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Music

Smoothness and Danger with Melbourne Duo Klo

Klo share their story and a favourite slow jam playlist.

Chloe Kaul and Simon Lam are Melbourne based artists. They're cousins. Working together they are Klo. It's simple, it's neat, and their music is effortlessly stylish. So far the pair have released only two tracks, but we couldn't be more impressed. It's smooth music with a dangerous edge, combining electronic, soul and modern pop. They're preparing their first EP for release on local label Dot Dash/Remote Control, but if it weren't for their parents they may never have even thought of recording together. We caught up with them both to find out more.

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THUMP: With Klo, when was the idea of working together first discussed, and how easy was it to get things started musically?
Simon Lam: The initial idea came from our Mums. We were hesitant to work together at first, but tested it out as we were both interested to see where it would go. We began working on our first track at the start of this year and found it quite difficult to combine our styles together, but as we started to understand each other's musicality more, it all was pretty intriguing to us.

As close relatives, and friends, is it easier or harder to offer each other musical feedback?
We're close enough to speak our thoughts and not take offense, so definitely easier.

We can hear a lot of different references in your music, and were interested to hear you have backgrounds in soul and jazz music. How do they play into Klo?
Chloe Kaul: We've both grown up listening to jazz and soul music so it was only natural to include elements of these genres into our music. We use a lot of improvisation in our writing sessions and again i think that comes back to our backgrounds. When I first started singing I was fascinated by soul/jazz musicians such as Amy Winehouse, Etta James, Adele, Aretha Franklin and they definitely had an impact on the way I wanted to sing.
Simon: I studied jazz at uni as a drummer. Studying the drummers in the genres really developed my ear for groove and feel. I've tried to transfer this into the electronic beats, usually playing the drum parts with pads or manually dragging all the drum hits off the grid.

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Would you be able to identity some of the strongest sources of inspiration for Klo, musically, artistically, or otherwise?
Although we came from different fields in music, we share a lot of the same musical inspirations. We are big listeners of Little dragon, James Blake, Jamie xx, Four Tet etc and they definitely have a large impact on our music.

There's a smooth soulful aspect to your music, and a darker edge to some of the arrangements, production and performance as well. What are some of the ideas you're exploring, or most keen to communicate with audiences?
We've discussed this with each other before. We think a lot of our sound derives from our love of songwriting. A lot of people say we don't sound much like an electronic duo, and I guess that's because the focus is on the 'song' rather than the 'style' or the beat.The soul against dark arrangements is also a product of our backgrounds. Its a pretty clear mesh of the two.

How important is the idea unpredictability to you in music? And how do you go about introducing this in your tracks?
Its pretty vital. Most of our writing comes from experimenting, and its those sounds that come out of nowhere that really change the perception of the track and take it somewhere else. We really try to hold onto those moments. We like to start songs with elements that become background content later in the track, they're useful tools for interesting intros.

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Can you introduce us to the two tracks you've released so far, and provide a bit of background on each?


False Calls: I was threatened by a close friend on a night out which I ended up writing about. It was around about the time Simon and I were creating False Calls and I thought the essence of the song matched the content.  We didn't think the song would go much further than the bedroom studio, so it was more written for fun and to see if we could collaborate.

Make Me Wonder: This was released first out of the two, we recorded it in Simon's loft bed studio. It's about being flippant and the fear to let go of something you know is not good for you anymore. A situation I've been seeing a bit of lately. It's strange, but people seem to hold onto things that make them unhappy.

Finally, "Make Me Wonder" is such a smooth, meditative track – do you have any favourite slower tracks you could share?
Absolutely.

Fantasia "When I See You"

Four Tet "Slow Jam"

James Blake "I Mind"

Little Dragon "Constant Surprises"

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