Interview: Five Minutes With KIDSØ

Made up of friends and musicians Moritz Grassinger and Martin Schneider, KIDSØ are a German live-electronic DJ-duo making waves with their unique downtempo house-infused organic-electronic sounds. Recognised by Germany’s biggest newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, as a Best Act/ Band, KIDSØ are going from strength to strength in their music career, performing in various countries around the world and always pushing themselves to grow their sound.

The duo will be releasing their new EP, ‘Apart’, on all platforms on October 26, via Project: Mooncircle’s sublabel Finest Ego, and have recently shared the new single from this upcoming release. Titled ‘Silent’, the single is a simultaneously energetic and chilled-out track, achieving that perfect spot between a danceable house track and a pensive, sensual, down-tempo tune.

Listen to KIDSØ’s brand new single, ‘Silent’, below.

We caught up with this talented duo and chatted about analog synths, creating art and sampling the forests of Munich.

Set the tone for us. Why the arts?

We, Moritz and Martin, love to play drums since our childhood. We started in rock, heavy metal, but also in funk and hip hop bands. Since we both played for the first time in Munich together, we both understood that this time our formations was made for long-term. Creating art, regardless if in music, photography or our video visuals we use on stage, offers us a way to unwind from everyday stress.

Which comes first when you’re producing – the sound or the idea?

Both go hand-in-hand. We love tweaking on our instruments, especially our analog synths. Sometimes it is just a sound, or an arpeggio inspiring us to set a tune and work on an entire track.

Does your material feature any collaborations?

Both go hand-in-hand. We love tweaking on our instruments, especially our analog synths. Sometimes it is just a sound, or an arpeggio inspiring us to set a tune and work on an entire track.

What’s on your current playlist?

We were listening to artists like Christian Löffler, Kiasmos, Ólafur Arnalds, HVOB and Parra for Cuva almost during the entire time we worked on this EP. They still are on our playlist today.

Tell us about the chemistry you have with your fans on stage.

We played already in previous projects together on stage. We love to use the flexibility the laptop and live instruments (drums, kalimba, guitar, synthesizer) provide us. We can 100% react on our audience on stage, extend some intense parts of a track if we see the audience is into it, or slow down if necessary. By doing so, every show is different for us and the audience.

What techniques do you experiment with to get your original sound?

We love to sample sounds and noise with our sampler in and around Munich, to capture the sound of the forests and our landscapes. In the studio, we then go through our sample library and try to put pieces together. This creates most of the percussions and rhythms of our sound.

Take us through a day in the recording studio.

We use our music to slow-down from everyday stress. Therefore, we love to meet in the afternoon/evening and work on our music until late after midnight. We do have two phases of studio time: Either we work on new tracks. We then have our synths and controllers close to our laptops, experimenting with strings, pianos and our analog synths. Or we practices for upcoming shows. As we play live instruments, it feels more like a band rehearsal. We then prepare our Ableton Live session to best fit our needs of a live act.

Was there a specific moment in your life where you thought, “this is what I want to do”?

We had that moment when we spend time in a small house next to the lake Schliersee in Bavaria. We spend days to find our sound for our debut release ‘Apart’. The song ‘Silent’ was one of our first tracks we finalized and we both understood that this song is the fundament of our music.

What do you keep close by while you’re playing a set?

The camera. We try to record every show and use that material in our video clips or some live footage for our social media channels.

Any emerging artists on your radar?

Owen Ross from our label Finest Ego.

What gets your creative juices flowing?

New devices like bongos, shakers, foley things, sound toys, kalimbas, synths and everything that makes cool and freaky sounds we can integrate into our set and music. Our studio is packed with stuff we might use one day.

Take us through your collection of gear, tech or software that accompanies your creative expression.

Key elements of our sound are samples we recorded in and around Munich, analog synths like our beloved Prophet 6, the DSI Mopho 4x and the Roland SE-02, a felt piano and a many libraries we collected in the last few years.

Any side projects you’re working on?

We do work with other artists especially around Munich. We spent many years on projects like BEATNIKBOY but are fully concentrated on KIDSØ since we started in 2017.

How have you refined your craft since you entered the industry?

It took us quite a while to fully rely on our laptops to fit together all the sounds we create with analog equipment. After getting deeper into our song-writing routine, we more and more used the opportunities of digital equipment to create our sound. We love to combine classic instruments like strings and pianos with electronic elements like static bass and drum lines.

Break down the news for us: what can we expect from you this year?

End of October we release our debut EP ‘Apart’ on Finest Ego.

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Watch the official video for the title track off of the upcoming ‘Apart’ EP below.

Follow KIDSØ:
Website – Facebook – Twitter – Soundcloud – YouTube – Instagram