Q1: When did you start writing/discovering music? Who influenced you the most?
Kenny: I started writing music properly around 1994. We always had a piano at home that i sort of messed around on as a kid, but definitely got more focused on it when i came out of high school. At the time i wasn't listening to much in the way of music by artists, or albums etc. I was more into American TV theme tunes, stuff like The Equalizer, The A-Team, Airwolf, Knight Rider etc. I think a lof of them were written by the same person or people if i remember right. Nowadays i find myself listening more to artists and albums from the period when i started writing. Early Massive Attack, Bjork, Portishead, Tricky etc, and bands like Leftfield, Lamb, the Cocteau Twins. Q2: Any pivotal moment when you knew you wanted to be a musician/artist? Kenny: A pivotal moment for me was being introduced to the technological aspect of music production. I was used to just playing a solo instrument, but i was blown away when i first got to us a sequencer triggering a bunch of gear all at the same time. A friend showed me his home studio set up and i literally remember asking him in disbelief "what ? you mean you can do more than one thing at the same time ??". It was basic, but it was just amazing to watch the drum machine running, then a bassline dropping in on top, and a bunch of pads and samples on top of those. That was it. Q3: Who has helped you most with your career? Kenny: I'm self taught, both musically and technically. I've always been really determined and i think i was my own driving force from the beginning, but there have been a handful of people i've met along the way who i'd say helped purely by believing in me at times when i was running out of resolve. You get a lot of knock backs early on, and the music industry tends to drain your self-belief over a period of years. Every time i was feeling the weight of stuff someone would appear in the mix and give me the boost i needed to keep pushing forward. Q4: Where did you grow up and how did that influence you? Have any travels influenced your work? Kenny: I grew up in the West of Scotland. It's quite a magical but isolated place and the winters are long and dark. I think the landscape and the weather influenced the tone of my music a lot. I moved into the city centre (Glasgow) in my 20's and i think that kind of galvanised the sound i had into something a bit more industrial/expansive sounding. I've been in the U.S. a number of times. I think Los Angeles and New York just feel very cinematic and that tends to resonate with me. There's something about these cities at night, their sheer size and depth, which definitely stuck with me in terms of my creativity. Q5: What do you consider your most meaningful work creatively so far to you? Kenny: I recently released an album 'Everything Wrong Is Right' under my Imperfect Stranger pseudonym. As a body of work i reckon it's one of the most meaningful things i've done. I've never really written music for the sake of doing so. The music i write is personal, and it's a sort of diary reflecting upon difficult things i've experienced. 'Everything Wrong Is Right' encapsulates a specific period of great change for me and i think from an artistic point of view it's very important to me. Q6: What are your favorite activities to relax? Kenny: I like to get as far away from the studio as possible when i can. I do a lot of active stuff, like cycling, climbing, wild swimming etc. I've got a little campervan which gives me the freedom to go anywhere and just pitch up next to a beach or whatever. It's a polar opposite of staring at a computer screen in a dark room with a set of monitors blazing at me. Q7: From your accomplishments what do you consider a favorite piece of music that you've done? Any meaning behind why? Kenny: One of the first tracks i wrote in a previous project under the name Cinephile has the lyric "your promises, sound like lies to me". I often think about that as a simple definition for so many things that i've experienced over the years. The music industry is absolutely rife with the wrong kind of people. The artist is always the person at the end of the day who suffers, and it's almost always because they've been given some kind of false promise or hope. Like a moth to a flame. Q8: What kind of music inspires you the most? What is a song or songs that always come back to you as an inspiration? Kenny: I am drawn to music which leans towards the cinematic. I don't mean actual score music, more anything which conjours up a definite tone or atmosphere. Music that gives you a sense of a story unfolding or some kind of scene always grabs my attention. Q9: Do you have any upcoming projects that you'd like to promote? Concerts, books, events, etc? Kenny: I'd repeat about my recent album as Imperfect Stranger - 'Everything Wrong Is Right' which is available via Castles In Space. I've got a follow up EP to that coming this November all being well. Bonus: Any funny memory or strange memory you'd like to share during your creative journey? Kenny: I was playing at a festival in Ireland in 2008 and was making my way to our stage across a particularly muddy backstage area. As we crossed the access road a huge black limo swung in through the production gate and drove right over my left foot. I sort of yelped with fright but when i looked down the side window was open and Grace Jones was staring right at me. Links: http://www.kennyinglis.com/ Twitter: @mrkennyinglis @areyouimperfect Instagram: @hearingwithmyeyes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Inglis https://open.spotify.com/artist/6DD2kStVwlf03zYaCUMskK https://music.apple.com/us/artist/kenny-inglis/961290526 https://www.discogs.com/artist/7377-Kenny-Inglis
Fevers of the Mind 