The songs that started everything.

The Christmas CDs

The first thing that hooked Kalus on music was a Powderfinger album his dad gave him for Christmas. He fell in love with it. Tracy Chapman's Fast Car and Fleetwood Mac were part of those early listening years too.

What stayed with him was the strength of the songs. A great album needed a great collection of them, whatever the style. That lesson made him curious about everything: hip hop, house, trance, pop, R&B, rock and acoustic music. If it was good, he wanted to hear it. He started collecting anything and everything.

Early influences included Armand van Helden and De La Soul. Sven Väth, Richie Hawtin and deadmau5 came later. More recently, Fred again.. has become a source of inspiration. The names span different sounds, but that early openness has stayed with him.

Billboard, 2003

Kalus started DJing in 2003 at Billboard nightclub, playing hard trance for a crew called Smile Police. He was also an active member of DJTracker, a forum that celebrated underground music culture, particularly in Melbourne.

Before social media became the default way to discover a night out, he found gigs and events through DJTracker and the inthemix forums, Beat magazine, and flyers left at vinyl record stores. The shops were part of the route into the scene as well as places to find music.

The weekly record run

Once a week, Kalus would make his way around Melbourne's record stores looking for fresh tunes. His rounds took in One Stop Deejay, Capital Records / Vinyl Pusher, Platinum Records in Richmond, and Upfront Records, which later became Tsunami Records.

He eventually managed Tsunami until it closed. From behind the counter, he experienced the pressure digital music shops put on the vinyl trade. Beatport, Juno and Trackitdown changed how DJs found and bought records. For Kalus, the shift meant watching a place that had been part of his musical life shut its doors.

That history makes the act of collecting more than a footnote. Finding music had been a weekly habit, built around travelling between shops and hearing what was new.

A change at Wah Wah

Up until 2008, Kalus played strictly vinyl. His first gig at Wah Wah Lounge brought the realisation that it was time to move to CDs. He remembers that change as the beginning of an extraordinary run as a solo DJ.

He describes 2008 to 2012 as a dream run. Playing in Sydney and New Zealand stands out in his recollection. So does the 2010 inthemix result, which he remembers as placing him nineteenth among Australia's DJs.

In 2009, another important moment arrived: Noel found him at Kiss My Grass and asked to work together. That partnership became part of the story of Wah Wah, Lab22, Mothership and Noizy Neighbours, and eventually K-DOT Records.

The collection keeps growing

The starting point was a gift and the time spent listening to it. The record-store rounds, the club sets and the work with Noel grew out of that same interest in finding music worth hearing.

KDOT Radio gives that instinct another place to live. The format has changed since those Christmas CDs and weekly vinyl trips. Kalus's appetite for a good song, in any style, remains at the centre of it.