We’re thrilled to have Katherine Anderson aka K2K present the ultimate Maxo Relaxo Mix as part of Hue & Saturation’s Mix Series. The Auckland DJ and Producer has been very busy of late with having released her debut, absolute cracker of an EP through Margins last year as well as being heavily involved in Night Pottery, a collective from Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland focused on hosting parties and releasing quality dance music. In between balancing a full-time job, she is working on new music and embarking on her own mini Summer AUS/NZ tour.
So, from what I understand, this mix is a bit more mellow and ambient than your usual mixes, can you tell us a bit about it? What’s the main inspiration behind it and are there any tracks in particular you're really vibing / want to give a shout-out?
I was recently at the beach, trying to read a book in the sunshine. I've got a playlist on my phone which is perfect to read to - lots of ambient, dub, a bit of jazz, and I decided it would be fun to blend a lot of it into the perfect summer reading-at-the-beach mix. Previously I've made my mixes dancier, normally as a preview of the type of music I play when I DJ. I've been loving the label Public Possession lately, and was going through their discography and found a release by Konrad Wehrmeister from 2015, called ‘Nutty Dubs’. The first track from that release, Nutty Parasite, was probably my fav. I slowed it down a lil bit to put in this mix, it's a beautiful dubby track that has felt like the soundtrack to my hazy NZ summer :)
So you’re part of the Night Pottery collective (good name btw) who’ve thrown a handful of parties with the likes of Ciel and Project Pablo on the line-ups. How did Night Pottery come to be and can you drop us any hints of who we can expect to be on the line-up this year?
I got involved w throwing shows after coming back from RBMA in 2016. I was asked to play a show for a new NZ party called Inky Waves, and after getting to know the people involved, became a part of the crew. It was my first experience with running shows, all the promo, curation, venue hunting etc, I really started to love it! We were focusing on promoting local house and techno, as it was just starting to have a resurgence amongst the younger generation in NZ. We held a lot of fun parties over the next few years, but after a few core members left, we decided to reform as Night Pottery, and to start to host a few of our international favourites as well. 2019's looking a little quieter for us as most of us are splintering off and leaving NZ, but I'm currently in the planning stages of an NZ Discwoman tour. We're hoping to host panel discussions on diversity in dance music, and are planning to host DJ workshops for female identifying + non-binary people in NZ. Aside from that, hoping to bring a few Aussie DJs over and keep promoting the local scene as much as we can!
What has been your favourite experience playing out to date ?
Late 2018 I was lucky enough to go on a lil tour of Aus, where I got to play my first 6 hour set at Pavlova Bar, a queer party in Sydney. I was pretty intimidated at the idea of playing for 6 hours but it ended up being one of my favourite gigs I've ever played. Having that amount of time allowed me to dig pretty deep into tracks I always wanted to play but never felt like I'd been able to. I got to play a lot faster and a lot darker than I do in NZ, and all the dancing was so expressive and it felt as if we were all on a journey! Sounds corny but it was amazing :')
What does 2019 hold in-store for K2K?
I'm off to Australia next week for another short tour, finally getting to play Daydreams in Melbourne and a beautiful rooftop party in Sydney. I'm hoping to DJ a little less this year and focus more on making music. I'm halfway through an EP with my friend Hugo Jay, so that'll hopefully be finished up and released soon. Would love to get a solo EP out too, and work on a live set.
Catch K2K playing in Sydney at “Lovejoy's A Year Of Love & Joy” on Saturday February 9th with Tom Trago, Jennifer Loveless, Miss Goldie, Simon Caldwell & Morgan Joy and then at Daydreams the following Sunday in Melbourne.