Kiyoshi: Back and Forth

Oliver guido, Here with kiyoshi aka kyle sweeting 

Hello 

Hello thank you for sitting with me

As a connoisseur of the dog, a glizzzy goblin if you will 

What is your favorite/ preferred hot dog ?

Ah i just like a plaine news york style (hot dog)

What are the condiments?

Nothing, literally nothing.

You go dry glizz?? You go straight dog, bun .

Just the san francisco air on top of that hot dog

Not even bacon?

Nope just a dog in a bun.

Alright i might have to cut that part out i don't know if thats the best way to introduce you to people. What are the origins of the name kiyoshi?

its a tradition in my family to name yourself after another person in the family, at least in the japanese side of my family. for example my cousin ritchie his middle name is hideo 

After my grandpa whose name is hideo his name is also bob 

So are you going to name your kid kiyoshi?

No, no it'll probably be something like, i don't know some cousin of mine names their kid kiyoshi.

How much do i gotta give you to get the middle name of your kid? 

How much what?

How much, do I have pay you to have the middle name i want the middle name your first born.

Oh you want my first born to named after you? 

No no no not even me i just want to be able to choose the middle name.

Ohh.

How much? name your price. 

(thinking)

Bit of a caveat i won't be mean about it i won't make it hate you. it'll be cool but something you wouldn't name it.

Oh well then i guess for free 

Fuck yeah, okay id name it soemthing like…thundergun,himothy, cumberbatched

I don't know about those man.

Desani 

Oh i do like water but i knew this little shit in highschool named dasani 

You knew somebody named dasani?

I did yeah 

What were they like 

He was a little shit i didn't like him 

Why didn't you like him man what's the trauma around desai is that why choose to not drink dasani water 

I do drink dasani i just don't buy it 

It's not that good of water 

It's not a bad water its not sams choice 

Sam's choice is the one water i know that i think is bad 

I dont know there's some bad water out there 

What else go ahead go off 

{3 minute tangent about water}

…

You seen holes? 

Yeah i love holes 

Silence 

What's your favorite shia labeouf movie?

Holes 

I was hoping you'd say nymphomaniac or something 

Hahahah

How long have you been making audio based art ?

Since 2016.

How'd you get your start? 

I torrented ableton, ableton live 9.

Do you still use the torrent?

No i bought it legit.

The only reason i did was because well, i say its because ive been able to make enough money from music that i decided once i was able to do that, id buy it outright , but the real reason is because i wanted to update the software, you can't do that if you're using a torrent 

How do you feel about ableton compared to other music making programs? 

I don't know ableton is simple looks like microsoft excel, its accessible, it has max for live, which i think is cool max for live is a user based plug in library, and its exclusive to ableton. i think its cool, use a lot of stuff from it. i don't really think about it much to be honest, its just a loyalty i have to the software ive been using for so long. 

Any favorite plugin you've been using of late? 

I love the goodhertz vulf compressor. i put that shit on everything, it's very good. i pay around with a lot of saturators, because it's one of the quickest and nicest ways for me to add some audio interest to a sound, dirty it up a lil bit make it sound less electronic which ableton is more is inclined to make that kind of music, electronic more so than analog sounding stuff . i may use ableton but i like to lean towards analog sounding stuff.

Do you feel that that helps you more perfectly execute it the way you want to vs having to send it to someone? 

Yeah definitely it's all just the gap between, the conception of the idea and the final product is completely up to me, and if it's any different then its only my fault,and while thats alot of pressure on your art that's kind of my preferred way of doing things, because i know that everything is within my power to make happen. it's good I like it that way, I feel in control. 

What other art mediums do you work in? 

I like 3d modeling, I like both visual, digital and pen and paper visual arts, i dabbled in woodworking and that's all that comes to mind. Sometimes I do oil painting, and other mixed media stuff that's a lot of fun.

Do you feel that learning piano very early on in life was a good guidance to the rest of the art you pursue?

Sure. 

You are self taught right? 

Yes, the piano layout, keys, white and black keys are the only way I can think of music now , as far as seeing notes and chords and stuff. when i think of a chord on guitar, i have to first think of it as it is on piano so it's the foundation of all my musical knowledge for sure.

It's interesting that you think of other musical forms though the piano, because you play so many different instruments. Do you still think that way when doing drum stuff?

nah, because with piano and guitar they are melodic instruments, and with percussion in a way I think of it similarly to piano because I used to program drums on a piano roll. But it was more so like I thought of it as a kick drum is a c key, a snare is the d key , and then an f sharp is the high hat, and I'd play that configuration of kick,high hat ,snare ,high hat. Then I moved to actual drums and then actual drumming I found that that was actually kind of a hindrance it was limiting.

Did you have to unlearn some of the ways you made digital sounds vs analog? 

Yeah definitely even the difference between piano and guitar, like a c chord has more notes in it than a c chord on a piano, and guitars stagger out harmonies way different than a piano does. 

How long have you been playing guitar?

guitar? I seriously think I've been playing guitar for five years now.

What's your favorite instrument to play out of all the ones you can?

Piano it's the one I know and love the most. 

What instruments can you play?

Any key based instrument, guitar, drums, bass and…is there any others I'm missing? if i kept up with practice id say violin but i'm not as good as i once was, i've been out of practice for a long time 

…

Interviews are hard. 

Yeah sounds like it but it's going well. 

Im tryna have a good interview but also have a good convo but i know all these things about you.

We're talking to a third person right now.

If you weren't making music what would you be doing right now?

If I wasn't making music I'd be making more visual arts stuff for sure. 

Would you be trying to monetize your art?

Yeah and i kind of am, i haven't yet (monetized my art) but i've been building up a print shop, 

Putting on different prints on that different art for sale I have never considered the idea of doing commissions but I don't know maybe if I wasn't making music I would. 

How do you find the time to practice all these mediums of art?

I mean I just have a lot of free time. I'm lucky enough that my parents can sustain our lives themselves with their jobs and never made me get my own. In that regard I'm really lucky and I just get to do these things, my art, my hobbies, and try my best to get something going so I don't have to live in the guilt of being so lucky for so long. 

Do you feel that the position of privilege you're in motivates you to work harder?

Yea. 

Alright.

Just a plaine yes.

It's a good answer honestly.

How do you feel about our current social media age as a creative, and as someone who doesn't really participate? 

What do I think of it? I'm not a fan of it as you know, I think it's a necessary evil. It's a good thing and a bad thing just like the entire internet itself. I can take from it what I want and leave what I don't want.

Do you think it's made being an independent artist easier though? 

Begrudgingly, yes i do think it has its a good tool to have for promotion alone, 

It's already worth it just for promotions sake, and the fact that you can use it casually as well that's good too and sometimes it can be rewarding. 

What are some of the hardships you experienced as an independent artist?

Man the biggest thing really is figuring out a creative vision, that's about it that and when you can't afford to buy a certain piece of equipment you want to use you have to make due with what you have and that just means having to compromise a portion of your vision in order to use what you have at your disposal. That's basically what every artist goes through, especially independent ones. 

What does the pursuit of art mean to you ?

It's a few things to me. One, it's a pursuit of a consistent skill in a craft, so like when I make a song I want to be able to reliably make a song, and go into the studio one day and make what I set out to make. sometimes it doesn't happen, it's a super common thing, you just go into your workspace  and you're able to make something similar to what you wanted, maybe nothing at all. That's one of the pursuits  of art . It's also just an expression plain and simple, wanting to say what you wanted to say that's what I think of in my pursuit of art .

In your long and illustrious pursuit of art through your life have you ever felt any kind of imposter syndrome ?

Not yet , i'm not good enough. 

Do you have a core memory of music?

Hmmm I don't know the one thing that really stands out the most, to me, is just really compelling harmonies and melodies, there's a lot of them in jazz. Still with my limited knowledge of music

theory i don't exactly know how to explain it, but there are just some moments in songs when you hear a note change to another note and you go “ oh my god that was something , that was something, i don't know how to describe what that was but that was something.’’ I've come to learn that its harmonies it's just the way that notes interact with each other on a scale but that's one thing that has always set aside music as something really special and mysterious almost. 

How powerful it can be in making you feel things 

Do you have a first favorite song like from when you were 8 years old 

Even younger I don't know how much younger but the first two songs I can remember are Take on Me by aha  and hey ya! By outkast 

What was the first album you ever bought

Plastic beach by the gorillaz on wax, and second was ram by daft punk. 

How old were you?

I was 12 I think.

What made you gravitate towards plastic beach? 

I was listening to it alot and I just thought it was so sonically cool. i was obsessed with music that sounded the way it looked, that album cover is very much how that album sounds. 

Any good art recs?

Visual art? Music?

anything .

I've been really loving the band cosmic collective its a bassist and a pianist and the pianist also sings it's really jazzy stuff it's a very nice mix of jazz and electronic and this one visual artist @mermeladadepera i've been really loving their stuff they inspired me to start working on this kind of graffiti oil paint style 

Any good movies of late 

French dispatch , i saw a time to kill recently it's  not a new movie but i really liked that it's about a court case the case is over these people that commit a really awful hate crime in the deep south and they're getting away with it essentially and the whole movie explores that court case and the racial disparity there 

Have you seen the batman?

Nah. 

Well that's where we end the interview clearly this is cultureless man.

As i sit here i kyle's childhood bedroom eyes jumping from knick knack to art piece to a  desk filled with tools to create i can't help but feel a true sense of being in the presence of a man in love with art and the pursuit of greatness kyle kiyoshi sweeting my best friend and favorite artist ever.