Blending house, Italo disco and the more leftfield edges of dance music, Kid-A is building a sound rooted in groove, warmth and a deep love of digging. Shaped by time spent in Berlin and London, his approach moves fluidly between the club, radio and the studio, with curiosity always at the centre. Ahead of the release of his edit of “Hray,” we caught up with Kid-A to talk influences, DJ culture, production and the musical world he’s creating around the project.
For people who are just discovering you, how would you introduce Kid-A and the sound you’re trying to create?
Kid-A is basically an extension of my taste as a selector. I’m drawn to house, Italo disco and the slightly stranger corners of dance music. Records that are warm and emotional, but still have enough movement to work on a dancefloor. I’m not really interested in being locked into one specific genre. For me it’s more about creating a certain feeling: something playful, a little nostalgic, sometimes unexpected, but always with groove.
What first drew you into electronic music, and when did you realise that DJing and making music was something you wanted to seriously pursue?
At first it was really the culture around electronic music that attracted me – discovering records, going out, hearing music in the right environment and realising how completely it can change the energy of a room.
DJing started quite naturally from that obsession with finding music. At some point I realised I was spending ridiculous amounts of time searching for records and thinking about how they could connect to each other. That was probably when it stopped feeling like just a hobby.
Producing came later, almost as the next step of the same process – eventually you start hearing things you want to play that don’t exist yet.
You’ve been developing your profile within the UK electronic scene, what have been some of the key moments that have helped shape you as an artist so far?
Moving to London was definitely an important moment. Before that I spent time in Berlin, and the two cities have quite different relationships with club culture and DJing.
London has made me much more adaptable as a selector because I play in very different environments – from clubs and radio to more intimate spaces. Playing regularly around London has helped me understand my sound much better.
Radio has also been important for me, as well as things like Refuge Worldwide and HÖR. They give you the freedom to show another side of yourself without necessarily thinking about a dancefloor every second.
And then there is Aerobica, my own party project, which taught me a lot about curation beyond just my own sets.
Your sound seems to be driven by a love of digging and finding records that create a particular feeling. What are you always looking for when you’re searching for new music?
A feeling, first of all.
I’m not interested in finding something rare just because it’s rare. I want records that make me stop for a second when I hear them. Sometimes it’s a bassline, sometimes a strange vocal, a synth, or even one tiny moment in the arrangement.
I like music that feels familiar enough to connect with people but has something slightly unusual inside it. Those are normally the records I keep coming back to.
And I love tracks that can change the mood of a room without necessarily doing it in an obvious way.
How would you describe the connection between the music you play in your DJ sets and the music you want to release under your own name?
I want them to feel like they belong to the same world.
My productions don’t necessarily need to sound exactly like the records in my DJ sets, but they should have the same DNA – groove, warmth, emotion and a bit of unpredictability.
DJing is actually a very useful reference point for me when producing because I constantly ask myself whether I would genuinely want to play the track. If the answer is no, then something is probably missing.
Your upcoming edit of “Hray” is on the way, and what was it about the original track that made you want to put your own spin on it?
There was something very immediate about the original for me. It had this emotional quality that stayed in my head, and quite quickly I started imagining it in a different context.
I didn’t want to completely rebuild it or make it unrecognisable. The idea was more like: what would the version of this record sound like that I would want to play in one of my sets?
That question basically became the starting point for the edit.
When you approach an edit, how do you find the balance between respecting the original and making it feel unmistakably like a Kid-A record?
The most important thing is understanding what made me fall in love with the original in the first place and not destroying that.
I don’t think every element needs to be changed. Sometimes the strongest edit is actually quite simple.
I normally try to preserve the emotional centre of the record and then change the structure, energy and groove around it so it fits naturally into my own sets. If you remove the thing that made the original special, there isn’t much point in making the edit.
What was the creative process behind this edit? Did you go into it with a clear idea of where you wanted to take it, or did the track evolve naturally in the studio?
I had a pretty clear idea of the feeling I wanted, but not necessarily the finished arrangement.
The starting point was very DJ-focused – I wanted a version that had more space to mix and a different kind of energy on a dancefloor.
From there it evolved quite naturally. A lot of the process was actually about removing things rather than adding more and more. Once the groove felt right, the rest of the arrangement became much easier.
Have you tested the edit in any of your DJ sets yet? If so, what has the reaction been like on the dancefloor?
Yes. I’ve been playing it in my sets, including at HÖR, which was a really nice place to test it.
The response has been encouraging, especially because people are reacting to it without necessarily knowing what it is. I think that’s one of the best tests for unreleased music.
When someone comes up afterwards asking about a track they’ve never heard before, that normally tells you something is working.
Do you see edits as a way of experimenting and communicating with your audience, or are they sometimes a stepping stone towards developing ideas for original productions?
Both.
Edits are a really good playground because there’s already an emotional reference point there, so you can experiment with arrangement, drums, groove and energy without starting completely from zero.
But they’ve also helped me understand what I want from my own productions. You start recognising certain decisions you make repeatedly, and eventually those things become part of your own musical language.
So for me edits are definitely not separate from producing original music – they’re part of the same development.
As a DJ, how important is storytelling to you? Do you plan your sets around a particular journey, or do you prefer to react completely in the moment?
Storytelling is probably the most important part for me.
But I don’t believe you can completely write the story before you enter the room.
I usually know roughly where I want to begin and I’ll have certain records or directions in mind, but after that I want to react. The room, the time, what the DJ before you played — all of that matters.
I like sets where different moments can coexist. You can have something euphoric, something weird, something sexy, something almost melancholic. The interesting part is finding a way to make all of those things belong together.
Is there a particular track, artist or era of electronic music that has had a major influence on the way you approach your own sound?
I’m really fascinated by that period around the late ’70s and early ’80s when disco was becoming more electronic and, in some places, much stranger.
There was so much experimentation happening while the music was still incredibly physical and danceable. Italo disco is obviously a big part of that for me.
What I love is that a lot of those records weren’t afraid of being emotional, playful or even slightly ridiculous. Modern dance music can sometimes take itself very seriously, and I think that older spirit is something worth keeping.
What’s one record that has been a secret weapon for you recently, the kind of track that always seems to work at the right moment?
Number One Ensemble – Back To Heaven.
It has this beautiful balance between being emotional and still making complete sense in a dance set. It isn’t the kind of record you need to force into a set – you just wait for the right moment and suddenly it makes sense.
Those are usually my favourite records anyway: tracks that don’t work everywhere, but when they do, they really do.
Looking ahead, what can we expect from Kid-A next? More edits, original music, or perhaps a bigger project that brings all sides of your sound together?
The main focus now is definitely releasing more music.
Hray feels like a starting point rather than a one-off edit. There are more ideas developing, including original productions, and I want to keep building that side of Kid-A naturally.
I’m not in a rush to announce a huge project before it exists. Right now I’d rather release music consistently and let the identity become clear through the records themselves.
At the same time I’m continuing to DJ, dig and develop Aerobica, so eventually I think all of those different sides will naturally start connecting.
Finally, if you could choose the perfect setting for someone to hear your music for the first time, what would it look and feel like?
Probably somewhere relatively small.
A dark room, warm lighting, a very good sound system and enough people that there’s real energy, but not so many that you lose the intimacy of it.
And ideally quite late – when everyone has stopped thinking about what they’re supposed to be doing and is simply inside the music.
I don’t think my perfect setting would necessarily be a huge festival stage. I like the feeling that the DJ and the room are discovering where the night is going at the same time.
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