Kid Kasino – Exclusive Interview + Free Download

We are very pleased to bring some exclusive material and an upfront interview from one of the hottest producers on the Electro Swing circuit today. With every track he puts out landing in the sets of DJs from the top of the Ghetto Funk, bass and swing scenes he has secured himself as a serious talent and one to watch.

We caught up with him to find out a little more. Read through to the end of the interview for your exclusive free download of the Kid Kasino remix of Kelis – ‘Milkshake’

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, for those that don’t know, who are you, what do you do and what style(s) of music do you play?

I’m Kid Kasino, i’m a producer/DJ from the south-coast of the UK. I produce music that has a vintage feel mixed with modern beats and big basslines. I take influence from all genres of music whether it be Hip-Hop, Dubstep, Broken-Beat, Funk, Soul, anything that i listen to that i really dig just goes into the melting pot and comes out in my music. Being a trained jazz musician and arranger though, one of my big loves is the sound of Big Band and Swing music and i’m lucky enough now with the emergence of the Electro-Swing scene to now be able to add that into the mix as well.

Your first single is coming soon – could you give us some more info?

It’ll be out this year, it’s a cover of an old Eartha Kitt song that i picked up and started messing about with, doing my own thing on it. Then i got my mate Shea Soul to re-vocal it and she nailed it as you’ll hear, she’s got a great character to her voice which really captures the vintage sound and works great with the modern production.

How’s the album coming along?

Great. I’ve got a whole heap of tracks, actually probably about 2 albums worth sitting on my hard drive and i’m still making more all the time. The thing is, in this day and age with music being so accessible and instant, people tend to try and meet the demand by rushing stuff and just throwing it out there, which is cool, but there’s a danger that the quality suffers. That’s not my vibe, i’d rather take my time and release a quality product that i’m not going to look back on and go “i wish i’d taken more time over it..”
As the great Dr Dre says “Still..taking my time to perfect the beat..”

You seem to specialise in the bass heavy ghetto end of swing. Where do you see your style of music going next?

Yeah when i was first introduced to Electro-Swing a couple of years back, a lot of it was very Housey, four-to-the-floor beats etc.. which was cool but it’s not the sort of music i produce. So when i started on the swing thing i just did it my own way, drew on all my influences that were floating around my head and thats what came out, heavier basslines and beats, i didn’t really think about it. At the time there weren’t that many other people doing it like that, then people like Dutty Moonshine started hitting me up and saying listen to our stuff and i was like “ah cool other people are starting to go this way as well..”
In terms of where it goes next, who knows? Music is an evolution, always has been, always will be, thats the exciting thing about it. I’m just going to keep doing what i do and see where it takes me.

What was it like working with Dutty Moonshine? Any stories come out of those sessions?

That was fun, we actually did it all over the internet, which was cool, and saves money on petrol!
The ideas just developed and actually changed completely from the initial idea to the end product. Again thats the great thing about producing music, you can start somewhere and end up somewhere completely different and when you’ve got other people to bounce ideas off, that journey can sometimes be even more exciting. I think we must have sent the track back and forth about ten times before we finally agreed it was finished.

Can you tell us a bit more about how you produce your music in terms of software / hardware?

I mainly use software, its the way it is nowadays. Its cheap, you can do everything you need to and you can work wherever you like, whenever you like.
I don’t like to always stick to one app for making music though, they all have their different strengths and i think by using different apps, you can keep inspired rather than always looking at the same old screen.
I use a variety of different things, Native Instruments stuff is really cool, i love Maschine in particular for making beats as you can really play it and being a musician i need something to play, it helps me to really feel what i’m doing. I’ll generally get ideas in there alongside Pro-Tools or Logic.. Massive is still a favourite synth for bass.. I’ve actually started dipping into Ableton Live as well, thats a lot of fun and again very musical..
At the end of the day there’s a hundred different ways to go about producing a track, on a basic level all software does the same thing, it’s all about finding your own workflow and what works best for you to produce great music. I think of software as different tools, you have to know how to use your tools in order to get the best out of them and express your musicality through them.

Most of the tracks you produce have first seen the light of day on Soundcloud. Have you found this a good way to get your music out there?

Soundcloud is the BEST way to get heard.. It’s used by everyone, DJ’s, Producers and general public who just want to go and find something completely new. The group thing on Soundcloud is really cool and a great place to start as you can literally place your music amongst a group of people in the right scene where your music will be appreciated. Then people can comment and you can interact with people, you can share free music with followers etc
I think the first track i put up there had it’s first comment within 5mins of it being uploaded, it’s amazing.

How did the Jazz FM session go? Would you like to do more radio work?

Jazz FM was wicked, it was so much fun. Its a great feeling to be able to get on a respected radio station like that and talk about your music, the music you love, and share your knowledge with people who have an interest. It’s definitely something i would like to be doing more of in the future.

What gigs have you got coming up?

A lot of stuff starting to come in for next year so yeh I’ll be out and about, sign up to Facebook/Twitter and check website for upcoming gigs and events.

What can people expect from you when they see you live?

Live i go out with a full band. I DJ and play keyboards/samples, I also have live vocals, bass, drums and horns. This is great as coming from a live background even before i got into production, i can use all the skills i have in terms of working with live musicians and arranging for horns etc in my live shows. I also use visuals throughout my live set, its an audio and visual extravaganza!

What’s the best live gig you’ve done so far?

That’s a hard one as they’ve all been really positive so far.. My first gig was actually Bestival 2012, talk about thrown in at the deep end!! Since then I’ve done all sorts of gigs including going to Milan, Paris, and swing clubs around the UK including White Mink and Electro Swing Club..
I think one of the best gigs I’ve done this year though has to be the Love Supreme Festival, run by Jazz FM. It’s the first time they’ve ever done it and it was described as “a Woodstock moment for British jazz” by the Independent. It was a wicked vibe and everyone was so up for it. I could talk about it for hours but i’m not going to, I guess you had to be there!!

So what’s the future have in store for Kid Kasino?

More music. More gigs.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about?

My website is now up and running at www.kidkasino.com where you can listen to music, view photos, watch videos etc.
You can also reach me on Facebook, Twitter and Soundcloud where you can find some free music including downloadable free tunes and my mixtapes which you can also download for free.

DOWNLOAD

www.facebook.com/kidkasinouk
www.soundcloud.com/kid-kasino
www.twitter.com/kidkasino

Kid Kasino – Exclusive Interview + Free Download