Today we met Koji, a Venezuelan guy who is incredibly talented and shares his style between music, painting and sculpture, we were talking with him and he tells us more about his work. Enjoy!
Well informally as in 2006 I started playing music at parties and meetings with a mixer for ipods that I bought with a friend, then with this friend and a couple more tired of going to local and not feel comfortable with the music that always placed we decided to make a party at Sake Bar in 2007 and there we all deviramos putting music in a local.
Will Koji have any artists to influence or inspire him?
Of course, Daft Punk always since the first day the Home Work album came out and I listened to that pod it was like traveling to the year 3500, they have always inspired me. Also a lot of exponents of nineties House and dosmilero as Cassius, Basement Jaxx, Groove Armada and a lot more that if I mention them here the list would be super long.
It’s a brutal energy because it’s not just you playing music but we all become one, a single fuck-up that we all have a little part in.
For me the ideal or perfect place or environment to play are small venues or small poolparties. I’ve played a couple of times in big events and they are super cool but I love and adore when it’s more intimate and people are there close to you and one of them. It’s a brutal energy because it’s not just you playing music but we all become one, a single fuck-up that we all have a little part in. It’s really cool when for example you play a track that someone likes and they shake your hand, or they give you a high five and even give you a hug.
Most DJs would probably tell you that they would like to produce but production is not my thing, but I would like to play more often and maybe organize a monthly party where the predominant thing is House Music.
Koji’s advice for aspiring DJs!
To aspiring DJs I would tell them to do full research on the genres they like and not to play music just for fashion, to invest in decent equipment, to practice hard and that one of the most important things apart from talent and good taste in music is to rub shoulders with people who help and encourage you to get into and stay in the scene.
A special place in Koji’s experience:
Uff a lot of places, but I always remember with nostalgia the gigs in Sake Bar where sometimes I played electro and ended up throwing myself to the public (crowd surfing) that everyone was a bunch of fuckers, then they threw themselves too and everything was laughter and youthful happiness hahaha! But the place I liked the most was in Puerto la Cruz in a place called Baradero by the sea.
I mainly like House Music, especially French House, Chicago House, Disco Funky House which are the styles I like to play the most. But in terms of influences pff I don’t know I listen to everything, the truth is that one day I can stop and spend a week listening to Lebron Brothers and suddenly I want to listen to Pantera because a song of theirs came to my mind and after a while I can listen to 3 songs of Brigitte Bardot, but the truth is that what really influences me and what I like the most is the music of the 80s in its different genres. I love the 80s.
I don’t work with discs because it’s really expensive and tedious to move platters and discs, that’s why I only work in digital format.
A world of paint and textiles!
I’ve been making clothes since I was a kid because it was difficult to get clothes for skinny people and I had to learn how to use the sewing machine to adapt the clothes to my body and my taste. Then I started painting with logos of personal taste and already in 2016 fulfilling a dream of almost all my life I started with a clothing brand @eraabout which led me to offer part of the serial garments to offer customized and hand-painted garments specifically jackets.
Diverse typographies:
Well that idea was born first by the diversity of musical tastes that I have as almost everyone in Venezuela, here we all listen to and vacillate practically all kinds of music. But well, always in conversations with people listening to salsa we always said: THE SALSERIS WERE REAL ROCKSTARS because of the life that most of them led in that golden era of the Fania All Stars, the biggest Rock Star was always the singer. So I came up with the idea of making a jacket with Metallica’s typography but with Hector Lavoe on it, putting on one sleeve of the jacket the phrase (Todo tiene su final) and on the other sleeve (Nada dura para siempre). And people liked that jacket so much that I had to sell several of them. Then it occurred to me to add names of other salseros that I also like with typographies of metal bands. Just today I painted a jacket with that theme and every customer always asks me for a different salsero of his taste.
A little sculpture adds spice to this rithym!
It’s a very brutal feeling to be able to create something and see how from being an idea in the air it becomes something physical, visible and palpable.
Well, I’m not a sculptor as such, but you can say that I do sculpt recycled material or transform it into other things. It’s something I’ve always done thanks to the inspiration that Art Attack gave me since I was a child. I’ve always liked doing things with my hands and seeing how one thing can be transformed into something totally different. It’s a very brutal feeling to be able to create something and see how from being an idea in the air it becomes something physical, visible and palpable.
I like to use cardboard, especially cardboard from shoeboxes because it’s an easy material to find and easy to handle. I also like to use random things that I pick up on the street when I’m riding my bike or walking around. They are usually almost all recycled material of any kind.
The latest craze! Circular fashion?
Yes of course I am in favor of circular fashion and giving a second or third life to clothes. In fact I have a love hate relationship with fashion. Because it is super pleasant to see the designs, patterns and models of certain garments that really come out of masterminds, but at the same time it is sad to see how people become so consumerist and so zombies for anything no matter how ugly it is simply because it is “fashionable” and that incidentally a large part cost an absurd amount of money for what they offer you. So yes 100% in favor of second hand clothes. In fact I like to work with second hand jackets not only to help the environment but also to help the pocket of the customers. And of course I would like to promote more this second hand movement but in the country it is somewhat complicated because people here do not have the proper appreciation and valuation to this type of initiatives. But well, you do what you can with what you have.
I invite you to follow Koji in his social networks and digital platforms, his work is very interesting, thank you very much to him for allowing us to talk today, see you soon!
Instagram:
Soundcloud: Spokoj-I