Eric San
(born 1974 in Vancouver, Canada) [1] , who records under the name Kid Koala
, is a Montreal, Quebec based DJ and turntablist. He is signed to the British Ninja Tune record label, is a member of jam band Bullfrog and alternative hip hop supergroup Deltron 3030. He has also made appearances with many other artists from Amon Tobin to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and has made contributions to Lovage [2], Peeping Tom [3], Gorillaz [4] and numerous other projects.
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KID KOALA TICKETS
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Biography
San attended
Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School in
Vancouver, BC, Canada, but graduated from
Thomas Sprigg Wootton High School and went on to study elementary education at
McGill University [5]. He is well known for his enigmatic style of
turntablism, which uses an unusual collection of samples. He has been known to use samples of music from
Charlie Brown television specials, old comedy sketch routines (including those which mock turntablism), people
sneezing, and people reading a menu in
Cantonese. He is well known for his cheerful demeanor at concerts and having a good sense of humour.
San is also an illustrator and an artist, having designed all of his own album covers. A comic book he drew is included as the liner notes to
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
. Following the release of the album, Kid Koala toured extensively, during which time he opened for some of his favorite artists, including
Radiohead and
Björk [6] [7].
He has also released a full length graphic novel,
Nufonia Must Fall
, which includes a soundtrack CD he composed.
Some of my Best Friends are DJs
includes a
chess set as part of the packaging.
This album was supported by a
cabaret-style tour throughout North America, Europe and Australia known as
The Short Attention Span Theatre
, which featured an unpredictable opening act—3 Djs (Kid Koala,
P-Love, and
DJ Jester the Filipino Fist) on 8 turntables set up like a band, and a bingo game at intermission among other tremendously quirky surprises. Following this tour Kid Koala has performed DJ sets all over Asia, as well as in Iceland, Eastern Europe, Russia, and South America whilst working on a new book (apparently about a
mosquito trying to play a
clarinet) and a unique puppet show set to take place in 2008.
San popularized a method of playing the turntable like a melodic instrument, where a long, single note is dragged under the needle at different speeds, creating different pitches. Since this method of adjusting pitch is imprecise, the resulting notes waver and bend. Thus, in the song "Drunk Trumpet," San uses this method with a trumpet note to simulate a drunken trumpet player; interspersing drunken vocals to complete the effect.
San released the Kid Koala album, entitled
Your Mom's Favorite DJ
(ZENCD127), on 25 September 2006.
As of October 2006 San was married and had recently embarked on a 90-city tour.
In 2008 he toured as the opening performer for
DJ Shadow &
Cut Chemist's "
The Hard Sell" tour.
Discography
Albums
- 2000: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
(Ninja Tune ZENCD34)
- 2003: Some of my Best Friends are DJs
(Ninja Tune ZENCD82)
- 2006: Your Mom's Favorite DJ
(Ninja Tune ZENCD127)
Other notable releases
- 1996: Scratchcratchratchatch
- mixtape demo album, limited to 500 copies and initially released on cassette only (CS001)
- 1996: Scratchappyland
- selections from the "Scratchcratchratchatch" mixtape - 10" released by Ninja Tune (ZEN10KK)
- 2003: Nufonia Must Fall
- Graphic novel with accompanying 17 minute audio CD (ECW Press)
- 2005: ''Live from the Short Attention Span Audio Theater Tour
|'' - 5 track live
EP with accompanying DVD containing the video of the
live performance plus 4
Music videos (ZENCD101, Ninja Tune)
- 2005: Impulsive! Revolutionary Jazz Reworked
See also
- Lovage (band)
- List of Quebec musicians
- Music of Quebec
- Peeping Tom (album)
- Deltron 3030
References
- "Canadian Cyberquotes", The Ottawa Citizen, July 20, 2007, Page F9
- Discogs
- Discogs
- Gorillaz Unofficial
- Bryant, Luke. "The new faces of music: Kid Koala's got all the technical moves but more important, he's making new music" The Vancouver Sun (British Columbia), March 20, 2004, Pg. D3
- "Ninjatune Artists - Kid Koala" www.ninjatune.com, accessed December 20, 2007 [1]
- "BBC - collective - kid koala interview" www.bbc.co.uk, accessed December 20, 2007 [1]