KAVARI’s blistering noise art scores a sick and dying world

KAVARI’s music sounds like nails on a heavenly chalkboard. Screeches, crashes, whip-cracks of pure fuzz populate her blistering noise art. The Liverpool-born, Glasgow-based producer and DJ makes music that’s so abject and winsome it becomes beautiful, in its own way. She calls her debut EP on XL Recordings, Plague Music, “regurgitations of [her] existential dread:” four dense tracks that express her pit-of-the-stomach fear about a world careening into an ecological, technological and political apocalypse.

KAVARI is calling in from sunny Los Angeles where she’s staying for a few weeks. It's a very industry locale for the Scottish scene star, who’s had a whirlwind few years after none other than Aphex Twin discovered her music and started playing her Soundcloud tracks throughout his sets. “I thought it was a joke,” KAVARI recalls of seeing the videos while talking to The FADER. The viral attention careened directly into a real music career, including global bookings, opening spots for Ethel Cain, and eventually a proper record deal.

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She achieved the rare dream, but it was all a lot to suddenly manage for a young Glasgow producer making music from the experimental margins. “I experienced a shell shock effect for six months,” she says. Now she has a team, a storied record label behind her, and is ready to bring her provocative sonics to more people, and bigger stages.

KAVARI chatted with The FADER about expressing existential terror through music, the impact of SOPHIE on Glasgow’s electronic music scene and her artistry, and getting grounded for wanting to become a producer.

The FADER: Where are you from originally?

I was originally born in Birkenhead in Liverpool and then moved up from there to Northern Scotland when I was about five. I grew up in a really rural area in Scotland and then moved over to Glasgow when I got older.

What was growing up in rural Scotland like?

It was quite nice. It was quiet and its own little bubble of the world where we didn't really have anything that was super modern. It was very sparsely populated, like only 3,000-4,000 people.

What musicians were you listening to as a young person?

Skrillex, Deadmau5, early EDM people. Lady Gaga, Zedd, Dillon Francis, Swedish House Mafia, Porter Robinson, stuff like that.

What about that genre and those sounds connected with you?

The weirdness of it. I grew up around a lot of bands. I'd never really gotten exposed to electronic music. I didn't even realize that sounds could sound like that. It became a really big fixation for me as I grew older.

The sounds you use are very hard-edged and visceral. Were the people around you confused by what you were making?

It was looked at as really crazy. Everyone in my school didn't listen to the music I was into, as well as my parents. When I first told them that I was going to be a DJ or do music full-time they grounded me for two weeks. “No, you're going to become a doctor or you're going to do something more official.” But then I put my head down and was too committed. Even though everyone around me was very much like, “What the hell are you doing?' I was still like, “No this is definitely 100% what I want to do.”

What was the music scene in Glasgow like?

I moved there when I was about 20 or 21. Glasgow's not got the best music scene ever, but it's the best that we have in Scotland. One of the key factors that made me move there was that SOPHIE was still going and doing her thing and she was playing a lot of shows in Glasgow. She was one of the most notable figures in the city and The Art School, the venue in Glasgow was really prolific, and had nights with Arca, Yung Lean, the whole of Drain Gang, Autechre, Yves Tumor, this really cool mix of artists. Once SOPHIE passed, Glasgow kind of shrunk and I don't feel like it's fully recovered from it.

Do you remember SOPHIE’s passing well?

I was on my way to move to Glasgow. I was still at my parents’ house. Lockdown was winding down. I remember [SOPHIE’s passing] happening and I didn't even think it was real. I thought someone was trying to play a sick joke on the internet. And then it happened. The effect on Glasgow has been strange. So many people were influenced by her and she was such a key figure to Glasgow. You see people are still trying to make Glasgow into this place of greatness but it's not hitting the same [since SOPHIE’s passing].

Do you still think about SOPHIE as you set off on your own career?

100%. She was a massive influence to me when I first started making music. She was my gateway into, not only Glasgow, but so many different areas of music that I had never explored before. She stopped me from seeing pop music as a guilty pleasure, and helped me see it as something that can be really cool if done in the right way.

What was your reaction to seeing Aphex Twin play your music?

I thought someone was trolling me. It turned out to be real and then we got in contact with each other over SoundCloud. He said that my music was some of the best stuff he'd heard in a while and asked to buy more of my unreleased music. Through that whole exchange and the attention it got on the internet, everything started to pop off and go crazy.

I was very overwhelmed.[I realized I was] getting recognition from the guy. Throughout my career, I've always been like, “Oh imagine if Skrillex listened to my music, or Deadmau5 or these people that I grew up listening to.” But then I heard from Aphex Twin who is like Skrillex and Deadmau5's idol … all these people that I looked up to, he's in the zone above them and saying that he thinks my music is some of the best he's heard.

How did you emotionally cope with all of the sudden attention and travel?

It was nuts. I was really anxious and I didn’t know what to do. I had never even been on an airplane before. I didn’t know what to expect when going to places. And then a short while afterwards, it was the reverse. I found my footing and I was like, “Rockstar lifestyle! I'm touring the world. This is so cool.” Over time the stress chips away at you. You have to treat everything you're doing like a job and you have to make sure that what you're doing is to its best standard.

You went on tour with Ethel Cain. What was that experience like?

We originally became friends over Twitter so we knew each other and we had spoken about hanging out when she came over to the UK. She got me onto the lineups of both of her London shows. Hanging out with her was really interesting because she was telling me different stories about how she's had weird record label stuff, how different people in the industry have treated her, things like that. It was a nice heads up to know what to look out for as I progress through my career.

Have you experienced any of those things that she warned you about?

Yeah. I’ve had quite a few experiences. It's mainly just people being a bit weird, trying to use you as a stepping stone, or people trying to get involved in what you're doing with malintent. Now I almost have a sixth sense for it so I can detect it.

Tell me about Plague Music. What is the “Plague” here?

The title originally came after I finished my last project, Suture. I was brainstorming ideas of what I wanted to do next and the term “Plague Music” just kept resonating in my head. Instead of an album name or coming up with something, I had seen artists call their projects something like, “Music for This” or “Something Music.” I thought it was a really interesting concept to just call it Plague Music.

It’s music that is the product of a very sick and dying world. I always have these pangs of really bad existential terror that wake me up at night or when I first wake up in the morning. I instantly start thinking about where I’m going to be when I'm 60. Are we all going to be nuked? Am I going to get sick? What happens if I accidentally hurt myself? These questions just spiral into these crazy thoughts and that translated to the project. The project is a regurgitation of that weird existential dread, but put into the form of electronic music.