We sat down with Julian Jordan at ADE, we talked about the upcoming Martin Garrix collaboration, as well as who his dream collaboration would be with. He also discussed what his future brings, he’ll be working closely with STMPD on multiple of his next releases. Julian Jordan has a lot of upcoming projects we are excited for, his future is looking very bright!
You can watch our video interview below or alternatively direct on Facebook here.
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
Every day you listen to music by world famous artists who go by stage names or secret aliases to perform and carry out their work, but have you ever wondered what they are actually called?! If so, or even if you’ve just stumbled across this article by accident, you have come to the right place.
1. Martin Garrix – Martijn Garritsen
2. Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike – Dimitri Thivaios & Michael Thivaios
3. Hardwell – Robbert van de Corput
4. David Guetta – Pierre David Guetta
5. Tiesto – Tijs Michiel Verwest
6. Don Diablo – Don Pepijn Schipper
7. Afrojack – Nick van de Wall
8. Marshmello – Christopher Comstock
9. R3hab – Fadil El Ghoul
10. Skrillex – Sonny Moore
You may know Codeko from his progressive trance releases on labels such as Enhanced, NCS and Armada Captivating; Codeko has tranformed his productions to a more commercial basis. This change is definitely not an unwanted one, Codeko has produced some absolute quality releases.
The latest release is ‘Woke Up’ featuring Florida based Xuitcasecity. ‘Woke Up‘ infuses two different genres, creating a track with outstanding vocals that almost demand more attention than the excellent dance drop. Many would argue that the drop is the feature point and most would agree. It’s a catchy future bass styled drop, with some similarities with The Chainsmokers. We hope Codeko continues down this more commercial route and keeps pushing out top tracks!
Tru Concept has gone and done it, he’s remixed Lo Lo’s second ever single and made it even better! The original was incredible for such a fresh artist. Tru Concept turns the original into a dance floor friendly house record, good for the main room as well as a beach party. Tru Concept is on top of his game at the moment, after some impressive releases on Selected and Source – he’s continuing to put out music at a consistent pace and high quality.
This track is sitting at under 10k streams, a number that will only rise, rise significantly. Lo Lo and Tru Concept both have done incredibly well with their music so far and they’ll only grow in the future; let’s hope there could be a potential collaboration on the cards!
After some time hibernating in the studio, Florian Picasso is back with a new progressive anthem, this time on familiar soil. Releasing with Nicky Romero’s Protocol Recordings ‘Glitch’ is a hard hitting track bringing it’s heavy groove from the arpeggiators and its euphoric feel from its lush pads. Being one of Protocols emerging artist its no doubt Picasso is looking at a very exciting future.
Having also collaborating with some of dance music biggest names such as Martin Garrix, Nicky Romero and Steve Aoki. As well as coming off his recent summer tour ‘Phase 1’ it definitely feels he’s heading in to the next phase with this release. With the help of labels such as Protocol, Musical Freedom, Dharma and Spinnin, Florian’s future is definitely looking bright. ‘Glitch’ is out now and available to Stream & Download.
Boston-based beatmaker turned vocalist; Mozado is bringing jazzy, R&B infused vibes our way, with his latest single “Hellacopters”. Brimming with positive energy, the track emanates laid-back afternoon vibes perfect for chilling-out, yet is still uniquely danceable, carried by edgy Hip-Hop drums that establish a strong groove.
Featuring smooth vocals that move with a carefree lyrical flow, “Hellacopters” serves as a statement of intent for Mozado’s new direction as a vocalist as well as an audio engineer and producer.
“Hellacopters is my first step into performing on my own productions. It is the energy of being a young independent artist with no limits and being from a city that, I believe, is in the perfect position to create its own musical identity.” – Mozado
Listeners may expect to find themselves immersed amongst syncopated synth movements and jazzy progressions, no doubt inspired by Mozados formal education at the Mary Pappert School of Music and his experience as a Jazz player for over 12 years.
With his debut EP set to drop at the turn of the year, Mozado is set to build his profile as a solo artist, ready to make waves within the Boston music scene and share his story-telling abilities with the masses.
Morgan Page’s on a roll recently with his recent collaboration with Swanky Tunes, his single “Let You Go” and his Born To Fly EP earlier in the year. Now he revisits his classic “Longest Road” on its 10 year anniversary, the celebratory release includes a 6 year old mix from Vicetone that was once a bootleg, Deadmau5’s classic mix and and Steff De Campo drops a signature piano fuelled future house cut to give us something new and fresh! Morgan dropped us with his thoughts on the song and how the package came about and dropped us insight into how he Lissie developed the lyrics for the track.
”Remixes are all about giving a song new life. Some strip the song to the essentials – others add new elements, chord progressions, and arrangement changes. Over the years there have been hundreds of Longest Road remixes, but one really stood out. In 2012 Vicetone made a bootleg mix that blew me away – it’s still part of my live sets. It’s progressive and epic, but timeless and still sounds fresh. I love when a bootleg mix goes viral. They didn’t ask permission – they just did it, and it started racking up hundreds of thousands of plays (now in the millions). I love licensing these mixes and making them legit. Steff da Campo knocked his mix out of the park – It’s powerful but playful. I play it early in my sets to get the mood started right. He’s doing amazing work and really came through. I’m so excited to announce that each of these remixes, including the original deadmau5 version, are officially out today as part of the 10 Year Anniversary of The Longest Road!”
The Longest Road: Lyric Concept. ???? pic.twitter.com/MzAiNLzvEa
— Morgan Page (@morganpage) November 14, 2018
Marc Benjamin has just put out his 3rd Protocol release is a row, this time its ‘Blaster‘. First being ‘Devil In Disguise‘, the commercial track of the three. With pop vocals and a unique future bass drop. Second release was ‘Unbreakable Hearts‘ a progressive house anthem, what we’ve come to expect from Marc. And now, the third release; ‘Blaster‘, as the name suggests – this track hits hard. The more big room of the trifecta, this release will surely be played at festivals around the world due to it’s high energy.
Starting to DJ at 16, collaborating with the likes of Laidback Luke & Benny Benassi, holding his own events, holding a residency at Escape Amsterdam, playing events such as Ultra Bali, remixing multiple Zedd tracks; Marc Benjamin is killing it at the moment and theres not signs of slowing down. Adding these three back to back Protocol releases to his resume and Marc’s future is really looking bright!
Italian artists and friends Saver and Moinè have come back together for another collaboration. This time it’s for ‘Rich Bitch‘ and is out on massive Italian label; EGO. This track is such a catchy club release, it’s really going to be different to get the lyrics out of your head!
‘Rich Bitch‘ infuses multiple different styles, theres Arabian sounds, Brazilian sounds, trap components, as well as those catchy vocals throughout the instrumental.
The latest EGO release has had much success so far and it’s not actually out yet! So far, theres been an EDM Sauce premier, plenty of blogs have picked it up (including us) as well as multiple significant youtube channels – this exposure pre-release is a recipe for a very successful track that’ll gather up a significant amount of plays.
*EDIT: A release date has been finalised! We can expect ‘Rich Bitch‘ out January 4th
