Post
Interview: hkmori
2024-05-27
hkmori
An interview
Hello again. Back at it after many rough work weeks.
I’ve been at a loss of content to do in this blog ever since I made it, but I remembered that gut spiller did interviews for a short time over at their blog, so I got inspired. Check them out over at Medium here!
So today’s interview is with hkmori, a name you might recognize, or a random person on the street would also recognize. They got insanely popular even after being very popular in our little scene, because of a silly TikTok le maymay.
I’ve been talking to them recently, they are really sweet person and as I’ve had this idea of interviews for a while now in my mind, I decided why not, because… yea. Here we go. I tried to ask interesting questions with a mix of personal, music and others, she doesn’t like disclosing personal things in the slightest and I respect that.
We are on the internet after all.
Introduce yourself!
I am Alice, producing music under the name “hkmori”! I produce music to vent my emotions, and to just get ideas and thoughts out of my head.
Starting with a more off-topic question… If you were completely parched, what would you like to drink right at that moment?
cold water! it’s my favorite drink!
When did you get more interested on music related things, like listening to it?
I suppose I’ve been interested in music since I was a child, my family always played electronic music, which started my love for it..
Do you have any other interests/hobbies you like to do on your free time?
I like to play shooter games, and browse for hours for images of the world.. occasionally, I indulge in my hobby of shortwave listening!
When did you start making music and why? What is the origin of your artist name?
I started making music on 21 April, 2022. a friend of mine had finally convinced me to start putting my feelings into sound, and another friend of mine had given me their personal drums folder, so, from that day, I started to try my hand at producing the genre that I most listened to at the time - depressive breakcore! my artist name is derived from the term “hikikomori”, which describes a person that is extremely withdrawn from society - a situation that I have struggled with for nearly all of my recent life.
Do you think your music falls under the Depressive Breakcore subgenre? What do you think of the so-called subgenre?
I think much of it does, and I intentionally call my music this subgenre! it’s been one of my favorite styles of music for a very long time, I feel that the drum patterns, the flaws, the noisiness, it all expresses the emotional intent of a producer very well.. to me, it’s the best way to express my complex thoughts!
What are your artist and genre influences? What are your favorite artists and genres?
my artist influences tend to be my favorite artists.. to name a few influences, Sorry about my face, I.W., Waqs, edIT, goreshit, nyaso, and so on… as for favorite / influencing genres, breakcore (of course), mashcore, hardstyle, frenchcore, DSBM, post-rock, drum and bass.. and, it’s not an influencing genre, but I love mulatós!!!
How do you feel about the recent explosion in popularity? Has it been hard to deal with?
it’s been extremely hard to deal with, it made me feel more demotivated than I ever have, but I’ve been trying to pick myself back up! I never expected my works to get any attention at all - I only expected it to be listened to by my friends and myself, as to be screaming into a void.. but, I suppose I got a bit of luck..
So what equipment do you use? DAW? Headphones? Plugins?
I use FL Studio, and Sennheiser HD569 headphones.. as for plugins, anything I can find X) usually, I’m making heavy use of the default FL Studio plugins, they’re quite good.. I’m also making lots of use of OTT, and the kHs suite!!
Do you chop breaks in the Piano Roll with SliceX/Fruity Slicer or on the playlist? Does it have any clear downsides?
I do both! but, most of my complex chopping is with the piano roll using SliceX.. I can’t really think of any downsides, it usually works quite well for my purposes.. well, it’s a bit annoying to make slices change speed without changing their pitch, but that’s all…
So when you make music, how do you go about doing it? As in, do you mostly manipulate samples or do you make original sounds/melodies yourself? Do break patterns come from trial and error or from a pattern you first imagine in your mind and then implement in the DAW or somehow else?
I mostly manipulate samples - I am a sample-based producer… only few of my melodies are mostly original (such as my recent track ‘safe with me’) but most of them are sampled! as for break patterns, I am not sure how to describe this process well, but I suppose to put it in simplest terms, it’s just placing down the first thing that comes to mind, and refining it slowly as I keep writing…
How long does it take to make a song from start to finish on average?
sometimes between 4-6 hours, sometimes between 10-12 hours! but, these are just the project times, many times I am taking many days, weeks, or months of break between working on tracks..
Do you think some day you will release something on CD or Vinyl etc?
maybe! I am often asked to do so - it’s a bit of a scary idea, though.. I’ll figure it out some day!
Do you collect any physical music items, such as CD’s? If so, what was your first one?
I do not, currently, but when I was younger I did.. the first one I remember was a disc of Cher - Believe…
Any smaller artists in the scene whose work you very much enjoy?
hmm, yes, nylakiyo and please be quiet are the ones that immediately come to mind ^^ they both make lovely work…
Thank you for all the answers! To finish off, what are your current objectives with music? Are you releasing something new soon?
my current objective is to take my time to find my comfort again, and to rebuild my creative mind.. I will release something as soon as I do this!! I’m not working on anything specific currently - I have lots of projects that I have created and abandoned in the past year, maybe I’ll finish one of them…
Closing words
Interesting stuff! I hope she will get back on her feet regarding music production soon! I related to the break chopping question the most, also the SliceX downside she mentioned is an annoying one for sure… The playlist is able to do just that, but it sounds pretty horrible… FL Studio is full of surprises after all. #FIXFLSTUDIOPITCHSHIFTING
I personally would recommend everyone to start collecting physical items from their favorite artists and genres! I don’t even have a CD/Casette/Vinyl player yet but it still feels super good to own your favorite albums in physical form!
This was really fun to make. From questions to a little of the design I did on the top and bottom of this page. Will see if I’ll try to do more in the future. Thank you for reading! Below are her socials, if you haven’t already visited them. Big thanks to her.
Edits
- 03.09.2024: hkmori actually started making music on April 2022, not on July 2022