American producer FBK returns to Rekids with his debut album entitled More Stories From The Future.
Long-term house and techno heavyweight, Kevin M. Kennedy aka FBK has a career spanning three decades. Debuting with a seminal release on Frictional in ’97, Kennedy went on to appear on labels like diametric. and Urban Kickz, whilst more recent releases have landed on Barba Records, Suspected (alongside Paul Mac) and Rekids – kick-starting the label’s Special Projects series. With a close bond to Detroit greats like Anthony ‘Shake’ Shakir, Daniel Bell, Claude Young, Keith Tucker and Sherard Ingram (DJ Stingray), FBK is considered a true contemporary. Returning to Rekids for his inaugural long player, ‘More Stories From The Future’ demonstrates his versatility within the studio and mirrors his genre-bending approach to performing, both as a DJ and live act.
‘Modular Life’ brings deep resonating lows, liquid pads and clinical percussion, before the psychedelic vocals of ‘I’ll Sit Back, You’ll Jack’ join smashing snares and intensifying synths. Exhibiting erratic sound design, ‘Layers of Fear’ comes complete with pumping drums and intense hi-hats, until ‘Hassling’ offers a stepping groove, thick pad stabs and deep sub movement. ‘Headless’ gets modular heavy with bubbling effects and shuffling rhythm, preceding the driving kicks of ‘Gate Closing’ where ghostly vocals meet enveloping acid growls. ‘The Boxing Lesson’ delivers punchy kicks and steppy snares under lofty atmospherics, ending on ‘The Finisher’s Heart’ where evolving detuned synths flow over powerful percussion.
We sat down with Kevin to talk about his career, the album, and much more.
Hi great to speak with you, Kevin. Your career spans three decades. What were your early musical influences?
First of all, thank you for your time! My earliest influences come from my family. My mother always played music in the home and encouraged my exploration…hearing late 70s disco, R&B like Luther Vandross’ ‘Searching’ and growing up with gospel music. I started playing clarinet as a youth and got interested in classical music and early minimalism like Phillip Glass and John Adams from listening to public radio. Getting the gift of a shortwave radio when I was 9 helped me find a whole different world of sound. Then I got into skateboarding and hardcore whilst hearing early hip hop, and all the sounds coming from Detroit and Chicago while breakdancing at the Boys Club. My ears were always open to hearing everything I could!
At what point did you decide to dive in headfirst into music as a career path and was it a difficult choice at the time in Columbus, Ohio?
I was heavily involved in the arts as a youth, being in youth choirs, youth orchestras. Then around 1990 I met Eric Weaver and became a member of a rap group called Poets of Heresy, we recorded and performed together for 6 years and got looked at by major labels like Sony. I guess that was the point where I decided that this was a career path to go down. That time period was interesting here because Columbus was being called ‘the next Seattle’ so there were scouts and agents abound and we were rubbing shoulders with bands like The New Bomb Turks, Guided by Voices and opening for De La Soul and Public Enemy. I wanted that level of fame, and I thought I could get there…
With releases on some of house & techno’s most important labels over the years, would it be possible to talk through your personal career highlights?
I started making techno in 1994, after buying all the wrong equipment to make hip-hop. I spent a year collecting tunes and recording onto cassette and reel-to-reel and handed Paul Johnson, Daniel Bell and Ambient producer DAC Crowell an hour long tape of tracks in June 1995. This got me to learn from each, including working in DAC’s legendary studio and doing a weeklong session with Dan inside of the old KMS building.
My first release on vinyl was 1996 on Charles Noel’s (Monochrome/Archetype) 21/22 Corporation label, which was put on the Acid Junkie’s mix called “The Acid Life volume 1,” which I did as Powerhouse. I met Derrick Thompson of Soiree Records shortly after and gave him a demo which he loved and put out as the first release on Xplor. This got me some very good press and I charted around the world under the name The Sleep Engineer. I met Anthony Shakir during that time, as he and Dan were playing in Ohio often (along with me), and finally gave him some tunes that he put out on Frictional, including a track in 6/4 time, one in 11 and one in 5/4 on the B side which I don’t know if anyone in Techno has ever done in combination.
The A side of that record was recorded in my home with Shake helping and guiding the mix. A long gap ensued where I performed and recorded but had no releases for 11 years. Paul Mac put out a digital release for me on