Riding The New Wave Of New Zealand's Electronic Scene with Race Banyon

New Zealand is known for a lot of things. They were the first nation to give women the vote. It's so naturally and ruggedly beautiful it's one of the only places in the world where you can plausibly film a Lord of the Rings trilogy, and then a Hobbit trilogy. With a population of 4 million it's also one of the least crowded countries on earth. But it's packed with musical talent. One of the rising stars of the electronic scene is Race Banyon (aka Lontalius, aka Eddie Johnston). Eddie's only 17, but is already winning praise from a range of overseas producers, including Ryan Hemsworth. He's riding the crest of a new wave of electronic producers, and is well placed to give us the low down on the local sounds. Here's a nix he made for us highlighting some key players in New Zealand at the moment:

TRACKLIST:
Muirs -- Life Love Octopus
Yvnalesca -- Treason
Career Girls -- Kalnienk
Mongo Skato -- Jobin
Race Banyon -- I'm Out
DOHYVAC -- We Do It For Dublin
Yvnalesca -- They Live (Race Banyon Edit)
Skymning -- Interlude

THUMP: First things first, what's your favourite Simpson episode?
Race Banyon: Probably "Deep Space Homer." Because I like space.

Do you ever incorporate the cosmos into your music?
Not consciously because I think that's quite tacky, but I think I am influenced by the sonic space stuff.

What do you think makes NZ's electronic scene unique?
I think it's because we don't actually have an electronic music culture. I've known Germans who have grown up listening to techno but here, everything we know is from listening to the Internet and I think that's what makes us special. I mean none of us from the KCB collective are rooted in one genre.

PC Music has become a game-changing label, and an important reference point for producers this past year. What are your thoughts on the PC collective infiltrating the mainstream?
I guess it will keep changing like any genre thatbecomes more popular. I think some people probably see it going commercial as a bad thing, but I think it's a great thing. I love mainstream pop music, I love mainstream EDM as well.

What's your selection process when it comes to covering a track as Lontalius?
It's usually just a song that I really like and I felt that the production of the song, didn't showcase how beautiful the melodies were. I just try and do songs that I love, and that don't feel like a novelty to cover.

But what about covering a song like "Happy"?
Yeah, the "Happy" cover is probably one that I feel most uncomfortable about, because it was the song of the moment and I kind of jumped on that.

Is this why you've started to veer towards Race Banyon as your main project?
With Lontalius I'm not really afraid to do anything. I'll just record something, upload it and see what happens to it. I guess the difference between the two is that with Race Banyon, I want it to be a project which is very carefully considered, I want my next release to be the best thing I've ever done. Whereas, with Lontalius, I'm not really worried about that and I don't mind if I upload something that I don't really like.

Veering between these conflicting identities must be difficult. Do you feel that there's going to come a time where you'll decide between them?
Yeah I think so. My plan has always been that I wanted Race Banyon to be the long term project, I want to do it for the rest of my life. But Lontalius, because of my age, it feels like the right time and the right place at the moment, a place for more spontaneous expression.

Outside of KCB, what are some other electronic artists that really interest you?
I don't think I know any electronic artists over the age of 25, and the ones that I can think of outside of the KCB collective are still good friends with the KCB collective. That's the thing I've been thinking about when you asked me to make this mix. I don't think there's much going on, outside of my age group. I went to this little festival, Off The Radar, last weekend and it's just a techno festival for four days straight. And we would have been the only people under 30, there was a lot of old 90s ravers. It's bizarre.

Coming back to the age gap. Looking at fans of Shapeshifter, and then this younger generations. Do you think there's a merging point there or do you think it's a struggle of generations?
I think it is a bit of a struggle of generations. Shapeshifter made some pop songs and they just got huge. I've been playing some bigger shows with that kind of crowd, and I've been finding it really difficult to play with them because I don't think they really understand modern dance music. New Zealand has always had this issue that no one really has the patience to dance to a whole song, they want things to be changing.

Do you think NZ music is heading in the direction of making more ambient, soundscape, house kind of music?
I hope so, I think I more than the rest of KCB really love dance music, and at this techno festival, you're dancing for three hours to just one loop. But I also love RnB where there's hooks and verses, and things are constantly changing. So I want to bridge the gap between the two. It is strange with people no longer having the patience to listen to constant loop changings and starting to become attracted to a single loop

Race Banyon is on Facebook // SoundCloud // Twitter

Reuben is still trying to figure out what to use Twitter for.