Exclusive k-os Interview
June 29th, 2010 | By Big Dom
Interview by Dominic Di Francesco
Kevin ‘k-os’ Brereton is proof positive that creativity is fluid. The Canadian is part recording artist, part producer, instrumentalist, song-writer and stage performer. His sound marauders between hip-hop, electro, pop, rock, and even folk, as if the concept of genre was non-existent. And with four albums and two platinum plaques to his credit, k-os is very much the poster boy for free range artistry.
Credit his creative transcendence to an enlightened childhood where he split time between the island backdrop of Trinidad and the cosmopolitan bustle of Toronto; where he was reared by his Jehovah’s Witness minister father to “strive for something beyond the banal”; where a former NBA star sponsored his exploration of the arts.
It’s clear k-os dodged the clichéd back-story of your average “hip-hop” artist.
Rhyme & Reason Magazine recently shot the breeze with the Canuck about the parallels between hip-hop and religion, his fateful connection with retired ‘baller John Salley, his thoughts on fellow countryman Drake, and the reason he likens will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas to a “dancing monkey”…
On your latest album you reference growing up as the “son of a minister / the Bible-thumping commissioner.” What was it like growing-up with a minister living under the same roof?
It was amazing because, as Bob Dylan says, all great art is stories of people who are either running away from God or running towards God. People tend to look at the Bible as a religious thing but I look at it as an epic tale, kind of like a Zen book or a Buddhist book of stories about people who have gone through life. They are stories about people who have followed those types of realities. So my dad was always drawing examples from people who decided to follow a certain path and people who decided to run away from a certain path.
It was pretty primary for me, it wasn’t this thing where you had to be well behaved; my dad had Jimi Hendrix records, Miles Davis records, as well as he had Olivia Newton John records – that was my father. So yes, my dad was a minister but at the same time he had a very wide spectrum of pace and music, and he kind of used religion as a way of saying, “You always have to seek the highest ideal.” It wasn’t really just about serving God or going to church on Sunday, it was about trying to strive for something beyond an earthly, regular, banal kind of reality. The way my dad put it was pretty cool, actually. I’m just doing my own take on that by becoming an artist. I took all the information he gave me and built upon it.
What’s your relationship like with religion at this point in your life?
Hip-hop is my religion at this point. The guys I look up to, the other ministers, the other religious heroes are people like Rakim, A Tribe Called Quest, OutKast, The Fugees… These are all people who I look up to, who are kind of like the prophets of hip-hop. Hip-hop became my religion when my parents separated for a bit when I was going into the ninth grade. My dad wasn’t around until maybe the eleventh grade, so in between the ninth and eleventh grade hip-hop became my teacher and my father and that’s when I gravitated towards it.
As far as commercial or fundamental religion, my idea is that everybody at some point in their life needs something to teach them. Even a kid has training wheels on their bicycle before they can ride alone. I see religion as training wheels. It’s just an idea you that might need before you have the experience to have your own ideas about the world. Religion is the training wheels of philosophy; you lean on it a bit until you’ve had enough experience to decide how you want to live your life.
I haven’t been able to verify this, but is it true that former NBA star John Salley was your first manager?
That’s correct. The Toronto Raptors were in the first year of their franchise and he was a player who had won a couple of championships, so they needed and wanted someone who was experienced [on the team]. A lot of times when you get guys who have championships, they become leaders of the team and they help guide the younger players. That year, Damon Stoudamire and different dudes were young and fresh out of college, so John Salley was a lot of people’s mentor.
He had gotten a demo tape from somebody. These dudes who had given him the demo tape had taped over my demo tape. So he listened to the demo tape and thought it was okay, but then in the last two minutes came my song and he really liked it. So he called these guys up and was like; “Yeah, your tape was alright but what’s that two minutes at the end?” John said it took them a-week-and-a-half to actually come out with and tell him, “Yeah, that’s this guy called k-os. We taped over his demo tape. Here’s his number…”
I was away on tour that summer and I came back and my mom had this long story about John Salley calling. Of course I didn’t believe it but then I finally spoke to him on the phone. He said, “I’ll be up there in September and I’d like to sit and talk to you about your music. Me and my wife, we’re philanthropists of the arts; we give away money to the arts that we like and we’ve chosen you. But I’d like to talk to you first.”
So he came back to Canada and we had great conversations and it turned out that he grew up in the same religion as me, which was so ironic, and that’s it. For a couple of years he basically fed me, made sure I had musical equipment, paid for my studio time, and just gave me a lot of advice about the American music industry – which was priceless and invaluable. So he was a great mentor to me.
You started DJ’ing a few years back. Does that experience behind the decks change or affect your perspective when you head into the studio to create your own music?
That’s a very intelligent question - one of the best ones I’ve heard in a while. I think Dr Dre said it the best. When he was a DJ he used to listen to a record for five seconds and if it didn’t catch him he’d move onto the next one and that was it. As a DJ you learn that people respond to music very quickly. So what I took away from that is that the first four, five, six seconds of a song gets people. When you’re a DJ, you start playing stuff and people start losing their attention, they go start buying drinks, they stop dancing, the floor clears, and you’re like “Oh man, that was a bad choice. Milk was a bad choice!” [laughs]
Drake seems to have stepped up as Canada’s latest hip-hop ambassador. Do you have a relationship with Drake?
Yeah, I just toured with Drake across America. He’s kind of like a brother to me, a younger brother. He grew up listening to my music and he respected me. He’s definitely a prodigy and I’m super proud of him. I’m proud of our country and I think he’s going to take the world by storm. I’m happy to say that, not only am I a friend of his, but I’m also a huge fan. So I’m super ecstatic about his being born into the world as a musician.
Rumors of a k-os/Drake collaboration have been floating around for the longest time but we’re yet to hear the goods. Should we expect something from the two of you in the near future?
Me and him have a song together, we’re just trying to clear it. The song’s called “Faith” and we did it a while back. I’m dropping a mixtape on July 23rd and hopefully that song is on it. There’s a lot of politics behind him right now because he’s got so many people wanting to control how things happen. It’s not really his say. I’m sure if it was up to him he’d just say, “Yeah, do it.” We’re just trying to go through the proper channels to clear the song. Ironically, like I said before - “Milk was a bad choice!” – and my mixtape is called The Anchorman and it’s kind of based on that movie. That drops for free download on July 23rd and hopefully that song with Drake – called “Faith” – is on that mixtape.
Vocally, musically, and even physically, I can’t help but draw comparisons between yourself and will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas. Is that a comparison you often get?
Yeah, but I’m way smarter than him, though. He’s good. He’s probably a bit more talented than me as far as his production. He’s probably a little more savvy as far as his selection of sounds in appealing to the mainstream, so he’s got a more successful pop career. But I’m a little bit smarter and my lyrics are little bit deeper than his. It’s a good comparison. We know each other, that’s why I can say this stuff – so I hope he reads this! But I’m like way smarter than that guy. If we were in a zoo, he would be the dancing monkey and I would be the lion or something [laughs].
K-OS TOURS AUSTRALIA THIS AUGUST:
Tuesday 3rd August
Prince Bandroom, Melbourne
www.ticketek.com.au
www.princebandroom.com.au
Wednesday 4th August
Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
www.moshtix.com.au
