DJ Koze: The magic loop

Spain – and the idea of locality – influences Koze in countless ways. He has for years called a certain corner of Catalonia home, a town we won’t name because he wishes to keep it sacred. But it doesn’t matter so much as the idea of environmental context, of how the soil under your feet feeds creativity.

“Your surroundings change the way you make music. Not so much that you actively get input from a place, but the opposite: that you don’t get musical input,” he explains. It’s now several days after Koze’s Coachella set, and our environment has changed radically as well. Gone are the thumping kick-drums and intoxicating Jupiter sunset; in their place the bougainvillea garden of a Venice Beach coffee shop. The serenity seems to befit Koze; dressed in a flowing shirt, baggy pants and floppy newsboy cap he looks like he drifted in from the yoga studio next door.

“No-one’s heard of Daft Punk or Kraftwerk where I live,” he says. “If someone asks me what I do and I say I make music, they ask me if I know the Rolling Stones or Deep Purple. I love it. It’s so uncool and untrendy,” he smiles. “It’s so unhip, it’s perfect.”

There’s a long walk Koze takes when he’s producing tracks, a mountainous hike that winds through orchards and forests, along the ocean and up cliffs. “Sometimes I hike in the mountains alone, for hours, listening to the drafts I’ve produced on headphones. And then I arrive in the city and I know what to do with the music,” he says.

“Everything is super-clear in front of you when you go outside. If I leave the building where I made the music, and bring it to nature, for me everything becomes clear. When I’m sitting in front of the computer, I don’t see it.”

When he’s finished listening to his latest work, Koze cues up his favourite artists and walks the Catalan landscapes. Sonically the production must compare with Maceo Plex, Herbert, Brian Eno, Animal Collective et al. It is a relevant sonic palette to work with, given that his last full-length, 2013’s ‘Amygdala’, featured the likes of Caribou, Matthew Dear and Rhye.

“If there is no depth, or if it is too pumping, it won’t work. It has to compete with the music you love,” he explains as bougainvillea shadows dapple his face, the warm Cali breeze doing its best to transport us to that same Iberian coast. Coachella, Spain, Venice Beach – in the end, for Koze, it’s all about the beats that soundtrack your journey.

“Music must be something which touches or moves us. Or perhaps we don’t understand it, but we can feel there’s something behind it. Say if it’s abstract and we don’t get it yet, but we have to listen to it often – that’s a good sign.” He pauses, takes a sip of his iced coffee, then reconsiders. “That might even be the best sign.”

'Pampa Vol 1' is out now