Returning To The Stage & The Increasing Eclecticism Of Electronic Music

With performances at Brisbane Festival around the corner, a support slot for London Grammar and RL Grime, and his own headline tour in October, it's unsurprising that Danny Harley — aka The Kite String Tangle — is filling his downtime with rehearsals.

That said, when The Music touches base with the lauded Brisbane producer ahead of his impending burst of live outings, he's showing no signs of stress. In fact, his most recent weekend of practice was a somewhat relaxed one — "Nothing too crazy," he says — as he's implementing a "casual but constant" regimen of rehearsal with "lots of breaks and tasty food, TV shows, all the good stuff".

But his calm and affable demeanour shouldn't mislead you; Harley works just as hard as he plays and, given a recent quiet spell on the live front, he's ready and raring to hit the stage once more.

"It feels really good to have a couple of months that are really packed," he explains of his upcoming shows. "I'm going to be playing with a full band; I quite often play solo but lately I've been playing with a full band, so I'm doing that for all the shows. There's gonna be a lighting element… it should be pretty cool. I've got a few things up my sleeve."

Despite his origins as a one-man show, Harley demonstrates the power of community in bringing such a stage show to life, having found both of his new accomplices through a degree of serendipity.

"I did a tour with Dustin Tebbutt in promotion of a single we did together called Illuminate, and then his drummer was this guy, Dave Jenkins, and so I kind of stole him," he laughs. "He wasn't using him! It's fine.

"So I stole him, and then Ben [Corbett] is the guy that plays keys for me… I think he just came highly regarded from Dave. But it's one of those things, like, there's not too many people floating around; the music community's pretty tight, so it's only ever a phone call away of asking someone, 'Hey, who's awesome at playing that?' and usually you'll get someone pretty quick."

Harley's time away from the stage should not be mistaken for laziness, either; on the contrary, he keeps well and truly busy as the man behind his own label, Exist Recordings, which is already home to Golden Vessel and Lastlings — who have both showcased at Brisbane's BIGSOUND festival over the past couple of years — and has its eye set on expanding its ranks in the near future.

"Yeah, we're looking at a few acts right now," he admits. "I probably shouldn't mention them, just in case something funny falls through. But I will give you my list of highlights from BIGSOUND, which I thought were really cool. A guy called Willaris. K, who does, like, sort of dark techno stuff; it's really, really cool, and then this other chick, I think she's called Teischa, from Perth, I sort of stumbled across her showcase and it totally blew me away."

Something that Harley — and, really, anyone who's paying attention — has noticed lately, notably at BIGSOUND itself, is the organic diversification of the "electronic" genre, which has become a catch-all term for an increasingly disparate group of artists who nonetheless feel at least partially connected through their similar performance techniques, if not their sound. 

"I guess there was a time there where the sound was pretty, like… you could pigeonhole it pretty easily, and you got a lot of similar acts doing that sort of chilled, downtempo bedroom-producer vibe," Harley muses. "And there was a lot of people [at BIGSOUND] doing a lot of electronic music, but they weren't similar at all… There was a lot less conformity in those sounds, and it felt like people are making bigger statements now."

"I think we're probably only now coming to grips with what other genres have already dealt with," he continues. "I remember there was a big uproar over King Gizzard winning the [hard rock] ARIA, which was pretty crazy. It was so weird." 

"But I guess it happens across all genres, and I think, yeah, you can't really pick it; it's just who's hot at that time within those sub-genres… so you're kinda screwed if your sub-genre isn't a popular one," he laughs.

But this, too, is slowly but surely changing, as said sub-genres mature and earn more mainstream recognition, Harley concurs — and he seems excited to see where it all leads.

"It's kind of like all the gaps are just being filled, between commercial music, alternative music, indie music, underground music… there's now, like, a much fuller spectrum. That's how I see it, anyway." 

"People consume in a more eclectic manner, I think," he says. "Much more often you'll find someone that likes rock and electronic and this and that, whereas it sort of used to be part of your personality, like, 'I'm a rap guy,' or 'I'm a rock guy,'… people [now] just consume whatever's good, and that's awesome."