Ki Oni & Luke Elliott in conversation
Chuck Soo-Hoo (AKA Ki Oni) and Luke Elliott are two of my favorite ambient magicians, whether they’re collaborating together, with others, or solo. On the heels of Luke’s latest release, Every Somewhere, out now on AKP recordings (which also received the honor of Bandcamp’s “Best of Ambient” from our friend Ted Davis); and Chuck’s last release A Leisurely Swim to Everlasting Life, and the gorgeous project Bloooom, who released an album on the first of the year with collaborators Carlos Ferreira and Devin Blair, I had the opportunity to curate some questions for these friends to ask each other–and they threw in a few of their own. Read on about sliding into one another’s DMs, social justice, Fugazi, and more.
How did you two meet?
Chuck: On Instagram. Luke reached out after I posted a story about Fugazi being my favorite band of all time. From there, we shared a lot of common interests and had similar work ethics. Since getting to know him, I don’t think Fugazi is his favorite band as he said they were when he first reached out haha.
Luke: Haha – out the gate, the dude is already ragging on my chord. I mean, I don’t have a picture of Ian MacKaye in my wallet or anything *looks at Chuck* haha… but any relationship starting on Fugazi has to be a good sign I think.
When did you each start creating music, and when did you become drawn towards this particular style?
Chuck: The Ki Oni project started after graduating from college. Around that time, the beat scene in Los Angeles was getting popular and that inspired me to make my own stuff. The first several years were more beat driven and slowly progressed to more ambient sounding.
Luke: I started creating “music” in early high school, pretty soon after discovering the little circle on the back of my computer was a line input and what that meant. But I arrived here around 2017 when I figured out what I enjoyed making most had a home and was surrounded by a ton of rad humans.
Did either of you have any surprising musical roots before you both became the experimental ambient electronic masters you both are, like playing in a ska band or something else unexpected?
Chuck: Thanks so much for the kind words! Always and forever a student to the craft. It feels like several lifetimes ago, but I played guitar in a punk band and then drums in a wacky synth band back home in Northern Virginia. Not a lot of people know about this past life haha.
Luke: Woh, big compliments Lara, I feel out of my depth. Echoing Chuck, I am forever learning, half the time I barely know what I am doing tbh, I just keep on trying, so I hope that helps lift the veil for folks. Yeah, I played guitar in a math rock band throughout my teens, and I played drums in the school jazz band, I was so terrible. I also “played” Timpany in the school orchestra – LOL.
How does your process alter when working alone versus collaborating?
Luke: I think my process changes for both on the regular depending on what I am doing and who I am doing it with. Everyone has different ways of working, in a collabo I am trying to be adaptable and to be mindful of the other’s work. Less is more on a collabo that’s for sure.
Chuck: When it comes to collaborating, I tend to strip things back and approach it as a role player on a basketball team! I don’t know if that answers the questions, but I wanted to throw in a basketball analogy somewhere in this interview! 😀
Luke: In my head, I was wondering how long before Chuck gets in a bball or coffee reference.
Where is your favorite place to create music?
Luke: At home for sure is where I am most comfy, I love getting the opportunity to go to studios but sometimes I feel a bit intimidated.
Chuck: At my desk with my cat sleeping next to me on her window lounge and a basketball game playing in the background.
Both of you make music that is very elemental. I’d love to know your Zodiac signs and how you identify with these aspects of nature 🙂
Chuck: Folks are surprised when I tell them I’m a Scorpio. I guess I don’t come across as intense and I have a very calm demeanor. A Scorpio is a water sign and I resonate with a lot of its traits. I think maybe it’s channeled in other mediums like when I’m making music. This may explain why I made an alias instead of using my real name. Ki Oni is the real Scorpio!
Luke: Deffo wouldn’t have said you were Scorpio, Chuck, but you are a water Pokemon that’s for sure so that sticks. I’m an Aquarius, shout out to all my other air homies out there. Yeah, I think I resonate fairly well with the traits of the Aquarii, though I am a people pleaser for sure which doesn’t fit so well.
Chuck, your music, and also the visuals and song titles you select create a very vivid and specific landscape – be it a garden party, swimming, or even sports; while Luke, yours is a bit more abstract and up for interpretation – “Every Somewhere,” “The Beautiful Late”. I’m curious as to your approaches towards creating – do you conceptualize, then make the sounds, or vice versa?
Luke: “Every Somewhere” was the first time I let a set of overarching themes/narratives dictate the sounds/arrangements of the music in a literal sense. Those themes then went into the naming of the album. Most of the time it’s after-the-fact contextualization. Chuck is no stranger to my WhatsApp messages like wtf do we name this and what could it be about… this is the part I’ve been learning most about of late.
Chuck: I usually make the sound first and then contextualize it later. Up until recently, I made most of my music in a dungeon. My desk would be in front of a stucco wall with barred windows with very little natural lightning. I want to believe because my surroundings weren’t very inspiring, my subconscious had to create these specific landscapes because that’s where it truly wants to be.
I wanted to shout out Dew Life by Bloooom (a collaboration released earlier this year between Chuck, Luke, Carlos Ferreira, and Devin Blair) and sing its praises but not only for its beauty but its philanthropic endeavors to send money to the Palestinian NGO Filastiniyat via their partner International Media Support. Luke, you also selflessly mastered the Petal Motel compilation released last year whose sales all went to the National Network of Abortion Funds. Can you both speak a bit to causes that move you and how you select them?
Chuck: Oh wow, thank you so much for the shoutout! I don’t know if it’s because my mom is a hardcore Buddhist or my personality, but I try to contribute in various ways to a cause that moves me. Working in public libraries and being involved with dublab has taught me a lot about community work. Whether it’s making a donation or volunteering, every little thing counts and goes a long way!
Luke: So kind of you to say Lara, loved the Bloooom project a lot, shouts to Aaris (Katuktu/A Red Thread) for putting that out there. Western ideology/toxic masculinity often sees empathy as a weakness, living in the Middle East I saw how communal care is baked into Islamic culture and helped show that community care enriches us all. It’s hard to pick tbh since we live in such a f’d world, but I usually stick to mutual aid & contribute to those most marginalized – trans bail bonds and food banks have been a focus. The genocide in Palestine highlights many topics like racism, misogyny, climate change, and imperialism, so, felt natural to want to give that way.
I think it’s interesting that you both create “worlds” with your music, but these causes are very grounded in reality. What do you hope your music brings people?
Chuck: I hope people will have a different experience or journey than what I experienced while making it. It’s true with everyone’s music and I think it’s really cool! I have been hearing the term “World Building” a lot lately and it’s so awesome to see where a person’s imagination goes from the original context.
Luke: A nap… haha. I do hope it brings folks a moment of rest and reflection, but it’s a new thought for me that my music brings people anything.
What’s next for both of you together?
Chuck: I’ve been trying to convince Luke to get a PS5 so we can do some online co-op! Luke will resend me unreleased music that we made over the last few years. Hopefully we’ll have some more stuff that will be out into the world.
Luke: hahaha – I’ll just be deadweight in your co-ops… LOL – so long as we can wear those Britney-inspired call center-type headsets to communicate it’s a deal. Hopefully, this pile of tracks we are sat on will meet the world someday, but either way we will keep sending cat pictures and chat about what gardens we been to.
Questions for Luke:
Luke, why is Fugazi not your favorite band of all time? But if they were, what record would you recommend someone to start with?
Hahaha – Fugazi is not my favorite band of all time because The Mars Volta prolly are tbh, that’s if I was forced to say one, mood shifts and could be others. Starting out into Fugazi I’d be tempted to say 13 Songs, but my fave is probs In On The Kill Taker, then after listening try watching Instrument.
Congratulations on your release! I know you dedicated the record to your late cat, Agatha. Is there a story or memory you could share with us about her?
Thanks, mate, means so much. I know everyone says this about their cats, but Agatha was so special and truly meant the world to us. She was always there unwavering for a cuddle. She was 6-weeks old when we rescued her, and I think because of that, was bonded to us like cat parents. She never learned how to clean herself, but knew that she could always find a warm spot 1cm from our face. Due to her energy, we never called her Agatha, but always GOOSE, will never forget her <3.
What inspired you to do the album in spatial audio and could you talk about what went behind that process?
A friend in Amsterdam, Béa, told me about this guy who has a crazy multi-channel audio studio, and by coincidence, that guy (Richard Burki), came to one of my shows. He invited me to his studio and we hit it off and offered to put something of mine into spatial. Without that connection, I probably wouldn’t have done it. To hark back to the world-building mentioned above, I thought with the alien world I had tried to envisage in Every Somewhere, that it could be cool to build it into a 3D world too.
A snapshot on the process, because I felt like a lab technician on the Starship Enterprise learning soo so much from Richard. The extra space you get, going from 2 speakers (stereo) to 12 speakers (in this setting), allowed us to put elements of the tracks into specific environments, not only thinking about depth and width but height, which was a very moving experience, and permitted every single part to shine in its own sonic space.
Questions for Chuck:
Chuck, if you had to choose between coffee and basketball, which one would get the cut and why?
I’ve been meaning to drink more tea so I would cut coffee without any hesitation. I have a deeper connection with basketball than I do coffee. I can talk about basketball all day and not get bored. My coffee knowledge goes as far as Trader Joe’s but I do love a cup of coffee in the morning!
Your music is inspired and SOO YOU, you certainly get the master title from me, what would you say defines your sound? Is it a specific sound source/process, and how did you come to define/make it?
Appreciate the compliment, Luke! There isn’t a clear way of answering this aside from spending time with your sound and experimenting. It’s an accumulation of things that helps shape a sound. From an outside perspective, they might think I’m trying to sound like an underwater Pokémon.
90% of our chats are usually about what TV/Film we are consuming, if you could have written/directed any movie, which would it be?
Godzilla vs. Biollante, but I probably would ruin the movie!
