Meet The Kite String Tangle...
Name: Danny Harley
Artist: The Kite String Tangle
Interview by Tiani Worrall
Photos by She is Aphrodite
It’s been a busy couple of years for The Kite String Tangle, being nominated for an ARIA award, three national headline tours, Splendour in the Grass and FOMO festivals. How do you take care of your emotional well being during all of this?
I think I would struggle more if I weren’t doing all of this stuff. I think you are really lucky as a musician you get to be away a bunch but you also get to be home a bunch. There is the touring live aspect and there is the song writing studio live aspect and they’re totally different skill sets. I think for me, having that balance of both keeps me balanced emotionally as a person.
How was the album name chosen?
Well I sort of had this idea of what I wanted the album to be which was like the aesthetic, and I wanted it to be a lot of cult imagery and stuff, but rooted in nothing you would know, not the regular cults you would know. I wanted it to be almost futuristic or otherworldly. Lots of sacred geometry, weird stuff like that. I was also really inspired by this book called Codex Seraphinianus which was just this encyclopaedia. It was supposed to give you that kind of feeling that you feel when you are a child when you look through an encyclopaedia. None of the pictures make sense and all of the words are in a different language that you don’t understand. It’s just a weird book to go through. That was a big inspiration for a lot of it such as the album C()D3X, which is a sacred text. That’s where it came from.
What was the moment that influenced the darker direction that The Kite String Tangle is currently undertaking?
It was a realisation the music I was making wasn’t the same as the music I was listening too. It was an attempt for me to try to make music closer to what I was listening to. I was listening to a lot of Jamie xx and The xx, Burial, Bonobo; I was starting to listen to a lot more of garage and house a little bit more as well. Trying to include that a little bit more in my own influences and inspirations.
How do you maintain a clear perspective when evaluating your own work?
I don’t think you do. Especially for me because I write mostlyM then mix it and produce it and all that. Generally it takes ages, and then throughout that whole time, like a year or two of writing an album, you change so much as a person compared to where you were at the start of the 2 years, it’s not where you were at the end. It’s like, really hard to maintain a clear perspective. So I think that’s really hard to do and I think you almost have to give up on that. I find it really interesting to go back and listen to stuff 6 months or a year after the fact ‘cause you have this whole new perspective and you’re listening to music you made ages ago but you are in a totally different place so it’s not what you would of done now. It’s an interesting perspective.
What is The Kite String Tangles 2020 New Year resolution? And have you kept up with it so far?
I didn’t really have a clear new years resolution, but I did have a pretty crazy end of the year and so I think this year I’m trying to be a yes man and do more of everything. Throw myself into whatever comes my way and whatever opportunities. I’m just trying to generally be around more, doing more stuff, releasing more music and doing everything that’s a huge focus of mine. I think I’m doing okay so far. We’ve got a release later this month and then the album in March and hopefully much touring, so yeah I’ll be around a bunch.
When do you feel like your best self?
Just after a show, just when you still have that buzz from playing then you get to go and like hangout with your friends, that always feels pretty good.
If you were a song on any of your albums what song would you be?
There is a song called Iris on the album, I would maybe be that song. Because it has its ups and downs but it’s kind of fun and a little bit emotionally sensitive. That’s where I like to meet, somewhere between dance and somewhere between still having some kind of emotional intelligence.
Having toured so much already and you’re about to embark on a new tour- what can we expect from these new shows?
Well it’s going to be a totally new show. Most of the album I would have never played before so most of the set is going to be from the album- it’s going to be really exciting. We’re trying to expanded the show to be a bit more different to the last one, hoping to have some visuals but we’re still in talks at the moment, as well as a new lighting show. Yeah a whole new show. A bit darker probably.
New single ‘North’ is out now.
C()D3X is out March 20.
C()D3X ALBUM TOUR
Tickets on sale at www.thekitestringtangle.com
Saturday 30 May – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW
Friday 05 June – Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide SA
Saturday 06 June – Freo.Social, Fremantle WA
Friday 12 June – 170 Russell, Melbourne VIC
Friday 19 June – The Triffid, Brisbane QLD
