Karl Henkell, Not Losing His Edge
Karl Henkell didn’t want to “lose his edge” before he reached 30. He left his home in Melbourne, Australia, to settle in a warehouse space in Brooklyn and take a “chance at another life”. After a few formative years in the city, Karl fulfilled his vision: to publish his own music magazine. As he releases the 10th issue of his beloved publication, Record Magazine, he tells us about the power of New York City at making you dream big and turn big into reality.
NOUVEAU YORK: Could you tell us what you remember of your first few weeks spent in NYC, what stuck in your mind?
KARL HENKELL: I flew straight into the deep New York winter of 2014, and arrived at my Airbnb that I had booked for two weeks — a converted warehouse space with tiny rooms built into it, run by an older zany European artist around the corner from Marcy Projects in Bed-Stuy. The space was filled with lots of interesting lamps, his artworks, mannequins, a few cats — a bit like an ‘80s art dream. He drove me in his entirely matte white painted Cadillac into Manhattan once to buy my first sim card in Chinatown — and by all white, I mean every inside surface of the car was painted matte white. Thinking back now, it seems too good to be true, but that was my introduction to New York. I thought this experience must have been commonplace, and felt like I had landed in the most interesting place on earth. Of course, the warehouse itself was barely habitable, he was actively working on it, so everything was covered in sawdust, so I quite quickly moved out.
NY: Being raised in Melbourne, Australia, did you have an early fantasy about New York?
KH: I think my idea of New York was largely formed by Seinfeld, it was on TV every night growing up. Other than that, I don’t think I had a fantasy of what New York was, it was more just a place that existed in a very faraway land, where a lot of pop culture came from.
NY: It was literally such a far away move to come from Melbourne. What motivated such a step?
KH: I was working for a company in Melbourne that was relocating to New York, and I basically asked if I could come. My motivation at the time was to not settle down and to challenge myself somehow. At this point I had lived in Paris for a stint, and grew up going back and forth to Germany where my parents are from, so New York was a completely new thing. Having said that, it was already quite the well-trodden path for many Melburnian friends and acquaintances to do a stint in New York, so that definitely cushioned the landing.
“I had soaked up the New York attitude to creativity — just do it, we’ll celebrate and support you, and then get back to doing our own thing.”
NY: You once said “New York was like a kick in the butt to actually realize my ideas.” Did you mean you knew what you wanted to do already?
KH: I had a loose idea of starting a magazine years earlier, but really I had no concrete idea of what that would entail. It took quite a while for it all to come together. My first year or so in New York I was just getting to know the city, trying to understand how it worked. I started work the day after arriving, and I was lucky that in my job, I had to understand the creative scene in New York pretty quickly. NYC definitely played a big role in shaping my ideas for the magazine, and just what was possible. My horizons broadened, and I was meeting people like Tom Noble [the owner of Superior Elevations Records], who was in Issue 1, through friends of friends. Generally people like Tim Sweeney [of Beats in Space], Veronica Vasicka [of Minimal Wave Records] and so on were quite close at hand, one email and a train ride away.
NY: So you didn't feel intimidated.
KH: Coming from Australia, I initially felt there would be a barrier, but in the end my experience of New York was of a warm, quite close-knit, but sprawling music scene. You also have everything at your disposal in New York. For a magazine, you have an audience, there are so many shops that will stock your publication, media outlets that can publicize your project are at arms reach, there’s a constant flow of people from all over the world stopping by, that will likely end up at your launch event, and so on. That’s not a normal situation in most other places. So I felt it would be a shame to not take the opportunity while it’s there.
NY: I guess you also found people to work with?
KH: New York played a pivotal role in starting Record in that I got to know photographers and contributors in the city, artists I wanted to interview were close at hand, plus by then I had soaked up the New York attitude to creativity. Which is — just do it, we’ll celebrate and support you, and then get back to doing our own thing. I felt the energy of many people doing their own projects side-by-side. I felt the attitude to be overwhelmingly supportive, and somehow the pace of the city helps you to get a project out there, to not overthink it. Things are moving at such a fast pace, there’s so much happening, that my magazine was just a drop in the ocean, which was a very liberating thing when starting out. I had a lot of role models in New York, you can literally see other people realizing their dreams, and that is very inspiring, and makes it feel doable.
Record Magazine is available at Casa Magazines in NYC.
“New York is a place with so much music history that it’s just a pleasure to hear more parts to the never-ending story.”
NY: How did that “kick in the butt” translate in real life?
KH: To get started and put out the first issue. And not just put it out quietly, but to use all the contacts I had at hand to give the magazine a proper launch. It’s a cliché, but New York makes you dream big. So I put together the first issue, and we had launches at Elvis Guesthouse, and Hotel Americano. I sent out hundreds of emails to all kinds of people telling them about the magazine, and invited them to our events. In hindsight it all went way better than I could have ever imagined, but until it happened, all these ideas were just scribbles in a notebook.
NY: How did New York shape the birth of Record Magazine?
KH: It had a huge effect. Before moving I was listening to Beats in Space and Minimal Wave on East Village Radio. Then arriving in New York, it was just soaking up what was already there, shops like A1, art shows, bookshops, record fairs, The Lot Radio starting, more gigs each weekend than you could ever imagine going to. So I was just soaking this stuff up, thinking “How is there not a print magazine about all this?”
NY: Looking at the people featured through the past 9 issues of Record magazine, it’s really an international casting but there is ALWAYS at least one NY staple: Tim Sweeney, Danny Krivit, Justin Strauss, Kim Ann Foxman, Jacques Renault, Nicky Siano… Is it a conscious choice?
KH: Yeah it’s totally conscious. New York is a place with so much music history that it’s just a pleasure to hear more parts to the never-ending story. Even if an interview is not with a New Yorker, it’s often about New York. It’s a cliché that New York is a melting pot, but the city just has a way of touching so many people.
Art by Lauren Martin for Record Issue 10.
“The city gives people an intensity and focus that they then channel into their pursuits.”
NY: You left NYC after 5 years? To settle first in Madrid and now in Berlin… What took you out of New York?
KH: While I flirted with the idea of New York being forever, I was always aware that at some point I would move, and that I had to make the most of my time there. After 5 years I was ready for a change from the noisy city life. We did a launch party at a record store in Madrid one February, while it was snowing in New York, and I remember calling my now wife saying, “It’s sunny here, everyone’s really friendly, we should move here.” It was the complete opposite to living in New York, and we were both ready to be in Europe again.
NY: What was the best thing about leaving NYC?
KH: The cost of living fell dramatically, which has become a bit of a burden. The feeling that you really had to “go large” and work a lot of jobs to make ends meet as a freelancer there. So hopping off that treadmill was nice. The first two years in Madrid were just coming down off New York, but we traveled quite a lot, and were using it as a base. Now in Berlin, in many ways there are similarities to New York life, but at a slower pace. It’s a nice balance.
NY: What did you miss the most about New York?
KH: The feeling of constantly having your finger on the pulse.
NY: Taking some distance, what did that make you realize about the city?
KH: After leaving New York, you realize that in some ways it is a bubble. The catch cry that New York is the best city in the world is drummed into you while living there. Of course there is a world beyond New York, but then again I haven’t been to a place that comes close to it. It offers a full spectrum of life experiences, in a way that few other cities do. You can live many different lives within the same city. I think the city gives people an intensity and focus that they then channel into their pursuits. For example it’s quite hard to practice yoga with blaring sirens and honking horns, but New York has some of the world’s best yoga teachers.
NY: You said the fear of “Losing your Edge” also brought you to New York. Did that fear also take you out of New York?
KH: I was moving to New York in my late 20s, for one last hurrah before being in my thirties, which would surely be more boring. That feeling of “losing my edge” came from phasing out of the party phase of my twenties, and moving in other directions career-wise, where music played less of a role. That was a scary thought, and so by starting the magazine, I was able to keep a connection to music. Now doing the magazine, I’ve met so many cool people from all walks of life that I’ve got all sorts of role models for a life well lived.
Record Magazine, Issue 10, click to order.
“The idea for Record was for it to be portable, and able to be read in transit.”
NY: As a bonus track, let's talk about Record Magazine a bit more. What other publications, past or present, have been a strong influence?
KH: I was strongly influenced by Purple magazine — Olivier Zahm was uncovering the mysterious worlds of art, fashion and music in Paris and New York. Reading it felt like a VIP pass into that world. What I liked about it was that the interviews conveyed real life experience on the page — really things that you couldn’t learn about elsewhere — you either flew to New York and went to Lit Lounge, or if that wasn’t possible, you read about it. The Purple supplements were also a direct influence on the Record supplements we do. I liked the idea of a supplement being its own thing, separate from the magazine.
System magazine was also really influential — I love what they did and do with photography and design. The clean aesthetic and the pull quotes in their interviews appealed to me. The Giorgio Armani feature from a while ago left a really strong impression. The generosity of imagery I really loved — it felt like a long photo essay — why not extend a feature out for 16 or more pages if the photos are really good?
Record Magazine, Issue 10, click to order.
I got into reading The Paris Review in New York, and the way they approached interviews made a strong impression. They created “perfect interviews” by doing several interviews over a period of time and collating them into one super interview. While it’s a laborious process, I’ve tried to bring parts of that approach into Record.
Kennedy magazine and Apartamento I also love — the size of both appealed. It was largely out of practicality, but deciding to do a small format magazine made a lot of sense in terms of printing costs and then shipping. While I love a big coffee table book, the idea for Record was for it to be portable, and able to be read in transit.
Karl Henkell Pick 6 New York Classics
Frankie Knuckles “The Whistle Song”
Of course the all-time classic... So obvious but I can't look past it. I bought the vinyl for $1 or something probably at A1 when I first arrived in 2014. And I just got a whole lot of enjoyment listening to it at home basically… It was quite a (rude) shock moving to NY, and the track is just all smiles from start to finish. It's optimistic, and a soulful house sound that I connect to New York.
MFSB “Love Is The Message” (Mr K edit)
Also an obvious one, but it's a big tune and one I can listen to over and over. I think Danny Krivit's edit just adds some extra sparkle. I love Nicky Siano talking about playing this loud and proud at his parties back in the day, when the cops were coming to break it up... (I think that's how it went). It's no doubt a big nostalgic tune, definitive of an era... but then also still is a great tune today.
LCD Soundsystem “Losing My Edge”
I need to put something from LCD Soundsystem in this list. Just because they were what I thought of when coming to New York. The nu-dance thing back in the day was influential for sure. To me James Murphy made New York seem exciting from afar. I ended up interviewing Nancy Whang for Record, as well as Luke Jenner, Jacques Renault, Tim Sweeney and we later had Juan Maclean... all these people's stories are intertwined. I also moved to New York when I was 28, quite literally close to “losing my edge” – a big part of the move was spurred on by not wanting to settle down in Melbourne, Australia. A chance at another life!
Blood Orange “Time Will Tell” (Cupid Deluxe)
Blood Orange soundtracked 2014/2015 for me, a lot of fun pre-drink party times to this... it was a perfect mixture of things.
Arthur Russell “That's Us / Wild Combination”
Again, an obvious one, but so nostalgic, and one I was listening to a lot when I met my now wife in 2014! Somehow being in New York while discovering and listening to music that was created there did feel special. It felt like it made more sense... I was also living in the East Village at the time!
Midnight Magic “Beam Me Up” (Jacques Renault Remix)
This was a big one in my mind when I was moving to New York. Such a great track. I got into disco in Melbourne, so moving to New York just allowed me to get into it more... I could also add Larry Levan remixes to the list and so on... At other times, like on my first trip to New York around 2007 with a good friend the soundtrack was definitely The Strokes “First Impressions of Earth”... tight jeans, pbr, taking ourselves to Max Fish and all that good stuff, fun times [laughs].
