Prompted by the release a couple months back of Directors Notes Say Smile, Eyes Say Different from Kemastry, we caught up with the Yogocop alumni and High Focus new-era don for a conversation on life music and radical acts.
Yes Kema! Apologies for longness on putting an interview together…. Hows life? Last time we chatted was at the last Nozstock. Caught you here and there but had descended into a nonsense being by day 2. How was your festival overall?
As always I spent my time drinking herbal teas, doing yoga, reading gardening manuals and asking the djs to turn it down. So yeah lively as always. Shouts to the grease pigs and the Sectioned boys. Kind of mindblowing we got to see Randall’s last set. RIP
How did the rest of your Summer play out?
Like a string quartet of cats serenading a chem sex party on the titanic.
Any stand out live shows?
Marc Rebillet at boomtown, Smuj at Boomtown, me and Vitz hosting for Sepia at Boomtown. Boomtown b2b Boomtown.
Have given the latest LP Directors Notes Say Smile, Eyes Say Different a bunch of listens. Honestly sick from start to finish. Now the projects complete, released and you’ve heard it a bunch, do you have a personal favourite track or tracks that are still hitting particularly hard for you?
Striped pj’s has a special place in my heart. Reminds me of how far I’ve come and how much further I’ve got left to go. All the tracks on the album are 5 to 8 years old, I think striped pj’s was early Eagle Court days before Vitz moved in. I’ve also got a lot of love for Daylight Falls especially the video. Was going through a tough time and shooting the video was really carthatic despite being cold and soaking wet on the downs. Both these songs got me through different relationships and still resonate with me today. Guess that also means I still got some growing and learning to do.
Does that correlate with feedback you’ve had on the project, or are there different tracks you’ve been surprised to find have resonated most with listeners?
Everyone’s taken something different. It’s mainly for my Brighton Gang, it’s a time capsule of my experience there. Its madness, depression and euphoria. I think it’s very visceral for the people that were in the storm with me, whether that’s caught up in the waves or spinning out in the eye of it.
To the uninitiated, if you had to sum up the LP and Kemastry’s sound in 2024 with a few words how would you put it?
A Firework Factory
Feels like the LP is therapy to an extent. A lot of self-deprecation, but putting that stuff into words is a form of taking accountability. Likewise, the unravelling of soured relationships sounds like you processing some anger, taking some blame and making shit of how things went down. As someone who lays depression bare in your music, does the process of doing so help exorcize shit and grow forward a bit less burdened?
A resounding yes. I couldn’t have said that better myself aha. I have a tendency to spiral if I haven’t made music. It’s a healer, it’s therapy, it’s understanding. I think just writing ur thoughts down in a creative way is mad useful.
On the hook of ‘Striped Pyjamas’ theres a chink of hope cracking through the darkness. Is the happy ever after on a beach in the Bahamas a sign you’re looking towards a brighter personal future on the horizon?
Like I said this albums pretty old, so I’m definitely doing much better than when I wrote this project. 5 years of therapy helps as does ditching the powders and benzos. If I was still feeling like how I was when I wrote this we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation aha. But yeah personally I feel I have more tools and compassion towards myself to navigate life.
Themes of looking inward and examining the various darknesses there is a motif that’s been present throughout your solo work. What keeps you returning to finding eloquent ways of wording that analysis?
Music is therapy to me and while NHS waiting lists are overly rammed for a lobotomy I might as well try understand this chaotic world through the lense of myself. All the darkness, mayhem, beauty and light. I don’t really know any other way to write.
As someone who’s overtly vocal on specific political struggles in your personal life… It’s interesting to see the more subtle way that politics momentarily surface in bars on tracks like Parole and Generation Why. Seems like the presence of the political in your music is often in the way the state of the world intersects with and impacts personal realities. Do you think the artistic approach of a more ground level, social reflection of larger issues makes for more relatable, emotive art than more explicitly political music?
I think the best art is reflective of self. So it’s important to leave a part of your essence in anything you write. Whether that’s a polical commentary, a exploration of your dark corners or a hand job about how cool you are. Being authentic is key.
Having the zine as a physical piece of art that compliments the project is a good look. Especially in the digital era where it helps to find creative ways to incentivise music fans to pay to own something. What sparked the idea?
I couldn’t sleep one night and I wanted to emphasize the stories behind the tracks. So stayed up and wrote the zine. Pinged them off to a load of artists I knew and they picked a story they resonated with. They all Interpreted it beautifully. I also think it gives extra depth listening to it with and without the zine.
It’s impressive that you found so many artists with their own unique styles to collaborate on it in a way that still has aesthetic continuity. Like the whole thing feels very unified despite each turn of the page leading to a new artist. How did assembling the artists to all pull in the same direction work?
I guess i didnt want them to pull in the same direction. I wanted them to interpret it however they wanted. The words were the unifying theme. All art is subjective and understood differently and I was really glad the zine reflected that. Each piece of art revealed more to myself if that makes sense.
It’s cool to see that in your HF era theres a continued presence of guest producers and artists from the Yogocop/Brighton pool on the LP. What’s kept that extended family central to the Kemastry creative sphere?
Ahaha this is a yogocop era album tbh. It was suppose to go on ygc. It was always supposed to go there. Shouts to the fam. Again most of the time I only really make music with people I fuck with on a personal level. Too many weirdos in the scene… This album was just the best and most cohesive tracks I made during my time in Brighton. Every track is with a close collaborator and participant in the madness. I think it’s the first time I’d worked with Tzusan tbh. It’s a very organic project I didn’t really think I want this person or that person. I’ve known my brudda Gaijin since primary school and being doing music as Voodoo Collective since we were 17/18 so it was especially sick having him on there.
Any activism bits you can talk about currently?
I’ve been training a hit squad of morally conscious beetroot to work their way into positions of power in order to get my music get played on radio 6 if that helps?
Was sick to see the Jury result for The Teledyne Four in September. Hopefully that sets a precedent that Juries can defy the state and let conscience win. Any news on your case?
Yeah 100 pal action have been fucking smashing it. Shouts to everyone willing to sacrifice their comfort for humanity in whatever way that manifests. My court case has been postponed to March 17th 2025. Need people to pull up on mass as the judge has already ruled out all our defences so very little chance of us speaking meaningful level. The Teledyne Four had similar issues but the jury acquited them on conscience due to public pressure, support and morality.
Any words for people considering taking action themselves?
Action requires sacrifice. In order to facilitate a world that we ALL deserve. A world of empathy, care, compassion, love hope all-day. We need to sacrifice. Whether that’s time, comfort, freedom you decide what you are able to do. Don’t be passive. Be an active participant in your world.
Thanks for your time bro. Any shout outs or plugs for upcoming shit?
Free Palestine, Sudan, Congo! decolonize your mind, buy music you resonate with. Go outside. Tell people you love them. Take accountability for your actions. Forgive. Scream in nature, do better, throw rotten fruit at facists. I’m sat on 3 projects right now so hopefully I get one out before March…mad love to everyone that backs me musically, personally and spiritually.
Directors Notes Say Smile, Eyes Say Different is available to now to stream on all platforms and to buy as digital download with dope printed magazine telling the story behind the project HERE.