Terminal V Podcast 074 || FKA.M4A
FKA.M4A very quickly became a real fan favourite. After growing up in London, it was a move to Berlin that accelerated their career and led to sets at cult places like Panorama Bar. A friendship with Peggy Gou developed after a support slot on the same bill and now FKA.M4A’s proudly unpretentious sound mixes up Italo disco, high NRG and leftfield techno everywhere.
Here FKA.M4A speaks about the value of being mentored by Peggy Gou, the importance of diversity in the scene and offers some great background on their upcoming debut EP which has been many years in the making and shows plenty of different sides to the artist’s sound. Alongside that comes a signature mix that is all about “fun and sick tunes.
You cut your teeth playing on the queer scene in London. How different is it to DJ for those crowds in terms of what you play, how you play, how they react?
Queer nightlife is extremely special, I grew up in those spaces and was practically raised by the community. In terms of what I play, it doesn’t really differ whether the event is queer or not – I try and keep my blueprint the same or at least similar, but it does change per location. Some music works better in Germany and some work better in London, for example.
You have been ‘mentored’ by Peggy Gou. What did you learn from that experience? What did it mean to you?
Peggy played such a vital role in my come up, she paid attention to and supported me when literally nobody else was interested outside of the usual small Berlin underground clubs, and my foot was barely in the door there at that time too. I learnt a lot about perseverance, hard work, how to treat people with respect and kindness as well as just having a really fun time with her. I learnt to always push forward and not allow anything to stop me from achieving what I want in life, and I love her for that.
You have spoken before about admiring strong women in the scene. What does the scene do to give young women opportunities to get to that sort of level, do you think? What more could be done and by whom?
Women are extremely important to me, I was raised by powerful women. I think the more that we progress as a society, the voices of minorites are getting louder and taking up more space (as we rightfully should be) of course the experience of a woman in the scene is different to my own, but as a queer artist – we definitely overlap on some experiences.
I think the scene is moving away from full male lineups, we are seeing more minorities being given the space to climb to the top. There is still a lot of judgment and mistreatment of women in our scene, claiming a woman is at the top of her game because of her appearance and not her incredible selection skills is insane, but I feel as more women reach positions of power in our scene, they show the younger generation that they are unstoppable and can achieve exactly what they want to. I love people who open doors for each other.
Your debut EP Summer Nostalgia arrives October 25th. Tell us about the process of writing that first EP, what challenges you faced, how long it has taken, what inspired it and what you hope your signature sound is.
The first EP was inspired by a very toxic love affair on my very first trip to Berlin around 8 years ago. When I started working on it almost 2 years ago it was not my intention to write music from this experience. I didn’t really know what I wanted to create. The first track I finished was the EP closer ‘Summer Nostalgia (Sunset Mix)’ – finishing that took me back to the place of being with that person and I decided there and then, I was gonna write the EP and piece it together in the story of falling in love with someone, being high on love, feeling the tension of things falling apart and then the emancipation of freedom. It’s not an EP of bangers, it can work on the dance floor but being completely honest, it’s mostly there to make you feel something and connect with lost feelings of love. In regards to dance floor bangers, those are coming next year and the following years, but I really wanted my transition from selector to musician to be a very specific story and present my arrival on the scene in this way. It was challenging for me because I doubted myself the whole process, but once the EP was finished and I pieced the story together – I could fully stand behind it.
Tell us about your mix, the aim you had with it, and what you wanted it to say.
I kept my mix very straightforward and just dance floor-friendly. I do spend a lot of time storytelling and jumping through genres in my shows, but on this specific mix I just wanted to have fun and play some sick tunes.
What gear did you use, is that important to you in any way whether in the booth or studio?
I created this mix in my home studio with Pioneer CDJ 3000s, my XONE 92 Mixer + 1210 Vinyls. When I perform live, it is important for me to have my familiar setup, but I’m pretty adaptable, I could probably play on an early-day CDJ if I had to, ha!
What’s next for you? Aside from gigs, what do you have coming up/what are you working on?
I’ve got some really exciting projects coming up. Of course, ‘Summer Nostalgia’ will be out on October 25th but I’m already starting to tease the music for the follow up, which is really all about dance floor destruction. I’m collaborating with some very cool artists both in our scene and in the music industry in general. Now that the first EP is dropping, I’m ready to share a lot more of my musical creativity.
Interview by Kristan Caryl