Q&A with Fried Monk's Lucas Kozinski

The Philly producer/sound engineer/musician talks about his new EP, juggling a hectic schedule, and sampling vocals from remote Peruvian villages.

I told you that every now and then this newsletter would be about music and include conversations with other people, didn’t I? Well, today I’m making good on that promise. Lucas Kozinski has his hands all over the Philly music scene. He owns and operates Sleepless Sound, a recording studio in Germantown. He’s a sought after live sound guy. He plays drums in the very fun band Jurks (and others). His most recent output was the EP “Hurry Up and Wait” from his solo trip-hop project Fried Monk, which came out on May 12. I spoke with Kozinski about the differences between working on something by himself as opposed to a collaborative effort, the genre-bending qualities of his music, and how some of the only vocals on the album are in a language he nor anyone he knows can understand. 

Brendan: First off, how long have you been working on this EP? I know you have a ton of other irons in the fire right now with your studio, Jurks and doing sound for shows. Where does Fried Monk fit in with your already insane work schedule?

Lucas Kozinski: I had to look at the dates on these session files to actually answer this one, and it's always a smack in the face when you realize how long ago you started some of your projects. “Please Go” was the first song I had that I knew I wanted to put on a new release, and that session file was created Feb 2018. For a majority of the past couple years, I've made a living and career out of live event work, mainly mixing audio. The issue with working events is you build up adrenaline packing up the truck when the party is over. So by the time you get home, it's 2 or 3 in the morning and you're wide awake. I would channel a lot of my energy into producing something new that I could wake up to the next day and hope I didn't hate it. Either way, though, it let me have an outlet other than laying in bed staring at the ceiling. Jurks actually helped. I was producing That's Real Cool throughout most of this time. Fried Monk is used to being put on the backburner, but I made a track that I thought would be a cool outro for the record. It ended up not making it onto That's Real Cool, but it is now “Organiclude” for this project. It's kind of weird how well it fit into the rest of the record. I'm a sucker for gapless transitions, and it easily became the interlude. Shoutout to Matt Wade (organ/keys on That's Real Cool) for letting me sample an outtake from those sessions.

How did you first get into this specific genre/related genres? Who were the artists who first influenced you and what was that journey like to the point where you were making your own?

I honestly have no idea what genre this music is, but I could tell you when I got into hip-hop production, and I think that's the natural progression of where I ended up. I first really dove into hip-hop with movie soundtracks and random WWF wrestling compilations. Those CD's had so many jams on them, but I vividly remember the Batman Forever soundtrack having Method Man and Redman's song for The Riddler, and thinking how cool it sounded after blasting “Kiss From a Rose.” I also frequented a forum called futureproducers.com in early high school and bought my first midi keyboard because of it. I was enthralled by the one section called “Flip This,” where the thread starter would post a song (sample), their flip of it (the instrumental beat) and everyone else would comment their take at it. I learned a lot on those forums and made some hot garbage while doing so. Around this time I was diving into Wu Tang, Dre (Chronic 2000 blew my mind), Eminem and Biggie's discographies. Then I found out about Ratatat while creeping on my soon-to-be first girlfriend's Myspace. She had “Loud Pipes” as her profile song, and when that middle break comes in with the piano my mind sort of melted at how beautiful their production and sounds were while encapsulating what I loved about production. It seemed so obvious, but I never thought to record an instrument over a computer track. The two worlds collided and just made so much sense for me. Aside from an awful sounding drum recording on a PS2 headset, that idea just fermented and had to wait until I went to Drexel, where I had a proper studio and equipment to record drums and put out my first EP.

Sort of off-topic, but do you remember what your Myspace profile song was? Or at least the one you had on there the longest?

I really don't remember which songs I actually put on my myspace, but I know some were probably terrible and all were heavily pondered on for days before putting them on there. I miss that feature.

Honestly, same. Anyway, this seems like a pretty perfect genre for someone like you who knows what they're doing behind the soundboard knobs and computer as much as on the drums - am I off base on that?

Not at all. It was a natural progression, since I had always played drums and guitar in bands. When I sit behind the drum set, the song and rhythm will have an entirely different feel than I'm able to create behind a drum pad or midi keyboard. Only recently have I started making music very fluidly within the two worlds. It was actually very difficult separating the engineer from the artist for myself. I think I finally got a work flow down where I can take off my engineering hat and focus solely on the songwriting and track itself rather than tweak a snare drum for an hour.

To get back to this EP, based on the song titles alone, it seems like there's a very particular story arc - “Welcome,” “Stay a While and Listen,” “Please Go.” Can you tell me more about that?

They're pretty trivial to be honest. Lyrics and titles are the hardest thing for me, and I really have to force myself to do it. “Welcome” is because of the sample I based the song around. “Stay a While and Listen” is because I got back into a video game from 2000 called Diablo 2. Shoutout to my boy Deckard Cain.

Yeah, let’s discuss the sample in "Welcome," and how the sample played a major role in much more than just the beat (even though we still don't know exactly what it means).

The sample of the people singing in this track is from a friend's Instagram story. They were on their honeymoon traveling to Machu Picchu, and to get there they had to take a train and a few buses. Along their way, they stopped in a very small, remote town. At some point, they were invited into [residents’] homes, and were welcomed with open arms as they prepared food for them and sang while cooking. They took a video and posted it of [the women singing], and when I heard/saw it I knew I wanted to sample it. I asked Karley to send it over and the track was finished later that night. I love the melody so much (it's definitely warped a bit in the song). But, if by the power of the internet there is some way to find and get in touch with these women, I think it would be so cool to show them what I created across the world and hopefully compensate them for their lovely sample. Also wouldn't mind deciphering what they're saying.

Does it bother you to not know exactly what they're saying, or is it something you can overlook? What I mean is, are you dying to know, or is it the kind of thing where you kind of like the mystery behind it? It's at least something you know is a real language, not like the hook of "Arab Money" or something offensively trying to sound like another language. 

It bothers me more so that I can't communicate with them. I want to know the people and learn the culture behind the sample more than anything. I think it's really important to find out the origin of where something came from and sampling has a really unique way of spreading that knowledge. I wouldn't know half the artists or musicians I do if it weren't for hip-hop records. I have appreciation for artists that are from generations before the music I was exposed to and can learn about these tiny movements that never made it to the radio. Crate digging is finding that obscure record no one's heard before. Back when every band had a physical record pressed. It gives music a second or third life, or maybe a first since the band never went anywhere in the ‘70s. Since these women don't have a band or recording, it would be awesome to somehow repay them and have an open dialog about what sort of history this vocal melody has. If anything, I'm honored to get their words out there and preserved in some medium since it may never have been recorded before, only passed down from generation to generation in their small community.

For you, how is it different producing something just involving yourself as opposed to a confluence of personalities, influences, work ethics, ideas and everything that comes with being in a band with other live human beings?

For me, I think it's easier producing someone else's work. At the end of the day, that artist makes the decisions. I'm merely there to help give them the best outcome of what they're trying to get out of their head. I'm a lot better at sculpting someone else's creation than starting something from nothing by myself. I think that's why I've always gravitated towards sampling. I love taking an idea and running with it, but that base idea is hard for me to come up with by myself. Fried Monk is technically just me, but I've had so much help from friends and musicians that I really respect and it wouldn't be what it is without them. This is actually the first release I haven't had a feature on. Might be why it took so long to get out there.

On a more surface-level note, what's your favorite song on the album and why? Was that also your favorite track to make? If not, what was?

“Welcome” and “Please Go” are tied for my two favorites. “Welcome” solely because I got to experience and learn a small bit about a side of the world through someone else's travels while making something out of it. [With] “Please Go,” I really had a blast writing and recording. It was made in two waves. The first was the arrangement of a Kontakt instrument I found for free that was sampled from a Stroh Violin. The Stroh Violin is this crazy, jarring instrument with what looks like a trumpet's horn attached to it. It produces this really interesting sound that became the basis for that song and arrangement while jamming on two chords on loop in my room for far too long. The second wave was recording drums, bass and guitar on it and that was just a lot of fun.

What’s next for ya?

I've been working on a hip-hop record with a friend that goes by the name of RJ Andrews. He came to me to produce a track or two for him when we were both working at Bourbon and Branch and shot the shit over a bunch of music we both dug. It turned into me producing his entire record that we'll be co-releasing in the future. It's my first project as Fried Monk I've been able to completely produce from the ground up with one artist in mind, and he's been super chill to work with. I'm really excited for that. I've also got another small project I've co produced with my friend Jake Detwiler. We have a handful of songs that we're currently looking for vocalists with. Very BADBADNOTGOOD, Free Nationals vibes going on that we’ll hopefully finish before the end of summer.

(Editor’s note: If anyone speaks Quechua and can decipher the words in the sample, please let us know.)

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Today’s Snakes and Sparklers musical guest is King Tide.