Artist Spotlight | Kyross | Future Classics

At just sixteen years of age with successful releases under the Cake Collective & Mid West Collective furthered with support from blog heavy weights like Hilly Dilly, Vancouver’s own Kyross steady making a strong advance into the scene. His production versatility has met few boundaries un-passable or accomplished. And being the age he is there are were a number of burning questions to be asked to ascertain his place and influences surrounding.

At your age how do you participate in the city’s scene? Just online or are you repping a legally lax ID?

Yeah I mean I haven’t really gone into the city to do any shows or anything yet but I’d hope it’s not a problem. So far I’ve only been doing online stuff with a couple local guys but this summer should be sick cause theres possibility of some gigs which I’m very excited about.

Does Vancouver have good all age shows?

Haha yeah, there have been a couple of good shows but a lot of the time I just can’t make the ride out to downtown. There have been some highlight shows I’ve gone to like Flume, Giraffage, Touch Sensitive, Phoenix, Mac Demarco, The Black Keys & Arctic Monkeys which were spectacular. Really It’s not like the artists purposely make the show +19 or anything but it just sucks when one of my favorite artists come out here and it’s at a club which has happened so many times. Fortunately sad boys are coming in July and its even been promoted that it’s all ages so hopefully I can make it out to that and have an emotional time.

What genres or artists were you listening to before you began producing?

I’ve definitely had my phases haha. Back in middle school and my early high school years I was listening to a lot of death & thrash metal which eventually evolved into punk. I’d say around grade 9 I got heavy into older punk music and that led me all sorts of different genres that kind of had a relation to the punk feeling with a more softer grunge kind of tone to it. I then somehow came across youtube channels like Majestic Casual around late into my grade 9 year that shared really experimental, electronic beats. When I came across that style it was like finding what I had always been looking for. It was just super diverse and it had no boundaries compared to all these metal genres that people bashed around constantly. I guess I then started listening to guys like Shlohmo, XXYYXX, Gold Panda, Thrupence, Flume, Rustie and tons more that I still bump to this day.

Listening through your catalog you haven’t kept to one genre, not completely at least. What’s kept steady is the “Future” element. Funk, R&b, bass.

Yeah for sure. To be honest I usually have no idea to what I’m gonna make next. It just kinda comes along from certain inspiration, random motivation or just feeling a vibe to something I listen to at the time but I do tend to keep around those genres for sure though. I always like a little bit of a dreamy element to my tracks with some deep vibes.

At what age did you begin listening to music, and at what point did you begin producing music?

I think I started listening to music as a hobby when I was 8 or 9 maybe? I got the ipod shuffle and my life basically revolved around music. I listened for quite some time with intentions to maybe even start a blog about music but I was never motivated enough. As for producing I believe I started around this time last year when it clicked that I really wanted to pursue this. I think I was just so in shock by the fact that I could create, market and release my own music. It just baffled me to kinda think like “wow It’s like entering another world where you can create & express your own vibes”. It kinda gave the term “music industry” a less intimidating feel once I started producing at my own pace.

Who have been your main listening squeezes over the course of your production career?

Great question, I definitely have tons of artists that I look up to. As for times like right now I’ve been listening to Lxury’s new release “Raid”. It’s filled with like euphoric chord progressions that are just sick. For the majority of the year I’ve stuck to some familiar names such as Flume, Bondax, Snakehips, Slow Magic n what not. I recently just started getting into house music as well which inspired my music a ton.

Did you doing any schooling for production? Extra curricular or in school?

Nah, I think it’d be neat to do some schooling for that though. I do play drums for some extra classes at school but really I just like to muck around until something starts to sound good.

What’s your connection to Vancouver? Were you born and raised?

Yeah, I was born in New Westminster and I live about an hour and a half outside downtown. I’ve lived here my whole life and I guess it’s pretty rad. Tons of good memories and people around here.

How has the city, if at all, impacted your music?

Around winter time I definitely get inspired by the rain. As much as I hate it at times it has the power to give an atmosphere to my music that only the feel of rain can give. I guess theres some contrast to that as well because I love sun and summer haha. Sun can just give me the feel to make warmer tracks. I don’t feel the need to express the gloom that the winter or spring gives when summer comes around. As for the actual city mostly just taking out the longboard and going for rides can inspire me to write fresh tunes. I also really enjoy seeing the difference in culture around downtown. Theres a lot of killer street artists around vancouver to observe as well. As much as the city motivates I also love to go travelling and see the world we live in.

You’ve a few affiliations that people might not be familiar with. Can you give us the run down on those?

For sure! In august last year I joined Midwest Collective which is a group of artists (based somewhat in Chicago) that make music along with other members of the team doing some dope stuff behind the scenes. It’s like a tight family. We all support each other, share our music, have tinychat music sessions, releasing comps and overall getting ourselves out there in the music world. If I’d compare mwc to anything it’d be if Vaporwave, Keats Collective and Soulection all had a baby…somehow. Haha, I’m also joined a group in November called Somico Collective as well which is a group (fam) of kids under 18 using the collective as a platform to get started in the music world. It’s super neat idea and it seems like we are all defs going places with it and we’ve even gotten love from some major labels which is super awesome. Not to mention that the guy in charge Corbin Cary is also head of Svnset Waves and has been super generous and loving to all the fam. For time being I’m also in another upcoming group of beat artists called Cake Collective who is like a sister collective of MWC with man in Charge BEEMO. Cake already got kicked off with some soulection members showing us some love on our tracks on the new heady treats comp along with Majestic Casual as well which is totally rad. I’m doing another project that has yet to be released called Neave with partner Grays. Get ready for some funky shizz peeps.

Any plans foreseeable to be signed or have an official release?

I’ve been talking with some guys from a group called Emprise music who I have yet to release something with. We’re planning on hopefully getting an EP out there soon which should be fun. Along with this I have something else going on which is getting me super pumped for this year but I can’t quite let loose yet.