How Does Kid Koala Stay Ahead of the Turntable Curve? DJ Times Unearths Koala's Eccentric Ways and Bold Predictions.

Published in the December 2006 issue of DJ Times Magazine
Volume 19 - Number 12
By Brian O'Connor

     As a kid growing up in Canada, Eric San got classically schooled on the piano. Fortunately for us, Mozart lacked beats. So, 20 years later, San resides in the persona of Kid Koala, turntable prodigy. He’s also an illustrator, writer and a puppeteer. In short, no one in turntablism comes to the party with as much talent.
     You know what I’m talking about. The kid from Vancouver scores a car ride with the members of Coldcut, plays them a sound-collage mix tape he made and, well, he’s on the map—pronto. Ninja Tune signs him, releases that mix tape as ScratchHappyLand, and by 2000 he issued what might be the best turntablism album ever: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, a DJ record unlike any before it or since. Armed with two Technics decks, a Rane TTM-54 mixer, and an eight-track, Koala painstakingly combined warmth, humor and beats into a playful assertion of turntablism’s possibilities: The Muppet Show meets The Bomb Squad.
     His playfulness has never deserted him, through 2003’s Some of My Best Friends are DJs and to his latest, Your Mom’s Favorite DJ, which expands his artistic palette: Part Basin Street gin joint, head-bopping heavy-metal concert, and barrelhouse blues—with wonderfully crafted spoken word segues—Koala seems most at home as a wandering turntablist minstrel.
     DJ Times caught up with Koala just as he was to depart for a month to get married and go on his honeymoon.

DJ Times: How is your DJing as of late?
Kid Koala: It’s rolling right along. I just got back from some album launch parties in London, Berlin and Paris. And I’ve also booked a gig in the Yukon, way up in Northern Canada in the middle of January.

DJ Times: Have you been practicing? If so, how much?
Koala: I practice whenever I can. On tour, it’s usually during soundcheck. Sometimes I’ll stay in the venue all afternoon and just play around on the turntables. I can feel the pitying stare of the bartenders as they stock the fridge and cut the limes for the evening. I’ve been asked on more than one occasion: “It’s a beautiful day outside...what are you still doing in here?” Recently, my fiancée and I have been doing a lot of road trips as we prepare for the wedding. I’ve been putting my set together “in my mind” by syncing up songs on my iPod to the windshield wipers.

DJ Times: Do you keep up with young turntablist scene? If so, who should we be looking out for?
Koala: I meet a lot of the new cats on tour. You should check out Mike Boo and the Dollar Bin Quintet! They’ve got a pretty cool live thing going.

DJ Times: Any particular scratches you’ve been working on?
Koala: I have been testing out a new “mosquito blues” style.

DJ Times: Are you the master of one scratch? Or the jack of them all?
Koala: You can always be better.

DJ Times: With the arrival of laptop technology, will the scratch one day be irrelevant?
Koala: Not for me. It’s kind of an integral part of the craft. Record burn, crackle, skipping...I grew up with those things...it’s all part of it to me.

DJ Times: What kind of multi-media live experience can we expect when you tour this record?
Koala: There will be me and four record players, a box of vinyl, and much stupidity. It’ll be fun though...I hope people bring their moms to the gigs.

DJ Times: In your estimation, has the cult of the DJ hit its critical mass?
Koala: No, but maybe at some point next week.

DJ Times: Tell our readers how your recording technique had progressed from Scratch Happy Land to Your Mom’s Favorite DJ.
Koala: YMFDJ was actually recorded in much the same manner. I recorded Scratch Happy Land on a 4-track cassette recorder. I guess it’s kind of stepped up a bit because now I’m using a 24-track reel-to-reel tape recorder. Often, I would play the turntables through different preamps and amplifiers and mic them. But it’s kind of fun and familiar way of working to me. One reel of tape allows for 15 minutes of audio...so it was all about, “Hey, if there were only 30 minutes of recording tape left on the planet and these specific records, how would you put it all together?” It’s as if my records are single people and my studio is the weirdest dating service ever. I’m just trying to hook them up with each other...a guitar player from the ’30s with an evangelist from the ’50s and some string section from the ’40s with some field-recording cicadas from the ’80s. My recordings are like speed dating sessions. Sometimes the bits of vinyl get on like a house on fire and sound like they were made for each other. Other times it’s the most awkward thing ever. I like to keep the awkward moments as well. If there is a track on there that is super annoying...fear not, it’ll be over in about 90 seconds.

DJ Times: Your Mom’s Favorite DJ is autobiographical—as are many records, of course. How so for you?
Koala: It describes the plight of a kid who would rather “Frankenstein” bits of other people’s vinyl sentences together rather than talk. I’ve always had a penchant for the inefficient way of doing things! It’s a tedious way of making records, for sure...the only other people I know who might have it worse as a craft would be animated film makers. Everyone I know who cuts up vinyl had to at some point sacrifice any semblance of a social life to learn how to work these machines.

DJ Times: What kind of artwork can we expect to accompany the record? Any story lines you care to share is fine by us.
Koala: It’s actually accompanied by a kind of photo essay book—pics of the studio and photos from very various tours as well as new bits from the forthcoming Mosquito book.

DJ Times: Please walk us through the writing/recording process of one track, say, “Mosquito Vs Waterbuffalo.”
Koala: Collect several field recording vinyls of nature sounds and animals. Beat juggle two copies of “cows milling about” for the “chorus.” Add call-and-response section. Take sine wave in E flat and bend into mosquito-like harmony. Respond by waterbuffalo growls. Interject with tiger noise, and voila!

DJ Times: Since we last spoke with you, it’s been a couple years. What’s been going on in your life? What have you been reading?
Koala: Well, I’ve been reading “Weddings for Dummies,” listening to Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March,” been inspired by Robbie Hart, and we’re working on a cooking show for the Canadian Food Network that will finally bring the two worlds of the DMC and The Iron Chef together.

DJ Times: What’s up with your band, Slew?
Koala: It’s a Seattle-based project I’m working in. It’s kind of like the Nirvana of turntablism. We will have a full-length album next year. Prepare yourselves for the advent of Grungelism. Consider yourselves warned.

DJ Times: And do tell us about your musical puppet show.
Koala: I’m working with a very talented set designer named Corinne Merrell. It’s a touring puppet musical about a robot that works in a cookie factory. The overtures, underscores, foley and set-change music will be performed by a turntable orchestra pit.

DJ Times: Do you plan on staying put in Montreal for the foreseeable future? Tell us about the DJ scene there.
Koala: Yes. There are many record bags for sale here.

DJ Times: Last time we were in Montreal, we heard there was a topless diner. Does it still exist?
Koala: I believe there are several.

DJ Times: Do you plan on doing any DJing on your honeymoon?
Koala: I might get in trouble if I do that.