Photography: Sam Taylor

This week sees the launch of Kyrist’s new label Kynetic Sound.

The label launches with brand new Kyrist original entitled Translation and the full EP drops April 8, with remixes from new talents Bidl and Infrah.

With a sound heavily influenced by the heavy grooves of the late 2000s / early 2010s, the label takes off where her previous self-titled label left us in 2020. The first release will be celebrated with a launch party at cult Bristol venue The Crofters Rights on April 14.

We called up the Bristol artist to discuss the label, lockdowns and many other things in between.

Kynetic Sound… Tell us everything!

Well the label started as Kyrist Music, which I had two releases on, but I don’t think Kyrist Music was a good name for it. At the time I was looking for a way to release music during the pandemic and get it out nice and quickly. It can take a long time to wait for your music to be released on other labels so having my own imprint would give me more immediacy.

Yeah labels are inundated with releases and have schedules that go on for months and months and months. With your own label you’ve got control…

That’s right. My label won’t be that prolific, though! Mainly because I’ve got a lot of other things on the go at the moment and I also want to keep things open planned. I also want to help support up and coming artists. For the first release, Bidl has given Looped a 140 remix and Infrah, who’s my Native Instruments competition winner, remixed my track Chimera. They’re both very cool remixes in their own rights.

Was the release on the label a prize for Infrah?

No I just loved the remix. I’d been thinking about it and he messaged me and asked what happens next. I suggested putting it out and he was up for it. It’s great to be able to create that type of opportunity.

And that’s how I want to move forward with the label – support exciting talent and releasing music I really like. Sonically there’s no grand plan but I do love that deep rolling sound Critical had around 2012. That era was so influential to me; that’s when I started raving, I was absorbing all the vibes and that had a big effect on me.

You can hear that in Translation. In my notes I’ve written late 2000s / Octane & DLR and Dispatch vibes. Heavy groove-based music

Yeah! I did listen to a lot of Octane & DLR so you’re right and it is all in the groove. I was sitting on the tune for the best part of a year and I knew it was missing something. It was one little sound that gave it that groove.

Was there a penny drop moment?

Just remembering the importance of having space in the track. Instead of filling the space with lots of stuff, it’s about having ghost notes and bits where the groove can exist. So it was a just a growing understanding of that really.

In the spirit of translation what language would you most like to speak?

Oh wow… Spanish I think.

I thought about this and decided I’d like to be able to translate dogs.

Haha, any animal really! Be a Dr Doolittle. Hell yeah.

When you first started the label during lockdowns were you expecting to release more?

Definitely. I lost steam with everything. Obviously we all lost income and I wanted to release music to make some money, especially selling on Bandcamp Friday. I felt I had the reputation to give the label momentum and support. It feels weird saying that because I still feel like I’m only starting…

I get it completely. It’s all in the timing and showing consistency. It was definitely the right time for you to do that. How long has it been since your first release? Eight years?

Five years since my Dispatch debut and 10 years since my first ever releases. I was relasing on labels like Proximity and Dust Audio. That was my foundation and Dispatch is the core and reason why I am where I am now.

So how did you get your steam back?

Taking loads of time out, trying to reflect on what’s important to me and remembering there’s a life outside music and playing shows. Going for walks, in nature, around Bristol, around the harbour. Walking around you’d see people and know they were thinking the same thing: ‘When is life going to get back to normal?’ We’ve been through this very unique and weird thing in history, haven’t we?

So I took a lot of time out and did a lot of sound design, making strange noises and samples with no intention of writing. Just sculpting sounds. Working with Sample Genie definitely helped as well. I had to do 174 samples, which took up three months of my life. I set myself a goal – spending 5 hours a day making 10-15 sounds a day that I could use and send to them. So that got my creative juices going and gave me ideas.

Cool way of taking your head out of creative process and getting a fresh perspective, too!

I was thinking, ‘If I was going to get a sample pack what sounds would I need?’ Or, ‘What sounds have I been looking for and never been able to find in a sample pack?’ I’d go out with my phone and record stuff around me. Like weird Foley stuff. Then I’d add loads of effects so it sounds unlike anything else. I really enjoyed that.

Wicked. You’ve also launched a video concept called Resonate where you film yourself on back on the road! That’s how you get the steam back!

Yeah it’s been great and definitely inspiring. I’d been thinking of recording these trips for a while and I knew Star Warz was going to be a big one with loads of artists and a vibe. What better way to show people what I get up to? I don’t have much experience editing videos but my dad’s getting into video editing so we chat about it and I love being able to do that, make my own content and not rely on anyone else for it. That would be sick.

Totally! I think we’re in this interesting phase now where people are realising how much the lockdowns has changed their lives. Some people did learn skills during the time but with a lot of us, it’s coming out now – almost a year later. You may have lost steam for a bit but you’ve come out of it reinspired and with new skills.

I think so. And it’s a whole new world to explore. I watch a lot of crap on Youtube but putting my own content on there has been an interesting learning curve and something I’ve really enjoyed. And I totally agree with what you were saying about us not realising what we’ve achieved. I do think it’s made a lot of people realise how resilient they are and we’ve learnt things about ourselves as well as pick up skills.

Definitely! So what’s the next release?

Well actually I just got some tunes back from Kasra for my second release. I sent them to him for Critical two years ago. He was into them but nothing had been agreed so I asked if I could put them on my label and he said ‘sure, it’s your music’.

They’ll be out in a while though. I need to go back in on them a bit. The first one I made was the first thing I’d ever made using Ableton before. I didn’t know what plug-ins did so I chucked loads of them on. If I was to describe it I’d say it’s that weird and wonderful heavy but deep sound you might find on Doc Scott’s 31 imprint.

The other one is a deeper one, more on an Overview type of vibe. Very heavy with the basses. So yeah, they’ll be next and I’m looking forward to taking the label wherever I want it to go. I hope people enjoy it as much I do. I feel like the timing is right and I don’t want to just keep it exclusively D&B either. I want to include dubstep and 140

I was going to ask because that Bidl remix is great!

He hit me up on a whim and asked for something to remix while on lockdown. It’s such a good remix isn’t it? I told him it was ridiculous. He’s going to blow up and it’s nice to have him involved in the label. I’m open to hearing demos from other artists and I’m keen to champion the 140 sound, especially when it’s coming from people who are known for making drum & bass. People like Alix Perez, Monty, Visages. When they do dubstep the sonics are so different.

Totally. What sonics can we expect from you next, beyond Kynetic Sound?

I’ve got an EP for Drum&BassArena on the go, including a collaboration with Insideinfo. We’re working on a track that explores the idea of transitioning from dubstep to drum & bass, or back again, which I’m really excited about. I’ve also got lots of really cool bookings, including nine festivals this summer, and watch out for more releases on Kynetic Sound!

Kyrist – Translation is out now 

Join Kyrist on April 14 at The Crofters Rights, Bristol for the Kynetic launch: Info / Tickets

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