“I’ve never played at Shebeen before, so I am definitely looking forward to that,” he says. “I’ve been and checked out a couple of gigs there and the sound is amazing and I am so glad that they decided to open it up as a live music venue. It’s a bit of a pinch yourself moment that I get to go from being a punter to being the artist up on stage. Being a studio band and not having too many live shows under our belt thus far, we have been really busy trying to get an awesome visual show happening. I think this show at Shebeen is going to be off the scale.”
Following a familiar narrative, Kid Radio formed after the dissolution of Ross and vocalist Dylan Smith’s former band Direct Influence. Meeting in high school, Ross reminisces fondly about the pair’s early musical creations and the bond they’ve developed over the last ten years.
“Dylan moved over here from New Zealand when he was around 14,” he says. “He was never trained in music or anything, but at that time I was playing in numerous bands. He got up as a rapper with us once in one of my teen projects and I spotted his talent and musicality straight away. From there we formed Direct Influence and played both here and internationally. We got a bit sick of the reggae rock stuff though and that’s when we turned to the dark side of synths and drum pads.”
Teaming up with Count Bounce of Australian hip hop crew TZU, Kid Radio spent the best part of two years crafting their debut record. Along the way, both Ross and Smith encountered some severe personal issues, which threatened to overthrow the album entirely.
“Dylan’s father passed away and I was going through a really bad breakup,” Ross says. “He nearly moved back to New Zealand and was considering throwing in the towel on music altogether. I think that there is definitely a therapeutic power in music and, despite all this crazy stuff going on in our lives, we channelled those emotions into song and you can hear that on tracks like My Universe and Young Heart.”
Kid Radio’s songs usually begin with ideas Ross and Smith compose on acoustic guitar and piano. They then gradually transpose the songs onto synthesisers and electric guitars. It’s a method Ross adopted after hearing something Justin Timberlake said. “You can easily create a song with large amount of equipment and effects, though unless you can pick up a guitar or play it on a piano and it still sounds good, it isn’t going to be a good song,” he says. “I think that’s a real test of a song – if it strips back well to just the acoustic guitar. JT made that statement of making an album with Pharrell, I think.”
Along with heeding Timberlake’s advice, Kid Radio’s debut was directly influenced by The Presets and Glass Animals; two acts Ross would love to collaborate with. With a European tour booked for March 2016, head along to the Shebeen Bandroom next week so you can say you were there before Kid Radio really blew up.
BY TEX MILLER
