Lo-Step is the production alias of Phil K and Luke Chable, who first came to the people’s attention when their track “Roots”, included on Dave Seaman’s Global Underground release GU022 Melbourne. When I call Phil K for our interview he’s got Luke Chable there with him to take his share of the media calls beforr their djing debut as Lo-Step this week. Luke’s pretty good natured when he answers the phone and I ask to interview Phil instead. Luke’s a friend, but Phil is one of the players on the Melbourne and international scene that has always intrigued me with his music, so I was relishing the chance to find out what makes him tick.

For the last few months Phil has been largely absent around Melbourne so I ask if he’s been doing much touring overseas. He replies, “Yes, not heaps but enough to keep me motivated, to keep me out there and happy, as far as djing and playing at gigs and places where I have always wanted to play. By the same token not being a fulltime aeroplane passenger, so just trying to get that balance. I went to America, stayed there for quite a few weeks. I did some music and played all over the country, in LA, Miami, Atlanta, places like that. I went to China, Hong Kong, did the Big Day Out tour this year. So the start of this year has been a good balance of Australia and America and Asia, so now I just want to stay here for a bit and work on some music and stuff like that. Then I’ll take off again and do Europe and America again.”

I’m sure that with the contacts Phil has and the places he visited that there must have been some collaborative projects on the go. Did he find time for any production I enquire? “I did three tracks while I was over in America. I did one with a guy called Habersham from Atlanta, “Cloudbreak”. I did one called “Furball” in Florida with a DJ called Dave Preston, and then I did a track in LA with DJ Brian from Moontribe in the studio’s there. “Furball” is finalised and coming out on Functional Breaks. The other couple we’re just sitting on them at the moment. It’s been really productive with music and djing, and I’m trying to do lots more music basically.”

I put it to Phil that he’s quite prolific in his production, but he’s not having a bar of it. “Not at all! What’s prolific? I look at someone like Timo Maas and I call that prolific, 300 records in three years. That’s pretty fucking prolific, so by that standard, it’s a drop in the ocean. I just like working on music. I like learning about it. I like working with mad people like Luke (Chable) and everybody I work with is mad you know. There is anyways something to learn, especially coming from a non-computer background. The first time I worked with a computer was in an office environment and that was in 1995, so it’s been a steady learning curve but it’s all good! The bottom line is that I think I have had some fucking amazing teachers through the years and that’s all the people I have worked with. How can that not rub off on you?!” he replies with enthusiasm.

I push Phil to drops some names here, and he volunteers the those of studio partners like Ivan Gough, Andy Page, Luke Chable, Habersham. He continues, “..everybody that programs music on a computer that I’ve sat down in a studio with, it’s always a learning experience. The joy that you’re learning something is a real buzz”.

So with Melbourne talent getting huge recognition overseas and locally, does he think we have a hotbed of talent here? “I don’t know. I think of everybody that gets involved, our personality’s kind of match and our mindsets are similar so it’s easy to get along with those people. On the world scale of things, there are a lot of people doing good things down here and I think that comes from people sharing with other people. All the crew of people that we know, everyone helps each other as much as they can. It’s not just about one person doing it; it’s about the teamwork of everybody that makes things work.”

This weekend marks the first time Lo-Step break out of the studio and into the dj booth. What can we expect on the night? Phil gives me the run down, “We’re going to try and play records together which I don’t really do with other people. We’ve got some gadgets with us like samplers and special CD players that do funny things and computers and stuff like that. We’ll dj but in amongst all that there’ll be some little stunts being pulled off here and there. We don’t know how far we’re going to take it. That’s the really exciting thing because we’ve never really done it before. It should be a fun process at the very least!”

So are there any more releases coming out for Lo-Step I ask. Phil responds. “There’s “Burma”, and ideas for other tracks are always appearing.” I ask if he enjoys working with prog wunderkind Luke Chable? Thinking of their forthcoming dj gig Phil says as he laughs, “Oh yeah! Luke’s a funny one! He can’t separate himself from the computer! I’ll tell him, “Dude we’ve got to get in dj mode now” and he’ll sit there writing beats on the computer”.

After 16 years of djing I ask Phil if he likes to use gadgets more and more so its not just about mixing records. His answer, “Your whole concept of djing when you just use turntables is, turntables plus records equals music for the people. If you can break that formula in your head, if you introduce CDs or computers or whatever, it’s about changing that formula. I think that’s what it’s all about for me. If I come across a piece of equipment and I think, “Oh wow, I can use that in my djing” and fool people into thinking the record is still playing and start doing stuff over the top of it, and it feels normal enough to do while you’re djing. Essentially I don’t want to program a computer when I’m playing records, but at the same time I don’t want to just play records. I need to be comfortable enough to let the whole thing flow. It’s the formula you’ve got to break through.”

Having seen Phil play numerous times and hearing his mix compilations, I think his skills are so superior I could imagine he could mix in his sleep. I ask how he keeps it interesting for himself. “All the technical shit has to be like you’re not thinking about it. All the good guitarists, people like Jimmy Page or somebody like that, they never used to think about what note they’re going to play, they just did it because it just happens. First thing you’ve got to do is get beyond the formula of turntable plus turntable equals music. That’s the hardest thing. If you’ve been djing for 10 years it’s really hard to start thinking outside of that, because actually it’s in those parts that you’re creating. That’s something that you usually don’t do naturally when you’re djing, and you’re just playing records. It’s overcoming that point and making your mind think you can do more, creating that third part of the equation. It’s the challenge of doing something different to what you’ve learnt to do.”

One of the biggest reasons that I’m a fan of Phil’s sets is that I never know what kind of records he is going to play. How does this come about I ask him. “I don’t know what I’m going to buy, whatever records I’m finding that time that are cool. I think it’s just having a wide appreciation, being able to listen to a Masters at Work record and go “that’s fucking sick!”, or an Apex Twin record. There’s no boundary to the music. If you’re music buying and your tastes are like that I think it’s always going to be varied. And if you’re djing, as far as the crowd will let you, the more you’re going to push it and try and do stupid things and weird things.”

Someone recently slipped me a copy of the as yet unreleased Functional Breaks mix cd Phil had done, "Retro to Future". What’s the story on this release I ask him? “Functional breaks was an interesting project. I was given 20 tracks from the label and told right, make a mix! Some of them were records I’d played before in my sets, but the the rest weren’t. It was a real detached kind of project but my mission was to make a mix CD that flowed and give a good indication of what the label has been about for the last few years. When I had the mix happening it was this very strange feeling of just having to become this object of the mix, rather than to feel what you’re doing and the flow of what you’re trying to create, as you would with your own project. But I put it on a couple of weeks ago and it was like “fuck man, I haven’t been able to pick the last five tracks, where they start and where they finish, whats going on? I think the job is done!” It’s got a good vibe for the label and it’s fresh because of the way it’s mixed and put together."

I ask if he had any hesitation in taking the project on? “No not at all” he replies quickly. “I really like Biff who runs the label. He’s a cool guy and I was very blown away when he asked me. It’s not like he doesn’t know people (who could do the job) but he chose me to do his mix. Plus on the first CD I did, “Sound Not Scene”, I used a Functional Breaks track, and on the Balance 004 CD. I’ve always found the artists that they work with, like Frakkar, amazing, and Blue Effect, who does this mad two-step stuff with beats that are swinging but the mood is somewhere else. I’m really liking the stuff they do. It was great working with them and I was really wrapped that they chose me to do something like that for them, a mix CD on their first 20 releases. That’s a big thing!”

With Phil’s overseas trips becoming more frequent and overseas labels chasing him for work I ask if he’s contemplated going OS to live as some other Melbourne producers are? “No not at all! It’s really hard for people who try to rely on making music here fulltime. To be honest I have been to the UK loads of times and I think it would be even tougher going over there or wherever else you go, because economically it’s a lot worse than what it is here. You might get more gigs and that but economically it’s a harder life there, so if you’re struggling here it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll go there and kill it. Australia’s good because it’s as much as you make it.

Phil now does music fulltime for a living. “I manage to scrap through but I take that as a win scenario because my whole aim to life is not about making a load of money. I just need to make money to pay my rent and pay my bills and if I can do that and I think I’m way on top of most people who have to bust their arse doing shit they don’t want to do. But I’m doing something that I cant believe I’m doing, so I’m winning! I’d still be broke if I went to England and it would all pan out the same. So I’m quite happy if people let me do want I want to do and still find it entertaining. That’s whats it’s supposed to be isn’t it, entertainment? So if people like it and they think it’s cool or think its fun, and think there’s some appeal to it, then that’s fucking amazing dude, that’s sick!! He laughs as he happily says “You cant ask for much more than that really!�