One to watch alt/pop electronic collective, Dutchkid, are not your average band. Its six members from the UK, USA and South Africa, include songwriters, producers, film-makers and graphic designers, that create, record and produce their own music and art. For the past two years, they’ve been on an upward trajectory receiving Apple Music's New Artist Spotlight of the Month slot and a BBC Introducing ‘Record Of The Week’ for 2021 single ‘Lemonade’. Having recently dropped new single ‘Light On’ on Ultra Music, produced in collaboration with the ambient, indie-pop artist, Shallou, and with a debut album landing later this year, we sat down with Dutchkid to talk about their unique brand of stylish electronic pop..

How did you get your Artist name?

I’ve been collecting band names on my notes app for years. It was one of a hundred names we actually liked ha! The name has a connection to myself (Jordi) originally being from South Africa and from an Afrikaans speaking family, sometimes jokingly referred to as Dutch because of where the language stems from. (Jordi)

How did you get into creating?

I come from a super musical family with both my mom and dad being guitar teachers at one point. We always had instruments lying around the house and learning how to strum along or play the keys was just a part of life. (Jordi)

How has creating changed your life?

Music created opportunity from nothing. I literally had no plan B or something else to fall back on. The music journey allowed me to cross paths with my wife, took me all over the world to countries I never thought I’d have the opportunity of visiting, created lasting and deep friendships with super special people and took us to London. Now home. (Jordi)

Where are you from?

As a band we’re from all over but based in London. Jordi is from South Africa, Jordan (our manager) is from Texas and Jack, Chris and Josh are from the UK.

How did growing up in your neighborhood/city affect you?

 I spent most of my childhood in a little town on the east cost of South Africa called, Amanzimtoti. It’s a beautiful place, the kind other South Africans would usually go to for a summer holiday. I miss it and think about it often. Growing up in a small town like that you either stay there for the rest of your life and so do your kids and their kids or... you dream about what life would be like beyond that. Neither is right or wrong... just different I guess. I formed lifelong friendships there. We bonded over music and dreamt of touring the world playing our own songs. Music was an escape for us, it helped us dream. That little town and it’s people saved my life. (Jordi)

What did you do to advance your skills/knowledge?

I think the way you advance yourself is to keep on trying to make music that you love. Learn through having a go and from any mistakes you make along the way. (Jack)

What does your current setup look like?

We all have home studios where we work day to day, on stage we're experimenting with a lot of new things, using a lot more samples and loops with a main instrument each.

Who inspires you? Why do they inspire you?

Other creatives and songwriters inspire us massively as well as meeting new people and visiting / working in new places.

What is your goal when you create?

The environment we create in is really important, if we get that right with the writers and producers we work with then music flows from that feeling of connection. That then just makes its way into the music in a way that can feel really tangible to our fans and anyone who listens.

Why do you create?

For connection with people, to have that connection whilst creating music and in the sharing of the music.

What's your go-to song right now and why is it important to you?

Laura Mvula - Church Girl. Laura sings about not being able to dance if you have the devil on your back, that concept is so beautiful and it's encouragement to put down the weight you've been feeling and enjoy the simple things in life and for me, finding contentment in a strange time. (Jordi)

What is your dream as an artist and what steps are you taking to reach your dream?

We want to keep making music and art we're really proud of. A dream of ours is that people would connect with the debut album we've been working on for two years. In a wider scope we'd love to see the arts and music be valued more and artists to have sustainable futures and incomes from their music.

What is the best advice you would give someone with a dream?

The journey & rewards of doing it and potentially failing far outweighs the regret of not doing it at all. Trust your gut. Life is short, live it well.

Tell us about your most recent release

Our latest release is "Light On" - We wrote the song just before the COVID-19 pandemic with LA based producer Shallou and is a song about having people in your life that help pick you up when things seem dark. It only came out a few weeks ago and people have been really connecting with it. At times like these we all need people to pick us up. It is one of many songs which has come out in the build up to our debut album which will hopefully release before the end of the year.

Listen to 'Light On' on Spotify http://open.spotify.com/album/1btH4on0wrDOFylMq7SYip?si=NSZxM20MQl2yMtsQ_H6APQ&dl_branch=1

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/dutchkidmusic

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dutchkidmusic

Facebook.com: http://www.facebook.com/dutchkidmusic

Website: http://www.dutchkid.co.uk

Photography credit: Calum Morrison

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