We were very fortunate to grap some time from Kyle Reicker aka Planemo aka Egzail. To say this dude wears many hats is an understatement. From managing operations at Direkt Influence to DJ'ing to contemptlating life as we know it... Kyle is a very busy man. Thankfully he put all that on pause and answered a few questions for us at FCK YES! (and dropped a heady mix for your enjoyment! - Check the mix at the end of the interview)
FCK YES! - Please introduce yourself.
KYLE - I'm Kyle Riecker, the artist and promoter commonly referred to as Planemo or Egzail, depending on how long you've known me. I oversee and manage general operations and public relations for Direkt Influence Productions, and have been doing so for about 8 years. I've been a DJ since 2001, before the dark time.. before... the dubstep. Kidding. Outside of raveland, I am an abstract philosopher with an open view, an adventurous spirit, and am currently pursuing any and every positive experience that will enrich my allotted time of existence. I'm also Public Relations Major at Utica College, where I am employed full time. I'm socially awkward, but warm up to people eventually. This is paired intermittently with occasional moments of smoothness, during which I rock the casbah.
FY! - What are you doing right now?
K - Responding to your questions for this interview, listening to glitch hop, and devising a game plan for my weekend.
FY! - You’re a promoter, DJ, and you lend a big helping hand to the Utica Zombie Walk. How do you keep all your ducks in a row?
K - I'm more of a free range duck keeper, I take an integrated cloud approach maintaining my badelynge. I believe that the instinctive reaction of controlling your environment is detrimental. Trying to organize a chaotic existence is futile. I go with the flow, and keep a positive mindset at all times. I see the good in everything, and everyone. I don't sleep all that much, so that lends me more time to organize, contemplate and accomplish tasks. Admittedly, the Utica Zombie Walk is a big undertaking and requires a lot of time and effort.
The Utica Zombie Walk is a non profit fundraising event, and could be considered grassroots as we keep all the focus on local businesses and charities. The reward is not financial gain, nor recognition, but knowing that we are making a difference where it is most needed. I am thankful that I have such an energetic, passionate and motivated staff that assists me with this mission every year. Their help and mutual understanding make all the difference.
FY! - What is Direkt Influence?
K - Direkt Influence is a collective of DJs, promoters, artists, MCs, and music enthusiasts. We currently have 13 members and are spread all over the east coast. We've been in operation since 2004, and in that time have organized about 5-6 large events a year, and have done numerous collaborative events with other crews and companies. We're mainly based out of Utica and Syracuse NY. We currently host an EDM radio show on 90.7fm, WPNR, which airs every Saturday at 10pm-2am. We're all very close friends, and have a pretty damn rockin time with each other. Each of our members have unique attributes that are integral to keeping the clock well oiled here at DI.
FY! - Tell us about the Zombie Walk.
K - The Utica Zombie walk started off in 2009 as a "theme" concept for a Direkt Influence party. I had read a few articles on zombie walks in larger cities such as Toronto and NYC, and thought it would be an interesting concept to bring to Utica. When we floated the idea on upstateunderground.net, other Utica heads jumped on the concept, and we collaborated our efforts and made it happen. I was expecting about 50 people the first year, and our turnout was more like 200. We raised $450 dollars for the Utica Zoo, and established ourselves as an annual tradition in Utica.
The really special thing about our event is that it's free, and all ages. There are an unfortunately high demographic of impoverished families and children in Utica, many of them with NOTHING to do for fun. So when it comes time for the zombie walk, parents can bring their kids to our start point, The Uptown Theater, and have their whole family "zombified" by our volunteer makeup artists for no cost. They then get to participate in a walk which they will not soon forget. It's a very heartwarming experience for our staff to see how much fun people have in boring old Utica.
We take pride in knowing that our event generates monetary and food donations for the Utica area, which in turn benefits the same impoverished and underprivileged families. We also work with the Stevens-Swan Humane Society of Oneida County, one of our selected charities, to collect pet food and supplies as part of our food drive. This aids the area's shelter animals and the efforts of those kind people who try to save them. The last two years, the humane society has brought a shelter dog down to our event, and each time, the dog has been adopted by a loving family within the week. All of this ties into our mission of making a positive difference where it is needed the most. I stand by this conviction as reason in itself to continue to dedicate my time to the Utica Zombie Walk, and to grow the event each year.
FY! - How much has the horde grown from the first year to this past year Walk? Did you ever think it would become as popular as it has?
K - This will be our fourth consecutive year holding the event. As I mentioned previously, our first year had about 200 participant zombies. The turnout of our horde has since steadily increased, last year the conservative estimate ranged from 300-500 participants. This year, we're expecting 500-700.. but we're hoping for a 1000. For the size of the region, this makes it an extremely popular event. We've even had other cities contact us for advice on hosting their own zombie walk. The Oswego Zombie Crawl is one notable example that follows our model.
I didn't anticipate its popularity at first, but now I know for certain that zombies are here to stay in Utica. It's also evident that popular culture is enthralled with the undead, be it movies, television shows or video games. We have a very large target audience, and this ensures that our zombie walk will continue to thrive.
This year there is a Zombie Traaaaain after the Walk. How did this come to be?
Our volunteer coordinator and resident Direkt Influence MC, Ashley McAllister aka MC Allister is to thank for this collaboration.She floated the notion to have a zombie rave aboard a train, and extraordinary idea! Brraainns and Traaaiins is our unofficial slogan.
The fine people at the Adirondack Scenic Railroad and the Utica Zombie Walk collaborated and organized "The Escape Plan: A Zombie Dance Party on a Train". It's going to be Fan-FCKing tastic. We've got three quality DJs spinning, a bar, and a fully decorated train to ourselves. We also like to follow a story line, when we throw the zombie walk. So, as in any epic conclusion to a quality zombie movie, the survivors of the outbreak will have a chance to escape. In this case aboard a train. Usually, these plans go horribly wrong. A survivor hides their bite wound from the rest of their party, and boards the train.. and then all of a sudden..
FY! - You’re a multi-genre extraordinaire when it comes to your mixes. Do you ever stick to one style or is that just not your thing?
K - I did start off with mixing mainly trance and house. Over the years I've gone through phases with my interests, so I've gained a ton of diversity, being able to spin basically every genre, or all of them mashed up.
When I spin, it's just so difficult to choose one genre of electronic music, and stay with it for an entire set for me. Call it A.D.DJ. It's somewhat boring in my opinion to have a constant, although some in the industry are quite good at it, so by no way am I knocking single genre mixing. I however thrive on contrasts, transitions, contradictions, builds and progressions, even when it comes to BPMs. Admittedly it is more challenging from a technical, beat matching perspective. With repsect to this, my mixes are not always perfect, and sometimes live performances don't fly well. Other times they do. They are however, always interesting to the listener and to myself as a performer. The exclusive mix for FCKYES starts off as glitch hop, teeders around moombahcore, then progresses to a more 4X4/breakbeat tempo. From there it jumps into some DnB for a moment, and then chills back out into PSYdub and jam. I hope you enjoy it. It's a fun listen.
FY! - What’s next for Direkt Influence?
K - LeoNova is our next MASSIVE event in Utica after the zombie walk, November 17th. It's a drum and bass party at Piers and Blake, a huge, swanky warehouse venue next to the train station in Utica. I highly suggest jumping on the train and making the trip to Utica for it.
FY! - …the Zombie Walk?
K - I'm going to try to get through this year's before I start planning for the next. It's a solid PR practice to have an evaluation and assessment period in which we'll sit down and ask ourselves "What can we do to make this better? Run smoother? Improve turnout? What could we have done differently?" I can tell you this though, we'll be back again next year, bigger, better and undead-er.
FY! - Coke or Pepsi?
K - I'll pass on the high fructose death syrup, and supporting the force feeding of corn in various forms to every citizen and farm animal in the United States. Coffee, Beer and water is what I subsist on. Let's save that for another interview.
FY! - Finish this sentence: WAKE UP AND...
K - RUN LIFE. REGURGITATE LOVE.
Thanks so much for your time Kyle!
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