Issue #003 (March 2003) Tim Koch - Net Worth Email this article to a friend Interview by Bim Ricketson Prolific is probably a good word to describe Tim Koch. He co-runs two record labels, has a number of full-length releases, remixes and compilation appearances, as well as gigabytes of critical acclaim, all from the relative isolation of Adelaide. So how does he do it? Koch’s earliest involvement in music began with learning the saxophone for four years as a kid, progressed through playing bass ‘to try and emulate Jah Wobble from PiL’, recording guitar and bass experiments on reel to reel 4-track, and on to three years of music technology at Adelaide University. But it is Koch’s early fascination with 8-bit computer game music that is most evident now. He has a lo-tech, digital aesthetic, distinctive in its drum rhythms and atmospherics, all with a fun simplicity that can only come from a guy who still gets a kick out of the 80s Commodore 64 classic from Epyx, California Games. Think Lackluster and Lode Runner, Arovane and Asteroid. Asked to describe his own music, Koch has a couple of funny but apt descriptions. ‘I have thought about how to answer this type of question before,’ he admits,’ and all I could really think of was the same feeling that you get when eighties films snap to dream sequences. Like in Risky Business when he does what's-her-name on the train, which had a Tangerine Dream track in the background, and Tom Cruise was acting all moody and brooding.’ Right. ‘Or similarly, the sequences in old computer games where you get the “you won” screen, and there is this jubilant music that sounds happy-sad if you know what I mean, sounds like it would only fit at the end of something like a film or a silly computer game.’ But inspiration comes from different quarters these days and, perhaps surprisingly, it’s not from the IDM world. ‘I hate to sound all whiney and whingey but not much electronic stuff I hear inspires me hugely,’ he concedes. ‘[Its more] stuff like really technical fusion or jazz drumming or innovative guitar playing or anything really original sounding that just astounds the listener, that inspires me to forget everything and block the everyday shit out and focus on music, pick up a guitar and create something that relieves the pressure that builds up. ‘But with electronic music, I think it’s in a live setting I get the most inspiration, especially when something just pings at a gig with visuals and music - when both gel together so seamlessly - I guess I really enjoy that a lot - regardless of whether it is some guy like Pimmon doing his electronic tax return or VST chess plugin during the set. ‘Apart from that, after coming back from three months of music related travel, I have realised more than anything that people and places are the biggest inspiration for anyone. More specifically, immersing yourself in different cultures and situations. That could mean travelling to other countries, or simply just hanging out with some new and different people who do things or think just a little bit differently.’ Luckily there are cheaper ways than boarding a plane to get inspired by and connected with the world. Koch realised the power of the internet for musicians early. ‘Without the internet I wouldn't have been able to do any of the stuff I have,’ he admits. ‘The ability to fire off insane amounts of email at will is the only thing that has let me network with anyone and everyone who can be bothered to check out my stuff. ‘So yep, email is really the one most crucial thing I could recommend, and people making the effort to follow up things that kinda seem insignificant at the time, like a remix for an artist that isn't really well known, but just the fact that you have put a lot of effort into that remix shines through, and the limited audience that hear it can feel that effort and therefore get something out of it. ‘Also, despite all the negative shit about it, MP3s really made a lot of music available to a lot of people who otherwise wouldn't have access to it due to geography or lack of money. MP3 was and probably still is single-handedly the most efficient form of distribution for the raw concept of delivering songs and music to people everywhere, regardless of packaging etc.’ Having dispersed his music via email around the world and expanding his opportunities, Koch is now happy for people to be sharing MP3 ripped copies of his published work for free. ‘I am online sometimes and someone I don't know will say “Someone has every single song of yours on Soulseek as MP3,” expecting me to get narky, and when I just say “So what?” in response, they seem disappointed.’ The internet also plays a part in the ongoing roles Koch has with a number of independent labels. He co-runs Tundra Music with a Californian he met on the net and his Adelaide-based Surgery Records is set to release vinyl by well-known internationals and net buddies. Surgery Records began back in 1999 with ‘just a simple idea of putting out music that we all liked and felt passionate about.’ Initially that included some overseas acts as well as locals Superscience (now Clue To Kalo), Modula and Pretty Boy Crossover. Happily there is an abundance of local talent staving off the internationals from the hygienically sealed Surgery door. ‘There is just so much good new and exciting music being made (electronic or otherwise) in Australia that we have a release roster cued up of all local stuff,’ he says ‘although we are planning to put out some one-off seven inches of some well known internationals soon.’ Koch does the A&R and ‘a lot of leg work’ with distribution, promotion and gigs for Surgery Records. ‘Although essentially we all share the workload, each person kinda sticks mainly to what they do best: Ian does all the design and flyers...it was always intended that have a design aesthetic to a standard that would be appreciated in a broad sense, and to keep consistency so that there would be recognition of the logo and also the design template of each album release.’ The label also has a great open door policy for its artists. ‘We are hoping to collaborate with other labels in an effort to get away from the 'so and so artist is our artist so therefore they can't do any other work or projects outside of our label' mentality which I guess is just caused by stuffy contractual restrictions.’ Koch also co-runs Tundra Music, a vinyl based label, with Pietro Da Sacco, who is based in California. Sacco has a long-running radio show, Stateside (digital::nimbus), as well as running an online mag (www.igloomag.com). Koch and Sacco met online six years ago and ‘always spoke of doing a vinyl label at some point, and finally got around to it.’ Their first EP is out now, featuring Tim Jackiw from Adelaide, and Tim Martin from Cambridge, UK (Pause_2, Expanding Records). Koch insists that Tundra is not an IDM label. ‘A lot of what we have in mind for release is much more smooth Detroit-styled techno from local boys such as Tim Jackiw and also Jeff Symons, who have both been just under the radar doing great music for years,’ he explains. Co-running two independent labels may seem a hard task – but it’s made easier by a vast network of contacts Koch has made and kept over the years. ‘All the people I have met and become friends with via my music are part of a big network of friendly and inspiring people who will inflict my music or releases upon their friends, and I do the same whenever I can with their labels or releases. So in effect it is a form of distribution as all the net chums I have (a lot of the Merck crew as well as labels like Civik Records, Cactus Island, Shaped Harmonics etc) all push each other’s stuff to people who wouldn't otherwise be exposed to it. ‘Of course it isn't all smiles and candy though...there are a lot of pitfalls to net hookups with distributors. If a distributor is keen on a label that contacts them from across the other side of the world via email, the transaction happens pretty swiftly and without much of a relationship developing. So more often than not things go sour and there is the label left thinking, “what the fuck are these people doing with my stock? I haven’t heard from them for months and they owe me xxxx dollars.” Then there are the distributors at the other end thinking, “Well they are over in kangaroo land and it's pretty easy for us to just ignore their mails and act like we aren't here... let's just ride with that for a while.” And so it goes. ‘There are crooked people in all levels of the music industry, but it hits home a little harder with the electronica scene, as it is largely based on close and genuine relationships between labels and artists for some reason. Mainly because most people making the stuff have a DSL connection and we’re all nerds on mIRC dcc'ing each other our latest tracks!’ Having the chance to finally meet this international network of nethead musicians was just one reason Koch recently went traipsing across Europe with his laptop. ‘The trip was more based around just gauging the community in Europe and the UK,’ Koch explains ‘so most of my time was spent meeting up with labels and distributors as well as radio people and press. My thinking was that I would lay that foundation first by distributing showcase material of myself and then returning later this year to consolidate with gigs. ‘[It was] amazing to see that there is a presence for an artist based in Australia, and great to see other labels and people about in record shops - like seeing Couchblip releases available in Edinburgh or Pimmon's stuff all over in little shops. It was also a shock to see my record in shops over Europe and record shop owners actually saying hello to me once or twice. But the amount of jaw dropping is pretty astonishing when you mention that you are an Australian artist who has made it over to Europe or the UK just to promote their music. ‘I met a lot of Americans and Canadians were amazed that we have a scene of any kind in electronic music, who though Australia music was all guitar based, and that the only thing remotely electronic and Australian is The Avalanches. Everyone I met and hung out with were all really friendly and open minded in the sense that they were keen to just listen to good music, and fascinated to hear what different styles come out of Australia. ‘Also the laptop performance lashback has well and truly set in, with most laptop performers getting a caning for supposedly 'checking their email/downloading porn/playing minesweeper' whilst doing a live set… Having said that, I did play the odd modest gig, and it was nice to play to a whole different audience.’ And no European trip is replete without wacky anecdotes, surely? ‘Haha yeah some crazy stuff happened along the way,’ confirms Koch ‘A train we caught in France happened to catch on fire… As a consolation we all got one free beer, so I guess that says a lot about the French. ‘Also we checked out this massive metal model of a chemical structure in Brussels called the Atomium funnily enough, which you can climb into as it is like 100 feet high and you can climb into the separate molecules. It was odd that afterwards we found out that Kit Clayton was somewhere in the thing at the same time, as he is chummy with U Cover who I met up with in Belgium. ‘Koen who runs the label, and has a huge history in electronic music in Europe, also gave me a showcase of Belgian beers which kinda knocked me around since I had been really ill in Germany just before, and I think he thought that I was some weak as piss Aussie who couldn't hold their beer. ‘Also saw a lot of really strange things, like big packs of riot police in Belgium all eating yoghurt with little plastic spoons, all sorts of mullet variations all over Europe, too much mention of Steve Irwin, cockroaches that scream when you squash them, walking past Michael Jackson's balcony in Berlin about half an hour before he hung his freak spawn over the edge, being mistaken for a German too often, hearing John Peel locally, seeing incredible amounts of cheap vinyl that was impossible to carry in my backpack, missing Mouse on Mars by one day across all of Europe...’ With such a hectic 2002, one would forgive Koch for stepping back and consolidating. Not so, apparently. US label n5MD recently released the 'Mine Is Yours' minidisc with remixes Koch did for Fourplay, as well as other Australian artists Lawrence English, Brunatex, Mr Eel and internationals like Hrvatski and Proem. Koch also received some funding from Arts SA to release a remix album of the Please Don't Tell Me That's Your Volvo release from a few years ago, entitled Please Don't Tell Me That's Your Remix. ‘I hear everyone groan in unison,’ says Koch ‘but it really is a strong collection of tracks from Australia and overseas artists including Yunx, Raven (Peter from Fourplay), Quark Kent, Proem, Mr Projectile etc. Out on Aural Industries and distributed in Australia by Inertia, Koch will tour Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to launch the disc in March. Around March Islandtones will be released, a long player out on Belgian label U-Cover. ‘It is a lot different than any other stuff I have out I guess, with more sampled guitar, bass and manipulated vocal samples.’ There are also remixes for a double CD on Skylab, sitting nicely with Bochum Welt, Isan, B. Fleischmann and others. As well as some remixes for Don Meers, Siktransit, and Ontayso (Koen Lybaert and Esther Santoyo who run U Cover) ‘I guess without sounding too much like a twat,’ Koch advises, ‘simply be positive about your own material and just choose what suits you the best in terms of doing remixes for people - or other hookups that will get you a little exposure in the scene where you think your style would go down best. ‘The best advice though is to just keep making music and enjoy it for yourself, and anything else that comes after that just think of as a bonus.’ Tim Koch Discography Albums: Ultra Violent Worlds (Vorlon) - includes full PC computer game 1998 (CD) Isolated Rhythm Chock (Aural Industries) AU, 1999 (CD) Please Don't Tell Me That's Your Volvo (Aural Industries) AU, 2000 (CD) Shorts In Alaska (DeFocus) UK, 2002 (CD and vinyl) Thug: Remixed (Aural Industries) AU,2002 (CD) Please Don't Tell Me That's Your Remix (Aural Industries) AU, 2002 (CD) Mine Is Yours (n5MD) USA, 2002 (Minidisc) Islandtones (U-Cover) Belgium, 2003 (CD) EP: Volume EP (DeFocus) UK, 2001 (Vinyl) 8 Bit Orchestra (Electric Avenue) Jap, 2002 (3” CD) MP3: DJ Fish Finger Gone Fishin EP (Monotonik) Compilation: Soundtracks To Imaginary Video Games (Lucky Kitchen) USA (CD) Extracted Celluloid (Illegal Art) USA (CD) Beat and Squelch 1 (Dump Huck) AU (CD) Fluid Fusion (Zygosin Productions) AU (CD) With Naive Assurance That Their Injuries Were Wrongs Inflicted (Intr_Version) Canada (CD) Contemporary Passive Trashcan Vol.1 (Dead Culture) USA (CD) Sound Quality Volume 1 - Approved for Export (ABC Records) AU (CD) TRM Session One (Global Recordings) AU (CD) Sound Options (Systorm Technologies) USA (CD) Other Animals (Couchblip) AU (CD) Perspective Fragments (U-Cover) Belgium (CD) 2002AD compilation (Surgery Records) AU (CD) SID Musique (Erkrankung durch Musique) Germany (CD and vinyl) Sound Quality Volume 2 - Approved for Export (ABC Records) AU (CD) MD2 (Merck) USA (Vinyl) Two You See (DeFocus) 2001 (Vinyl) MD2 (n5MD) USA (Minidisc) Remixes: FourPlay “Digital Manipulation” (Smart Pussy) AU (CD) Dial “What Can You Offer” (Latent Entertainment) AU (CD) Codec “Amalgamation” (Component) USA (CD) Proem 2=1 (Merck) USA (Vinyl) MD Appelsap (Merck Records) USA (CD and vinyl) Marumari Remixes (Car Park) USA (CD and vinyl) Machine Drum “Half The Battle” (Merck) USA (CD) Phasmid "Her Friend The Blue Star" (Skylab) USA (CD) --- Top 10 Home Computer/Console Games Of All Time 01 Sentinel (Commodore64) Firebird 02 Elite (Commodore64) Firebird 03 Exile (Commodore64) 04 Outcast (PC) Infogrames 05 Grand Theft Auto III (PS2) DMA Design 06 Flashback (Amiga) Delphine 07 Impossible Mission (Commodore64) EPYX 08 Parappa The Rapper (PS1) 09 Paradroid (Commodore64) Craftgold 10 Morpheus (Commodore64) Hewson