Interview: Five Minutes with Kohra

Kohra (ک()رہ Urdu – fog or mist) is a versatile and forward-thinking DJ / producer. He expresses his visual and aural sensibilities via Qilla  Records (قلعه Urdu – fort or castle) which he set up in 2011 to promote a wide range of underground music from India and across the world. 

Kohra has played at some of the biggest festivals in the country like EDC, ADE, Awakenings (India) and at various venues in Australia, UAE, Thailand and Mauritius. He’s shared stage with many iconic artists like Pete Tong, Deadmau5, Dubfire, Richie Hawtin, Adam Beyer, Chris Liebing, Josh Wink, Patrice Baumel, Joseph Capriati and Oliver Huntemann over the last decade as one of India’s leading dance music artists.

Over the last few years, his productions have appeared on many reputed international labels like Sol Selectas, Traum, Parquet, Motek, Blindfold, Tulipa, and Particles, many of which have hit the Beatport Top 100 in over 4 genres. Tale of Us, Sam Paginini, Nick Warren, Joran Van Pol,  Roy RosenfelDTownship Rebellion, Xenia Beliayeva, JSPR and Atish are a few of the artists that have been supporting the music coming out of his New Delhi, India based record label and studio.

He returns on his own imprint, Qilla Records, for a fantastic first release of the year, Acid Kidz with remixes from Kotelett & Zadak, SHFT and FILM – out on March 4th.

We caught up with him ahead of his release to chat equipment and inspiration…

To those not familiar with you, how would you describe your sound?

Atmospheric, groovy dance music with teleportation qualities.

How did it all start for you?

I started out as a drummer for a few rock bands and later on started Dj’ing. It was only a matter of time until I started messing about with software and whatever hardware I could get my hands on eventually to make music.

Well, not much has changed ever since, to be honest.

What three albums would you say influenced your sound the most?

Talvin Singh (Ok)

Kraftwerk (Man Machine)

Atmospheric Drum ‘N Bass (Vol 3)

I had heard all these by the time I was 15 so the seeds were sown I suppose.

Are there any key pieces of equipment that you can’t live without?

Elektron Rytm MkII / MatrixBrute / JU 06

What are some of your key influences in your music? Whether it be the sound created by others, imagery, films or any kind of art form.

I think I lean towards sound-design and music in films, surrealism and minimalism in art, traveling, reading and my own personal experiences in life.

What is one sub-genre you think doesn’t get the attention it deserves?

Ambient / dub-techno in the electronica domain and folk music from across the world and it’s many cultures.

Any new or upcoming artists on your radar?

Birds ov Paradise

What can we expect from you in the near future? Any upcoming projects or gigs in the pipeline that you would like to tell us about?

I’m working on a side project currently which doesn’t have any connection with the style of music or format I’ve been working with so far….