Exclusive Interview with Kill Paris

Half an hour before his set, on a quiet side street in San Diego’s Gaslamp District, Kill Paris quickly bats away my nonsensical question. “Of course I’m playing my Keytar tonight.” The venue’s back door recoils releasing a wave of bass. “I bring it everywhere!”

The sonic disturbance to our chat doesn’t phase Corey Baker — better known in the music realm as Kill Paris. He’s gotten used to excessive volume while touring, which is good because the North American leg of his debut headlining tour is still in its early stages. “It’s been great. It’s only the second week.”

Since finishing his supporting role on Bassnectar’s 2014 tour, Baker has been working feverishly — “I ended up getting Pneumonia towards the end of it which put me out for like a month after the tour” — to prep for the release of his debut album Galaxies Between Us and his similarly titled tour. The theme of Baker’s sound and aesthetic is, as he best describes it, vibey. During a time where electronic music aligns with either the dark and ominous or prismatic, Baker’s musical vision falls under the latter.

“Every place is different, but I’d say the overall energy is often very similar,” Baker explains. I’m pretty fortunate to have had so much good energy at my shows. Even New York has been one of my best places to play ever since I started out, which I think is very interesting because it’s very house oriented. It’s more of a Kill Paris show now, so I feel like fans are more comfortable to be there just for that as opposed to being there in support of another artist.”

You’ll have to pay to see him live, but an audible ride between the galaxies is on the house. As a part of Baker’s free music initiative, Galaxies Between Us is downloadable a la his budding new label Sexy Electric. “Building up to this part has been really exciting. Especially now with my own record label, self releasing the album keeps a more direct connection with the fans.”

Focused on nurturing fledgling artists, Baker’s Sexy Electric label has a few talents that are soon to shine. “We have a couple great artists that we are working with,” Baker states. “Bee’s Knees, who are opening tonight, recently had their first release on the label. Alma’s first release came out about a week ago. And were working with an artist named Virtu who hasn’t released any of his stuff yet but man, I’m really excited for his stuff to come out.”

Though Sexy Electric has just recently started to release music, Bakers sentiment for a righteous label has been brewing for some time. “Our idea was to make a label that actually supports its artists as much as it can to let them do whatever they want to do no matter what that is,” says Baker. “There are some big labels out there that, pardon my french, put out shit the majority of the time. They are signing hundreds of artists just to see what sticks without caring for them. To each their own of course, but there’s no continuity in that.”

“With Sexy Electric, the whole idea is to build a space where artists can come in and explore. Maybe they know where they want to go, maybe they don’t, but they’re doing something and we are giving them the space to do it.”