The harp isn’t an instrument people usually associate with popular music…

Mostly it’s shunted towards the ‘Classical’ genre or ‘New Age’ therapeutic soundtracks.

It’s also not an instrument often coupled with the sound of Northern Territory music.

Kris Keogh is about to change all that…

The Darwin-based musician has just launched his first solo album, a project that features his first love, the harp, something he began learning in 2008, when he lived in Japan for a year.

With the “girl of his dreams” by his side, Keogh spirited himself away to hometown Nhulunbuy in the latter half of 2010 to finish the CD, which has been released through Sydney label New Editions/New Weird Australia.

Best-known as a music educator, co-founder of iconic original music club Happy Yess, half of noise-melodica duo Red Plum & Snow and some-time guitarist for swamp rock legends Horse Trank, Keogh is hands down one of the busiest musicians in the Top End.

Also a prolific visual artist and music producer, over the years Keogh has produced a number of fledgling NT bands and artists and provided guidance and inspiration to many more (see The Sleeveheads,The Aviators, Semishigure, Moses etc).

His new album – entitled ‘Processed Harp Works: Volume One‘ - is a luscious, dreamlike conglomerate of ‘click music’ and sampled harp sweeps, processed through software which he wrote himself. It might sound like an odd mix but the glitches marry organically to the harps strings, to produce work reminiscent of Japanese electronica pioneer Susumu Yokota, known for making equally haunting, beautiful electronic symphonies.

The 11-track album represents a great leap forward for the artist, who describes the music as “beautiful, glitched, melancholy future noise music. It’s big and epic…” He’s not wrong.

Keogh launched the album in Darwin off the back of a 2-month east coast Australia tour. Thus far it has been well-received and reviewed on blogs around the country, including local reviewer Steve Stevenson’s from ReviewsNT, who labelled Keogh a “pioneer for future music”.

Kris Keogh spoke to Music NT about his new album just after his Darwin CD launch…

Music NT: Was there any one thing that inspired the solo album? Or have you been ‘brewing’ this for a while?

Kris Keogh: I love the sound of the harp, that in itself is totally inspiring. I always thought it was out of reach to your average broke musician living in Darwin to be able to play one, so studying harp in Japan full time for a year in 2008 was like a dream come true.

I’d spent years before that playing, recording and processing guitar with my Blastcorp and Red Plum & Snow projects, and I knew that playing a harp instead of the guitar, using those same processes would sound like utterly gorgeous. By mid 2010, I figured could play the harp well enough to start recording, so I could make the music I’d been imagining in my head.

I released the album under my own name as it doesn’t really fit with anything else I’ve done before. Its less song orientated and more a piece of sound art than a collection of singles.

MuNT: Can you tell us a bit about making it – what was involved in terms of instruments, process etc – and the distribution with New Editions label?

KK: The process is actually really simple. I used one microphone, played the harp, fed it into a program called Reaktor that processes audio, and built up layers and layers of loops. I then played those loops using a MIDI controller with a bunch of faders, dials and buttons and recorded it straight out as a stereo pair.

It’s quite funny, it’s an album recorded with one instrument, one microphone and virtually no overdubs, which is totally unheard of these days. It just had this mysterious extra Reaktor step in the process.

Releasing it on New Editions/New Weird Australia was a classic case of who you know… I met Stu, the label boss a few years earlier when we both played at a show at the This Is Not Art festival in Newcastle. He started expanding his label, I said I’d love to release something and he said go for it! He’s been really supportive, which has been great. It’s out on Bandcamp as a pay what you want deal, so go get it now!

MuNT:  Why did you go to Nhulunbuy to make it? Was it almost like a ‘retreat’ environment, reading btw the lines from one of your email bulletins?

KK: This may sound funny as Darwin is such a chilled place, but I am too busy in Darwin to be able spend a large chunk of time focussed on one project without interruption.

I moved to Nhulunbuy for a few months and got to lock down, without any distractions. My mobile didn’t work out there, I had no internet where I was staying, I was no help if there was a crisis at Happy Yess and the bulk of my friends lived far, far away. The album is really introverted, I felt like I needed that solitude to make the album.

“I made this record to make girls swoon, scare animals and bewilder my family. Imply everything. Bury melody. Obscure rhythm. Respect tradition. F*ck presets.”   – Kris Keogh

MuNT:  Do you think your physical environment is reflected in your music? And do you consider yourself a Territory artist?

KK: I’m a Territory artist; I’ve lived here for 33 out of my 34 years. But I definitely don’t sit at the beach and go, “I’m gonna write a song about this”. That said, everything I make stems from how I feel, who my friends are and what I have access to, all of which are products of my environment.

If I grew up anywhere else I’d be completely different, making completely different music. I love that I don’t have a scene to try and fit into here. There’s no one to copy, just things and people to inspire me. Here I can make exactly what I want, on my terms.

MuNT:  You describe the music as “beautiful, glitched, melancholy future noise music. It’s big and epic…” What inspired the sound?

KK: In whatever musical context I find myself in, I’ve realised that I like to make the most beautiful noise I can imagine. There’s something really special to me about finding the peace and beauty within something that, on the surface, is abrasive and chaotic. I’ve got to the point in my life where everything on the radio sounds rehashed and I don’t want any part of that. I want to push things forward, not settle on what people like, want or expect.

MuNT: Can you share with us some insight into your writing process?

KK: For this album it was a two step process. The first part was choosing some notes and chords to play and record. This was more about generating a few minutes of audio that I could then mutate, rather than writing melodies or chord progressions or anything like that.

From there, writing and recording are the essentially the same thing. I write the music by playing software Reaktor patches that I’ve built. With them I can chop, effect, reorder and beautify the original audio. Chord progressions, melodies and rhythms evolve out of that process to become songs. I don’t ever analyse what comes out in terms of theory, I trust my ears far more than my brain.

MuNT:  It’s fair to say that much of the music made in the NT is made with traditional ‘instruments’ – as in guitars, drums, bass etc.. ‘Real’ instruments.. It has less of a reputation for electronic music. As an artist you are into ‘both’ streams as it were, and you combine them too. Can you discuss this in terms of your own work, and where you sit with working in either genre?

KK: I see it all as the same thing: traditional instruments and computers are just creative tools. I see the software Reaktor patches I build as instruments in their own right. I have to work out how to play them and then spend ages practicing playing them, just like any other instrument. The exciting bit is that I get to dream them up, and I can run acoustic instruments through them as well.

MuNT: You have just finished a longish East Coast tour. What did you get out of gigging in other states, and what were a couple of highlights? Reactions to the music too?

KK: Getting to play a bunch of gigs in a row is really great; it felt like I was improving with every gig. I just can’t do that in Darwin, there aren’t enough venues open to weirdness for me to play several gigs a week. People were really positive about the shows, I made sure they were more immersive experiences than rock gigs.

The highlight was getting to play with Clue To Kalo http://www.myspace.com/cluetokalo

in Melbourne, as he’s been a sort of hero of mine for many years. He’s the most creative musician I know, and I’m really happy to announce I’ve booked him to come to Darwin and play the Happy Yess 5th Birthday mega-gig coming up in late May. I can’t wait!

MuNT: And is it likely that you could move interstate (or overseas) to pursue the professional side of your music?

KK: I’m working my life out at the moment to be able spend a few months in the Territory, and then a few months down south or overseas. I want to make the music here, and then go and play it everywhere.

MuNT: What are your ambitions for the album? And also for your own music career, at this point?

KK: I achieved my album ambitions by actually finishing and releasing it! It took years of practice and work to realise, and I’m really proud of it. If it gets out there a bit and leads to new deal with new label (as this one was a one off), that would be awesome. Career wise, I want to keep being creative, and make more music that I love.

MuNT: And what is next in the pipeline for you, in terms of making more music/albums, projects and tours?

KK: Well, here goes… I’m doing the soundtrack for Bianca Spender’s runway show for this year’s Australian Fashion Week in Sydney in May.

I’m working on Super Happiness Beatbox Mayhem, an iPhone drum machine you control by making cartoon characters dance, which should be out in a few months.

I’m producing and playing on Brisbane act Halade’s debut album, it’s half recorded at the moment. Also writing new songs for Red Plum & Snow, DJ’ing at Megabass, planning the Happy Yess 5th Birthday celebrations, working on a new art exhibition and if I get a chance I’m planning to make some very nasty dance music with this new synth called ‘Razor‘ that I just got. That should keep me busy for a bit…

Oh, and thanks heaps to Music NT for the support and hype!

Processed Harp Works, Volume 1 is out now on New Editions. Visit Kris Keogh’s official website, Red Plum & Snow Facebook page and join the Happy Yess group on Facebook.

Words: Megan Spencer. Thanks to Kris Keogh for the interview. Additional source: New Weird Australia