How colour and art, Final Fantasy and an older sister helped to create Ekali

It’s a charming 37-degree Autumn day in Melbourne when I sat down with EKALI. The guy formally known as Nathan Shaw seems to have a magic ability to be unaffected by this, yeah sure he knows its warm, but it seems that very little ruffles his feathers.

It’s a refreshingly honest conversation about the reality of a life beyond music, his ambitions to work with, and help out, other artists, move on from the world of remixes to original music, and importantly his excitement for the upcoming northern hemisphere tour season and how much fun Ekali is anticipating playing for huge crowds is going to be.

You’ve obviously got a background in shitloads of music styles, so what attracted you to electronic music?

Ekali: I mean my sister always played electronic music in the background when I was in the basement as a kid. She’d always play drum and bass and garage music and all that kind of stuff, so it was always kind of in my head, but I never really listened to it fully, and then I was playing in bands for a while, and not really getting the fulfilment out of it that I wanted, I was just, you know, writing bass parts, writing guitar parts and a vocal melody here and there. I wanted to start writing full songs, and electronic music is obviously one way to do that and so I gave it a shot.

What’s your process behind remixing?

Depends on the remix, a lot of the ones I have been done have been unofficial, turned official remixes. So that means I don’t have stems, which means I don’t have the vocal track or the instrumental track, its just the original MP3 and that’s all I have to work with. That kind of limits you in your creative process, like if there is a chord progression, you have to stick with that chord progression, and like you’re making a separate instrumental section that never existed. With those remixes I kind of just see which sections I can add to, and which sections I can build upon, and then I write like a counter melody or something like that and then I create my own sections so I kind of make it unique.

But when I have an A Capella and I have access to the stems, usually I just add chord progressions. Usually I have those ready, I have like 1000 projects on my computer, chord progressions and drum loops ready to go so I can just piece it all together and make it all work, and then arrange it from there.

What track out there is your dream to remix? Or do you just roll with it when you are playing round?

 I think I just do it. I have artists I want to work with but you know if it happens it happens, if it doesn’t it doesn’t, I’m just making music I love when it feels right and that’s about it.

Your musical background ranges from bass player in an indie band to jazz and classical, how does all of this fit in with your current style, and skills as a producer, or is it just your knowledge of how song structure works that plays a part?

I think it’s just my knowledge of song structure. I’d love to start playing instruments more in my tracks. I do think that understanding how instruments fit in to music has helped me a lot. For example a string section fits into a song in a very particular way, and a guitar fits into a song in a very particular way; so knowing how that works is definitely really helpful.

Who is Ekali, or your musical persona? Is it your alter ego or the better version of yourself, or just who you are?

I think its just who I am to be honest. I think I’m pretty true to myself when it comes to my musical personality. I try to communicate with all my listeners as much as I can, and that’s kind of the way I am in person, I just like to talk to everybody and travel everywhere as much as I can. I think I’m doing that pretty well in my musical career.

You’ve worked with some big names like Drake and What So Not, who's obviously quite big here in Australia, but what has been the best moment of your career? Some might say Drake, but others might say its something like a small hometown concert.

I mean it’s pretty subjective I think because what is big or what is good to one person might not be the same for the next. For me, I love to perform live, and probably the best moment of my career so far was a show in Paris. It was just a very, I’d say, victorious moment. I’d been through a long few weeks of just really bad shows and hard times, and then I went to Paris and I played a show with What So Not and Falcons, and it the energy was just unbelievable. I played after What So Not and there was about 1500 people who were there and stuck around until like six o’clock in the morning for my entire set, it was just a really beautiful night. And that was kind of one of those moments where I could sit back and just say, wow this was great, and not have anything else on my mind.

What’s the underground music scene like in Vancouver? We have what’s known as Doofs here which are becoming something that is really starting to appeal to, in particular electronic and techno music fans, there often unofficial, a bit smaller, you usually outdoors.

People from Vancouver are not the best concertgoers, I will say that. People are really reluctant to go out to see concerts unless they really know who the artist is. I think over the last few years though the community in Vancouver has progressed quite a lot. A lot of newer artists have come through with exciting sounds and I think people are caring a lot more about the music and promoters from Vancouver are more open to booking talent from Vancouver so there is a lot of opportunity right now for big things to happen. I think the dub step community has always been big in BC because there are some big names like Datsik and Excision from British Columbia so there has been a big festival scene for that for a long time, but it’s been very narrow minded, now I think people are more open to new sounds.

Do you think the scene at home is something you would love to play to as opposed to a big festival or is it kind of different vibes and feelings on it all?

I think the Vancouver scene still needs a lot of work. There isn’t going to be the same vibe from the crowd because as of yet there is no real hometown feel from Vancouver. When I go to Montréal, the crowd is more warm and welcoming than they are in Vancouver, I’ll get much better vibes from Montréal, LA and Toronto than I will in Vancouver. I think people from Vancouver need to care more. They’re starting to now which is great, but I really hope people get more into it.

Do you prefer club shows or festivals?

I’m actually really new to the festival circuit. I played a couple of festivals last year, and I had a lot of fun. My favourite type of shows is the really sweaty small club type shows with really crap sound, that kind of stuff. I think a lot of DJs would not really like, but I really love that type of show where you can just go crazy and everyone’s going crazy. Nobody really cares; they’re just there to have a good time.

If you woke up one day, hating on music, what would you do?

I’d do something else. I have no problem with it. I’m the type of person that gets really uncomfortable when I do something for too long anyway. I don’t see myself making music for the rest of my life. I don’t see an obligation to continue making music for the rest of my life. Right now its what I love, but I can also see myself doing something completely different. I could be a computer scientist. I don’t know, I have no idea.

Do you work with you music from a visual perceptive, whether if be how a video clip might look or the visuals for a live show or anything like that?

Absolutely, for sure. More so recently I’ve thought about the live show aspect of it, but mostly when I make music I’m trying to conjure a certain mood or a certain colour. I’m a huge fan of artwork, when I hear the music that I make I usually see a picture in my head of what its going to look like visually if that makes sense.

Do you put any of that into practice when you’re working on your live show and getting it up and running?

 I’m working on visuals for my live show right now. I do all my own artwork, so the next step would be collaborating with a visual artist to do live visuals.

So how do you do your artwork, is it digital or do you sit down and draw? 

I take photos, so usually its photos that I’ll take and process and chop up. And then arrange it like that. I like to instead of creating a visual idea for each song, I like to kind of just change my entire brand every two or three months, so just change everything. I’ll go from black and white to really vivid colour. Try a few things out, see how people respond to it and see if people enjoy it. it’s been working well so far.

You have said your first musical experiences came from playing video games, does that come into play with any of your visual art and music?

I grew up playing Final Fantasy and the composer was Nobuo Uematsu, my favourite composer of all time, and that game is like really visually captivating, every single instalment in that series is beautiful. So I’m definitely influenced by that, and I watch a lot of anime and Japanese cartoons so I’m definitely influenced by that kind of stuff. And I think there is a lot of forestry and greenery involved, especially in the Miyazaki movies, that I think influences my music.

What are the best and worst parts about the electronic music scene, particularly as it’s gaining such rapid momentum around the world? 

I think that positivity is that it’s just so accessible right now. Anybody can get a laptop and a set of headphones and make really cool music at a quality where you can get it played on the radio, studio quality music. Which I don’t think has been possible until recent years. There is so much music everywhere, which is great. A lot of people would say it’s a bad thing, but I think it’s a great thing. People who want to make music but are limited by the fact that making a record costs money, I think that’s a really negative thing, so having that available to everybody is a really great thing.

What music do you like to listen to? 

I listen to really chill music when I’m not performing because playing at clubs and such you are usually playing pretty aggressive music, and music that people want to dance to. But I listen to a lot of classical music in my downtime, a lot of jazz music, folk music, I listen to everything, I also listen to pop music. I tend to veer away from listening to aggressive bass music when I’m not making music.

Do you have any weird hobbies or activities you like to participate in?

I don’t really have any time for any hobbies but in the past I skateboarded for ten years, I still play video games a lot. Video games are like a relaxing time for me. Music is a cathartic thing for me, that’s when I get all my anger and frustration out, playing video games helps me clear my mind and not think about anything else.

Where in the world would you most like to play music?

I got to say, most of the places I wanted to play in, I’ve already played in. I really have achieved most of my musical goals over the last few years. I’ve played in Lebanon, all over Asia, all over Europe, now Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. I’d love to go to South America; I mean that would be cool. I don’t know how my music would do down there but I’d love to try it. I’d love to go to Brazil. I think that’s my next step.

So that’s one next step, what else are you thinking? You said you’ve achieved all of your musical goals in two years, that’s pretty huge! 

My next musical goal would definitely be to create more original music, focusing much less on remixes now and focusing on completely original work. Instead of collaborating with other producers I’m collaborating with other vocalists, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. I’m going to release an EP, I want to keep making my shows bigger and better for people and I want to get to a point where I can start putting other people on. I’m really enthusiastic about other people’s music as well. I’m never going to start a record label, I never want to do that, but I think there are other ways that I can help other musicians out. And the bigger I get personally the more I can do that.

You’re playing at Lightening in a Bottle later this year, are you looking forward to it?

Its definitely one of my biggest festivals and I’ve got a great time slot at that festival and it will be a really good set. I think I’ve been booked for maybe 10-12 festivals this summer, and a few of them haven’t been announced yet but I’m really looking forward to playing for as many people as I possible can, and I’m not used to playing in front of thousands of people so that will be fun.

Are the festivals all across America, or Europe as well?

For the early summer it’s all across America, right now we’re looking at European festivals for August and September. We’ve got a couple booked and we’re working on a bunch more right now.

Words by Madeline Kilby

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