THE CUTTING ROOM: A LESSON IN CREATION
In an industry where it feels like every promotional trick has already been tried, KOF has made something truly unique.
‘The Cutting Room’ isn’t just a live set, it’s a space where everyone comes together to create a song from scratch. Whether you’re in the audience or on stage, everyone collaborates and contributes ideas, until you’re left with a finished track that didn’t exist hours before.
By allowing a crowd of strangers to come up with fresh ideas, KOF handed over the one thing most artists never give away, creative control. An artist I greatly admire, Tom Misch, created a project back in 2017, his ‘5 Day Mischon’. He wanted to create five entirely new songs in the studio, each with a different musician collaborating, starting with nothing and ending each day with a finished article. While this work remains subversive, what KOF created over the course of the evening pushed the boundaries of what’s possible to create in one sitting even further. Allowing the audience to participate in any capacity and doing it all live was a daring task that we were all lucky to witness unfold.
Taking place in the historic Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight, guests were welcomed into KOF’s studio for the evening. Amongst the works of art that hang on the walls, were an array of computers, mixing desks, and mics, ready for the artists to process whatever ideas were thrown their way. To one side, sat Jazz Gittens behind a grand piano, and in front of him, sat Sarah Levine, who over the course of the evening painted a canvas to capture the mood and energy of the entire event.
To kick start the evening, KOF asked guests to scan a QR code, where they could write ideas to be projected on a screen and considered during the jam. He started by asking what genre they should choose, and as an artist that blends hip-hop, reggae, and soul, the audience set their sights on challenging him to produce a house track. One member of the crowd gave him the BPM, and the creation process was officially underway. Jazz started by recording a melody on the keys, before KOF added a back beat. A message appeared on screen with the words “what’s the meaning of love?” This became the hook, and with a theme now in place, all that was left was to build a song around it.
KOF had begun to hit his stride, adding embellishments in the form of airy synths, tweaking the sound as he went and allowing the audience to hear it all come together.
As the tune took its final form, one fan told me, “I’m not a musician, so helping to create a song has been really cool”, summing up best the immersion and involvement of everyone in attendance.
Stepping away from the studio, we were all invited to listen to the musicians perform live, in another section of the gallery. It felt like a rewarding moment watching the work get its first outing and hearing the same loop return to us fully formed. The shared responsibility gave everyone a sense of achievement as we listened to the final product, creating a moment none of us could have made alone, but all of us had a hand in. It’s easy to assume every idea in music has been done already, yet ‘The Cutting Room’ is proof that this idea isn’t quite true.
