Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey everyone. If you've been listening to new projects
Speaker 1: by Drake Er Beyonce or paying attention to the recent
Speaker 1: conversations around the resurgence of nineties dance music kicked off
Speaker 1: by their projects, chances are you've heard Ktronada's name or
Speaker 1: his influence. Suddenly, Ktronada's futuristic, soulful disco sound is everywhere,
Speaker 1: including on his new hit song to Inflame feature in
Speaker 1: Anderson Pack. Ktronada is an interesting confluence of culture. Haitian
Speaker 1: by birth and lineage. He was raised outside of Montreal
Speaker 1: in French speaking Quebec, Canada. He got a start as
Speaker 1: a teenager uploading Jay Dilla and Flying Lotus inspired beats
Speaker 1: to SoundCloud. It was there in twenty twelve that his
Speaker 1: edit of Janet Jackson's song If first exploded overnight, becoming
Speaker 1: a massive viral hit. In the ten years since, Ktronada
Speaker 1: has rema officially and unofficially, hundreds of records and released
Speaker 1: two studio albums, including the Grammy Award winning Bubba, featuring
Speaker 1: artists like Caliuchi's gold Link and Masego. On today's episode,
Speaker 1: Rick Rubin and Catronata sit down to talk about how
Speaker 1: using technology unconventionally can lead to creating an entirely new sound.
Speaker 1: Katra also explains the anxiety he felt as an up
Speaker 1: and coming hip hop producer who can never quite connect
Speaker 1: with a classic production tool, the MPC. He also talks
Speaker 1: about what it's like rocking stadiums as the opening DJ
Speaker 1: on The Weekend's current worldwide tour. This is broken record
Speaker 1: liner notes for the digital Age. I'm justin mission. Here's
Speaker 1: Rick Rubin with Ktronada. Great to see you see you man?
Speaker 1: Where have you been mostly? Have you been on tour
Speaker 1: or home tour? I've been touring since probably the whole
Speaker 1: summer and now I'm into tour of it, the Weekend
Speaker 1: US tour. And how's it going to work? Like? Do
Speaker 1: you know what the setup for the for the evening?
Speaker 1: It's going to be in the stadium shows. It's really
Speaker 1: like my same shows, like I do DJ sets. Cool.
Speaker 1: It doesn't quite make sense because I'm just like this
Speaker 1: DJ ACT producer DJ ACT and I don't really do
Speaker 1: much more than just DJ. But it looks cool, I guess.
Speaker 1: And the music is gonna be great, like people are
Speaker 1: coming into good music. Yeah, it's all good. You know,
Speaker 1: music always been great but absolutely like being an opener,
Speaker 1: it's not all the way easy. I feel like in
Speaker 1: some ways though, what's interesting about it is that considering
Speaker 1: the kind of set you do, it's not like, hey,
Speaker 1: look at me. It's like, here's this great music. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: And so it's not do you know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 1: I feel like it could really work in that everyone's
Speaker 1: just going to be enjoying the music and then the
Speaker 1: you know, the rock star show happens after and that's fine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's fine. You know, I'm not competition something I signed up,
Speaker 1: you know, like they put me in the they put
Speaker 1: me in a lineup for that. So I'm like, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's cool, you know, Like I I love to
Speaker 1: just do me and just and people are like people
Speaker 1: are people already loving it? Like like I just people
Speaker 1: see on the stands and I see like stories Instagram
Speaker 1: stories that people are watching, like even from up there,
Speaker 1: they just like, oh my god, get you now? Are
Speaker 1: you killing it? Tell me from the beginning. When's the
Speaker 1: first time you ever played live? So when I played
Speaker 1: live for the first time, it was in Montreal. It
Speaker 1: wasn't really a set. It's like this beat thing. It
Speaker 1: was not even a competition. Were just it was just
Speaker 1: a lineup of producers for Montreal surprising. There was like
Speaker 1: a lot of them, and I was one of them.
Speaker 1: And we were all making like those like Boom Bab
Speaker 1: kind of like influenced by the low end theory like
Speaker 1: Flying Lotus like and all the brain Feeder like we
Speaker 1: were all like inspired by them, and we were making
Speaker 1: our own community of beat makers and not gonna lie.
Speaker 1: When I came in, it was like some old shit,
Speaker 1: like where this motifuer come from? Because I wasn't not
Speaker 1: I didn't I didn't live in the city at all,
Speaker 1: so I was in the suburbs. And that's like kind
Speaker 1: of like the first time. So I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: I can go out in Montreal and down sound. So
Speaker 1: most of the other people already knew each other. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like everybody else knew each other, but I met everybody
Speaker 1: that the first time I actually played live. So cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was a good time. I was like
Speaker 1: nineteen when you were first coming up, you did remixes. Also,
Speaker 1: before you were asked to do a remixes, you just
Speaker 1: did them on your own. And tell me about that process,
Speaker 1: like how would you pick what to do, and then
Speaker 1: what would you use that source material to build from
Speaker 1: because you had you know, you had limitations. Yeah, then
Speaker 1: oh it's like I don't know even like just find acapella,
Speaker 1: like yeah, that was always fascinating to me. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: easier now, I think, but when you were starting, I
Speaker 1: think it was a little harder. Oh it was harder.
Speaker 1: Like there's a lot of songs that show like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, if I had the a cappellat this song. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but a lot of them were not available, which was like,
Speaker 1: oh man, you know, but I would find sometimes when
Speaker 1: I had to remix it, I would find ways to
Speaker 1: like just add drums over it, or even making my
Speaker 1: own edit and just stuff like that. Do you want
Speaker 1: to play this one of your early remixes? That's like
Speaker 1: you were not hired to do, but you just took
Speaker 1: it upon yourself. Yeah, I got one. The Janet remix
Speaker 1: was like one that was really that caught people's attention.
Speaker 1: I always gonna play this on my shows no matter what.
Speaker 1: It's psychedelic it's bad. I feel like a lot of
Speaker 1: my remixes, like my early ones, they were like so
Speaker 1: like innocent. They were not like I was not trying
Speaker 1: to blow up. I was really like expressing myself at
Speaker 1: a point where I don't know I was doing edits,
Speaker 1: but like my DJ sets and stuff like that, and
Speaker 1: I want to resent myself like that. It almost that
Speaker 1: almost feels like two records playing at once that don't
Speaker 1: really work together, but somehow they just stay glued together
Speaker 1: and you find this other rhythm going on the way
Speaker 1: they bounce off each other. Oh yeah, it was well
Speaker 1: received when it came out and whatever. That that was
Speaker 1: the one that kind of like put me on them,
Speaker 1: like on the maps, so cool intellectual world. It's it's
Speaker 1: it's funny because like when I end up remixed songs,
Speaker 1: don't I really love the song. I end up loving
Speaker 1: fall in love with the song, and then and then
Speaker 1: I'm trying to break up the song. It's like it's
Speaker 1: funny and I'll end up remixing and I don't feel
Speaker 1: the same about the original, Like I don't have the
Speaker 1: same love I used to have with the original respect
Speaker 1: it as yeah, yeah, no, I understand. But but you've
Speaker 1: it's almost like you've seen it in a new light. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's hard to see it back the way or
Speaker 1: you can't. Maybe you can't never go back and see
Speaker 1: it the way he'sap exactly. It kind of messes up
Speaker 1: with my head. But it's all It's all good though,
Speaker 1: because yeah, because man, I end up making like classics
Speaker 1: that people are just like, whuoa, so cool and I
Speaker 1: love that. I love that I had that power, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So cool? Maybe start only remixing
Speaker 1: songs you don't like, then it's all good, only better
Speaker 1: exactly talk about them that the world. So it's interesting
Speaker 1: the timing you make that you put it up on SoundCloud,
Speaker 1: I imagine, yeah, and now that I don't think it
Speaker 1: would do the same, like the world has changed. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: tell me a little bit about that moment in time.
Speaker 1: How was SoundCloud viewed in the world. It was something
Speaker 1: that was so like you could find original music there
Speaker 1: just up becoming like DIY artists. There was just this
Speaker 1: world of like this explosion of bedroom producers that we
Speaker 1: could finally upload our stuff online. There was not like
Speaker 1: at the time when there was like bedroom producers, there
Speaker 1: was no outlet for them to like put their stuff
Speaker 1: out there. It was discovered a community of people making
Speaker 1: stuff putting it up to share it with other people.
Speaker 1: Who were just heads really because it wasn't like really
Speaker 1: mainstream at all. It was more just for other people
Speaker 1: who like making cool stuff and checking out what other
Speaker 1: cool people making. Yeah, yeah, because for me, like I
Speaker 1: would say that, like I didn't find it right away,
Speaker 1: but I had my accounts. It's two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: maybe that's like ten years plus. But before that, there
Speaker 1: was like a YouTube like community that I had. A
Speaker 1: lot of those producers end up making it, you know,
Speaker 1: like doing their own thing now, which is good, but
Speaker 1: I was like a teenager at the time. It's one guy,
Speaker 1: kay kaylin ellis just he's a amazing musician. But I
Speaker 1: knew him online since I was he since he was twelve.
Speaker 1: I was like fourteen, and we were all like in
Speaker 1: this community of be makers, like all enforced by you know,
Speaker 1: Fly Lotus and you know Jay Diller. You can't really
Speaker 1: find kids like around us. I was listening to that
Speaker 1: type of music on top of that, so for us
Speaker 1: to come together it was like it meant a lot
Speaker 1: to us. And we were all uploading our beats on
Speaker 1: YouTube at the time because SoundCloud was not really the thing,
Speaker 1: but YouTube was like more accessible to YouTube was the
Speaker 1: first place to be able to make something, put it
Speaker 1: up and feel like there was a community that would
Speaker 1: be able to check it out. Yeah, that's how I
Speaker 1: felt like, because I mean a lot of friends online
Speaker 1: that still to this day, I'm like, yo, I keep
Speaker 1: contact with like some of them, you know, to this day,
Speaker 1: and I think I still think it's amazing because we're
Speaker 1: all making like tight shit, like, but we were like
Speaker 1: so young, just trying to be our favorite producer, like
Speaker 1: trying to be like them, you know, imitating them. And
Speaker 1: I feel like when you imitate a producer and you're
Speaker 1: young and you're starting to produce, it's like it's good training. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you find your way in most people start. The first
Speaker 1: thing you do is through imitation, just to kind of
Speaker 1: figure out how to do it. Yeah, and then slowly
Speaker 1: it just starts becoming more you and less them. Just
Speaker 1: happens even without trying, Like it just happens, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of run out of their stuff to copy, and
Speaker 1: you're still making stuff and now it's new exactly. But yeah,
Speaker 1: like back to the community thing on YouTube, we slowly
Speaker 1: move into SoundCloud, like one by one went on SoundCloud.
Speaker 1: It definitely evolved over the years, you know, in twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: Like when that remix was uploaded, a lot of people
Speaker 1: were like getting known to YouTube. So there will be
Speaker 1: like YouTube channels where they would post like one of
Speaker 1: the producers on SoundCloud they would like and then they
Speaker 1: will upload them because they had a lot of subscribers.
Speaker 1: That's what happened with my remix. So like a tastemaker
Speaker 1: would repost it. Yeah, and so there were people who
Speaker 1: were just looking for whatever was cool, and then they
Speaker 1: would turn on more people to it. Yeah. It's like
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, just like somebody who has a
Speaker 1: Tumbler page and they got a lot of followers on
Speaker 1: their Tumbler, they were like upload. You know, they're got
Speaker 1: my YouTube channel, this is all the music I listened
Speaker 1: to and they love that person's taste, so and so
Speaker 1: they trust them, and my remix would end up being
Speaker 1: on that page. And then yeah, I was like, what
Speaker 1: the hell's going on? Like I would get like notification,
Speaker 1: Like I would go up at noon and get like
Speaker 1: six hundred notifications on my phone over there on SoundCloud,
Speaker 1: and I'm like this is not real. Yeah, I'm going
Speaker 1: back to sleep because like I was sleeping madly, like
Speaker 1: five am, six am, and that's when like I was
Speaker 1: making music and work all night and sleep all days,
Speaker 1: normal normal young young musician hours, yeah, you know yeah,
Speaker 1: and then you know I was I woke up again
Speaker 1: like maybe like three pm, like what the hell's going on?
Speaker 1: So I just see like those like numbers, and I
Speaker 1: just couldn't believe it. It It was like what is going on?
Speaker 1: You know, like and I just saw that that person
Speaker 1: uploaded on their YouTube channel and then that kind of
Speaker 1: like spread a word about this remix and I just
Speaker 1: can really can't believe in until posted the second one
Speaker 1: to be a Girl remix? So cool? When did the
Speaker 1: SoundCloud change? When did SoundCloud stop meaning what it meant?
Speaker 1: I have no idea. I think they could sell like
Speaker 1: when business like you know, need sponsors and need like
Speaker 1: ads so they can like you know, still float. Business
Speaker 1: model change to be something Yeah it becomes less cool
Speaker 1: or I don't know, Like for me, it didn't really
Speaker 1: bother me, but I could sell like nobody was really
Speaker 1: uploading stuff there. And did people go back to YouTube
Speaker 1: or was there another option? I don't think there was
Speaker 1: another option. So what do people do now? I think
Speaker 1: right now it's like TikTok could be a good one.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of news I got discovered. A lot
Speaker 1: of artists are discovered on TikTok right now, so there's
Speaker 1: always gonna be a new thing. But there was definitely
Speaker 1: something special at the time. Yeah, it also was whole tracks,
Speaker 1: because that's another difference between that and now TikTok. TikTok
Speaker 1: tends to be super short clips. It's not songs. It's
Speaker 1: a you know, fifteen twenty seconds. Yeah, like most like
Speaker 1: most snippets, you know, it would be like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: like when's this song coming out? And then somebody would
Speaker 1: blow up from a snippet. It's either like some people
Speaker 1: can't make it or break it because it's like the
Speaker 1: snippet turn out to be better than the song. Yeah, sometimes,
Speaker 1: so that happens a lot. That would say, it's easier
Speaker 1: to make fifteen seconds interesting than a whole song interesting,
Speaker 1: and then many whole songs interesting. Baby right Yeah, I'm like,
Speaker 1: man like, yeah, we have we have come to that
Speaker 1: time where the key to the highlight of the song
Speaker 1: would become the snippet, and then people would expect something different,
Speaker 1: you know, and do you still do DJ sets or
Speaker 1: do you play your own so tell me what is
Speaker 1: the current. I'm still doing DJ sets, you know, because yeah, personally,
Speaker 1: it's like my choice, Like I definitely want to take
Speaker 1: it to another level, but it's that it's my choice
Speaker 1: of like playing you know, the front edits yea, and
Speaker 1: if it's fun, I mean that's the most it's fun.
Speaker 1: It's is I feel the most confident, Yeah, as an
Speaker 1: electronic act if I'm not a keyboard player, because I'm
Speaker 1: not a keyboard player, you know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't think it would make sense for me to
Speaker 1: like play with like keys and stuff like that. Like
Speaker 1: I love hip hop so much. I like the elements
Speaker 1: of like ones and twos and keep it like you know,
Speaker 1: dance music disc driven or you know, hip hop driven.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I just love doing that and just play
Speaker 1: like different versions of the songs. Like I would play
Speaker 1: like the bo Girl remix and just put the not
Speaker 1: the acopella, but like maybe just the keys, the bass
Speaker 1: and the vocals until the drop happens. Actually it's like
Speaker 1: different from the song cloud uploated version, Like every every
Speaker 1: version I play live is like slightly different. When I
Speaker 1: think of what the DJ's mission is in a club
Speaker 1: very specific to get people dancing, very specific energy. Is
Speaker 1: it any different when you're performing as you you know,
Speaker 1: you're you're not the DJ there to just rock the crowd.
Speaker 1: You're there because it's they want to see you what
Speaker 1: you're going to play. Is it a different mission than
Speaker 1: just getting up and rocking the club? Because when I
Speaker 1: do my act, it's like it's I gotta play the hits,
Speaker 1: I gotta play like songs from the album, and but
Speaker 1: I still end up DJing. But it's it's like strictly
Speaker 1: like my hits, you know, and like I have a
Speaker 1: long discography of like remixes or like even my own songs,
Speaker 1: albums EPs. But you know, it's like for me, I
Speaker 1: just love to lose myself in DJ. And it's like
Speaker 1: it's really like sometimes I just can't help myself to
Speaker 1: like DJ, you know. So yeah, because it's all fun
Speaker 1: for me. It's really like it's not really serious. It's
Speaker 1: not like, oh my god, my big break. You know,
Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break. But we'll be right
Speaker 1: back with more from k Drenada. We're back with more
Speaker 1: from Rick Rubin and Kate Nada. Who would you say
Speaker 1: biggest musical inspiration has been over the course of your life.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, of course you know Jay did it to
Speaker 1: me like when he passed away. Yeah, you know, I
Speaker 1: was listening to a lot of tribe called quests like
Speaker 1: you know, like when we talk about two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: you know, like I was literally discovering them at the time,
Speaker 1: and then growing up there's a lot of like stuff
Speaker 1: you produced songs I love. I didn't know Jay Della
Speaker 1: produced them, you know, so I just like look at
Speaker 1: this discography and I like, like probably fifty percent of
Speaker 1: the discography. So I was like, wait, admitted you know.
Speaker 1: And then you know, I heard Donuts, I heard all
Speaker 1: the beat tapes, and it was like something that was
Speaker 1: like that would study like as a producer. Him and
Speaker 1: mad Lib. I would say, like mad Lib specifically, like
Speaker 1: like Jayla introduced me to mad Lib and then mad
Speaker 1: Li was like you know MF Doom like the Mad
Speaker 1: Villain project. But mad Lip was like literally the one
Speaker 1: that I was like, Okay, he does jazz, he does
Speaker 1: house music. He got this house project on a monic
Speaker 1: different moniker and thought I thought I was so impressive,
Speaker 1: Like that really inspired me to do different things. Have
Speaker 1: you read the j. Diller book I I did read.
Speaker 1: Didn't it great? It's a really good book. It's I
Speaker 1: hit up the author d Yeah, like I hit him up,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, that was this such a beautiful book,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, And it's like, you know, it reconfirms
Speaker 1: all the like his true story, Like I don't know,
Speaker 1: like there's a lot of like myths. They were creating
Speaker 1: a lot of like stuff about Jay Diller. But now
Speaker 1: like reading the book, it's kind of like it makes
Speaker 1: you feel like, Okay, it's a good timeline of like
Speaker 1: what happened with like his musical career, like what happened
Speaker 1: with Cute Tip and yeah all that. Do you remember
Speaker 1: what your first memories of music in childhood? My dad
Speaker 1: played a lot of music, had this like big system
Speaker 1: like amplifiers and you know CD players, like I knew
Speaker 1: how to use CdSe when I was like four or
Speaker 1: five years old, and a lot of Kompa in the house,
Speaker 1: Haitian kompa, but also a lot of you know, Michael
Speaker 1: Bob Marley was my favorite artist who like George Benson
Speaker 1: al Jarro, like a lot of jazz as well. Man,
Speaker 1: it was just all types of music, Like my dad
Speaker 1: was playing while he was painting too, because he's a painter.
Speaker 1: Do you think hearing the diverse music when you were
Speaker 1: a kid impacted the stuff that you made sense? I
Speaker 1: don't really think so, you know. I feel like in
Speaker 1: some parts, like there's there's influences where like let's say,
Speaker 1: like when my dad played Michael Jackson, like it definitely like, yeah,
Speaker 1: there was just something about the up tempo and upbeat
Speaker 1: stuff where I was like, okay, you know, like Michael
Speaker 1: is in that circle. So yeah, that was something that
Speaker 1: was influenced by. But I forgot to tell you, like
Speaker 1: my sisters also had like this VHS tape of like
Speaker 1: ninety six ninety seven like hip hop R and B
Speaker 1: Beastie Boys as well, you know, so it's like a
Speaker 1: lot of like it's like a video tape of a
Speaker 1: bunch of music videos, and that's like something that would
Speaker 1: like watch more than cartoons and watch more than you know,
Speaker 1: anything else. That was like my main interest, like watching
Speaker 1: those music videos, and I absorbed that. What was your
Speaker 1: first experiments with making making beats or making music of
Speaker 1: any kind? Definitely when I start Djane Well, I didn't
Speaker 1: had like the tools to DJ at all, Like it
Speaker 1: was literally like software like online like virtual DJ. I
Speaker 1: knew all the shortcuts, so it was like I really
Speaker 1: sounded good, like I had like all the gear. And
Speaker 1: then it got to a point where I discovered looping,
Speaker 1: like drum loops and jazz loops, so everything was very
Speaker 1: like technical, so it felt like a lot of like produced.
Speaker 1: There's like how they started, you know, like all the
Speaker 1: legends y'all started with like this tape recorder, like like
Speaker 1: they just recorded like every loop on tape. So it
Speaker 1: felt like it was the same way where I would
Speaker 1: like record a whole three minute loop of like that beat,
Speaker 1: or I would do like you know, some sort of
Speaker 1: like automation live and had like five beats under my belt.
Speaker 1: And and that was on the laptop, and that was
Speaker 1: like that was not even on laptop. That was like
Speaker 1: on a desktop like PC computer that was really slow.
Speaker 1: And then and all that, and then the fruity loops
Speaker 1: came in the way where I was like trying again
Speaker 1: and fail to like actually like use the software. And
Speaker 1: my little bloody was like, yo, like this is how
Speaker 1: you use it. You gotta like put the kick here.
Speaker 1: But you know, I was like, oh, really okay, and
Speaker 1: then I just never stopped making beats from then. It
Speaker 1: seems like it also if you use technology in a
Speaker 1: way that's different than the way everyone else uses it,
Speaker 1: it can lead to some really interesting things. You know.
Speaker 1: It's like it might not be technically the right way,
Speaker 1: but there really isn't the right way. When we're making music,
Speaker 1: We're just looking for these moments, yeah, where it feels
Speaker 1: good exactly and to me something that I really like,
Speaker 1: Like I was really confident with my music, so I
Speaker 1: was like, how am I not really like like a
Speaker 1: musician musician and I'm making all that music? So that
Speaker 1: really like messed up with my head, like if I
Speaker 1: was doing the right thing or not, you know, like
Speaker 1: during my teenage years of like learning how to make beats,
Speaker 1: because I would see a lot of people like you know,
Speaker 1: using the MPC or play the keyboard and just you know,
Speaker 1: come up with stuff that is like things I never understood,
Speaker 1: but I always used it my own way, and that
Speaker 1: really like play with my head, like am I doing
Speaker 1: something right? Am I doing something wrong? But everything sounded good,
Speaker 1: it sounded perfect, and until it was like until I
Speaker 1: saw a lot of people doing it, you know the same,
Speaker 1: and why I did, like not really using you know,
Speaker 1: a media controller to make a beat. So I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: I guess I got that right. Yeah, and it was.
Speaker 1: I mean it's again, I don't even know if it's
Speaker 1: right or wrong. You did it your way, you know,
Speaker 1: And I feel like you've managed to do that both
Speaker 1: as a producer and as an artist. Like we normally
Speaker 1: think of artists as these sort of outgoing, loud you know,
Speaker 1: everybody look at me person, and you've managed to stay
Speaker 1: your shy self, yea, true to yourself and still make
Speaker 1: this incredible music and still rock the party and be
Speaker 1: true to you. I think it's inspiring for people to
Speaker 1: know there's not one way. And I imagine over the
Speaker 1: years there have been people who tried to get you
Speaker 1: to be more like other people. Oh yeah, and it
Speaker 1: seems like you've been good like doing your thing. Yeah
Speaker 1: it's been good. Now I'm like I can confirm it,
Speaker 1: you know, Like it's like there's not one way. There's
Speaker 1: not like two ways. You know, there's definitely like a
Speaker 1: million ways, but you need to just make music. Like
Speaker 1: even like somebody like Steve Lacey like that was that's
Speaker 1: using is like iPhone to make demos. So it's like
Speaker 1: that's that's already impressive, and that's like something I kind
Speaker 1: of like when I saw that for the first time,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, well, like I thought it was
Speaker 1: really cool because it shows that there's more than ways
Speaker 1: to make music. It's not really about you know, what
Speaker 1: you got, it's really how we use it, you know. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: it's more of the idea and your ear and your taste, yeah,
Speaker 1: and everything else. You can't do it any different way. Really. Yeah.
Speaker 1: When I was growing up, like I had a job,
Speaker 1: and like I had like my first job and saved
Speaker 1: up to like buy an NPC. You know, there's things
Speaker 1: like that that I was like, okay, like I'm I'm
Speaker 1: trying to be a real producer. I'm gonna buy all
Speaker 1: those gears, you know, And it's like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it didn't really I didn't reconnect with like an NPC really,
Speaker 1: Like there's a lot of techniques and I didn't know
Speaker 1: how to upload like put samples in there. So I
Speaker 1: just like stick to what I know from the early
Speaker 1: days of technology till now. Has the way you've worked
Speaker 1: on music evolved or do you still do it the
Speaker 1: way you did right from the beginning. It definitely evolved
Speaker 1: in a way that you know, I'm learning, like learning
Speaker 1: different softwares and get real musicians, you know, like all that.
Speaker 1: Like this is something that you know, I never really
Speaker 1: did until I had like my until the career start
Speaker 1: popping off. So there are things like that where it
Speaker 1: evolved in terms of like my taste and like my ideas,
Speaker 1: and then it returned my music to something else instead
Speaker 1: of just being like just a hip hop eat. And
Speaker 1: then you're like somebody like like let's say Kanye that
Speaker 1: would like he'll do a beat, but he'll make turning
Speaker 1: to like a whole masterpiece like with strings and all that.
Speaker 1: You know, this is something I picked up when I
Speaker 1: was like young, like having strings in my music, having
Speaker 1: like horns, range arrangements, and now I can actually do it.
Speaker 1: But then it was like, hey, am I gonna do that?
Speaker 1: Like you know, I'm trying to like find one liners
Speaker 1: you know that been recorded and example one part and
Speaker 1: use it as a new element in your piece. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a lone original too, Like that sounded also
Speaker 1: like different than I would have think, so that was
Speaker 1: also cool to experiment with that. But now it has
Speaker 1: come to the point where I'm like, Okay, I can
Speaker 1: finally do like have real like instrumentalists like over my music.
Speaker 1: That's what I did with the last album. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: the last one, the last one, but that's when I
Speaker 1: came out, Yeah, the two thousand nineteen. Like you, you're
Speaker 1: deep into a new one now, I guess I am. Well,
Speaker 1: you made a lot of stuff. We don't know if
Speaker 1: it's an album yet, right exactly. It's just it's just
Speaker 1: a lot of demos. I'm just confused with a direction
Speaker 1: I want to go. You know, there is a sound
Speaker 1: kind of like how twin Flames sounds, you know, like
Speaker 1: very late bisco strings, very influenced by that, and you know,
Speaker 1: heavy drums and heavy bass. But I feel like I've
Speaker 1: been influenced a lot with what's happening lately with you know,
Speaker 1: everybody doing the house music and my name being mentioned.
Speaker 1: But I feel like you were doing it before everybody. Hey,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean I wouldn't say I was doing
Speaker 1: for everybody, because I gotta pay respects to like all
Speaker 1: the people that that influence me. You know, like I
Speaker 1: would say you did you were part of the like
Speaker 1: new like bringing back a style of dance music that
Speaker 1: was not in vogue or not popular. Yeah, I feel
Speaker 1: like you were one of the people who really brought
Speaker 1: it back and made it popular again and found a
Speaker 1: way to put a new slant on it. Like I
Speaker 1: always when I listen to your music, there's a familiarness
Speaker 1: to the grooves that feels good to me, and there's
Speaker 1: also a newness either in the instrumentation or the way
Speaker 1: it's put together where it's like, well, it's not an
Speaker 1: old you know, it doesn't sound like an old record,
Speaker 1: sounds like a new record, but it hits your soul
Speaker 1: in the way that an old record night, which is good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to it's it's like something I always trying
Speaker 1: to do, like, you know, to keep it so full,
Speaker 1: like that's like the number one thing because I don't know,
Speaker 1: like where there's like beast that that's not so ful
Speaker 1: to me. It's like I don't know if I'm gonna
Speaker 1: like it like personally for me, but I'm really happy
Speaker 1: that I found like a link to like electronic and
Speaker 1: then soul music. So you know, a lot of people
Speaker 1: did it, but it's not never been in the forefront,
Speaker 1: you know, Like you hear like people like like you know,
Speaker 1: Jay Delve was doing it a lot, and then it's
Speaker 1: just something I picked up where I studied Jay Dillis
Speaker 1: swing and you know, like those cats that are like
Speaker 1: from like you know, in the same circle, like Black
Speaker 1: Milk and mad Lib and you know, just blazed us
Speaker 1: that too, and I'm just like did it on in
Speaker 1: terms of like, oh, how would if I put like
Speaker 1: a filter on a how speed? Like how would that
Speaker 1: sound like? So you know, I just like went full
Speaker 1: all my ideas at the time and then and that
Speaker 1: really like popped off cool and it doesn't sound like
Speaker 1: anything that came before it, but it does have a
Speaker 1: familiarity that feels good. It doesn't feel foreign. It feels
Speaker 1: more like different and comfortable at the same time. It's
Speaker 1: great feeling. Yeah, yeah, definitely. You know it's great that
Speaker 1: you know, like the idea really executed well and then
Speaker 1: people are like paying attention to it. You know. I
Speaker 1: remember you came to visit me and why maybe three
Speaker 1: or four years ago a while ago, pre pandemic, and
Speaker 1: we were listening to the music you were making then,
Speaker 1: and it was already like felt like future disco. You know,
Speaker 1: it was already you were already there, So I mean
Speaker 1: from my point of view, I know you were there
Speaker 1: before everybody because I heard it. Yeah, and at the
Speaker 1: time that you were playing it for me, it sounds
Speaker 1: felt really fresh to me, but also unlike what anything
Speaker 1: else was going on. So that's why I'm talking about
Speaker 1: It's like I heard it. I heard the sounds then,
Speaker 1: so yeah, it's good to have a witness, you know.
Speaker 1: Like yeah, in terms of like like you know, all
Speaker 1: the beats I was making, it was like something you know,
Speaker 1: just experiments, you know, and you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: people didn't really get it. Like I always send those
Speaker 1: beats a lot of artists, and it's like they don't
Speaker 1: really get it in the first time. Like I don't know.
Speaker 1: Some people are really like okay, like they're gonna do it,
Speaker 1: but sometimes most of the time it's like they don't
Speaker 1: really understand or day they want to hit, so it's
Speaker 1: not gonna work for their albums. A lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of my albums are like people who passed on,
Speaker 1: you know, the production, like they did the song and
Speaker 1: they didn't put on their albums. So and then I'm
Speaker 1: like asking them, can I use that for my album?
Speaker 1: And it's like okay, sure. So a lot of those
Speaker 1: out of my wombs are made up like compilation of
Speaker 1: just missus. You know, like I would understand why it
Speaker 1: doesn't fit their album because this sound is so distinct
Speaker 1: from the other stuff. Yeah, something I would honest, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't really understand then. But now it's like, okay, I
Speaker 1: get it now, you know, And now everybody's doing it,
Speaker 1: you know, so I guess you know, the first one
Speaker 1: that's that is trying something sort of new. It's like
Speaker 1: it's always gonna beat them. Who's gonna like not get
Speaker 1: the cake? Yeah, you know, so, but you never know,
Speaker 1: you never know how it comes around and who knows. Also,
Speaker 1: the fact that you were onto that sound first also
Speaker 1: means you'll probably develop that into a new sound first
Speaker 1: maybe and and well you know, you'll see, you'll see
Speaker 1: how it works. Yeah, you know, I might. The movie's
Speaker 1: not over, Yeah exactly. I know. It's like I feel
Speaker 1: like my like my career, like it has just started
Speaker 1: as at the same time. So like like you said,
Speaker 1: you never know, and like I might be surprised of
Speaker 1: like so many things. You know. It seems like, I mean,
Speaker 1: it seems like that from when I first met you.
Speaker 1: It was already things that were really popping off on
Speaker 1: like a club level, and it feels like it's only
Speaker 1: grown since, like continually just keeps growing. Yeah, it feels good.
Speaker 1: It's good to know because sometimes like I'm like, am
Speaker 1: I doing it right? You know? Like? Or am I
Speaker 1: like being too different? Or there are times where like
Speaker 1: people sound exactly like me, like it really like sometimes
Speaker 1: messes with me. Its messes my head. So I just
Speaker 1: want to try new things. And I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: back to zero in terms of like Okay, let me
Speaker 1: try something new, Like in terms of like okay, like
Speaker 1: nobody really did that, you know, that funk that they
Speaker 1: were doing Dan, They're not doing it today. Like there's
Speaker 1: like a lot of stuff that pick up from stuff
Speaker 1: that I listened to and then get inspiration from that
Speaker 1: and then create. We're gonna take a quick break and
Speaker 1: then we'll be back with more from Kate Vernada. We're
Speaker 1: back with the rest of Rick Rubin's conversation with Kaye Nada.
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear you produce an artist where you
Speaker 1: do the whole album, because I feel like that it
Speaker 1: would make sense because you have such a specific sound.
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to when that happens the right artist,
Speaker 1: the right combination. Yeah, I feel like it's going to
Speaker 1: be a special thing when it happens. Yeah, it's something
Speaker 1: I always want to do, Like I always want to
Speaker 1: produce a whole project, and a lot of that has
Speaker 1: been happening, like in twenty twenty one, like three artists
Speaker 1: I've been working with and turn out to be a
Speaker 1: full on project. Things are coming together and I like
Speaker 1: that too because it's like finally like my range as
Speaker 1: a producer, like not only me being the main artist,
Speaker 1: Like I want every want to be in the background,
Speaker 1: you know, as a true producer, Like this has always
Speaker 1: been my real dream. But because like even me being
Speaker 1: a forefront, it's not something I always like. But yeah, eventually,
Speaker 1: like you know, soon you'all gonna hear like kids, you
Speaker 1: not how to produce albums, you know, Sure it makes
Speaker 1: sense for you to simultaneously be an artist as well.
Speaker 1: Also because the sound is so specific to you, Yeah
Speaker 1: that when it's all together, it makes sense, like it's
Speaker 1: it it makes sense that it's coming from you because
Speaker 1: it's your sound. Yeah it's yeah, it's great, you know,
Speaker 1: but you know, I wish, I wish people would let me,
Speaker 1: you know, if I'm the feature artist, Like I wish
Speaker 1: they would let me, you know, like you know, arrange
Speaker 1: or mix. You know. Sometimes it's like they don't want
Speaker 1: to let me do that, and I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this could be so much better, you know. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like I got this ear where people like
Speaker 1: a lot of people should trust me. But it is
Speaker 1: what it is. I understand. How do you know, Like, um,
Speaker 1: what's the feeling when it's good? Like, how do you
Speaker 1: how do you know when it's good? Oh? Man, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's it's hard to explain, like you know, you
Speaker 1: get it, like you know deep in your heart, like
Speaker 1: in your soul, like you just know, like it's like
Speaker 1: it's like all right, and then you listen over and
Speaker 1: over and even if it's like in five years that
Speaker 1: stuff is coming out, you just know that it's like, man,
Speaker 1: this is the wildest, like this is the craziest stuff,
Speaker 1: Like nobody heard it. It gets old to you as well,
Speaker 1: because like nobody. Yeah, I'm like personally, like I would
Speaker 1: get used to a lot of beats that I listened
Speaker 1: to and I'm like this is so amazing, Like this
Speaker 1: is so good. It's like it's been like three years
Speaker 1: that those songs are not those beets are not even out,
Speaker 1: are not even used, and then it'll be used and
Speaker 1: it's like it's new again. Like it's like it's like
Speaker 1: it's been reborn, just like twin Flame from example. You know,
Speaker 1: So is that a track that's been around for a minute?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, cool? Well, you know, I was in Hawaii
Speaker 1: with you, like playing that song and they are so
Speaker 1: and that's like twenty eighteen. Wow. Yeah. What's interesting about
Speaker 1: that also is that normally when I think about dance music,
Speaker 1: dance music often has a short fuse, like if there's
Speaker 1: a hot sound, it's not hot long, you know, like
Speaker 1: it changes fast. So the fact that you can make
Speaker 1: a beat four years ago and have it feel fresh today,
Speaker 1: it's a good sign for its timelessness. You know, it's
Speaker 1: not it's not just a trend, because the trends don't
Speaker 1: last that long. Yeah, exactly, Like this is something I
Speaker 1: taught thought about it as well. It's like, how come
Speaker 1: I have to five years like I'm listening to the
Speaker 1: same demo, didn't change anything and it's still as perfect
Speaker 1: as it sounds. You know, there's a lot of songs
Speaker 1: on that I'm like, that's been unreleased and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be so good when it comes out.
Speaker 1: But it's been a long time. You know. There's like
Speaker 1: and there's stuff on people's album too that people that
Speaker 1: wouldn't I work with that they were going to use
Speaker 1: it for the album, and I'm like, man I pick
Speaker 1: that one up, man Like it would have been like
Speaker 1: so good for them. You know, it eyes as it's
Speaker 1: supposed to arrive, and there's a story going on that's
Speaker 1: beyond us. You know, it's exactly always interesting when when
Speaker 1: it comes up, it's like surprised by what happens. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's crazy because deep down your soul, you know,
Speaker 1: like you said, like knew something is right, and it's
Speaker 1: like wow, it's like now I can listen to disco
Speaker 1: records from the seventies and they sound as exciting as
Speaker 1: anything I've ever heard. Yeah, you know, like it's it's
Speaker 1: amazing the power of some of these things. And then
Speaker 1: you can listen to some stuff that you love, you know,
Speaker 1: five years ago, ten years ago, and you listen to
Speaker 1: it now it sounds old. You know, it feels like temporary.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. There's a lot of like songs
Speaker 1: that I used to love and then have an aged
Speaker 1: well yeah, and it's like, oh, it's not this is
Speaker 1: not my favorite album anymore, Like I changed my mind.
Speaker 1: You know. There's a lot of like stuff that revisit
Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, maybe maybe not tell me what
Speaker 1: you mostly listen to. Slot of new wave, it's a
Speaker 1: lot of new wave records. New wave like eighties New Way,
Speaker 1: like eight New Way. There's just something about how they
Speaker 1: use like like how unquantized their stuff are and it's
Speaker 1: like it's all sense and it's all like bad singing,
Speaker 1: but it's it has this vibe too, like that's I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's just something. It just does something to me.
Speaker 1: New wave was like an outgrowth of punk rock. Sounded
Speaker 1: different the spirit of it. It was called post punk yeah,
Speaker 1: and post punk kind of turned into new wave. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and post punk was like the same people who might
Speaker 1: have been making punk rock, but now they're making dance
Speaker 1: music where they're making like a do it yourself attempt
Speaker 1: at pop music. Yeah, and I love that you can
Speaker 1: sell they were experimenting and it's like by the years.
Speaker 1: You know, if you listen to one song from eighty three,
Speaker 1: it's like more like rage drums, and then like you
Speaker 1: go to eighty seven, like when stuff is more clean
Speaker 1: and quintized. You know, it's like I just love like
Speaker 1: saying like the year, and it's like you just know
Speaker 1: it's gonna be like a raw new wave record. When
Speaker 1: you you'll see like something from eighty six, you know
Speaker 1: it'll be like more clean, more crystallized, you know, sonically.
Speaker 1: So would you say that your relationship to music has
Speaker 1: changed since you were a child? No? Same, not at all.
Speaker 1: That's a good question. Not at all. It's like the
Speaker 1: level for music has always been the same. I always
Speaker 1: got a song in my head since I was like five,
Speaker 1: Like not I'm not a DHD like diagnosed, but like
Speaker 1: I just know that's what I had. Like when I
Speaker 1: was like struggling with school, it was really like the
Speaker 1: music in my head or music videos in my head.
Speaker 1: So it's like or even percussions with pencils like I
Speaker 1: was doing all that. Yeah, it didn't change. I don't
Speaker 1: think I ever asked you this, But how did you
Speaker 1: get your artist's name? How do you become Katronada? How'd
Speaker 1: I become Katronada? Oh? Like I said, like my name
Speaker 1: was katrd like Nore Domas, so that name really stood
Speaker 1: by me. And that that's when like I started to
Speaker 1: get my name out there in Montreal. And then there
Speaker 1: was another artist named Filostra Damash yeah, like well a
Speaker 1: group like a duel, yeah, and I got myself to
Speaker 1: make a trap like the trap stuff. Well it was
Speaker 1: like actually like big at the time. That was like
Speaker 1: a trend that that was following then. And people were like,
Speaker 1: you got Katra Doma's name, like you know, like you
Speaker 1: sound like Flostro Damas. But I always had that name,
Speaker 1: which is funny. So before like things started to go crazy,
Speaker 1: I just said, oh, I'm just like people call me
Speaker 1: Katra anyways, so I just took out the dominic but
Speaker 1: Nada and I don't know why it sounded nice and
Speaker 1: I was like Katra and I was like from cant
Speaker 1: and then Nada, you know, like it's like it's kind
Speaker 1: of like a fun like ways say Katra from Canada.
Speaker 1: But I don't know why I was not a Canada.
Speaker 1: I never made that connection. Yeah, like interesting, It's like
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's it really love No, I love
Speaker 1: the sound of it sound nice. It looks nice to
Speaker 1: the way it's Britain. Yeah, was it obvious that you
Speaker 1: wanted a artist's name instead of calling yourself by your
Speaker 1: given name. No, but it's a decision you made. It's
Speaker 1: interest just interesting decision. Yeah. At the time, like you know,
Speaker 1: like I was like really, I was like nineteen toy yea.
Speaker 1: So I was like, yeah, I'll go I'll stick by
Speaker 1: that name. And it was like it was fine. But
Speaker 1: now I'm like, man, I wish I love you like
Speaker 1: I love Katnada. I think it's a beautiful name. Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. But you know, I wish I had my
Speaker 1: Sometimes I wish I had my first name, like my
Speaker 1: my full name as an artist. I mean, I feel
Speaker 1: like a lot of people go through that Eve had
Speaker 1: like the weekend, like Abel was telling that he wanted
Speaker 1: to like have his name Abel estimate artist. But you
Speaker 1: can't reallydo that because it's like like you could go
Speaker 1: on and decline it. Also, is there's something about a
Speaker 1: name that takes on like a mythology, you know, like
Speaker 1: Katron is not really a person who's sitting here talking
Speaker 1: to me, do you know what I'm saying. It's like
Speaker 1: it's something else. It's like Katron is an idea. You know.
Speaker 1: It's like it's not just a person, it's like a
Speaker 1: point of view. It's a way of seeing the world.
Speaker 1: And that's what the name is. Yeah, represents something. It's
Speaker 1: true because like you gotta think that's it's not really
Speaker 1: You're like you're more than just like a person or
Speaker 1: just the artists. You're like, your music is out there,
Speaker 1: you know, buy your name. So it's like when I
Speaker 1: when I wanted to change my name, I was like,
Speaker 1: I should probably not because it'll mix people's head as
Speaker 1: heads up a little bit. You know. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was like thinking about how you know, Puffy changed
Speaker 1: his name to Diddy. But at the same time, Puffy
Speaker 1: like is also more than just the musician. You know,
Speaker 1: got a career, he got a business career, all this
Speaker 1: stuff going on to bad boys stuff. So it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, I wish I had that power in terms
Speaker 1: of like changing my name, but it's not a big
Speaker 1: deal at the same time, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: like I can just embrace it and be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is who I birth did. I think it's beautiful.
Speaker 1: I really do. I like it. I like that name.
Speaker 1: I like I like your personal name. Too, but something
Speaker 1: about it as an artist's name. It's just cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's pretty cool. You selected well. Thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming to visit. Oh Ma,
Speaker 1: thank you for having me. I love seeing you man.
Speaker 1: I've seen you too. Man. It's so good to read. Reunite. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all this time man, and we will again. Yeah. Thanks
Speaker 1: to Ktronata for chatting through his career and approach to
Speaker 1: making beats with Rick. You hear our favorite Kjrenata produced songs.
Speaker 1: Check out the playlist at Broken Record podcast Come Off.
Speaker 1: Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube
Speaker 1: dot com slash Broken Record Podcast, where you can find
Speaker 1: all of our new episodes. You can follow something at
Speaker 1: Broken Record. Broken Record is producing help from Lea Rose,
Speaker 1: Jason Gambrel, Ventaliday, Eric Sandler, and Jennifer Sanchez, with engineering
Speaker 1: help from Nick Chafer. Our executive producer is Mia Lobell.
Speaker 1: Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you
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Speaker 1: by Kenny Beats. I'm justin Richmond.