To coincide with the launch of his engaging new album Blueberry Fields, we caught an interview with creative producer and songwriter KOH. We talk everything from musical training to live shows, poetic songwriting, hidden meanings, ambitions, and plenty more. Here’s how it went.
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KOH – excited to talk music with you, thanks for your time. To introduce things, where are you based, and who or what first inspired you to make music?
Thanks for the opportunity. I’m based in Slovakia and I lived here all my life. I always loved listening to music, from Rock or Metal, through country music all the way to Rap music. I got inspired generally by my friends, we used to have an online group of friends and we played some old video games back in the days and when I found out that some, maybe two or three of them make trap beats and sing, I decided to give it a try, and here we are today almost 7 years later.
Are you the producer and songwriter, do you play any instruments, or do you collaborate to bring your tracks to life?
Yes I’m a producer, although I don’t always produce my own songs. I seem to get stuck a lot when I’m trying to produce for myself. I’m too perfectionistic I guess. I always write my own music and actually never played any instrument. I try to collaborate with other artists as much as I can but I hardly ever find an artist that would make me interested in them. But I’m always open for new collaborations with artists who mean it seriously with their music.
Tell me about the inception of Blueberry Fields – why this title, and what connects the tracks within?
I always wanted to make an album but I never, until now, found enough time to actually make one. It took me almost 2 years to complete and I wanted the album to be simple and straightforward. To me the album represents a feeling of gratitude towards life and is a showcase of a positive outcome of a series of negative life events that happened before I started working on the album and throughout. For me, Blueberry Fields represents a place of calmness and peace. Just like the relative peace of mind and stoicism that I found.
The title-track and opener is particularly colourful by design, hopeful melodically – a quality that continues throughout the more mellow flow of Kingdom Of Hearts. How different was the creative mindset for these two songs, and how do you decide which direction to take a new song in?
I wanted the opener track to sort of tune the listener to the overall vibe of the album which has a profound vibe of acceptance and positivity. When it comes to the second song Kingdom of Hearts, I wanted to also show that there’s harshness even in relatively peaceful state, that there’s always some darkness even when everything seems good and happy. I don’t particularly decide on which direction to take with next track, I must feel something in order to make a new song. For me music is a great distraction from my mind, I can make art out of something that I feel, which is priceless.
What is The Kingdom Of Hearts, what does this place represent?
In my mind, my imagination, Kingdom of Hearts represents a place where everything is perfect and just the way it should be. Just like I said in the song “I’m heading to the kingdom of hearts, perfect condition” meaning I’m mentally going to a better place. It is completely fictional obviously.
Just eight tracks make up this project, somewhere between EP and LP length – was this intentional, or was the story simply completed with the making of these songs?
Well, originally I wanted the album to be made out of 10 tracks but after some time I decided to exclude 2 of them because they didn’t fit the vibe that I was going for. I might reuse them though in some other songs.
Let’s talk about Gremlins – a revealing and chaotic yet relatable look at long nights and romantic longing – how did this track come about?
With this track I took a lot of inspiration from my other two favourite artists so it’s not completely “my creation” although it is unique. Simply said – I loved a couple of elements from certain songs and I combined them and slightly improved them to my liking and created this track. The song Gremlins resonates an indescribable feeling inside of me.
The project concludes with the synth-distortion and euphoric energy of Starstruck – what made you choose this as the final curtain?
Honestly I don’t think there’s a hidden deeper meaning behind it. I had the instrumental already done for quite some time and I didn’t want to use it in a single so I decided to use it at the end of the album. I think it fits very well and it’s one of my favourite songs on the album.
How important is live performance in terms of your plans as an artist?
I never did any live performance because I never had the opportunity to but if I could I definitely would. I know live performance is one of the best ways to promote yourself no matter what size of an artist you are.
What’s your biggest ambition, and will you continue to make music throughout your life, regardless of audience evolution, just for the joy and escapism of it?
Even though I enjoy the process of making music, I think as the time goes on I’ll struggle more and more with the lack of motivation. Even now it’s getting kinda hard to stay motivated. My current goal is to reach 1000 monthly listeners on Spotify, I would be extremely satisfied with that, but my lifetime goal is to reach 10,000 monthly listeners. I can’t even imagine what it would be like hitting that number but I still have plenty of music within me.
What do you have planned for the majority of 2024 as a creative artist?
I’m planning on starting to work on a second album and I’m definitely planning to release more music videos and I will try to be more active on social media and dedicate more time to music. I was also considering starting drawing to express myself visually too but that’s just an idea. Even though I’ve been making music for almost 7 years, I’m just recent years I started to take it seriously and not just as a hobby.
Is there anything else we need to know?
Yes. That there’s a lot of great stuff coming this year and I’ve never been this dedicated to bring more art to life. Find Yourself.
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Find KOH on Instagram, Soundcloud & Twitter.
