Kilter

“If you haven’t seen one of my shows before it’s dance music on a different level.”

With one short, simple sentence Kilter himself perfectly encapsulates what people can look for in one of his live shows. Unlike the run of the mill dance music DJ standing behind a laptop or turntables Kilter’s show sees him playing drums, synths and various other instruments live to create enthralling music. In order to do this Kilter must tour the country with a raft of equipment, which can complicate his life.

Speaking ahead of his show at the Oxford Art Factory tonight Kilter said, “there’s always a bit of nerves pre-tour when you’re trying new things and testing new music, but it’s always fun once you’re up there.”

For this round of touring, Kilter took inspiration from the fashion industry to name his tour. Dubbed SS19 Kilter explained that this is his Spring Summer 2019 seasonal release. As part of his experimentation and creation process for this tour Kilter has chosen to inject an element which he had been reticent to use before.

“Up until now I’ve never used a laptop on stage,” he explained, “I’ve always thought that they were distracting, but it was about time I embraced the technology of the future.”

By adding a laptop to his toolkit Kilter has been able to once again evolve his live performance and take it to an even higher level. For the SS19 tour the laptop will be controlling a significant portion of the synth elements, whilst also allowing the show to have visual elements synchronised to the music for the first time ever.

Whilst adding the laptop may seem like it would have simplified Kilter’s live performance he says it’s actually “complicated in some regards because you’re adding new equipment and trying to make it talk to other pieces of gear. So there is more that could go wrong.”

Thankfully Kilter is yet to have any absolutely disastrous equipment malfunctions during a show. Touch wood.

“I’ve had a couple of moments where instruments don’t do what they’re supposed to but nothing that has ruined the show or made me walk off stage scratching my head.

“The worst thing that I’ve had happen is an SPD, which is a drum sampler, freeze up mid-show but funnily enough I just hit it really hard and it fixed itself. So hopefully if something ever goes wrong it just takes a whack for it to be good again.”

Nov 7. Oxford Art Factory, 38-46 Oxford St, Darlinghurst. $23.36+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.kilterbeats.com