“The connection to nature has been a big influence” kiskadee interview

UK-based artist kiskadee makes emotional electronic music capturing sounds from his surroundings to transform them into uplifting soundscapes that reflect his own experiences. Inspired by the nautical nature of his upbringing on the island of Jersey, he started the kiskadee project during lockdown in 2020 by collecting voice notes from friends and family to flip into bittersweet beats.

On his beautiful, atmospheric debut album A Room To Breathe, kiskadee blends the dual facets of his artistry—ambient and electronic. Designed with the structure and emotional arc of a live set in mind, the album invites listeners on a mesmering journey that unfolds uniquely upon first and subsequent listens.

With the album out now and a tour underway, we caught up with the UK-based producer to discuss its creation.

How did your upbringing on the island of Jersey influence the kind of music you were drawn to?

Hey! Thanks for having me. There was such a great music scene there. This was in the days of Myspace, a different time for building a scene and putting music out there, and it felt really exciting and organic. There was a lot of local support, which gave me the confidence to put myself out there. More abstractly, I think the connection to nature has influenced the Kiskadee project, specifically my focus on blending organic and electronic sounds.

Can you elaborate on the process of transforming voice notes from friends and family into the bittersweet beats found in your music?

Yeah, so the voice notes idea came during the early days of lockdown in 2020 – those first two weeks were particularly confusing. I was trying to keep myself occupied, so I did an open call for voice notes from friends and family about their experiences of lockdown/isolation, with some really interesting results. Some birdsong from back home, the clink of a whiskey glass, and some beautiful vocals. I then imported all of these into Ableton and started sampling/flipping the sounds into beats, which I posted on Instagram and then extended/combined into my first EP (HOME).

How did your time spent in Iceland shape the overall atmosphere and emotional arc of “A Room to Breathe”?

My time there encapsulated the double meaning of the title ‘A Room to Breathe’ – giving me room to breathe away from the busyness of London and a physical room to breathe creatively within Studio B at Greenhouse, just outside of Reykjavik. I went there to find what my sound/sensibility was outside of day-to-day life, and I’m super proud of what I came back with, with tracks such as ‘U’ basically finished. In terms of an emotional arc, the track listing was super important to me and arranged like I would a set as it ebbs and flows along.

What specific experiences or emotions did you aim to capture and reflect in this album?

I’m pretty keen on the listener having their own emotional interpretation of my work and feeling a sense of calm and reflection while listening to it. Something we tried to put into the artwork (beautifully crafted by Rudi Falla) was a sense of putting something beautiful into the world through art. The background pictures are all from places around Hackney (where I’ve worked/lived since 2016) with Rudi’s amazing illustrations overlaid. We both tend to absorb our surroundings and then reinterpret them in sound and art, which is what this hints at.

What role does contemporary dance play in your music, and how do you envision it enhancing your live performances on the upcoming tour?

Yes, it’s an exciting and relatively new world to me that has mainly been accessed through collaboration. Last year, I scored a performance for Alexandra Paal with new work in the pipeline. In November, I was also part of Michael Sebastian’s performance at Earth in Hackney – collaborating with him and a bunch of talented dancers in that amazing space. We’re also just about to head on tour together, where I’m sure contemporary dance will be a big part of our performances. I love how it feels like an organic extension of what we’re doing with sound, and I’m super excited to explore the medium some more.

Having worked with notable producers and artists at Abbey Road and Baltic Studios, how have these experiences influenced your work on “A Room to Breathe”?

The reason I use Ableton as a DAW and got into electronic music was via engineering Stint (a total wizard on Ableton) and engineering Haelos for their second album, seeing how you could combine organic and electronic sounds into these beautiful emotive soundscapes. More directly, “A Room to Breathe” also features the vocals of artists I previously worked with, such as Cape Cub, Benjamin Francis Leftwich, and Michael Sebastian, which has been nice as a kind of sonic diary of my last decade working in music and the friends I’ve made along the way.

How has your involvement in UK club culture and your career as a neo-classical composer converged in the creation of this album?

It’s interesting, I’ve always felt a bit of an outsider in both of these worlds – not cool enough for UK club culture and not serious enough for the neo-classical world. They’ve converged nicely in the creation of this album, making me feel more comfortable traversing both worlds. This is heard most clearly in a track like ‘Falling’ where the echoed piano starts the first half before dropping into the organic beat for the second.

How do you plan to incorporate the ambient surround sound setup for your collaboration with Jasmin Harsono at Glastonbury’s new Tree Stage, and what can the audience expect from this unique performance?

Ah man, I’m so excited for this! Jasmin will be there with her own setup consisting of various gongs, singing bowls, and percussion, so it will be a true collaboration with us passing sound back and forth. I’m actually just composing some sounds for it now, incorporating some binaural recordings I did of the festival back in 2014 and various arps/drones which will slowly move around the circle. I think it’ll be a really special experience!

Now that the album is out there, how do you feel?

Relieved! Haha. We did a release show/party on May 23rd, which also coincided with my 30th birthday, so there were a lot of familiar faces there, which felt overwhelming but also led to such a beautiful evening. I’ve just about recovered now and feel really grateful for everyone who was there to support me and the project and super proud of it being out!

What’s next for Kiskadee?

I’m playing quite a few festivals over the summer, including Glastonbury and then Green Man, SGP, and Wilderness with Michael Sebastian, so that should be good fun. In the middle of all that, I’m working on a couple of EPs and a film project, so plenty to keep me busy!

A Room to Breathe is out now on Another Rhythm