Ep34 Abba Annoyance & Indian Bird Flipping! - Kim Anandi

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Luke 00:00:07  Welcome to another episode of the Embryo Pod podcast. My guest today is Kim and Andy. So you were a chef at the Green Cafe in Totnes?

Kim 00:00:16  Yeah.

Luke 00:00:16  I am, and also a DJ. Where does the name come from?

Kim 00:00:20  Okay, so my father, he was a Harry Krishna devotee a long time ago before I was born, and he lived out in India and got quite deep into that. Me and my sister ended up with Indian names. I got bought up like a little Indian boy. Strict vegetarian. Oh.

Luke 00:00:35  Hello, Clark. I'm actually going to just stop that clock. I'm going to play a piece of music. Yeah, and it's completely improvised. I want you to tell me what it makes you think of. So don't overanalyze it too much. Just anything that comes to mind when these kind of thoughts, emotions, ideas. What do you think of that?

Kim 00:01:49  I enjoyed that, actually. Yeah. So when it started, I felt like I was walking through this big mansion country house into this kind of ballroom.

Kim 00:01:57  Had a kind of dark element. I find those big houses little bit intimidating. I've always lived in small spaces. It was a bit overwhelming. But then I came into this ballroom and there was all these pictures, and then it took me out into the garden and it was maybe autumn time, and then it really went into Resene Dancer in the Dark Bjork film. Anyway, like a musical. And there was gardeners and workers and putting everything to bed for the winter. When it got funky, they were all just like, it's all work into the music.

Luke 00:02:28  Were any of the characters who lived in the house present?

Kim 00:02:31  Not particularly, but the place was familiar to me. It was like somewhere from my childhood that I might have gone to a familiar place, but the people there weren't.

Luke 00:02:40  Do you remember what the pictures were of in the hallway? They were quite bizarre.

Kim 00:02:44  Aristocratic, maybe. Portraits of the people that live in the house. But weird. It's amazing what the mind does sometimes.

Luke 00:02:52  Some of this is so incredibly specific as well.

Luke 00:03:00  We'd like you to tell me a story of some kind. Yeah, and what I'm going to do is break the story down into sections and then improvise a soundtrack to the story. Okay.

Kim 00:03:11  I have one in mind. Based in India.

Luke 00:03:13  Where abouts in India?

Kim 00:03:14  This was in Goa. And the current people who I live and work with. It was actually with them.

Luke 00:03:20  Because you met in Goa.

Kim 00:03:21  So I met them in India. We've done a bit of work with them. We became friends. Then they called me when they moved here. This was after I'd been and worked with them. I moved around India a bit and then I came back into Goa and we thought we'd just meet up. I rented a scooter out, went to the house, had a really nice time and we decided to go back into near where I was staying near the beach and go to this Israeli vegan restaurant. It was a friend of theirs and the food was really good. They went in the car with their two teenagers.

Kim 00:03:53  At the time I was sat in the back, went out on my bike and they'd give me a duff bike without working lights. And by this point it was the evening. It was dark, so I had the scooter, no lights on. It went through this big town which was a bit hectic, and then most of it was darker back roads. But because I had their lights and I was just following their car, it was fine really. Must have just looked a bit weird from other traffic. What happened is in Goa, the police, they put checkpoints up and they've stopped tourists on bikes and rent some of their money. It's a side hustle. It's a second income and they threaten you with big fines and bills and prison or whatever. And if you don't have a full bike license and they go, are we? If you give me this much money or sort it out, nothing more said. But I was wise to this because I've been there a while and I know the system a little bit, luckily.

Kim 00:04:42  Anyway, so we got to this checkpoint and John and Sylvia, they were in the car with the teenagers in the back, and they were like, oh no, he's gonna get nicked. He's gonna get nicked. So they were ahead. I slowed down on my bike. No lights on, by the way. As you can imagine, it must have looked really bad. The police started coming up to me. I was just waiting until they were really close to me and burnt them off and flipped them the bird. They chased after me. Running after me. Come back. I gave them the finger while I drove off and the kids were in the back window, just like hollering and just loving it. Then we got to this restaurant and they were just like, yeah, you completely done the right thing. By the time they've gone and tried chasing me and got me, they could have nicked like four other people and rent some money, so it's not really worth it.

Luke 00:05:28  It's interesting how transportation in India are becoming a theme on this podcast.

Luke 00:05:33  Ben Taylor's Oh.

Kim 00:05:35  Yes, on the reef. Yeah, yeah.

Luke 00:05:37  I think, Alice has a similar kind of bike story based in India. What did you think of that? That was brilliant.

Kim 00:07:32  Yeah, it's great when you listen to something and you travel through it in your mind. Yeah.

Luke 00:07:36  So did you get the sense of the cops and. Oh, they're.

Kim 00:07:38  Approaching us here. It's always getting heavy. And then there was that relief when you got in that kind of euphoria.

Luke 00:07:43  How would you improve it? Would you say anything was missing from the soundtrack?

Kim 00:07:47  Maybe at the end it was a bit of a dark note. The end was quite happy because I made it to the restaurant food. Yeah, maybe a bit more triumphant at the end because it was a bit like, hey.

Luke 00:07:57  Take two of triumphant ending, then let's let's try this.

Kim 00:08:31  Yeah, that hit me more in my happy place. That was more how I felt. I think at the time. That's great.

Luke 00:08:45  So do you have another story you'd like to tell?

Kim 00:08:48  I got another kind of a travel story, I guess.

Kim 00:08:52  Anybody who has known me for a long time. When I deejay, I have one rule, and I don't play ABBA. That's it. Childhood trauma. I don't like ABBA very much. I don't mind other people listening to, but for me, I just can't do it. I refuse. Nobody can pay me any amount of money to play ABBA. And how this started was I had a best friend since I was like six about that age, we lost contact now, but we were best friends for a long time. I must have been about 11 or 12. We went up from West Wales to London. I lived at his house quite a lot when I was young. It was like a second home and his dad was just amazing. And it was just him and his sister and his dad. We went up to London. It was about 5 or 6 hour journey and on the way there he played ABBA for 5 or 6 hours. I didn't like ABBA already, so it was like, I can't listen to this anymore.

Kim 00:09:49  And my friend who was also in the back, he wasn't fussed and we just started making up different lyrics. All the other songs. We had to do something to keep ourselves sane, basically. And when we got to London, I think we stayed at his gran's house. It was a huge relief. We got out of the car, we were like, oh my God, we can never do that again. It's horrendous. So we had a really nice time in London, went skating just smooched around and then a week later we jump back in the car and proceeded to do exactly the same thing again. We listened to ABBA for another 5 or 6 hours. On the way back I was like completely done with it.

Luke 00:10:23  So he must really like ABBA then?

Kim 00:10:26  Yes he did. He liked ABBA. And the funniest thing about this whole situation is he was actually like relatively successful musician back in the day. Amazing bass player. Played with some bands, almost made it almost. And he'd given up on it and was starting a family.

Kim 00:10:44  Obviously he had kids and one of his old schoolmates was like, So I'm starting a new band and, are you in? And by that point, he was thinking of starting a family and kind of giving up on the dream. And that band became The Clash.

Luke 00:11:01  Okay, so I'm going to break the story down into sections then. You get in the car, you start listening to ABBA, it's all right for a bit. And then as the hours go by, the tedium kicks in of this ABBA experience. You start going a bit mad and it becomes a bit too much to bear. and then you get to London, you have a nice time, you go skating, it's all good. And then after a week you get back in the car and guess what you're listening to? It's another 5 or 6 hours of tedium. This could be interesting. All right, here we go.

Kim 00:14:19  Yeah. Cheers for the traumatising. Yeah, that.

Luke 00:14:23  Sorry Tony Abbott fans out there.

Kim 00:14:25  I'm not sorry.

Kim 00:14:26  That was mildly traumatising for me, but I'm glad it wasn't for 5 or 6 hours.

Luke 00:14:29  Yeah, twice. Funny idea. Played a super discordant.

Kim 00:14:33  I really saw the comedy. The fact that you just done that. But I was just like, come on.

Luke 00:14:40  It's a bit like Man After Midnight meets kind of hammer horror for a while, and then super discord and stuff. Try and get that anxiety.

Kim 00:14:48  I was imagining the journey as well.

Luke 00:14:50  What did he say when you asked him? I guess at some point you must have suggested to maybe change the music. I think he.

Kim 00:14:56  Quite enjoyed the fact that we weren't enjoying it. Maybe he was just having a moment. Senior moment? I'm guessing. Actually, I enjoyed your version much more than going all a bit wonky. It was more interesting for me anyway.

Luke 00:15:15  What did you get out of this podcast?

Kim 00:15:17  I thought it was great. I didn't know really what to expect. I've heard some of your podcast, but I wasn't really prepared so much.

Kim 00:15:23  I but I've quite enjoyed it.

Luke 00:15:26  Thank you very much for being on the podcast. Thank you, very insightful and apologize to those other fans out there.

Kim 00:15:31  But no apologies for me.

Luke 00:15:36  Join us next week for another episode of Impro Pod. Thanks for listening. The Empire Pod podcast is slowly becoming a global phenomena featuring guests from Barcelona to Lockhart, Texas, with stories and listeners from all over the planet, from Vanuatu to Chongqing. That's why I've made this interactive map where you can listen to stories and explore their locations. Find out approximately where the guests were interviewed and the listeners are. It's a completely new way to experience the Info Pod podcast. You can explore the map at Impro Pod. Com and on the Instagram page. Would you like to be a guest on this podcast? If you're into telling stories that inspire improvised music and exploring our relationship to music, then please get in touch. Email guest at Limpopo. Com or send a message via the Improve Pod Instagram page.