Kyle Hall is a typical 18-year old; he’s out and about, chillin’ with the ladies, having fun with his boys and you know, spinnin’ records all around the world. Oh, that last part of the sentence is referring to his production and DJing prowess, as Hall has been steadily climbing up electronic music for quite some time. Since 2007, he’s been making headway with his killer sets and tunes, staying close to the classic but never afraid to show off something fresh. While Hall may be from the birthplace of techno and assembly lines, he’s not letting the past overcome his future. With his Wild Oats imprint putting out his fantastic 12″s, touring non-stop with the help of his trusty agent Shauna, Hall is staying young, productive and determined at all once. He was kind enough to take time out of his wicked awesome life to speak with URB.

URB: What brought you into making music; how did your environment affect you in music?
KYLE HALL: As a kid, when I’d listen to my CD collection and hear my favorite songs I’d say to myself, “I wish I made that.” So what I would do was put on the song, turn the knobs on my stereo, hit the buttons on my video game controllers and pretend I was making the music. I always had a desire to make music. What made me want to make it was natural childhood curiosity. Of course, I had plenty of people making music around influencing me; When I was six, I wanted to be a singer like Brian Mcknight. Actually, now that I think about it the first time I performed was at my first grade talent show and I sang a Brian Mcknight song… Brian Mcknight had a real impact on me now that I think about it! When I was five-and-a-half I used to record raps on cassette tape in my grandma’s basement. I would use my Casio to make the beat while I recorded my vocals. I remember the song I made was called “Chi Chi Chi Cha Chat.” When I was coming up I had a lot of different instruments that my dad had bought for me. I had a guitar, drum set, two keyboards and a violin. My favorites were the keyboards ’cause I could make beats with those and plug them both into each other with MIDI cables and make beats and record them to tape. I had childhood friends who were into music also; one of them was my friend Myron who lived next door to my Grandma Hall. He played the drums really well and we were only six years old at the time. I remember I used to play the keyboard sound effects while he would play the drums. That stuff was so ill! It just so happen that Myron’s dad had a MPC 2000XL. That was the first time I saw one of those and when I saw his dad using that thing I REALLY wanted to make beats!

When did you start to think that you could take music production/DJing seriously?
When I was five! Seriously!

Your sound falls between deep house and Detroit roots, who are some of your production inspirations and how did you find the pieces to put together to make your sound?
I’d say my production influences draw from a lot of different places. At a certain point I started to absorb a lot of jazz when I got to high school. I was into a lot of free-form afro-futurism type shit. so that plays while researching that music I started to get more into experimental music, and from there I started to get into early drum machine house tracks. I had a lot of early house when I started DJing  and much of it wasn’t appreciated until later. I had it because my stepdad gave it to me those records. I started listening to Theo Parrish at the same time while checking out the experimental music. The first deep house music I like was Glenn Underground and Masters At Work. But before I was listening to those guys I was listening to Warp Records and before that I was listening to West Coast Gangsta Rap and Stones Throw artists. All of those things are production influences and I’m always picking up new ones. My sound will forever evolve Unlike Pokemon, who may only evolve up to about four times. My shit evolves infinitely, son!

Being from Detroit, people in the music world automatically put criticism on you because you’ve come from a city rich in techno history; does that bother you in any way or do you embrace the challenge?
I don’t feel a challenge. I’m just doing my thing, making beats and mixing records. Basically, the only important thing for me to do is make music true to what I want people to experience. I think that’s what makes the people who are successful in Detroit so cool is because we all are portraying our own thing; none of us are the same in thought or sound. Our differences are what make the city have rich history.

Let’s talk about Wild Oats… when/how did you make the decision to start it, and what can we expect out of it in the future?
I started Wild Oats because I wanted to control my own output of my vision and music. Wild Oats is Kyle Hall’s mind 100 percent. You can expect the unexpected, that’s all I can say!

What’s a typical day in the life of Kyle Hall?
Making beats, checking e-mails, talking to my agent, Shauna. Afterwards, it’s oatmeal eatin’ time at 2:34 PM, then time for the potty. Then, I take a trip to the bank, the post office; invoice distributors for records. I take the dog outside and feed his stankin’ butt. Go teach the kids at Youthville about making music. Finally, eat some Hot Cheetos go home call Omar-S and bug him. Nightcap is usually doing some more production work and talk to Shauna again and hopefully get more gigs. [Shauna you da best!]

When do you have time to be a young adult?
During the summer I goofed off a lot. Girls, fun, swimming, girls, bike riding, fantastic girls…oh and “I’m Kyle MFH Girl!”–my nickname to the ladies–was born.

There’s a YouTube clip of you floating around making some crazy hip-hop beats…are you going to release some of that material anytime soon and is that just you jamming for fun?
Yeah at some point I will release more hip-hop stuff. The New Wild Oats 3000 EP (The Dirty Thouz) has a hip-hop track that myself and The Qu’ran did called “Lax Adrenalin.” My boy Gary Plant and I  did some pretty interesting hip-hop material also, hopefully that comes out soon.

Who are your top artists you’re listening to right now?
Dam-Funk, man! He’s really dope; I just performed at his album release party in L.A. and I got to hear him live in action for the first time! I love Dam’s music it’s absolutely amazing. He makes sounds my ears enjoy. Floating Points has been making  so much music that really makes me happy. I really like the tip Sam is on. I’m listening to dubstep-ish artists right now like Shed and Zomby. I love the genre of dubstep right now, it’s such a cool entity that is open for plenty of invention and interpretation.

What can we expect from Kyle Hall in the (near) future?
I have a release that is coming out on Third Ear called “Must See” due for 2010. A remix I did for Delphic is due out very soon as well, along with my collaboration with Amp Fiddler. The rest I’m going to keep under my hat for now and for everyone else to find out later…

Huge thanks to Kyle Hall for the time, to find out more check him out at Myspace.

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