Interview: Willaris. K

Radio BurgerFuel: I guess the Willaris. K story really started a couple of years back, but if you go back a little bit further than that, would your high school mates and friends have expected you to end up doing what you're doing now?

Willaris. K: I think so yeah, I was DJing, I was a resident at clubs in Brisbane from about 2012 till a couple of years ago. So I've always been pushing for it. But even I didn't think it would become my full-time job. I'm an electrician by trade - I'd work during the week and then every evening I'd be working on music and every weekend I'd be DJing up in Brisbane. It seemed like a bit of a slow burn process so the Willaris. K story is quite fresh.

What was it like the day you made that call to say, "Right, that's it, I'm now a musician by trade" ?

Pretty wild.  I finished my apprenticeship late 2016 and my whole apprenticeship, I'd told my boss that I was going to go on 12 months leave when I finished to go traveling. And then I put out Alchemy, it started doing well, so I just got stuck into music and I was meant to go back to work in March this year and then I told them if I was to come back then I'll probably be part-time or I'll be out a bit because I'd already been booked for those Europe shows in Ireland and Berlin. And they were basically like if you want to come back it would have to be full time so it was a pretty easy transition really.

Alchemy has been out for a few months now. Have you had time to reflect on it yet?

Yeah, I was able to reflect. It's been with me for so long, I was playing most of those tracks for most of my live shows throughout 2017 and all of 2018. It definitely allowed me to look back and reflect on the time when I did write those tracks. A lot of them were written when I was still working full time.

Because it took you a couple of years right?

Yeah, yeah. I was just writing and refining. Most of the time I was really just simplifying them, from live reaction. Having it released has definitely been cool to look back on that period of my life. It kind of feels like that period has closed now - I'm fully entering life as a full time musician.

Was it hard work putting Alchemy together?

Yeah, the themes were pretty dark. To me it was big transformative writing process because I was writing while I was frustrated. I was working full-time and it was a pretty demanding job, so I'd get home at night and the last thing I'd want to do is write music. And then working full-time while Alchemy was on the radio and I hadn't any other tracks finished, that was kind of stressful. But being able to play the tracks in the live shows, that was the best thing that could have happened to me.

When you started putting Alchemy together, did you have an idea about how you wanted to shape it? Or did that come as you were writing songs and playing the live shows?

It definitely came just through playing the live shows. It didn't really start making sense to me as a cohesive project until I started to thinking about the scenes for the videos. I was thinking about how it all made sense together like the flow from Alchemy. And then it unfolded itself to me and each track that was on the project was a part of that.

It's sounding a bit cliched, but it just started to make sense to me when they were more finished, than after I'd played the show. I was going in blindly just writing whatever, which I think is my best way to write. I don't think too much about it, I write as much as possible and then it will start making sense.

That's cool. And I think that I've seen that there's a vinyl release for Alchemy on the way, is that right?

Yeah, yeah, when I got home to the test prepping, that was pretty surreal listening to my project on vinyl.

How did it sound?

It sounded amazing, it sounded so warm and banging. It was a weird feeling. That should be out in a month or so, definitely before my Australian shows.

It has been a pretty big couple of years for you, especially with this last year including Coachella, the Australian tour, realeasing your EP, and making it to Europe.

Yeah, it’s been massive. I'm very fortunate to be able to travel because of my music.

Was this trip to Europe the first time you'd actually made it there since you were supposed to go on your OE?

No, so basically I went there in 2015, and I count 2015 as the beginning of the whole Willaris. K thing, because that's when I started to figure out that this was the kind of stuff that I wanted to make. I went to Europe in September with a few of my mates for a month and I said to myself when I left, I'm not going back until my music takes me there, which I thought would be much further down the track. It was cool to be able to go back and I actually played at a club in Berlin that I went to a few years ago, so that was pretty cool.

Didn't you play at a couple of festivals in Ireland? It looked pretty crazy from the photographs.

It was insane, I couldn't believe it! I played in Slovenia - I closed this warehouse party after Joris Voorn and I played from 4.30am to 6am to all these crazy Eastern Europeans in a warehouse which was cool. And then the next night I was in Berlin and the next day I was in Dublin. I played at three in Dublin, and Ross From Friends was meant to be after me, but pulled out. So I got pushed up into his slot and then all these kids just started rolling in. They were expecting Ross From Friends, and he didn't show up and then I just started playing and they all hung around. I could tell they didn't know any of my tracks because I played Alchemy and then Dour Nights and there was not much reaction but they were going nuts. Some of the biggest reactions I've had to my music live and they had no idea who I was. So that was pretty cool.

That must be quite gratifying for you as an artist that people, without any preconceptions, can come in and still relate and understand what you're trying to give them with the music.

Yeah, yeah, it felt great. It kind of just shows the music's okay I suppose.

And you said you're currently working on an album, so how's that going?

Yeah, yeah, good. Now that the EP's out, I feel I can fully dive into writing, working on my album, and figuring out what it's going to be. I'm in a similar process now, it’s so much different having all the time in the world. With Alchemy, I had very minimum time, and now I have as much time as I want. I think with my creative process, I'm slowly working it out, but I just try and write as much as possible and then it just starts making sense, eventually.

Is it going to be an extension, the next step to Alchemy?

I'm not going to go out and try to write Alchemy 2.0. The sound is definitely going to develop. In which way, I don't really know, but it's definitely going to be a development of what I've already started.

That's cool. I was having a flick through on Spotify and noticed you've got a playlist with a whole lot of tracks that I guess you're just digging there?

I kind of just chuck that on shuffle in the morning and try and get blindsided by something interesting. I try not to listen to stuff that's too much in my world because you start comparing, I don't think it's that healthy for creativity.

That's cool, well that would explain why there's Travis Scott and Denzel Curry in there, right?

Yeah, yeah, so I do get around that music. I love the new Travis Scott album. Once I'm pretty content with what I've achieved, I think eventually I'll write some music for other people, playing into that.

You've got your Australian tour coming up...any plans maybe to make it back over New Zealand?

None at this stage but, I'd say that I'd definitely be over there next year.

Wicked, well we can't wait to, one, have you over this way again and check you out, and two, get the vinyl and hear the new music from you.

Lovely, thanks so much.