KSHMR Interview took place on 2019/05/11 at EDC JAPAN 2019 - DAY1
iFLYER：How was your set today?
KSHMR：
Really great.
iFLYER: How was the crowd?
KSHMR:
Amazing. Seriously amazing. I could find a thesaurus, but it was really great. The energy was relentless. Some crowds, you’ll get them for a few of the songs, but here their hands were up all the time, singing along all the time, so that’s really sort of a softball pitch for a DJ. That’s a great crowd.
iFLYER：Your roots are in India and you are utilizing that in your music. You are unique and special and nothing like anyone else. But when you do a collaboration with other artists, is there anything that you care about, such as trying not to break each other’s styles?
KSHMR:
When I collaborate? Yeah, I think now, when people send me ideas it’s usually because they've done something sort of ethnic and they feel like it would be a good fit for us to work on. So, I haven’t had lot of trouble with trying to turn into too much of a KSHMR thing, or too much into their thing. I’m really open, although that becomes my calling card, ethnic sound.
I’m really open to doing whatever is best for the song. When I think of the song before anything else gets added, it’s usually the melody or it’s a vocal, which is also a melody. That’s sort of the core of it and then the all of the features, the aesthetic features of what kind of song it’s gonna be — are we gonna do it like a house song or is it going to be psy-trance — those are all things that we sort out, to me, to make it most coherent, to cohere the best with the song.
Right, so it kind of starts with a melody and then from there I am very open. I’m open to any sounds. I like exploring the palette. In fact, sometimes I feel I’ve done too much Indian stuff and especially right now I’m very open to doing what other people have in mind.
KAAZE for instance, he had the original idea for our new song with his horns. So, I went with that. I was like, wow, that transports me to the certain place musically in my head so let’s follow that and see where that takes us.
KSHMR x KAAZE - Devil Inside Me (feat. KARRA)
iFLYER：Your latest track “No Regrets” started with Yves V’s idea and it has a really strong message to it. Also, Krewella’s vocal is very delicate, but has great energy that matches the melody. Can you tell me any highlight stories from during the production?
KSHMR:
Yves V sent me over the idea originally. It didn’t have a drop or anything. I loved the vocal and already I had something to really be excited about. And then there are times when I tried 10 and 15 different things on the song. It’d be really, really difficult. And sometimes it’s just the first try. And this time it was just the first try with the drop, with the melody. So, that I was very thankful for. You know, when you spend too much time on different ideas, you can also get dispirited about a song.
And you’re like, I’ve tried so many fucking things and I don’t know what’s good anymore so when things come together quickly that just sets a nice tone, just kind of optimistic and enthusiastic about the song every step of the way. You know, I think the Beatles said they tried to write songs in 15 minutes, and if it didn’t work in that 15 minutes, they would just move on and try something new. And I tell you, with my personality, I’ll beat things until they’re dead. It’s like a pride thing, you know? I just won’t give up.
But oftentimes, I’ve had the most successful things that came together quickly. “Like a G6,” that was a song that came together very quickly. “Secrets” did, and other ones, but anyway it was great. Krewella, I’ve seen them at shows all the time. They’re just great girls and really cool and they’re also interested in having their heritage reflected in their music and we have a lot of overlap there. Good all around.
The music video, we really put in some elbow grease in that thing. Shot it out in India, which was tough. I wasn’t there, but trying to get everyone together and get all this wrestling footage, from my understanding, was quite the ordeal.
KSHMR & Yves V - No Regrets (feat. Krewella)
iFLYER：That’s based on your friend, right?
KSHMR:
Yes, it is based on my friend. My friend was lot different, though. My mom for a while dated this special education teacher and he had a kid that he was close with named Alex. Alex was a really small guy using a wheelchair, he had a breathing machine.
We would go over there and we would hang out, and my mom would hang out with Bill, that was the guy’s name. And I’d just hang out with Alex. He loved wrestling, WWF, and I would be able to talk to him. I loved wrestling, too. He had all these pictures of all the different wrestlers up on his wall. I don’t really know what message that gave me exactly. Just then, it made me think about just the weight of life. It’s not like you could point a finger or anything to be mad at. You just think about, man, how life is just fucking heavy. Like, here’s this kid with such restriction on what he can do, but he idolizes wrestlers. There’s something kind of sweet and something fucked up about it. I don’t know, it’s heavy. I thought it would make for an interesting music video.
KSHMR & Yves V - No Regrets (feat. Krewella) [Official Music Video]
iFLYER：When you played at S2O last year in Japan, the Japanese visual was really amazing. Can you tell the story behind it?
KSHMR:
I knew when I started playing shows that I wanted to give people something different and came up with this idea for having a story, because in the music I’d like to think of the music as having a story. It’s sort of cinematic, so that goes back to my first show and we’ve had several stories since then.
The last story that you saw probably was this newest one about a giant and a little girl. I had done a few stories just about a revenge and it was about a bad guy that you’re introduced to in the beginning, and then you kill him eventually. For this story I wanted it to be a little bit more mystical and get introduced to mysterious characters and kind of get to know, even sort of like the giant. And then we do kill the giant, just to fuck with you. But he comes back. He comes back, but you have to, because that’s the whole point of making you like someone in a movie, right? You gotta bring them back.
iFLYER：What is the biggest policy you have in your life?
KSHMR：
I think to try to link what I think and what I say or what I do as much as possible. If I think someone sucks or somebody sucks, not just to go about my life acting like I don’t have a problem with them.
Because I found sometimes I would do that. I would build up resentment. You know, with my friends, I wouldn’t tell them something that was bothering me, and then I was really doing a disservice to them being building this resentment, and sometimes they didn’t deserve it. I could have just got out there some little thing they did and I didn’t like.
I should have just manned up and addressed it, and I didn’t. I was being unfair to our friendship and our relationship because eventually I’d sort of distance myself for the reasons they didn’t even understand because I never really voiced them. So, I try to just keep those three things as coherent as possible. What I think, what I say, and what I do. There is some quote about that. Maybe it was Gandhi or Mother Teresa.
You’re never scrambling for which version of yourself to represent to people. It takes a weight off and it’s a little bit less taxing, just being honest.
iFLYER：Can you give us a message for your Japanese fans?
KSHMR：
You know, me and my friends always talk about what countries we think are the coolest and I think Japan is always at the top of the list and a country that probably influenced our childhood more than any other country.
Me, personally, I was so into video games. Final Fantasy 7 was a game tha changed my whole life, and it’s the song that I used to learn piano. I play on piano, you know. Now the remake’s coming out. And I know it’s a kind of funny to point out, but yeah, video games were such a big part of my life.
So, I really feel like Japan in so many ways was that one country, being a sort of small island that influenced America. America maybe is accustomed to influencing outwardly to other countries. I just think Japan has really influenced America in such a tremendous way, especially for me.
So yeah, I just, I’m very, I feel like Japan is a big part of my life and many other people growing up in America. So, I’m just very thankful for that, which you know, if you’re watching, probably you didn’t have anything to do with, but your country did. I just think you are in a very cool place so you should be very proud to be from Japan and I love you guys. Arigatou.
