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Features
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| Introducing NEM3SI$’s new label Infinite Resistance! | | Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! | | Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! | | Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! | | Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. | | Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! | | Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! | | NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! | | Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! | | Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! | | Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! | | SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! | | The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! | | NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! | | Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project | | The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! | | A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden | | Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma | | Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino | | New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! | | PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! | | Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! | | N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! | | Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna | | A Catch Up with John Phantasm ahead of his upcoming set at the Tribal Village 4 Day Outdoor Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! |
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Interview with K Komplex on the Nu Energy Collective
Reported by Allan Mcgrath
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Submitted 17-03-04 10:07
At just 24 years of age, Pete K Komplex has come a long way since exploding onto Nu Energy with his debut release, Free The Brain, at the beginning of the century. Spending over 18 months working with Sharkey as Safe And Sound, K Komplex left his mark on a series of diverse and innovative productions, notably their John Peel championed Idenitify The Beat with Marc Smith. Since the pair amicably moved in their own career directions Pete has emerged as one of the leading scene engineers in his own right, working with the likes of Daniel Ro, Group 185 and Spencer Freeland. Today, he combines his respected engineering duties at the Collective with a continued dedication towards his own creative output, his recent efforts such as Macrocosm causing arm raising reactions in live Nu Energy Collective performances, another area where Pete is heavily involved. With more live PAs, the possibility of DJ performances and his tunnel vision for technical know-how actively seeking out idea-unlocking studio knowledge, this year should be the ambitious producer’s busiest yet as he continues to build on celebrated past success.
First of all where does the name K Complex come from and what exactly does it mean?
A ‘K-Complex’ is a type of brain activity during sleep. I was leafing through the back of a psychology textbook revising for an exam and there it was….it has nothing to do with Ketamine!
How did you first get involved in the dance scene and what lead to your involvement with the Nu Energy Collective?
I’d been going out raving to hardcore nights up in Milton Keynes since ’94 but it wasn’t really until I moved to London in 1997 that I actually started to make any contacts, not to mention going out far too frequently! I was hanging around in Wax City in Croydon (where I first met Kevin Energy) and subjecting the guys there, including Kevin, to some pretty bad demos. Then I came up with Free The Brain, which Kevin liked, and went from there.
I understand that you are a huge fan of the classic trance era of the mid nineties. How did you become interested in the more rave edged hardcore end of the dance spectrum?
I’ve never listened solely to one type of music. I’d find that very restrictive in terms of where I get my inspiration from. I was going out to Hardcore nights as well keeping an eye on the trance explosion. When producers started to fuse elements of acid & trance into hardcore I loved the idea.
What first inspired you to get involved in production and what were your early efforts like?
I’d been interested in making electronic music for ages but it wasn’t until the miracle of student loans came along that I actually got a few bits of kit and started to mess around, and yes my early efforts were pretty appalling. I’d given up piano lessons as a teenager through lack of patience so I had to teach myself what a keyboard was again. I still have a few old demo tapes at home that make me wince when I listen to them…
Since your debut track ‘Free The Brain’ on Nu Energy, your contributions to the Collective have increased steadily in both quality and quantity, and you now stand as a highly proficient and recognised scene engineer. Indeed these days you seem to be engineering just about every track that comes out of the Nu Energy stables on top of your own artistic output. What is your exact role at the Collective at present and how pleased are you with the way things are progressing?
My main role is as an engineer which is something I’d been aspiring to for a long time but that often includes helping to produce along the way. I get to work with some very talented musicians who get brought into the studio to ‘polish up’ their work. A lot of the time that includes me pointing them in the right direction since I have a pretty good idea of what the labels I work with are looking for in a track. The PA is obviously something I’m heavily involved with, involving weeks of planning and work going into an hour set so I’m usually pretty busy the week before we go out! In terms of being pleased with how things are going I’d never have imagined I’d be doing this 5 years ago…
Your recent efforts have been impressively wide ranging. Through appearances on all the Collective’s in house labels we’ve heard you turn out banging Nu Energy tracks with Mark Ashley, energetic dancefloor hardcore on Stompin Choonz, and some euphoric hard trance on Dynamix. What motivates you to produce such a variety of styles?
I’m really into diversity as it’s all too easy to find a style that works and to stick to it, indeed it’s a trap that I find myself falling into all too often. Part of the reason that I vary my style so much is because of the amount of music I engineer. With up to 3 different parties in the studio a week, sometimes all one type of music, it’s easy to get bored. Interesting new ideas usually stem from a really good night out, The Fridge seems to produce good results…
What has been your favourite personal production and why?
I think recently ‘Cyberspace’. I’d been experimenting with trip hop beats and a bit of spaced out synth work on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and I actually wrote the breakdown before the rest of the track. I then worked the Nu Energy style trance on either side. It’s not the way I’d recommend working but it came together in the end, and being asked to do a special mix for Sharkey’s Bonkers XI CD was a bonus too!
What productions are you working on at the moment and what plans have you got for the coming months?
I’ve got a few projects happening right now. I’ve had a lot of fun engineering a track for Group 185 recently (which will probably come out on one of the Collective labels). I’ve also been working with Mark Ashley again too and we’ve come up with a real hard ass piece of a tune. That will be making an appearance on Nu Energy shortly. Jon (Sharks) and I have got back in the studio together and have a great big trance-tastic track on the way. Imminently arriving on Dynamix is a double A sided EP, featuring a track I did called Altitude on one side and my collaboration with Andy Vinyl, entitled Captive In the Darkness, on the other. Finally, I’ve also got back on with some hard ravey hardcore, through my track Losing It, out soon on Sharkey’s Bonkerz.
Through your extensive production work you’ve had the pleasure of working with some of the scene’s biggest names from Daniel Ro, Marc Smith and of course your former Safe ‘N’ Sound partner Sharkey. Who have you enjoyed working with the most, and outside of those you have already worked with which producer(s) would you be most interested in collaborating with?
I’m always really interested to work with other producers, especially since it’s a great opportunity to pick up and swap tips. Last year I got to work with some really big names like Phil Reynolds and Spencer Freeland, but personally I get the most out of working with up and coming producers with fresh outlooks that make the established names look tired! You know who you are! This year I’ve already got some collaborations going with Ting and Ed Real as well as live act Type 1, but I’d most like to get in the studio with Lab 4, that would kick ass
Have you got any releases lined up for non Collective releases or are you signed exclusively to the Nu Energy Collective?
I’m not signed exclusively to the Collective, the tracks I write just seem to fit right into it though and it’s a great output for my work. Having said that I’m currently helping out with the production for a new hard trance label so watch out for some uplifting hard stuff.
With all the recent engineering work, I’m sure you’ve spent abnormal periods of time spent locked away in small squared rooms, twiddling knobs with your designated studio partners. Are there any amusing tales of studio related tomfoolery?
Do you mean apart from working with Daniel Ro for a year?? That was complete mayhem. No specifics but I’ve had a lot of laughs over the past few years and hopefully a lot more to come.
The Nu Energy Collective at work - photo courtesy of Amy & Anders
Whilst predominantly hard dance and hardcore your tracks are always wide reaching in their musical influences, Cyberspace’s bending psychedelic intro, the piano house section in Hardcore Frenzie and Indestructible’s warping breakbeat breakdown are all examples that jump to mind. Have you got any ambitions to produce a K Komplex artist album to represent these different sounds?
I’ve never even thought of producing an album probably because I see the tracks I make as dance floor material. That’s not say that it won’t happen though, and I can imagine remixing my favourite tracks into an album orientated format. It could be an interesting future project…
Recently we’ve seen the Nu Energy Collective live PA take the capital by storm with some impressive performances at the likes of Logic and Pendragon. Are you surprised by the swift success of the PA and which performance have you enjoyed the most?
The PA’s been great fun over last year. I’d only ever done a few small hardcore PA’s at Bagleys and Castle Studio’s on the Old Kent Road so going from that to a packed out Fridge was really something special. Logic’s Christmas party has to be my all time favourite PA so far. The floor was packed and the crowd were loving it, there’s nothing more rewarding than that!
With these encouraging experiences of performing live, is there any chance of catching K Komplex DJ sets in the near future and if not why not?!
I’ve really enjoyed the performance aspect of everything and this year is my year to get off my ass and start DJ’ing. People always ask me if I want to play at their parties so I’m going to bow to the pressure and get going on it! I’m practicing like hell…
Do you still go out raving yourself and if so what events have rocked your you recently?
Yeah I still have a soft spot for a good ol’ rave, the first Tasty at The Rocket earlier last year was fantastic as is every Logic event!
Outside of the hardcore and hard dance areas, what other music do you listen to?
Stuff like Orbital, Leftfield, FSOL, Ozric Tentacles, and when it comes to radio it has got to be John Peel!
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Other Features By Allan Mcgrath:
Kutski gets ready for his brand new residency @ Tasty - Love Muzik
Hardcore Euphoria preview: Bonkers about Arkitech
Mark Ashley vs Eryk Orpheus: the festive show down
Freeformation Chris-Mess Rave-Up Preview With Type 1
Tasty preview with Roosta
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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Nice one Petee! 
