Pre-internet Latvian Sports Styles with Kodek

Kodek has very specific ideas about electronic musicians performing live: put the same guy behind the same computer with the same lame synth and you get a boring performance. The Lavian musician has made a name for himself for his lo-fi, 8-bit tunes with a wacky style to match, but he’s more than just a guy dressed like “a sports teacher from 1994.”

More specifically, Kodek says he is “always about 44% style and 44% music.” Inspired by the pre-internet era, he has been known to wear a Gameboy around his neck and swing synths and samplers around onstage while decked out in pink Hammer pants and checkered jackets. He says his style is informed by people who are totally without style. An explosion of florescent vintage clothing, big sunglasses and of course, big beats, is a must.

Winner of the 2013 best electronic music album at the Latvian Music Awards for his album Flavours from the Future, Kodek is no stranger to dressing up in cardboard robot gear and using megaphones, old laptops, and vacuum cleaners in music videos. It is a form of storytelling of analogue’s past, but also, his style reflects his materials. We talked to Kodek about post-future and how this all began, of all places, in a Latvian internet cafe.

Noisey: How did Kodek begin back in 2000?
Kodek: It all began when I was going to some internet cafe in my town to play games with my friends and there was this administrator of the cafe. He was banging techno music all the time on the speakers. He was also into music making and there were times when he was just jamming on the cafe's speakers. Then I was like “Wow! I also want to do this, not just spend my time playing video games.” My friends at that point were laughing out loud. Then my family scored our first home computer and I asked that cafe guy for some music software. He sold me pirated copy of Rebirth-338 and Buzz for few dollars… So once you're in to it there is no way back.

Your D.I.Y. robot gear reminds me a bit of Wario. What kind of look and message were you going for in the music video for “Tā nevar palikt, tā nepaliks?”
Everyone reads their own message everywhere and every time, I guess. These particular lyrics are from a Latvian poem “Jedi Rainis” and it means “It can't stay like this, it won't stay like this.” You can read it like, “The woods won’t stay here for long so go there and shoot a music video lol.”

KODEK busting a move with TV Maskava & MC WC KOKX in the woods of Latvia.

Vintage clothing is nothing new. How do you approach the medium differently?
I'm not about just vintage clothing; I'm about over modern vintage clothing. I dig stuff all the time, but maybe only once in a month I find something post-future. You just can't make proper noise on a 1989 Gameboy dressed up in fancy 2011 clothes from supermarket.

Why do you think it’s wrong to take the stage in your everyday clothes? Does it make an uninspiring performance, both for the viewer and performer?
People dress up for their wedding, they also dress up for the theater, they dress up to make it more special or much more meaningful. For me, it's like a ritual. Sometimes making the costume or finding the right shorts takes more time than preparing the set. It's really important for me. If after a long flight I need to go straight to the show, I just take out my special hi-low superpower pants and I'm super-fresh again for my set, yo! Besides it's just boring to step on the stage in your ordinary office clothes and make hardcore laptopface when you're performing. There are too many clones out there using the same computer, same controller, same lame synth preset and same fancy t-shirt from the same M&H store, lol. Boring.

Tell us what it’s like living in Madona, are there great finds for style? Less competition? Why do you stay (and not run off to London or Berlin)?
I guess I'm a true country boy. I really love the nature and the fresh air we have over here. Sometimes when I get back home from a gig I pop out of the train and I never meet even a single person on the street on my way back home. Not even a single one, for real! Sometimes you can meet a cat or two and if you're lucky—an alien—but not any human being. I'm just loving that free space after all those overcrowded airports and parties. And yeah, there are great finds for style. Usually we call Madona the mecca of secondhand shops. Now it's a bit harder to find cool stuff. Lots of gold diggin' places are shut down. I guess they just ran out of supplies. So this Monday, I'm going to go to Valka/Valga (sister cities: one in Latvian side, the other in Estonia) to dig stuff at secondhands over there. You know, “The deeper in forest you go, the more mushrooms you find.” (That’s an old Latvian saying).

Are there some people who don’t get you and just think you’re some annoying hipster?
Haters gonna hate! But anyway I dress up like fuckin' sports teacher from 1994. I don't find it to be a hipsterwave thing. Hipster for me is a guy in his grandpas sweater and his grandma's scarf plus uncomfortable shoes and seems like the socks are always missing. Also… #sad #nofilter.

Kodek’s video for “Jupiter 8000” has a lot to do with cats.

A recurring theme in your work and your image is cats, like in your “Jupiter 8000” music video. Have cats, as a symbol, become too mainstream? Or is there never enough? Why does your cat inspire you? What is your cat’s name?
CATS ARE COOL BEST! I LOVE CATS! There could never be too many cats around and I find them really inspiring. It's because they are always on their own and they are always getting what they want. I think cats being mainstream is just a plan of cats themselves, they can go back underground anytime they want! Mine is named Lynx (Lūsis in Latvian) and his stage name is MC CAT FOOD, because he is loving it!

You’ve used ghetto blasters, tape players and old school synths in your music. You’ve always said you’re about “44% style and 44% music.” What is it about the pre-internet era that inspires you and why do you hold onto it?
I think it's because people in that time were more passionate about technology. It was more like a wonder from the future and it was sold like one too. For example, simple graphic interface for a computer was advertised as a miracle. That's why I'm holding onto it. I really love to re-experience the magic of saving my track to a single 1.44MB floppy disk, or booting up an Atari with one megabyte of ram. It just feels real good and you don't have Facebook running on it in the background distracting you.

So we’ve got 88% covered, what about that remaining 12%?
I'll leave that as a mystery for readers. Hi 12 -_____--

You should check out his recently released EP on the Baltic-based label Dirty Deal Audio.

Nadja consistently unearths awesome. She’s on Twitter - @nadjasayej. Style Stage is an ongoing partnership between Noisey & Garnier Fructis celebrating music, hair, and style.