuff that I’m tying together at the moment, and 2016 should see a couple of nice releases from me. I don’t want to jinx the releases by naming release dates now, but the first one should be out in the next few months.
“I’m just about to do another run around the country, sticking mainly to the east coast over the next month, which should be really fun. I’ll be playing Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and quite a few stops between those, so it should be a good little run. I’m even heading over to the west coast in February for a festival called Enchanted [Garden], out in Manjimup, a few hours out of Perth.”
If you can’t hold out until East releases some new material, then you may want to head down to Goat Island Sounds on Australia Day, where fans will get the chance to hear some new dirty Kilter beats. Joining him on the day will be fellow Sydney producers Just A Gent and Luen, plus Melburnians Ok Sure and Klue.
“I’m really excited to see Just A Gent,” East says. “I haven’t seen him play in a while and his stuff is really awesome, but I’m also just super keen to watch everyone party to the triple j radio stream. Hopefully we won’t find any goats there, but it sounds awesome!”
Kilter plays Goat Island Sounds 2016,Goat Island Tuesday January 26; and before that Tomorrow’s People, at The Lair (Metro Theatre), Saturday January 23; and later on Party In The Park, Pittwater Park, Saturday March 19.
