 Kinky Roland's music is eclectic and extremely varied & covers various musical styles & genres, which is why he is constantly working in the industry at every level. He started releasing music on the Hos Records label, owned by the infamous Heidi Of Switzerland, also known as Hilary, who gave Roland Faber the Kinky Roland nickname.
His time at Hos Records saw him release Trance, Techno & Hard House for the label under various different guises including Tranceparents, Terminator Benelux, Tunnelvision & Dream Plant & his club hit "The Mighty Machine" was a firm favourite of the late Tony De Vit & a smash at the seminal Trade club in London.
Boy George was a big fan of Dream Plant & wanted that sound for a remix on the classic "Everything Starts With An E", after this Kinky Roland was subsequently signed to George's label More Protein and released several successful tracks. The partnership with Boy George endures to this day.
Kinky Roland was heavily involved in the art school underground of London's Freak-land and joined the offset in the late nineties as an offspring of Leigh Bowery's Minty band as well as collaborating with the late DJ/producer & Velvet Room/Bootylicious promoter Chris McCoy on various projects.
Other collaborations have included Mark Almond, Glen Gregory, Princess Julia, Sarah Jane Morris, Linda Duggan, Sarah Muossempes as well as Johnny Slut amongst other names.
Kinky Roland is also a huge in demand remixer adding his magic touch to clients as diverse as Missy Elliot, C+C Music Factory, Robbie Rivera, Five, Liberty X, Fangoria, Shaggy, Culture Club, Amanda Ghost, Bananarama, Georgie Porgie, Marilyn, Shaznay, Duane Harden & Amos amongst many others. His regular supporters include the likes of Judge Jules, Pete Tong & Steve Smart of Kiss FM as well as been a firm favourite of the dance stations & commercial radio shows including Radio 1, Virgin & Capital FM amongst others.
He has resurrected the notorious Acid House act S-Express with the flamboyant Mark Moore & was immediately snatched up by French hipster label Kitsune with the first release “Stupid Little Girls” with album to follow. Shortly afterwards they remixed Soft Cell for the “Heat-The Remixes” album on Some Bizzare/Universal.
Notably, about three years ago Roland teamed up with Mark Loverush to found Loverush UK a trance and progressive production team, after much success they then went on to form their own label Loverush Digital that is now one of the UK’s premier underground dance labels.
“I’d say my style resonates between Progressive Electro & House to Balearic House & pure unadulterated pop!”
FX – How did you first get interested in making music?
KR - Listening to German Berliner schule 70's synthesizer music including Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk. Also I had Oxygene by Jean Michel Jarre on tape when I was 10.
The thought of that music being made by a synthesizer was totally fascinating for me I used to think a synthesizer would be this huge crazy expensive machine like in Metropolis. I wanted one desperately and when I turned 15 I got my first one a Roland JX3P which I still own today.
FX - What projects are you currently working on and what is your role?'I also use software like BFD2 which I think is the best live drum kit on the market.
KR - My own dance music as Kinky Roland.
I also co-own Loverush Digital & digital dance label so I am also working on remixes for the Artists we have signed.
Also work as Roland Sebastian-Faber which is my ambient german project on Aube Records, I also write and produce with Boy George and Mark Almond and Mark Moore regularly.
Recently my management Angel Artists put me in touch with Paul Carter of The Beatmasters as they were relaunching the act with him, so I am now a part of that. I'm quite excited about that really as they had over 30 international hits & produced singes for The Shamen, Pet Shop Boys, David Bowie, Depeche Mode etc.
FX – How do you approach a remix?
KR - I need to be inspired by the vocal because I normally only use the original vocals And build a totally new made track around it. When I really feel the vocal you propably get the best result out of me. As I can't help but be inspired by moods and vocals that stir something in me.
FX – What’s the piece of music that changed your life?
KR - Ooh, far too many to mention ha ha.
FX – Tell us a bit about your label “Loverush Digital” and how it came about?
KR - I met Mark (who I run the label with) through Marc Almond as we were going to do a track together. Myself & Mark just clicked and so started the act Loverush UK. A bit later we thought it would be a good idea to start a label to release the Loverush UK sound & so Loverush Digital was born. Its just built from there really with ourselves & a roster of cool artist such as Kinky Roland, Avatar One, Tom Noize, Hoop!, Andrea Britton, Molly Bancroft, Damien S & others.
FX – How much a part does software play in your studio? And what FXpansion products do you own and how do you use them? What are your favourite features?
KR - On the synthesizer side I use a lot more real vintage instruments, apart from certain soft synths that are totally special such as the D-Cam Synth Squad & GURU. They are utterly amazing pieces of software.
I also use software like BFD2 which I think is the best live drum kit on the market. I can get some really good drum programming out of this kit and I have tricked many music friends into believing it was a real drummer!
On the production side I use a combination of real external hardware like Jupiter 8's, Juno 106 & some classic real analogue synths which actually compliment the FXpansion products I own. I also have a real TB-303 in perfect condition that I sometimes use!
FX – What have you got lined up for the rest of the year?
KR - Working on my albums as Kinky Roland and pure classic analogue tracks as Roland Sebastian-Faber.
I'm also finishing some work on Marc Almond's new album as well as new tracks with Boy George, Beatmasters & with Mark Moore.
And the odd collaboration of course with some major names that will turn a few heads!!
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