KennyHoopla: "Thank god I don't really know what I'm doing" | Dork
KennyHoopla: "Thank god I don't really know what I'm doing"
With nods to many a cult mid-00s icon, KennyHoopla is enthusiastically dusting off and breathing fresh new life into some oft-overlooked faves.
Don't get it twisted. KennyHoopla is not 'genre-blending'. He just grew up in the late 2000s. My dear friends, never underestimate the impact of the arrival of YouTube on the masses. We might go so far as to say it is the single greatest influence on this generation's music culture. Thanks for trying, Limewire.
His earliest playlist is still on his YouTube account, he says, taking in indie, electronic, and house remixes. There are threads of all that through his debut EP 'how will i rest in peace if i'm buried by a highway?//', but that doesn't mean he's paying tribute.
"I'm not trying to purposely go to that, but it's just that sound," he says.
There's a feeling that KennyHoopla is trying to get at with his songs, which he still finds in music from that era. It's not nostalgia, exactly, but there are commonalities.
Kenny knows a fair bit about putting stock in exactly who you are. In some ways, he considers it a blessing that he hasn't necessarily had the professional training or experience some other might have. It makes it easier for him to only pursue his most authentic expressions.
"I'm not trying to mix genres. It's just a sonic exploration," he adds.
His musical scavenger hunt approach is working out. The songs on 'how will i rest in peace if i'm buried by a highway?//' are by no means rudimentary. Kenny's writing is poetic and sometimes sad, without resorting to wallowing or extreme earnestness. Despite lyrics about karma, oppression, and hitting rock bottom, the EP feels more life-affirming than bleak.
It was partly a question of poetry and visual art being easier for a younger Kenny to access, but the overarching concern was that he wanted to make sure he had something to say. Something that was true, in one form or another.
At some point, the KennyHoopla project couldn't wait any longer.
"It got to a point where I was like, 'it's time for me to make music'. Like the universe was telling me 'now is the time'. And then my friend recorded me," he says.
There was a part of him that was still anxious, still wanted to take more time to prepare, but he knew it was time to overrule it.
There were a few hurdles, though. While Kenny had an armful of songs ready to record, he was fully aware that there were still some things he had to learn as he went along.
Some songs on 'how will i rest in peace if i'm buried by a highway?//' presented fewer difficulties in the studio than others. As one of two tracks that Kenny had already prepared acapella, the crystalline 'Sore loser//' was, he says, 'easy', as was the EP's opener 'thinking out loud//'. The title-track, a standout with similar aesthetics to things like Joy Division, house and 2000s dance-punk, wasn't so straightforward.
"That was like the first time that I had played guitar," Kenny says casually.
You'd never guess. Far from being amateur, 'how will i rest in peace if i'm buried by a highway?//' is layered and accomplished, somehow managing to feel both fresh and comfortingly familiar at the same time.
There were other pressures on the recording of the EP too, with the shortfall between the time available and Kenny's drive to get things absolutely right coming into conflict.
"It was, like, rushed," Kenny says.
He's sanguine about that, though. Part of it is just the times we're living in, after all.
It doesn't seem like there's any risk of things becoming less conscious with KennyHoopla. He knows perfectly well what he's doing and what it means, even if it seems like this year has conspired against us all.
That drive to make something true is one of the things that's going to set KennyHoopla apart. It's the kind of thing that gives a person staying power. Resilience.
