INTERVIEW: KLP on latest single 'Body Close': "The more I go on, the more refined I am with what I want the sound of KLP music to be."
Interview: Jett Tattersall
Australia’s KLP (Kristy Lee Peters) is one of the country’s most important young artists. A singer, songwriter, producer, DJ just to name a few, she has also been vital to the conversation around gender equality in music, bringing home grown dance music to the broader Australian community and mentoring young talent.
In a career spanning ten years, she has released multiple singles and EPs, an album, received four ARIA Award nominations and has performed on some of the biggest stages in the country as well as working with artists such as Skrillex, What So Not, Peking Duk and Benson.
She has recently released the brand new single ‘Body Close’. A primal, thumping electronic deep house track featuring vocals from Sayah, it is an euphoric, uplifting listen that instantly transfers you in spirit to a late night dancefloor where all your cares disappear.
“I’ve been testing this one out at my shows over the last few months and it’s been a huge highlight of my sets,” Peters says. “The vocal cuts through immediately and I'd notice people singing along in the crowd even though it was the first time they were hearing it. Every drop just builds and builds throughout the song. Such a good feeling to have it out in the world.”
‘Body Close’ follows KLP’s March single release ‘Big Emotion’ which saw her team up with Grammy nominated Tommy Trash. We recently caught up with her to chat all about the creation of ‘Body Close’.
KLP, hello! You have just released new single ‘Body Close’, which is an absolute corker, but I just want to start off by saying you are such a multi-faceted performer - you obviously are such a pioneer in the world of Australian dance music, but you produce, sing, write and also create children’s music as well.
Yeah, I think I function really well when I'm doing lots of different things. I can do a little bit of work on this, and then this afternoon, do a little bit of work on my music and swap it around.
I imagine quite often when you're working on the kids music, or when you're doing your own projects, ideas for your other things will come that haven't been there before, because you've been so focused on trying to get them. And it's only when you're in a state of relaxation that they come through
Yeah, totally. Or I find that if I'm making music for someone else, it's very different to the stuff I want to do as KLP, and so then when it comes down to working on something for KLP, it's quite easy to narrow down exactly what I want, because I've been doing all the other things.
Does that also fuel your confidence of possibilities on what you can do, and also what you can bring into the KLP space?
Yeah, the more I go on, the more refined I am with what I want the sound of KLP music to be. Especially in the last five years, really zoning in on dance music world and the type of dance music that I like to make and like to play in my sets as well. For a few years, it was really hard when we weren't playing as many shows to be like, ‘what music do I even like playing and what are people going to respond to?’ And now that things are up and running again, it's very easy to be like, ‘I think that's gonna work’ or ‘this is a cool song that I wouldn't be able to play in my set, so it can't really be a KLP thing.’
Now, talk to me about ‘Body Close’ because it is a banger. It's like everyone has to abandon their bar order and run back down to the dance floor. And we have the very velvet vocals of Sayah, talk me through this creation and this collaboration.
So this kind of came about almost by accident. I had a track called ‘Body Close’ and it was me doing a full vocal and it almost had a verse and chorus to it. On a separate occasion, I got Sayah in to record vocals for other things, I do a lot of writing for other producers where I either sing myself or I record a vocalist like Sayah and then pitch them the songs. I got Sayah to sing it and she was so amazing. I was like, maybe she should sing this song because it's kind of not working with me. One of the ideas I had her sing was so awesome, and I was like, I kind of want to turn that into a KLP song. What I ended up doing was combining the two, so I had half my old vocal and half Sayah’s new vocal. I got her in for another session and she replaced my old vocal and just absolutely nailed it. That was the breakthrough moment where we were like, ‘Okay, this is a thing now it's going to work. Let's finish it off.’
Oh, that's sounds fabulous. Your career is just a stream of collaborations, you've collaborated with some amazing artists. What do you think is the number one rule of a successful collaboration?
You've just got to have a really good balance of sticking to your guns, but then also being flexible and not precious. Every situation is different, and I've definitely had collaborations with people where I feel like I've maybe compromised too much, or the track has gone not necessarily in the direction I would want it to go. With this one, I actually collaborated with a producer called Dave Winnel and I cannot sing his praises enough. First of all he’s just the nicest guy, but we work together so well. I know that it's a good working collaboration when it's fast and easy, and it's really fast and easy with him. So I had this idea, I sent it to him, he did some stuff to it, and then we just went backwards and forwards. We got in the studio together to work on it more and we just connect on the same sounds that we want in tracks. From that, we've gone on to do a whole bunch of other collaborations for other people and on his projects as well.
Oh, I love that. Because I imagine from a production perspective, having someone that not only supports you, but just makes you feel very empowered by what you're doing is just the ultimate combination, right?
Oh, yeah. There are some situations where you're in a collaboration and you feel like anything you suggest isn't taken seriously, or there's just an uneven balance, it's not a democracy. With Dave it's always a pleasure working with him.
That uneven balance, within pop music it always seems to be heavily gendered, and I was wondering in dance music is it also gendered? Or does it come down to experience seems to win out in the room?
I think for me, I've probably been around enough that it would take a lot for me to feel not comfortable to speak up. But dance music is very much a male dominated scene, still probably will be for a long time. But that being said, I work with a lot of guys and they are so supportive and treat me like an equal. I find it to be like a great experience for myself personally.
As you just said you've been in the dance scene for a long time you've very renowned on Australia's club floors, but I'm curious because not everyone starts out cool. Well, we do start cool because we listen to our parents cool music but then we move aside and buy something that might be giggled at the time. What was the first piece of music you bought for yourself?
When I was young I think it was Peter Andre’s ‘Mysterious Girl’. Do you remember that?
Oh that’s nothing to be ashamed of! That is a great song.
Peter Andre. Kylie Minogue. I'm so excited that Kylie's having amazing success right now again with her amazing song ‘Padam Padam’ because I’m an original Kylie stan. I was also into Spice Girls, but also Silverchair, so it was a bit of an eclectic bag.
That's a good bag and I can see the progression as the years go on. What was it that got you into dance music? From Silverchair to the dance floor?
I think for a lot of people, it's a natural progression into dance music when they turn 18 and they go out. I do a lot of work in high schools, working for this amazing programme that APRA run called SongMakers, you're working with young people and writing music with them. A lot of the time when you go in, and you ask what music they're into, no one's into dance, they're into everything but dance. So from pop music, to rock to jazz to punk or whatever. But you see that change when they turn 18, because they go out to nightclubs and dance music is what's being played. For me, just going out and being surrounded by it, having friends that were into dance music, and going out to parties where they played dance music.
I like that. And it's such a great point, where the trajectory goes to when you can start going out and going, ‘Oh, this is what I can do now. I'm not just in my bedroom, obsessing over lyrics, I can go out.’
Yep, exactly. There's a different way to physically dance to dance music and I've played some gigs to young adults and it might be their first time listening to dance music and it is interesting just watching them and your bodies and how you move to dance music and seeing that progression.
It's so true. On that subject, what excites you about Australia's dance music scene in 2023?
Some of the biggest dance music acts worldwide are Australian you've got FISHER you've got Dom Dolla, they're all Aussies, and they're the ones out there making great dance music. It's just awesome that in this day and age it doesn't matter where you're from, you can be heard everywhere. That being said I would love to be heard more overseas, so hopefully one day that will be possible for me.
Oh it'll come for sure, you’re cleaning the floor here. Kristy before I leave you, what else is coming up for you this year?
Just lots of music hopefully. Putting out lots and lots of music. I'm trying to write as much as I can. And then other fun projects like the one that I can't tell you about that I'm working on right now! That will be not necessarily a KLP thing but another fun cameo pop up somewhere. I don't know, throw anything at me and I'll give it a go.
‘Body Close’ is out now via Warner Music Australia/Medium Rare Recordings. You can buy and stream here.
To keep up with all things KLP you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
