MEMORY-033_
Kiljoy - 'Heart Of A Lion' EP
January 2020, I get a message from Chris Echo (Violence Recordings — I highly recommend you check Echo’s own discography of releases) in the Bay Area, he had passed on my contact details to Evan Kiljoy, who was going to be relocating to the DC area for a few years. I was already living in Boston, but was excited to potentially chat with one of my music idols. Evan got in touch, and I bring up the gig at Buzz in 2004, he responds with “oh man, I hope I wasn’t a dick.” (He wasn’t.)
It was easy back & forth, quite a bit of non-music stuff to talk about, and we kept in touch. Once he and his family were in DC, we meet in person to hang out, and have seen each other several times in DC, Boston, and his farewell show in Philadelphia. Evan has great stories, so it was fun to hear the history behind much of the music, what went on in NZ’s drum & bass scene, and what some of the lyrics and titles were references to. These types of connections are a big part of what has kept me engaged with the music, meeting people with some shared history, and then learning about a wide range of new things. I may never learn to pronounce “kia ora” correctly though.
Evan has been on a tear with his releases and remixes, and when I originally wrote up the draft for this his ‘Heart Of A Lion’ EP was just released. Vinyl copies are still available via Function Records’s Bandcamp. There have been a few more bits since then, and he is working on an album, although that might be taking a while as he & his family get resettled back in Wellington. He’ll be back to streaming The Zone soon as well, which has built up a global community of artists, fans and DJs that check in during the stream, contribute music, and sometimes ask for a shout for the archives crew.
YouTube:
Kiljoy - 'Heart Of A Lion' (Function Records)
The Zone (Twitch Streams):
Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/artist/218859-Kiljoy
Bonus Echo Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/artist/13403-Echo