Hardkiss

San Francisco, USA

This interview was done by Brad with some questions visioned by Hardkiss' friend, Katinka.

(Quadrasonic) First off, who is involved with the Hardkiss label?
(Hardkiss) We're all kicking around the low to mid twenties.  Some of us don't look it anymore, but we're all still young at heart.  We've been around, in one form or another, since approximately 2am, September 7th, 1988.  Since that moment, we've been off our heads, putting on raves, DJing, putting out music, and making public (and private) nuisances of ourselves.  Hardkiss includes Gavin Hardkiss, who makes records as "Hawke", and DJ's Scott Hardkiss ("God Within") and Robbie Hardkiss ("Little Wing").  Each of us performs a variety of functions including feeding the horses, borrowing money, sifting through trash, and buying drugs.  We spend our days holed up in a cubicle in the Lower-Haight smokin' Ganja and mentally preparing for the apocalypse.

(Q) What is your current discography?
(H) There are five 12" records…The Magick Sounds of the Underground EP The Ultraviolet Catastrophe…The Trip remixes Hawke…Three Nudes in a Purple Garden  God Within…RainCry Rabbit-In-The-Moon…Out of Body Experience.

(Katinka) Is it morally right to pay for music?  
(H) I don't know.  How much would you pay for your soul to be saved.

(Q) What are your musical influences both as DJ's and artists?
(H) They run the length of a rainbow and change like the weather - today's include My Bloody Valentine, Derrick May, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Music from the Singing Detective, Primal Scream, Tatto You, Future Sound of London, Liverpool, Love Theme from Bladerunner, Honeydew, Luke Slater's 7th Plain, The Dark Tower and Roland's Hawk David, Melting Clocks, Purple Rain, Atlantis, Schooly D, Fearlessnessness, Jorge Reye's "Bajo El Sol", ExistDance, The Moon Flowers, etc.

(Q) What other record labels do you see as releasing quality material?
(Gavin Hardkiss) Looking around, it seems like some of the strongest new stuff is coming out of the European Ambient scene.  There are many strange mid-tempo experimental 12" that I've been finding from Scandinavia and other random European cities not exactly well known for their music.  New releases on General Productions are very nice.  I also like Sabres Of Paradise, some of the Warp releases and R&S.  I've been hearing a lot of interesting hybrid dance music, borrowing from Hip-Hop. ethnic sounds and voices, funk, dub, and electronic influences, apparently coming out of North Africa.  I've heard some amazing music at Nicky's BBQ on the Lower-Haight, but even the DJ doesn't know what it is.  Here in the states, ExistDance and Plus-8 release a lot of good stuff, but there is still so much room for madmen with insane ideas.

(K) If you could use any vocalist, who would it be?
(Scott Hardkiss) A rapping Pee Wee Herman, Sid Vicious, Sinead O'Conner, Emo Phillips, Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star), Satchmo, Aretha Franklin, Yoda.

(K) If you could work with anyone in the business, who would it be?
(S. Hardkiss) Jimi Hendrix.
(Robbie Hardkiss) Neil Young with me handling the rhythms and George Clinton.
(Q)  Your music being very mind-controlling in nature, how do you feel about hallucinogenic use in the underground dance community?
(G. Hardkiss)  My life seems to be shrouded in a purple haze most of the time.  That's how I naturally feel.  Listen to our music and you're following a tour guide through the roped-off displays of our mind, and there's some surreal things on show.  In mine, lots of colours, like looking up at the light from underwater.  Lots of confused memorabilia whizzing by like schools of blind fish…lots of debilitating feelings.  So remember, what you hear, we are thinking.

(K)  What music scares the shit out of you?
(R. Hardkiss)  Garth Brooks makes me fear for humanity and Future Sound of London makes me fear for myself.
(S. Hardkiss)  Wilson Phillips

(Q)  What do you think about the splitting between the hardcore headbanging techno crowd and the house/trance crowd?
(G. Hardkiss)  I haven't been around much Hardcore over the last few years.  I don't really enjoy listening to it.  When I was first getting into the music, I thought it was fun to dance to, but no longer.  I don't think much about the division between hardcore and house/trance.  I've noticed just as much of a tendency to split house and tranceinto separate scenes.  What I'm looking for is neither hardcore, trance, or house.  It's something beyond all those labels.  It's a mood only certain records evoke.  Some records from Richie Hawtin and early Joey Beltram have done it for me with the hard stuff, even Sven Vath's "Accident In Paradise" and Jam and Spoon's "Stella" with trance, Ralph Falcon with house, and the list goes on.

(Q)  If you don't mind us asking, what equipment do you use?
(G. Hardkiss)  Most of the time, we have flashes and we go into the studio and see what we can make of it.  You don't need much more than a good idea.  Anyone can make this music and everyone should try.

(K)  If you could award the Nobel Prize for anything, who would it be and for what?
(H)  Jesus Christ for his tolerance and James Brown for his funk.