Kamandi's Debut USA Show: 30 Days in LA

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KAMANDI TOUCHED DOWN FOR HIS DEBUT USA SHOW AT RED BULL SOUND SELECT: 30 DAYS IN LA
@RedBullNZ #SoundSelect #BreakMusic

Christchurch local Kamandi touched down on foreign soil last week for his debut USA show at Red Bull Sound Select 30 Days in LA with Chance the Rapper and Azizi Gibson. He’ll be filling us in on shows and more, presenting a first-hand account of adventures in LA land. Sit back for the first chapter of his 30 Days in LA tour diary.

Wednesday 12 November
This is my first time in the States and it actually took a while to sink in that I’m in Los Angeles. My manager Haydn Middleton’s out here with me. We got picked up from LAX in a black Sound Select van and went directly to where we’re staying, this massive complex in the Hollywood Hills. There’s a gym on every floor and a bar and cinema downstairs, all the bells and whistles. Apparently Justin Bieber stayed recently. It’s actually crazy.

The first night Azizi came through and we had a few drinks. He introduced us to his engineer, Lawrence Naber, and a bunch of other people – they’re all connected with creative people out here. That’s just one of those advantages of having local knowledge.

We all headed out to Low End Theory, a legendary LA club night run by The Gaslamp Killer – it’s a hub of the LA beat scene. We got to see Teebs and Gaslamp smash it, and then Gaslamp invited us to watch a woman called Astronautica perform. That was cool to make a musical discovery on the first night of the trip.

Thursday 13 November
The next morning we linked up with Lawrence at his studio, and Azizi and I started work on a new track. After that session, I was in two minds about whether to go to Run the Jewels’ 30 Days in LA show. I decided against it ’cause of the jetlag and I definitely regret it; Haydn ended up going and I could tell by his smirk that he’d experienced a pretty epic gig.

Friday 14 November
On Friday morning, a Sound Select van shuttled us over to Red Bull Studios Los Angeles. It’s this massive facility, incredible gear everywhere. I’ve seen photos before but they didn’t prepare me for what’s on offer.

I had some skeleton beats that I’d worked on the night before, but when Azizi arrived we decided to make a fresh song on the spot. I started the beat and he was writing while it was being created. Being in a space like that definitely fuelled the creative process.

Flying Lotus was playing that night, so we rushed back to the house to freshen up and then headed to The Wiltern, this beautiful venue he was performing at. The whole show was insane – he performs in this cube which has visuals projected onto it.

I had to go home early so I could be on-point for my 30 Days in LA set the next night, but Haydn stuck around and ended up playing Mortal Kombat in FlyLo’s tour bus with him and Thundercat – crazy.

Saturday 15 November
Saturday was game day. I had a few hours to run through my set while Haydn set off to find an adapter so I could plug everything in. He had all sorts of dramas getting one and he got back just before we had to leave.

The venue was the motherf***ing House of Blues (!), a legendary venue on Sunset Boulevard, which is mind-blowing. It sold out in the first two days and it was amazing to see so many up-for-it Los Angelinos there for my set.

My first ever LA show was at a packed House of Blues, which was a pretty special introduction to the city – it was totally surreal, to be honest. Beautiful venue, beautiful people, shit was crazy. Once I got off stage, there was a 20-minute changeover before Azizi’s set. He put on an incredible show, he smashes it every time. Chance the Rapper was up next and he also put on a crazy set. He brought his live band through and the whole thing was really high energy. I love his music, so to see that translated live was awesome.

It felt like the whole city was at the House of Blues; you can be anywhere in LA and you’ll see celebrities everywhere. Haydn and I got back to the green room after Chance’s set and Big Sean was there. That was pretty crazy, casually crossing paths with Big Sean in our green room – I had to Instagram it.

We were all feeling pretty damn good about the show, so we had a massive shindig back at the compound. Chance’s manager came with us and he was actually DJing my music from a USB stick.

Sunday 16 November
Today’s a recovery day – Lawrence took us to Venice Beach. Amazing weather, blue skies, beautiful Californian sun blazing down. The next big thing for me and Azizi is a gig in Austin Texas later this week, which is pretty damn exciting. I’ll check back in after the show with a report on what goes down.

Keep posted on Kamandi’s LA journey on www.redbull.co.nz/music.
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