Naïve and careless: Kornél Kovács makes house music from the heart

Your album is called ‘The Bells’, like Jeff Mills’ techno classic. What inspired that choice?

There's a track called 'The Bells' on the album, which has a vocal that recites "The Bells, The Bells". So the idea for the title comes from that. I thought it was a good title. It's also an Edgar Allen Poe reference, and it's a really nice word to say, round and beautiful, it looks good in text. And there are a lot of bell sounds in my music. I usually decide on a title when a couple of things like that come together, and it feels like a perfect storm.

Obviously I'm aware of the Jeff Mills reference and I find it pretty funny. I remember being really young and in a record store and this older, really established Stockholm techno DJ was also in the store and complaining to the clerk about a gig the past weekend. He was complaining about how young and uneducated the crowd was, that he played 'The Bells' by Jeff Mills and got no reaction. Like people didn't realise that it was the biggest tune ever. I remember listening to this guy like, what a fucking prick, what does he care?

You often use Hungarian words as track titles. Is this solely in reference to your heritage, or is there a deeper attraction to the language that you think fits with your music?

Maybe there is a deeper sense to it. First of all, I think it looks cool, like a weird alien language. Linguists consider it one of the most difficult languages to learn in adult age. I've been speaking it since I was a baby. A lot of my music has nostalgic meaning to me, a lot of the tracks released now have been around either as sketches on my computer or melodies in my head for quite a few years. They've become like old friends or secrets that you never share with anyone. The Hungarian language is also like an old friend in that sense, it's something that reminds me of my childhood, of my roots, my family, my parents. So I do romanticise Hungarian and Hungary quite a bit. ‘Szív Utca’ for example is the name of the street where my family back in Hungary have lived for three generations.

A lot of your music is sampled-based. How did you go about selecting samples for the album?

It's super random. I buy a lot of records, I download stuff all the time, I go on YouTube a lot. If I can be bothered I'll do field recordings. For me it's a natural way of making music. It's as natural as playing a synth or programming a drum machine. Except that you run the risk of getting sued! Which only makes it more gangster, I guess.

The artwork features a childhood photo of your sister Dora. Why did you pick this?

I just think it's such a great picture and I also really like the tradition of full face portraits as album covers. I was thinking about Nas’ 'Illmatic' when I chose it. It's also the second time my sister has been on an album cover. She grew up in Hungary whereas I grew up in Sweden, but she moved to Sweden about seven years ago. In the first week she got scouted on the streets and ended up being on the front cover for the new album from Sweden's biggest rock group Kent. They're basically the Swedish U2. So if you have a proven album cover model in your family then why not use her? I think it's a great picture, and I also think it relates to my music because there's a lot of conflicting emotions in her facial expression. She looks happy and cute, but also super scared, like something is a bit off. I thought that was a nice representation of the music, the whole straddling the line between cute and menacing thing. It has an almost Chris Cunningham/Aphex Twin warped quality, though it's a completely untouched, original analogue picture.

What more would you like to achieve with Studio Barnhus?

I'd like Studio Barnhus to be a label that could handle a big pop artist, while at the same time be a label that can keep on putting out super harsh noise records or a limited dancehall 7". The goal is to get a bit more organised and professional in terms of being a company, and also keep surprising ourselves. If we keep it interesting and surprising for ourselves, I think that will translate and people will get that.

'The Bells' is out on August 26 via Studio Barnhus

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Intern. Follow him on Twitter here