Kryder Interview: His Sunnies, Work-Life Balance, 2019 Goals + More


We sat down with English DJ/Producer Chris Knight aka Kryder at ADE 2018 for an interview. Topics ranged from his Amsterdam experiences through the years, his goals for 2019, how he manages his non existent work life balance, his musical inspiration and much more!

C: How’s ADE been for you so far?
K: I just arrived last night actually.  We went out and hooked up with Erick Morillo and watched him down at his party.  That was sick, really sick.  Good house music and good to catch up with everyone.  Just played a Clubbing TV party this morning.  That was pretty wild.  Just literally rolled out of bed, straight onto the dance floor, so to speak.  That was really cool.

C: Is that why you’re wearing the sunnies?
K: That’s exactly why.  I’m feeling a lot of pain behind here.

C: So we need to get you some Panadol?  That’s ADE for you isn’t it?
K: Yeah definitely.  You’ve got to expect it.  It’s super hectic and great.  Absolutely great.

C: What’s your favourite part of ADE?
K: Probably the city, actually.  Amsterdam.  Absolutely love Amsterdam.  I would probably live here if I could.  It’s really sick.  Amsterdam is good for DJs.  The airport is amazing and there’s so many studios and music is everywhere here.  So I think it is quite inspiring for DJs.  That’s probably the only reason why I would love it.  That I would love to live here.  Nothing to do with weed and prostitutes.

C: This year has been huge for you.  You’ve just released ‘Billionare’ and you’ve had a bunch of other global hits.  How do you keep things fresh?  How do you keep your sound fresh and groovy whilst still keeping to your signature tribal sound?
K: It’s just a consistent challenge with myself actually.  I always try to up my game with every release or always try and stay true to what I genuinely love myself.  But always try and take it a little bit out of my comfort zone and develop something fresh and sort of exciting that way.

C: What would you say is your greatest inspiration musically?  How do you come up with an idea and how do you see it through?
K: It comes from travelling.  I’ve spent a lot of time in South America and I really got involved in the latin side of things down there.  And also a lot more not dance music inspired stuff.  More folklore sort of stuff.  I got really into that sort of side of stuff.  Started sampling and working with those artists and actually fusing what they do with what I do.  Had some really great results with that.  Different instruments.  I also love Asia as well.  I get a lot of inspiration from Japan.  Love visiting there.  I also listen to a lot of film music.  I love film scores.  Like Hans Zimmer and these sort of composers.  I’m inspired by that kind of stuff as well.

You’ve mentioned that you enjoy Japan.  Is that your favourite country to tour or to go to?
K: I would honestly say yeah.  I would say Tokyo’s definitely my favourite city and I always spend a few weeks there when I go.  I’ve been going there every year for the last five years.  I just love everything about Japan really.  I love the culture, the food, everything really.  I would live there if I could speak Japanese.

C: Are you trying to learn?
K: I can barely speak English!

C: In terms of work/life balance, is there such a thing?  How do you keep a balance?
K: That’s a super interesting question.  That’s an absolute struggle with this lifestyle.  I mean, I’ve killed myself on multiple occasions.  I’ve ended up in hospital, had lungs collapse on me mid tour,  pneumonia, and all sorts of stuff.  I’ve definitely taken a step back with regards to the touring side of stuff and actually looking more into the logistics of travelling.  I used to say “yes” all the time to gigs in the summer.  Sometimes I’d be playing 20 countries in a month.  I actually played 18 countries in August just gone and I felt absolutely horrific after I came off that.  Your body clock is all over the place.  You’re so out of sync.  You don’t eat well.  You don’t exercise.  You use alcohol to get you through and into the party mood sometimes as well which is such a bad way of doing things.  I think it’s just about working with people that actually care for your health.  That don’t just keep pushing you into the money pit all the time.  I think that’s really important.  I think getting a balance right is something that I would love to try and achieve.  I still haven’t conquered that yet.  

C: So it’s a work in progress?  It’s definitely the team that surrounds you.
K: Yeah. I honestly think that’s it because you make… You can’t make all the decisions yourself.  Sometimes you make bad decisions.  Especially when you’re not thinking right.  If you’ve done three gigs, no sleep, and someone says, “Oh! We’ve just got a last minute gig for you!” You know you should say no but then it’s like, “Oh well, it’s only a two hour flight.  I can keep going.”  And it doesn’t work out for you well in the end, unfortunately.  I think that you definitely need to surround yourself with good people.  

C: One of your very first gigs as Kryder, you opened for Tiesto in Ibiza.  How was that?  What was going through your mind before and during your set?
K: I was generally nervous and excited and feeling all sorts of wild things.  I brought a ton of my friends with me to Ibiza and lived like a rockstar for a weekend.  We stayed at the infamous Pikes Hotel and partied consistently for about 72 hours.  It was absolutely wild.  It was a great opportunity and I treated it as if I was never going to get another opportunity again.  I played the best set I possibly could, partied really hard, just absolutely loving life and enjoying it.  I was quite fortunate that sprung into a career after that.  

C: You just concluded your label Sosumi and you started Kryteria.  What brought about that change?  What sort of artist/sound/music are you looking for?
K: Again, it’s kind of always pushing forwards.  We did 100 releases with Sosumi and I thought it was time to call it a day.  I didn’t know what direction to take it in and I didn’t know how to develop it.  I hit a ceiling with it, so to speak.  The idea was to team up with a much bigger label, Spinning Records, and get some help from them with their distribution channels.  But also take what I loved about Sosumi and use a little bit of that to build a new platform and a new outlet for musicians and DJs and producers that I love as well.  It’s about opportunities and moving the sound and what we do forward within the scene.  

C: Can we talk about your boat party at ADE?  How did you plan it?
K: Yeah!  I’d love to!  Again, it was really cool.  I came over here and looked at a boat, filmed it all, put it up on Instagram and said, “Should we hire this for the boat party?  600 people, are we going to be able to sell it out?”  And we sold it out over a month ago!  And it’s really cool.  I just invited people to play.  Obviously we’ve got the guys from the label putting out a compilation called “God Save The Groove” so everyone who has produced a record is playing on that compilation.  And then we’ve got a ton of friends and we’re setting sail on Saturday and can’t wait for it really.

C: Any goals for 2019?
K: Probably referring back to one of your previous questions, just to try and stay sober and balance my life a bit better.

You can listen to Kryder’s latest single out on Spinnin’ below


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