Skipping my way into day 2 of EDC New York last month, I was on my way to check out Giraffage at Cosmic Meadow. A wave of positive vibes swooshed over me as I walked in, face to face with the Boombox Artcar. Groovy beats made me dance, amateur shuffle, and pull out the line up from my backpack to see who the heck these two amazing talents were. I matched up the name Kids Want Techno with the photos on Facebook to make sure they were the same dudes, clicked the like button and proceeded to dancing my ass off. When I finally had to go meet up my friends, I dropped my card and said I wanted to feature them on Neon Owl. Adam and Jordan are super passionate about what they do, and I have no doubt that we will be seeing them a lot more at shows and festivals. Check out our interview with them and the dope guestmix they did for Neon Owl Radio!
What are you most excited about or grateful for right now?
J:Â Very excited about some of the new music we are working on! We do not like to be stagnant in what we create, so this new stuff is pretty different than what we have done before! And I am always grateful for the life I have been given, there are a lot of people out there who are less fortunate than I am and I never forget that.
A: Beyond grateful to finally be able produce and enjoy music again. See my answers below to find out why!
Give us the 411 on how and when you two met. What brought you guys together as Kids Want Techno?
J: A long time ago we were athletic and played sports. We met our sophomore year of high school during lacrosse season thru a mutual friend. We ended up getting to know each other better based off our taste in music. At the time, we were some of the only kids who listened to electronic music in our high school. Once we turned 18, we started going to clubs in Washington, D.C. and became hooked, but we wanted to be the ones playing the music. Eventually we started DJing in our rooms at home for fun, which led to us making our own music. We knew that just being a DJ can only go so far, and in the words of Tiesto, “The quickest way to the top is to make your own music.” The first name we had was Soul&Cloud because of our last names, but we quickly got away from that and came up with Kids Want Techno in the fall of 2013. We really liked the name because it had a meaning to us. Everyone who is ignorant to electronic music calls it “techno” and towards the end of high school, a lot of people who hated on Adam and I for listening to electronic music before were beginning to listen to it. The name also allows us to be as creative as we want with the music that we make since everything electronic is “techno”. We are not fans of genres, we just enjoy good music and we want to attract fans who are just like us in that sense.
A: Back in the days when we used to be able to run, we met each other through lacrosse. I used to burn CD’s full of euro-house and “hands up” style dance music for Jordan, and we would drive around our neighborhood blasting it. We started to go out to shows in DC when we became of age, but soon realized that we wanted to be the ones in the booth rather than the crowd. Our freshman year of college we decided we wanted to do this for real, and came up with the name “Soul&Cloud”, but later changed it to Kids Want Techno.
What has been the most challenging thing in you guys’ career in music so far?
J: I think getting past the first couple years of making music. We had no idea what we were doing and everything we made sounded pretty bad. We like to thing we have a solid taste in what sounds good and our music was just not even close to that point. Nothing was going our way and we had no idea if all the hours we put in were actually going to pay off.
A: For about 9 months, I suffered from debilitating TMJ that affected my hearing. I had constant tinnitus and noise sensitivity in both ears to the point where I could only listen to music at about one-two bars of volume on my laptop speakers, and loud noises would put me on the edge of a panic attack. Thankfully I am seeing a dentist and osteopath now who, combined, had reduced my symptoms to almost nothing.
Tell us about one of the highlights in your career so far.
J: Hitting 1 million plays on our remix of ODESZA’s track Say My Name was huge for me. Playing EDC New York is a very close second but there are not a lot of people in the world who can say they have created a song that hit a million plays and that means a lot to me.
A: When we were playing in the art car at EDC we had multiple people come in and tell us that they had scheduled us. I couldn’t believe that people even knew who we were, let alone choose to see us over the bigger acts that were playing.
I caught you guys at EDC New York and it was freakin’ epic! Were you guys excited to play there? How’d you get the news and what did you think of the experience?
J: It was so surreal. To look out and see all these people in front of us with Citi Field in the background, it was pretty unbelievable! Adam sent me a text message and told me he has some crazy news. He called me later to let me know we were going to be playing at EDC New York. Basically for the rest of the day I had this stupid smile on my face. It still does not feel real that we got to play there. What made it even better was that Adam and I went to the first EDC New York back in 2012.
A: It was a dream come true. Two of our really good friends runs a budding collective called IRL Music (check them out) and they were hosting the boomBOX art car on Sunday. When one of them called me and asked if we wanted to play, I nearly dropped my phone out of my hand. It was a really special experience for us because 4 years ago we had attended EDC NYC 2012 as our first major festival. It’s really surreal to be able to play somewhere you had only dreamed of in the past.
Who has influenced you guys’ sound (individually or as a duo). What kind of music do you guys listen to on a daily?
J: Sam Feldt and Calvin Harris are a couple big influences for me. Most of the time now I am listening to the electronic music, but I also like to listen to rock and pop. I came from listening to top 40 hits on the radio so that type of music always has an influence on what I am creating.
A: I try to listen to everything, except country music. Lately I’ve been trying to listen to other genres of music besides electronic to expose myself to different sounds. Growing up, I played the violin and used to listen to a lot of celtic music, which is very similar to dance music in that it has a TON of energy. If you want to know what I’m talking about, listen to “The Beggarman” by Gaelic Storm.
Dream collab?
J: Something with Empire of the Sun & The Killers would be awesome.
A: Porter Robinson. He is years ahead of everyone else in the electronic music world.
Is there a message that you are trying to convey to your audience through your music? What do you want them to feel?
J: Make them happy, good vibes, that type of stuff.
A: I listen to dance music to feel happy, and I hope that when people listen to our music it helps them forget whatever bullshit they’re dealing with and makes them feel happy as well.
Adam and Jordan, tell us what you like and dislike most about working w/ the other person.
J: He has a good ear for what sounds good. We do not listen to the same exact music so having that other perspective helps a lot when it comes to the creative process. I cannot really think about something I dislike about him. Maybe that he has an eclectic taste in food and always has to have some crazy foreign dish that I have never heard of whenever we go to dinner before a show or something. Of course the food is nice for a change though, but don’t expect to eat at Chili’s when you are with him.
A: He’s a much more experienced producer than me, so sometimes I feel like a n00b when I ask him certain production related questions.
Describe the other person in one word.
J: Hairy
A: Quiet
How do you think that the internet along with platforms like souncloud have shifted how the music industry works?
J: The internet has made it so much easier for an artist to get their music heard. Before, you would have to go through a record label to get your music heard. Today, all you need to do is upload a song to Soundcloud and it can potentially be heard by people across the entire world, which is crazy to think about. We have fans all across the world and that would not be possible without the internet. Labels are also beginning to have less of a role as tastemakers in the music industry. Music blogs and music curators on YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify, etc. are becoming the go-to for many people when it comes to finding new music. The internet also allows artist and their fans to connect directly over social media, making it a much more personal thing.
A: I would say overall it’s a good thing. It is much easier to access music from anywhere, however the barrier to entry is next to 0 now, as anybody can make a track and put it up on Soundcloud. This means that the quality of the music you’re putting out needs to really stick out if you want to break through the barrier of “noise” the internet has created and be heard.
What would you like to see more or less of in the music industry?
J: I would love to see more blogs post about new, undiscovered music like they once did. A long time ago Adam and I would use music blogs to find new music and artist. Now, blogs are posting clickbait articles about Deadmau5’s latest twitter rant, or how Kylie Jenner just released a new song. Artist can also drop lots of money to have blogs post an article about them, which kind of takes away from the whole point. I am pretty sure I unfollowed almost every EDM blog, since they are basically worthless to me. There are so many amazing artists out there who are never going to be heard because of the way the industry is working right now.
A: I am tired of all the gimmicks. This ranges from artists to blogs using clickbait. When we first started listening, meeting another person who was passionate about dance music was like winning the lottery, and everyone in the scene was putting their entire heart into what they did, from the fans to the bloggers to the artists. Now, almost everyone seems to have an ego for no apparent reason, and you can have a gimmicky artist (won’t mention any names) go from relative obscurity to ultra headliner in a year through clever marketing and a big team. This scene has always been about the music and that should come before anything else.
What is the biggest thing you contribute to you guys’ progress and success so far? Advice for other aspiring producers out there?
J: I think just having the will and determination to continue moving forward when things get hard. Creating music is very hard and it is really easy to give up when you are challenged, especially early on within the first couple years. There have been a couple times in the past where I seriously questioned myself about what I was doing with my life. I was on the verge of giving up completely, I felt like I was not getting anywhere and I was just wasting my time for nothing. This happened twice, a little more than a year apart. After the second time, I pushed thru it, and the next song I created was the remix to Say My Name…which is now almost at 2 million plays on Soundcloud.
A: If you really want to give this a shot, you need to make sure your heart is in it. When we decided we wanted to do this 3 years ago, “making money” was never in the picture. We wanted to do this purely out of our love for dance music and being able to spread that with others. When I lost my ability to listen to music, I was on the verge of a mental breakdown and wanted to give up on pursuing music, but I just couldn’t do it. I knew deep down that I would only be truly happy if music happened, so I pushed through the pain and kept working on developing KWT in anyway that I could. Thankfully, Jordan really started to flourish as a producer during this period, and when I sent him the acapella for “Say My Name”, he pretty much wrote the entire remix in a day. His mix downs are as clean as a whistle and my learning curve has drastically been reduced by being able to work with him. To other aspiring producers out there, you need to realize that you can’t rush it. Enjoy the learning process and hone your sound into something unique. KSHMR is one of are favorite producers and he sums it up so well with this quote “When you’re first getting started, it’s like you’re playing your music out of laptop speakers while everybody else is playing it out of studio speakers. It is much better to be a just ok producer with a style of his own, using weird sounds, than an amazing producer who just kind of recreates what’s going on in dance music”. Be unique and produce what YOU like, not what you think other people will like.
At Neon Owl, we are all about connecting artists, influencers, and fans to give back. Is there a special cause you hold dear to your heart or one you would like to see us get involved with?
J: I agree with Adam. We have been in this scene for several years now and have seen a lot. One thing for sure is that there are always going to be people who want to take drugs. DanceSafe recognizes that and wants to make sure people are doing it responsibly. At festivals, they hand out informational cards about multiple different drugs and also allow people to come and test their drugs to make sure they are not about to take something that could endanger their life. Many festivals do not allow DanceSafe to host a tent because they believe they are encouraging drug use, a lot of the time these are festivals that are within the US.
A: For this one, I would have to say DanceSafe. They are a non-profit organization that teaches proper drug safety. Unlike D.A.R.E, DanceSafe realizes that people are probably going to do drugs, and if they are going to do drugs, they need to know what they are getting into and make sure whatever they are taking is safe. Every time I see them at an event I try to donate to them.
Where can you guys best be reached? Most interactive social media platform?
J: We can be reached on any form of social media! Our username is the same across all the platforms, “wearekwt”. We use Twitter all the time, we love talking to people on there. Instagram is another one that we use a lot. Facebook is mostly used for announcements and stuff like that. We are currently working on getting our Snapchat set up, we will be pretty active on that too. FOLLOW US
A: As Jordan said above, we are very responsive on all forms of social media. Please feel free slide into our DM’s.
How do you want to be remembered beyond your time?
J: As two kids who followed their dreams to do what they love, and hopefully inspire others to do the same. There are a lot of people out there who are scared to do what they really love because of failing or the pressure from society, even family. You only live once so why not give it your all to make sure it is something that you truly love to do. Years from now, you do not want to look back and think about what could have been.
A: If we can inspire people to pursue music the way our favorite artists inspired us, then I can’t really ask for anything else at this point.
Whats are some hidden talents either one of you have that others may not know about?
J: I am an animal whisperer.
A: I played the violin for about 8 years growing up, and I’ve been trying to figure out a way to pick it up again so we can incorporate it into our productions.
How do you nerd out in your spare time? Don’t lie.
J: I really like doing graphic design stuff. I am pretty much a beginner at it, but it is fun to do.
A: When I’m not doing something with music, I like to read up on what’s going on with Bitcoin.
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