Kid KoalaTurntables are becoming as much a part of a touring rock band these days as a guitar or the lead singer’s skinny blue jeans. But it’s still a novelty when someone actually knows how to use them.

Kid Koala is no rookie. After four solo albums all promoted with elaborate interactive tours, and opening slots for the likes of Radiohead, Bjork, RJD2, DJ Shadow and Beastie Boys (on their Hello Nasty tour, no less), the man knows his way around the booth.

By association, then, Kid Koala’s project called The Slew was a guaranteed success from the outset, despite the outlandish nature combining his fusion-jazz turntable leanings with a hard-rock rhythm section.

Making up The Slew is Wolfmother’s rhythm section (bassist Chris Ross and drummer Myles Heskett), as well as Koala’s frequent collaborator Dynomite Dan (Dylan Frombach), under the studio direction of Mario Caldato Jr. (who produces the Beastie Boys).

Koala (nee Eric San) spent the last four years in touch with Grammy-winning Australian rockers Wolfmother after meeting them at a gig in Montreal. As the blueprint for The Slew began taking shape (originally planned as a score for an as yet unreleased film by some unnamed industry friends), San pitched the idea to the rhythm section and before he knew it, they were coordinating a North American tour in between what San called Wolfmother’s “planetary non-stop world tour.”

“There’s an insta-vibe,” San tells andPOP after the first two shows in Vancouver and Montreal. “You walk in and think, ‘Oh cool, something’s going to happen here.’ So far the response has been pretty raucous, in a good way. There was a mosh pit going last night [in Montreal] – the first one of my career.”

It’s a more organic tour than San is used to though, as his elaborate live shows have become something of his calling card. For example, The Short Attention Span Theatre in support of his 2003 release Some of My Best Friends are DJS featured three DJs on 8 turntables and included a bingo tournament at intermission. (Yes, there was an intermission.)

The most remarkable part of this tour though is simply the volume.

“This is way louder. I play loud when I DJ,” says San. “That energy of playing off someone else who is also playing – on record you can react to what’s on the record but the record can’t react to you. We’ve had to adjust, use special spring-loaded turntables that are shockproof to all the rocking out and jumping around that’s going on. It’s a way more visceral, physical show.”

Because the tour had to come together in such a hurry, there was no chance to campaign “100%,” Kid Koala and The Slew’s debut album. Instead, Ninja Tune posted a full steam of the album – which was available on their website until Nov. 1, setting the tracklist straight since illegal and incomplete links floated around online all summer. That’s not to say that hard copies disappeared once the tour ended – “100%” will be available in CD or double vinyl LP format Nov. 24.

“Even if I’m watching my favourite band in the universe, if they choose that night to play all new material, I feel like, ‘Aw man, I wish had heard some of these tunes before,’” says San. “This is just facilitating more fun for the audience. It’s the DJ side of me. It was that simple really, an easy decision to make as far as making it available.”

But San rarely stops there when it comes to his releases. His debut album, “Carpal Tunnel Syndrome,” included a video game and a graphic novel – both of which he produced – and he continues to raise the bar with each record. Once the Slew wraps up the last leg of their international tour in Beijing, San will return to his solo work to finish up “Space Cadet,” a graphic novel with an accompanying soundtrack.

Last winter, San hosted a series of concerts in Montreal called Drawing To, that he says influenced this latest record ambition – that and his recent fatherhood. Manning the turntables, San provided a blend of chilled out jams, in no way danceable in the traditional DJ sense, instead encouraging his audience to bring their work or knitting or a paper and pen.

“It was a pre-emptive test to see if the audience could handle a night that was down-tempo and mellow,” says San. “Space Cadet is a book about isolation. We’re trying to see if we can get people to wear headphones and transmit the turntables to their headphones. It’s communal but everyone has to be in their own head too, which I think is the only way to bring the theme of that thing into context in a live situation that would make sense. Its truest to how the records were made.”

Although having a baby daughter around the house somewhat explains the quieter atmosphere, San has always leaned toward soothing sounds, surviving on a self-professed diet of Billie Holiday and Thelonius Monk.

It sounds like The Slew would be a stark departure from the smooth crafting Kid Koala fans are used to, and although the sound even just on record is louder and more aggressive, there is still that element of the original cool to the music. The album is laden with familiar Wolfmother-as-Led-Zeppelin guitar riffs, sluggish backbeats and scratched out soul vocals, a combination that would otherwise be jarring were it not for San’s electronic mastery.

Despite it being a collaborative effort, there is a reason San’s tag is the first part of the project: Kid Koala and The Slew is just another one of his crazy ideas.

“I’m not an artist that sells enough records that I can even pay rent off record sales,” says San. “If they buy tickets, that’s one thing. But musically, I didn’t get into music to make big fat radio singles or giant dancefloor anthems. I made music that I wanted to hear, whether its commercially viable or not. With The Slew, we just wanted to make a record we wanted to hear that we hadn’t heard yet, or at least not quite this way.”






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