12 October
9am I woke up fairly early and was out of the house by 8.30am. I’m in London at the moment, which is quite rare because I live in Los Angeles, but we’re working on the next record. I’m staying in an Airbnb in Clapton and the studio is in Tottenham, so I cycle along the River Lea. This morning was a very sunny day, and cold – which is something I’m not really used to any more so it was actually quite refreshing.
I was listening to a song called Roof by Wiki, which is off his 2021 album Half God. I’ve listened to it thousands of times; once I latch on to a record, I just go over it again and again. In the song, he’s talking about being on his rooftop in New York and he describes the people down below, everyone sort of being in a simulation. It’s a really visually inspiring piece; I remember feeling that in that moment, it felt really applicable to London. He describes the wind hitting his face and releasing the endorphins, and that’s kind of what I was doing in some way because I was on a bike. It was just a really cool moment.
4pm I headed to Tottenham Hale station to get the train because it got really cold and the sun was starting to go down. It was a pretty miserable, drizzly situation and I was snuggling up in my coat as best as I could. I was listening to 48 by Maxo featuring Pink Siifu, a song I’ve heard countless times because I executive produced the album it’s from. The beat is by Madlib, which is just sick; I had the privilege of chopping in a couple of effects. It feels really good listening to music that you’ve been involved with. Initially, when you listen to it, you notice every single minor detail, it’s like this task to be completed. Then it’s kind of pleasurable, being able to just enjoy it as a listener, and to take pleasure in the lyricism and the overall presentation of the music. Maxo and Pink Siifu’s verses are just so good.
8pm I arrived at Aspers Casino poker room in sunny Stratford; it’s pretty bleak and dingy to be honest. I played poker for years and I recently got back into it. For me, it’s one of the best games ever, it’s so interesting and multilayered. I usually listen to music to try to stay focused and not get bored: when you get bored, that’s when you start losing money. You start pushing it, you’re trying to force things to happen. I put on Thowy’s Revenge by Benny the Butcher; he’s got this attitude that’s so powerful, and that’s the kind of presence I’d like to have at a poker table, a sort of “don’t mess with me” presence (in my own stupid way). I listen to his record a lot, but it just felt fitting to have something that was quite mean in that moment.
13 October
10.45am Walking to the Co-op in Clapton and I’m listening to Maxo’s selections on our NTS show. We’ve currently got a residency in the lead up to our record Die Cuts, and we make each show a little scrapbook of what we’re doing. That kind of collage approach is something I do in music as well with sampling; I knit together different elements to make something that feels complete. We want the shows to be good documents for people to reference when they’re trying to figure out what the hell we’re doing.
Each artist we invite on chooses a few songs and answers a few questions; it’s always interesting hearing a little insight into somebody else’s mind. Maxo always puts me on to great stuff; one of the songs in there was an instrumental piece, which is really good. It just felt like a great way of setting the scene for this record, because it is so different from what we’ve done before and involves so many different artists that people probably wouldn’t associate us with.
5pm I was sitting on a bench in Markfield park, down the road from the studio, looking out over an unused football pitch and trying to write lyrics for a song on our new record. We’ve got one computer and one set of monitors in the studio and Kai’s working on some instrumental stuff. I was struggling to find the right words, so I decided to listen to someone else’s music. I love Babyxsosa, she’s notorious for being difficult to track down and work with, but that’s kind of bucket list thing for me. I listened to Drama Baby/Malibu because the melodies are so strong, and that’s something I’m really trying to incorporate into the music that we’re writing at the moment. For the first time, I’ll be the lead singer of the next record, which is bizarre and a completely different challenge.
10pm It had been a long day and I was making dinner. I listened to this demo that Kai had recorded; it’s a guitar-led instrumental and it sounded great. I think the best way for me to find lyrics is to have the song on in the background so I had this instrumental on loop. It’s the best way of finding those hook melodies, something can just suddenly pop into your head. It also makes making dinner more interesting, I suppose.
14 October
8am I ran to Markfield Park and back, listening to My Gang by Young Nudy, an amazing artist from Atlanta. His album EA Monster is so good: the beats are great and all the subtle melodies get caught in your head, but it’s menacing. It’s perfect running music because you’re pounding the concrete and you need something that’s pushing you forward. That morning, Young Nudy was prodding me in the back with a pitchfork.
5pm Cycling back to the Airbnb. I had been in the studio with Kai and Andrea Balency-Béarn, who sings and plays keyboard in Mount Kimbie when we play live. We’d laid down vocals and written a load of stuff for the record we’re working on. One of the bands we were using as a reference point for this fairly simple bass guitar-driven idea was Joy Division. I had been leafing through Unknown Pleasures and Interzone came on; I listened out for little nuances in the way the ideas are presented. I’m not naturally led to guitar music at the moment, but you have to listen back to the classics.
9pm I got into bed and mulled over the day. I scrolled through Instagram and saw that my good friend from LA, Liv.e, had just released a song called Ghost. It’s always sick seeing someone who has an unbelievable voice being really experimental in the music they’re making. I honestly think Liv.e is the next Beyoncé, she’s going to be massive. Laying in Clapton, I was transported to Los Angeles for a second through the music. And it put me in a really optimistic mood: I can’t wait to get back to California so any whiff of what’s going on back there is great. But also before that, I have a task to complete. So it gave me a drive to really get on with what I’m doing.
Mount Kimbie’s MK 3.5: Die Cuts | City Planning is out now via Warp.
