“I’m only 52 kilograms… I’m tiny” Nina Kraviz begins. “I’m not strong enough to carry lots of equipment around with me, so I’ll be keeping things simple. Simple is the key.”
Kraviz, cited increasingly as one of house music’s brightest, most refreshing talents, is talking about plans for a live show this year, which will support the February release of her long-awaited, eponymous debut album. “It’ll [the tour] mainly just be me and a mic,” she continues. “I don’t want too many boxes with knobs and buttons; they have the potential to take something real away from the performance; make a set too clean and tidy. My show will be about interaction. I want an honest relationship with the crowd.”
Tiny she may be, and uncomplicated her plans – on her future: “I just want to deliver musical messages” - but there is plenty of substance here. Kraviz’s words are calmly and carefully spoken, which makes them sound even more weighty and profound once uttered.
“I’m an anti-consumerist” she says, “I think people should learn to love what they already have a bit more, rather than running wildly around for new experiences. I listen to electronic music and nothing is drastically different; everything I hear reminds me of something from before. Nothing is that unique, but that’s OK. Why always is there this pressure to seek out new things for the sake of them being new? There’s a lot of good music already, and we should enjoy that.”
She continues: “We’re suffering from a new age disease. We are obsessed with trend and with creating mini revolutions; sadly, when that happens within music you get producers going crazy to make exactly the same record with the same new technology. Variety comes when you fully appreciate what is already there. I’m always thinking about great books and records from the past that I haven’t gotten round to picking up yet.”
If Kraviz is determined to resist faddish infection where then does that leave her new album? In truth, plotting its own assured course across everything from deep Detroit tech and bare-as-bones house to ambient soundscape and lowdown, slowdown electro-soul; it’s an impactful, all-encompassing work. Raw, is another word Nina might choose to add.
“I scared myself when I finished making it” she confides. “I was suddenly struck by just how personal and intimate this album was. I had more or less poured my life into it. In that sense it was easy to make; I did nothing, I just lived. There’s a lot about relationships and suffering; it’s a very real collection of songs. But how do you describe and assess them? I used to work as a journalist so I think that this is your job now. I can’t sensibly deconstruct the record; I’m happy it’s here but that’s all I can say.”
Nina’s output is made more intense by the frequent inclusion of her own vocals, both spoken and sung. She’s not a trained singer and prefers to use first take recordings; the combination makes for something rather striking on the new long-player. “It’s the power of the first take” she explains. “I’m a one-man show. I can’t play instruments but singing has always been easy and essential for me; something I have confidence in using. So I treat it like an instrument and see what happens. I don’t specifically plan to sing on record but when the right ideas come along, I open my mouth….”
Remarkably, for the length of time and sheer outpouring of feeling Kraviz has given to make this album, she is starting to feel quite detached from it: “It’s so funny, so weird. I’ve been thinking about it this week whilst I’m away, it’s not really my album any more but the listener’s; it’s being passed on to them now and they will take from it what they want.”
Of course, the record was actually finished in June 2010 and, owing to its author’s hectic ‘on tour’ itinerary, has taken a little longer than intended to surface. If the delay has allowed Kraviz to re-group and focus fully on other tasks then it’s apparent she remains aware of its soulful, down-to-earth power. “It needed to come out. I was calm about the delays and interruptions but it did need to come out” she reflects, searching for a suitable analogy. “In some respects it was like giving birth; I’d spent all these months creating something very real and then this major urge came to push it out and share it with people.”
Juggling various commitments is something Kraviz will have to fully master as her career curve continues to rise ever more steeply. She has achieved much already, and within a staggeringly short space of time. In 2006 she scored a place at the Red Bull Music Academy and released dubby single Amok with band MySpaceRocket (on Greg Wilson’s now defunct B77 label) before meeting Rekids’ boss Matt ‘Radio Slave’ Edwards and, in turn, releasing influential Rekids tracks Pain In The Ass and I’m Week. There followed other pivotal releases, too, for Naif, BPitch Control and Jus-Ed’s revered Underground Quality imprint (namely Voices). Last year she dropped the Ghetto Kraviz EP on Rekids, whose well received title track features on the new album.
Kraviz grew up in Siberia, introduced to music through her dad’s jazz record collection before, in 1996, discovering local radio show Garage with its focus on electronic dance – the play one evening of a record by US acid-house pioneer Armando changed her life forever. She moved to Moscow in 1999 to study dentistry but was, by now, totally hooked on club grooves and also working as a freelance music journalist with Jeff Mills and Afrika Bambaataa among her commissions. It wasn’t long before she was picking up work with a DJ promo agency and then DJing herself in bars around the city. Her new career path had been determined.
Kraviz’ DJ workload exploded in the Noughties after her first studio releases, prompting a relentless surge of high-profile, international bookings and a hugely significant two-year residency at major Moscow club Propaganda. By 2010 she had played most of global clubland’s highest-profile venues.
The existing spotlight on Kraviz is set to brighten dramatically in 2012. Aside, however, from gigs and discographies gender will also play its part. Kraviz, with her winsome magazine looks (she was also previously a part-time model), has mixed views on the subject. “There’s something bad and cool about it” she sighs. “Being a chick is a benefit in such a male-dominated industry. I’m different, I’m unique. There’s more attention. I have an edge. But then there’s also an attitude, a negative mentality to deal with. It’s hard to describe. It’s not full-on discrimination but it’s just as shameful. There’s an expectation out there that chicks can’t write and produce; and when you’re DJing, guys will act all surprised or patronize you when you put two tracks together. If anyone says I haven’t written and produced my own album then they’re a fucking liar….”
So what comes next for Ms Nina Kraviz? Her utter confidence and refreshing matter-of-factness are surely half the battle if, on occasion, they have sparked controversy (most notably in 2009 when expressing her dislike of technically ‘tight’ DJ mixes)
“I’d like the buy some new shoes” she mischievously laughs. “I think I deserve that after the album. More than shoes, I want to enjoy my music. The live show will be great, and I’m planning some techno releases – my first techno releases - and other collaborations. I want to keep growing as an artist, find someone I can love and look after, meet lots of exciting new people, read some old books…. Enjoy life, enjoy music….it’s hard to plan everything too much.”
Right now, Kraviz is planning her tour - holed up in a small coastal French village near Bordeaux, mixing stage plans with the odd lie-in and restful rural breakfast. The peace and quiet, it seems, are proving a welcome distraction for one so completely caught up in the current clubland moment. “It’s very different to Moscow where I live” she says. “Moscow is wild, alive, it never sleeps. If you stand still there you still end up moving. That intensity has always fed into my work. But here in France there are fields everywhere and perfect tranquillity; it’s a different, very special kind of energy. I really like it; it’s given me some new ideas and perspectives.”
And an opportunity to toy with name changes. “There will be nothing like the new album ever again; how can I repeat that?” she concludes. “Why do so many producers use monikers? I think it’s because they’ve come to the same conclusion as me, and feel that by re-inventing themselves they can create that first-time magic again, as well as reach other markets. Maybe Nina Kraviz will take a holiday soon.”
It’s hard really to believe this but if she is serious then her name will be difficult to hide completely such is the underground’s snowballing admiration. The spotlight is burning very, very brightly….
Words: Ben Lovett
Nina Kraviz’s eponymous debut album is released via Rekids on February 27.
