Electronic music always comes with baggage and expectation. Popular thought, quite often, relates most electronic music to urbanisation and metropolitan life. The question arises, then, of how an electronic artist survives and flourishes in an environment outside of these categories, especially in areas of low musical output like south Wales. There is a tension at play when the synthetic nature of electronic music which runs at a binary opposition to nature, a tension that extends to the geographical limitations of electronic music.
For too many, it is an avenue of music reserved for metropolitan centres. Tredegar, to surprise many, does have a history of electronic music, yet even still it isn’t enough to create an environment where electronic music is accommodated. The infamous rave culture of the late eighties and early nineties has a strong culture in south Wales and Tredegar – believe it or not twentysomethings of south Wales, your parents were probably in a field in Gloucestershire somewhere listening to acid house with a can of Stella in 1991. However, the musical legacy of this movement has warped into disappointingly shallow genres such as hardstyle and conventional house music that litter the odd club and pub. Sure, music like this has its place, but the musical culture of rave offered a chance for the area to take the genre-bending sounds of this movement into something more interesting, but only the rudimentary aspects of its musical and material culture lived on; the only culture that continued unperturbed from south Wales rave was the drug culture.
Despite the ingrained rave culture of Tredegar, there is little support for electronic artists as there is in metropolitan centres like Cardiff; Tredegar may only be 30 miles down the road from Cardiff, but the disconnect is goes far beyond simple geography. It profoundly alters the musical output and difficulties for local artists. I sat down with local electronic artist Kyak – real name Sam Williams – to discuss his influences, life as a rural electronic artist and how the unique disconnect Tredegar has influenced his work.
What were your major musical influences when it comes to electronic music? Did you find these mostly through radio or the internet?
Artists like The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers sparked my interest in electronic music when I was young and they influenced the type of music I started looking for. When the internet became accessible to me I always scoured YouTube and blogs looking for new music, which led me to find styles that I fell in love with like dubstep and garage. Artists like Burial heavily influence my music, and I take a lot of inspiration from newer artists like Sorrow. That being said, artists like Skrillex are huge motivators, I love how electronic music is always evolving and it’s thanks to people like him for constantly pushing sound and expanding the scene.
It seems like the Valleys has a strong focus on hardstyle and house – the electronic pool of talent seems shallow, so it’s difficult to get the sense of ‘community’ you get in other music scenes (Manchester, London, etc.). Do you desire to have a sense of community with your work, are you happy to work solo or have you discovered a community online?
It’s difficult to find anyone in my area that creates music like mine, although I have been lucky enough to meet some great artists in the wider South Wales area. This has helped me with performing as I’ve been able to play some awesome shows, but as they live far away it’s hard to work on music together. I personally think I have a different outlook on music production compared to a lot of people, I try to communicate emotion and create atmosphere rather than sticking to a genre like ‘house’ which can be quite limited in creativity. Currently I take a lot of inspiration from SoundCloud and some of the great promoters and artists that help to keep the ambient/future scene alive. There are great people who give feedback on my work, and a lot of artists worldwide tend to collaborate with each other often. It’s a very friendly and open scene, and everybody involved is so focused on making great music and furthering the sound, which I’m thankful for. I don’t see much passion for electronic music like this my area.
Do you find that living in a rural area has impacted your work in any way – both sonically and stylistically?
I love the place I live and I think the landscape is beautiful, being surrounded by nature is definitely something that inspires me. This impacts my work sonically also, for example I made a song called Strange Valley last year that uses ambient sounds from my area to create atmosphere, and I use similar techniques in my current tracks. This is one of the ways I try to incorporate my area into my songs, since it’s hard to gain musical inspiration from a place that has very limited musical history. I try to paint a picture with my music, and I mostly do this using atmosphere because there’s no tangible ‘sound’ where I live.
People associate certain electronic artists with places – Burial sounds like London, Flying Lotus sounds like Los Angeles, etc. – but it’s difficult to get a sense of geographical influence on electronic music when it comes from a rural area. There is no sense of material culture in electronic music from rural areas, in my opinion, and it forces artists to work harder. Would you say being from Tredegar forces you to be more experimental in your work as the area is only associated with EDM and rave culture? Does a lack of expectation make you feel freer or more limited?
I always try to do something different with my music. I like creating a unique vibe and I feel that the lack of musical culture where I live makes it easier to take influence from electronic music rather than one area-specific style. In terms of creating sound, I like freedom; I’m glad there’s no cultural ties that make me feel obligated to make a certain style. Sometimes it’s easy for an artist to follow the ‘sound’ of their area rather than being inventive. I think it’s much more difficult for an artist to find guidance and inspiration in a place where musical creativity is not encouraged or supported, but it just means I have to work harder to craft my own sound and that challenges me as an artist. I think it’s more valuable to struggle and make my own mould in electronic music instead of trying to fit in to a pre-existing one. It allows me to take influence from lots of different musical cultures and expand my sound.
Do you feel it is difficult to find places to perform in Cardiff? Is music here a case of who you know not how good your work is? You have played house parties, etc., but have you tried to reach out to local venues or venues in Cardiff to play?
I haven’t had any opportunities to perform in Cardiff venues yet, but this is mostly because I’ve been focusing on my music production more than performing live. In the future, I plan to perform at larger venues, but since I’m quite inexperienced as a performer I like to play smaller shows as I feel the feedback is more specific and I have more room to experiment. I also feel like a lot of venues in Cardiff don’t support alternative electronic music, so there’s pressure to play a certain style and not much freedom.
Fundamentally, would you say it is more difficult to break into electronic music from the Valleys? Has it forced you to explore more and develop your sound?
Not many people in the Valleys try experimenting with music, there’s a very limited electronic scene which makes it much more of a challenge to develop my own sound. There are a lot of people online who appreciate the sound I’m trying to create and want to help me develop, which is very useful since my area lacks that encouragement. I think the style of music I make automatically means it’s not very accessible to anyone who doesn’t like experimental music, but the internet means I can reach the people who enjoy my sound and encourage me to be more innovative rather than pushing me to conform to a certain style or genre. I like to be creative and having basically no cultural influence from my area means I have a lot of room when trying to create a sound, which I think is positive since I see a lot of artists get trapped in one style.
What was clear from my interview with Kyak is that there is still a clear divide between urban areas and rural areas when it comes to electronic music. Most interestingly, however, Kyak hinted that instead of forming a local community, he formed a community online. Perhaps music is moving on from being geographically centred to a more online focused community. In a way, music movements are now universal due to the internet. Previously, certain musical movements were segregated by geography, but now the internet has allowed music to be accessible for anyone. People from different distances can influence, comment and collaborate on work; Kyak has found a realm of appreciation on websites like SoundCloud that is completely missing from rural areas like Tredegar. Worryingly, however, it seems that urban areas, instead of expanding because of the internet, are becoming more segregated. Kyak’s difficulty in finding a place to perform alternative music in Cardiff is symptomatic of a city that needs to reach more into its rural surroundings instead of moving more inward. There is an exchange at play here, though. Whilst Kyak may miss out of opportunities to perform live, the Valleys and the internet have allowed him to develop organically of his own accord. History can sometimes help an artist, but to be free of any geographical or cultural shackles seems to be – at least in Kyak’s case – liberating.
You can check Kyak’s music out at SoundCloud and follow him at Twitter.
words BEN NEWMAN