K1 - Konnected as 1 tell us ‘Where You Wanna Go’

Sydney based hip hop group K1 (Konnected as 1), are an amazing example of dedication towards music,friendship and success. Group members 2 Deep, B Wise, Egasm and Young Glove, all met at a young age of 10 when they were part of an African Australian community, and as they grew older, their bond grew tighter and they started performing together. The name came about as they tried to find different ways to describe their unity amongst each other as friends and business partners.

The group has reached the wider audience and their talents are now called for in various cities and states around the country. The group shall be hitting the road at the end of 2009 for a “state to state club tour” to promote the new single and music video “Where You Wanna Go” With approximately 3 performances every month, the group seem to be taking the scene with full force.

Another one of their hits and follow up singles “Slang” can be heard on their website http://www.myspace.com/Konnectedas1 and their debut album “New Breed” shall be released shortly within Australia via i-tunes and stores in early 2010.

Tell us how you all met each other and the story behind your group’s name?

We all met eachother through what was at that time a small african australian community. All our parents were friends and so we all used to just hang out, this was all at the age of 10 when we met. Since then we all continued to be friends and all shared a passion for music ,especially hip hop were we started to rhyme and write songs, it wasnt until 2005 we realised our passion to take music serious and started the group K1. The meaning of K1 is “Konnected as 1” , replacing the “c” with a “k” had no meaning but konnected as 1 was a discription of how we move think and act as one person. basically calling ourselves a tight group.

Locally there are a lot of divisions within Aussie Hip Hop. Where do you see K1 in the Australian Hip Hop scene?

We see our selves as a new breed of australian hip hop artist, the australian scene in our view is split by two factors, the more “aussie hip hop” which emphasises on supporting local sounds and stronger australian accents through the music, then you have the more international hip hop artist, who like to keep up with modern influences of sound and radio hits to expose them selves more to the mainstream public. We have love for both factors but we consider our selves taking the best from both factors. We always produce and write music that has international appeal so it appeals to all cultures and places, and also compeating with the bench marks the USA offten sets in regards to hip hop. Alwile the basis of our songs, its slang and demographics mentioned in our music always reflects were we are from and live which is sydney australia. Thats where we see k1 in the hip hop scene

Do you guys write all your own lyrics? Who work on all the music production?

We all write our own lyrics and verses, and write the hooks for the tracks together. The Majority of our production is all inhouse from E gasm and young glove in the group. Our first single"Where you wanna go” is a inhouse beat. We only have one beat on the album that is not made by us.

‘Where You Wanna Go’ is a great track and has an amazing music video behind it! Tell us more about the the single and the experience of shooting your first video.

Well where you wanna go, was recorded in 2008, so its almost 2 years old. Why we took so long to release it was our ambition to get it released through a major label in australia as we felt it would take of here. But due to so much delays and promises from the majors of working something out, we decided to push the single indie. We have a growing fan base who herd the song and always followed the music and we felt we were doing them wrong by holding our music back and the video for so long so were pushing it digitally. Our first video experiance was amazing. Usually the perception of doing your first video is very sketchy and low budget were you find yourself holding your own lighting, but we were fortunate enough to have numerous sponsors who invested in our first video and alot of money we put away ourselves which didnt keep us to restricted with budget. The producer of the video put together such a proffesional team of workers and extras its was relaxation for us, so we just had to worry about looking good and doing our thing!

What can audiences expect from your live performances?

ENERGY, ENERGY & ENERGY!! thats what we focus on, we like to keep the crowd moving, at the same time they get the chance to hear our tracks thay may be into. Live performances are our highlight of doing music. we love to vibe with exsisting fans and new crowds around the country exposing our selves and our sound.

You’ve supported some big US acts already, what has been your most memorable experience?

The most memerobale moment was in sept 2008 when we supported Flo rida on his first australian tour of melb and sydney. But the sydney show was our main highlight, Its was a full house at luna parks bigtop of 3000 people. During our set one of the member of the crew was introducing one of our tracks slang, he told the crowd “That we go by the name of K1, and we were born and raised right here in sydney”....and the whole crowd just went crazy cheering and clapping even faces in the front row in front of us were just so surprised, It wasn’t until we left the stage that one of the members from Flo Rida’s camp comes up and said “Are you guys from australia?? I had no idea? You guys were insane! I never new y’all had hip hop artists like that here?” That was a big compliment for us and then we new why the crowd reacted the way they did. To be compared to US acts that were supporting goes to show we have the ability to step to the bench mark of international hip hop.

Anyone you would like to say a shout out or thanks to?

Big thanks to Mike champion for your help on the single, Audius, stuart @ sound dogg for the mix downs, and shout out to -susan schmit, lufti, max and neo for all the work on the video. artist - Lowcutt, killa queens, young phaze, dj ziggy aka dj moey, New south west crew, syd crew, mirical, DOME, b syde, opi, Ro sham Bo. and of course GROOVE ON AUSTRALIA!

YOU CAN PURCHASE K1’s DEBUT SINGLE - ‘WHERE YOU WANNA GO’ HERE - http://www.apple.com/au/search/ipoditunes/?q=k1+konnected+as+1

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