"If I can create some extra confusion around my record, then it's good, I think!"
Sweden's Kornel Kovacs may be known as a playful house DJ, being the guy behind last year's funky hit Pantalon, but he's versatile. And so he won't be sweating at the prospect of entertaining indie-types at 2017's Sugar Mountain on his inaugural Australian visit.
"I try to approach every gig differently," Kovacs says sanguinely. "But I come prepared for anything, really. I bring a lot of music to all my gigs." Indeed, when Kovacs started DJing professionally on Stockholm's circuit, he played clubs, bars and restaurants. "I took every gig I could get." As such, he learnt to "adapt".
"I was a super-annoying kid... I mean, I would listen to every new record and buy one - that's all I could afford."
Born to Hungarian parents, Kovacs had formal music training in childhood - involving choir plus piano and drum lessons. Yet he was also exposed to electronic music, his parents Kraftwerk boffins. Kovacs developed an obsession with UK drum 'n' bass in the mid '90s. "It was just so happening and so amazing and exciting!" At a mere ten years old, he became a local novelty kiddy DJ.
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Around that time, Stockholm was emerging as techno hotspot with DJs like Adam Beyer, Cari Lekebusch and Joel Mull. The scene centred on the Planet Rhythm record store - a regular haunt for Kovacs. "As soon as I found out about this place, I just went there. Whatever money I had - from my paper route or whatever - I spent on records there. I was a super-annoying kid... I mean, I would listen to every new record and buy one - that's all I could afford." Ultimately, Kovacs was influenced more by the '90s Swedish house label Svek - through which many techno DJs, including Jesper Dahlback, aired "softer" or "deeper" music.
The DJ - and sometime blogger - amped up his production career after attending the 2008 Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona. Kovacs formed Studio Barnhus as a crew, then label, with pals Axel Boman and Petter Nordkvist. They'd herald a new Swedish house with the sampler Good Children Make Bad Grown Ups. Kovacs savoured his first club hit with 2014's hip hop-flavoured Szikra. Bigger again was Pantalon, issued on Glasgow's Numbers. His stature growing, Kovacs recently - and deviously - uploaded a "rejected remix" for an unidentified "Norwegian pop star" (it's of Aurora's I Went Too Far) on SoundCloud.
Meanwhile, Kovacs has been promoting his debut album, The Bells, which surfaced on Studio Barnhus in August. "It just was the next step," he says. Ironically, the LP shares its name with the famous record by Detroit techno pioneer Jeff Mills - The Bells, likewise, a Melbourne anthem. Kovacs' title choice mainly came from a looped vocal in his track The Bells, but he's hyper-aware of the rave connotations. "The Jeff Mills reference, I just thought it was kind of funny and cheeky," Kovacs laughs. "And then I've been getting loads of questions about it! So, in that sense, it works. It's a title that doesn't just pass people by - like people get annoyed by it or surprised or confused... If I can create some extra confusion around my record, then it's good, I think!"