As Kenny prepares to hit the EDC Las Vegas stage for the first time ever this month, he’s dropped this insanely deep and dirty mix. From start to finish, it highlights his signature sound: throbbing kicks and nasty basslines that walk the line between tech house and garage, with plenty of booty-shakin’ flava for your earholes.
We caught up with Kenny as he told us all about his journey from Leeds, UK, to Germany and shared some funny, albeit slightly inappropriate, stories about life on the road.
You received a huge boost in your career after you moved from the UK to Germany. Was it difficult getting comfortable in a new country?
Definitely, although my friends helped me out wherever they could, and now it just feels like home. My German still has room for a lot of improvement, but I know every swear word in the German dictionary and more.
You’ve said you didn’t have much going on musically in the UK at the time. How did you end up with a booking with the This Ain’t’ Bristol crew in the first place?
I was always producing and playing local shows, but I had much higher goals than that, and none of them seemed to be happening from my hometown. Our head booker, Benski, who is now one of my closest friends, hit me up personally, as I didn’t have a booking agent at the time. He offered me a date over there, and I ended up coming back less than a month later to hang out for a couple of weeks.
SEE ALSO: Billy Kenny and Wongo Work Their Low-End Magic on Tech Thumper “Buzzsaw”
There are several people who help run the label. Do you all come to a consensus on what tunes you end up releasing? Do you ever find yourself at odds with each other over certain tunes?
We all have our individual areas of expertise, and we try not to get too involved in other people’s roles, because that’s when disagreements happen, as they would with any company. When it comes to the music selection, that’s 90 percent down to Sebastian, half of Maximono , and me. We do disagree often, but that’s down to taste and what one thinks might do well and another might not. That’s when we’ll take it to the rest of the team to see what they think.
What’s the dynamic like between you two?
Great! We get crazy with ideas, and we often find ourselves five hours deep into our meetings without realizing it. I think it helps we’re all from completely different backgrounds but still share a strong love for all music.
You were brought into electronic music pretty early on by your uncle and aunt. How do you think your knowledge of the earlier sounds of dance music helped inspire you?
I just got the chance to play around with lots of different hardware and real instruments and get a feel for how music was made when I was younger. I ended up teaching myself how to make electronic music, though, and in my eyes, it took at least eight years to feel like I was any good at it.
You said in an interview that at a gig you enjoy going out on the floor and experiencing the vibe from the audience. Do you think it’s important for artists to connect with the music this way?
To be honest, my reason at the time for doing this is alcohol! [laughs] Having said that, though, I do think it’s very important to get a feel for what it’s like at the other side of the booth or stage. It might not mean much to me at the time, but I’m sure it makes a lot of people’s nights if they’ve hung out with the person they’ve paid and come to watch play.
Your sense of humor comes across in your social media channels. Tell us one of your funniest tour stories.
I very rarely smoke weed, and when I do, it’s to help me sleep after a long weekend or night out. I was in Huntington Beach, CA, and a friend of mine had bought a cookie with five grams of potent stuff inside. This thing stunk, and I was warned about it, so I only had a nibble. I’d had no experience with edibles prior to this day, and I didn’t know what to expect at all. Thirty minutes later, I didn’t feel high, so I nibbled some more. A little later, I was high with the munchies, but I didn’t quite realize it, and this cookie tasted amazing, so I ended up eating 75 percent of it. This was at about 11pm, and I woke up [the next day] at 8am, still high. That whole day, I was high as a kite until I woke up again the next day. I had so much planned for that day, but instead I just did absolutely nothing at all. I couldn’t function! [laughs]
Catch Billy Kenny at EDC Las Vegas 2016 Saturday, June 18, at upside-downHOUSE, hosted by Insomniac Records . A limited number of VIP tickets and shuttle passes are available now. For more information, visit the official website.
Alexander Dias is a breakbeat revivalist for life. Follow him on Twitter .
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