As I mentioned when I interviewed Stella Mozgawa in Tape Op#169, I first met Cate Le Bon when she came into my Panoramic House Studio to work on her 2013 album, Mug Museum. Since then, I have enjoyed seeing Cate every few years when her orbit intersects with mine. She has a calm, steady, friendly, and intelligent presence, and it's always nice to spend time with her. In the past decade, she's increasingly worked more as a producer for...
Interviews
Kenneth Blume III, FKA Kenny Beats
By John Baccigaluppi
After posting my year-end 2025 favorite albums on <tapeop.com>, I ended up emailing with Kenny Blume who produced one of my favorites, Geese's Getting Killed. He mentioned that he had finished building a new studio, Putnam Hill, with both a digital and analog tape workflow, as well as two custom consoles, and he invited me to visit the next time I was in Los Angeles. Formerly known as Kenny Beats, whether you call him Kenneth or Kenny, please use his last name, Blume. He's currently 34 years old and has been making music since he was in high school. In this time, he’s already worked with artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Mac Miller, and ScHoolboy Q before he even graduated from college, later working with the aforementioned Geese and IDLES. I met up with Kenny at Putnam Hill after he'd finished up tracking vocals for a new Weezer song (“Shine Again”) he was producing, and we sat down for a chat for Tape Op.