Kamandi's Debut USA Show: 30 Days in LA 18 Nov 2014
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KAMANDI TOUCHED DOWN
FOR HIS DEBUT USA SHOW AT RED BULL SOUND SELECT: 30 DAYS IN
LA
@RedBullNZ #SoundSelect
#BreakMusic
Christchurch local Kamandi touched down on foreign
soil last week for his debut USA show at Red Bull Sound Select 30 Days in LA
with Chance the Rapper and Azizi Gibson. He’ll be filling us in
on shows and more, presenting a first-hand account of
adventures in LA land. Sit back for the first chapter of his
30 Days in LA tour diary.
Wednesday 12
November
This is my first time in the States and
it actually took a while to sink in that I’m in Los
Angeles. My manager Haydn Middleton’s out here with me. We
got picked up from LAX in a black Sound Select van and went
directly to where we’re staying, this massive complex in
the Hollywood Hills. There’s a gym on every floor and a
bar and cinema downstairs, all the bells and whistles.
Apparently Justin Bieber stayed recently. It’s actually
crazy.
The first night Azizi came through and we had a few drinks. He introduced us to his engineer, Lawrence Naber, and a bunch of other people – they’re all connected with creative people out here. That’s just one of those advantages of having local knowledge.
We all headed out to Low End
Theory, a legendary LA club night run by
The Gaslamp Killer – it’s a hub of the
LA beat scene. We got to see Teebs and Gaslamp smash it, and
then Gaslamp invited us to watch a woman called Astronautica
perform. That was cool to make a musical discovery on the
first night of the trip.
Thursday 13
November
The next morning we linked up with
Lawrence at his studio, and Azizi and I started work on a
new track. After that session, I was in two minds about
whether to go to Run the Jewels’ 30 Days in LA show. I
decided against it ’cause of the jetlag and I definitely
regret it; Haydn ended up going and I could tell by his
smirk that he’d experienced a pretty epic
gig.
Friday 14 November
On Friday
morning, a Sound Select van shuttled us over to Red Bull Studios Los Angeles. It’s
this massive facility, incredible gear everywhere. I’ve
seen photos before but they didn’t prepare me for what’s
on offer.
I had some skeleton beats that I’d worked on the night before, but when Azizi arrived we decided to make a fresh song on the spot. I started the beat and he was writing while it was being created. Being in a space like that definitely fuelled the creative process.
Flying Lotus was playing that night, so we rushed back to the house to freshen up and then headed to The Wiltern, this beautiful venue he was performing at. The whole show was insane – he performs in this cube which has visuals projected onto it.
I had to go home early so I could be on-point for my 30 Days in LA set the next night, but Haydn stuck around and ended up playing Mortal Kombat in FlyLo’s tour bus with him and Thundercat – crazy.
Saturday 15 November
Saturday was
game day. I had a few hours to run through my set while
Haydn set off to find an adapter so I could plug everything
in. He had all sorts of dramas getting one and he got back
just before we had to leave.
The venue was the motherf***ing House of Blues (!), a legendary venue on Sunset Boulevard, which is mind-blowing. It sold out in the first two days and it was amazing to see so many up-for-it Los Angelinos there for my set.
My first ever LA show was at a packed House of Blues, which was a pretty special introduction to the city – it was totally surreal, to be honest. Beautiful venue, beautiful people, shit was crazy. Once I got off stage, there was a 20-minute changeover before Azizi’s set. He put on an incredible show, he smashes it every time. Chance the Rapper was up next and he also put on a crazy set. He brought his live band through and the whole thing was really high energy. I love his music, so to see that translated live was awesome.
It felt like the whole city was at the House of Blues; you can be anywhere in LA and you’ll see celebrities everywhere. Haydn and I got back to the green room after Chance’s set and Big Sean was there. That was pretty crazy, casually crossing paths with Big Sean in our green room – I had to Instagram it.
We were all feeling pretty damn good about the show, so we had a massive shindig back at the compound. Chance’s manager came with us and he was actually DJing my music from a USB stick.
Sunday 16 November
Today’s a
recovery day – Lawrence took us to Venice Beach. Amazing
weather, blue skies, beautiful Californian sun blazing down.
The next big thing for me and Azizi is a gig in Austin Texas
later this week, which is pretty damn exciting. I’ll check
back in after the show with a report on what goes down.
Keep posted on Kamandi’s LA journey on www.redbull.co.nz/music.
-Ends-
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