Profile: The Kid
Name: The Kid
From: Göteborg, Sweden
Sounds like: Darkwave for the dancefloor
Listen: Kit club hotel
Discography:
2005 - Kit Club Hotel CDS (Hybris)
2006 - La Société Nouvelle CD (Hybris)
2006 - Portion Control CDS (Hybris)
Links:
www.thekid.se
www.myspace.com/thekidsweden
I find myself listening to more and more dark music nowadays. I'm not angry, so while I still love metal, that's not the sort of thing that I need to hear. What I need is goth. Darkwave. Industrial. Music that feeds from darkness and is both powerful and artful. Music that makes you move and react. The old bands still sound good, but sometimes I want to hear something new. Enter: The Kid. Their music acknowledges past masters, but moves the genre forward in new ways. Nothing sounds better to me right now.
Who are you and where are you from? How did everyone in the band meet up?
We are four kids in our late 20s we moved to Gothenburg for different reasons. Patrik and Maja came from the same smalltown in Småland, Frida came from another Småland smalltown and Johan came from a litttle hunting town in the northen parts of Sweden (almost in Russia). As all other bands, we met up at bars and clubs. And after several harsh discussions about the crappy popscene we formed The Kid.
What makes you special? Why should anyone care about The Kid?
The Kid loves to move the body to music. Taking avant-garde steps on the dancefloor and throwing their fist in the air while The Kid is screaming out the lyrics. The Kid listens to all the great new-wave bands from the beginning of the 80s.
The Kid try to squeeze out the essence of life, that's why The Kid always leaves the club last and is always too drunk and sweaty because of all the dancing. Because tomorrow The Kid has got to go to work. So The Kid is not that special after all, The Kid is just really good to combine dance music with punk and if you act the same as The Kid, then we are you new favorite band.
Who is your hero?
Wang Weilin the "unknown rebel." He's the guy that stopped the tanks during the demonstration on the Tiananmen Square in Bejing. He showed the world that beliefs are larger then death, in a very esthetic and frank way.
I imagine you guys all have day jobs. Tell me about what you do when you're not playing music.
As everybody else in our generation, we work with "projects" in the area "art, theater and architecture," but as you understand, those things don't pay our rent, so in-between music and "projects" we take care of old people and handicapped people and some of us work in bars and record stores.
Tell me about an album that changed your life.
No, I will tell you about 4 important records in The Kid's life:
"Nevermind the bollocks" - Sex Pistols
This record changed our life. The anger! Best record ever recorded!
"Closer" - Joy Division
Beautiful, dark. The way it sounds, still avant-garde.
"Saturday night engine" - Broder Daniel
The soundtrack to our life between age 15-65. Desperate, wonderful.
"Spinal injuries" - Cortex
The best record ever recorded in Sweden. Freddie Wadling's band. Grown-up people start to cry when you play this record for the fist time.
What exactly does 'punk' mean to you? What's the punkest thing a band can do nowadays?
To act opposite to the common order, it's naive but someone has to do it. Make a fanzine about how fucked up this world is while your friends just drink lattes and have weight problems.
Dixie Chicks were punk when they almost fucked up their business when they said that the didn't like their president and what he was doing. To have a opinion and to stand for it is unusual nowadays, so that is punk.
Rage Aginst the Machine left a million dollar contract with Sony back in the days when they discovered that they are into weapons manufacturing, that is punk as well.
Nowdays, even the indie bands are afraid to do statements and take avant-garde steps. That's not good because music will always be a weapon against those who have the power and misuse it. But perhaps they don't want to say anything. In the end, almost every Swedish indie band are brats and they think Palestine is a brand name for a scarf.
Do you think the world is ready for a goth/darkwave revival? Do you even consider The Kid to be part of that sound?
Yes, for a couple of years ago all the cool DJ's had never heard of bands like DAF, Front 242, Portion Control, Sisters [ed: of Mercy] ect. All they knew about the goth/synth scene was the Sister/O. Haza remix of "Temple of love" and they thought it was lame. Nowadays every one of them is so darkwave, remixing Front with 50 Cent or something, and every one of them is so "bodymusic" and always has been.
Sisters, Front, DAF, Alien Sex Fiend have always been our idols, so of course we are a part of that scene. I think I speak for everyone that that is the scene we want to belong to if you have to choose. The best part is that we dont have to, so... but to answer your question: no, the world is not ready for a revival and yes The Kid is a darkwave band.
What's the future for the The Kid look like?
We gonna record some new songs during the fall, and release them as soon as they are good. Then we hope that someone will book us for a couple of German gigs and maybe some French gigs as well.