[TMN Resident Artist] Klingande talks about his music history, tribute to Sweden, and love of France

Another month, another amazing artist to take over the Music Ninja realm. Today I got to chat with our September artist Klingande about his music origins, his adoration for Swedish words, and what we get to look forward to from him in the upcoming year.

TMN: Cédric! Hello and thank you so much for being our resident artist this month, real honor to have you. Let’s start from the beginning and work our way up to today ok? As a child, you studied music theory, not exactly a typical thing for a young person to do. Tell us how you got into that study and what something from that experience that you still carry with you today?

K: Hey! It’s an honor for me to be your resident artist 🙂 Thanks for welcoming me. Actually when I was a child I first got into music by DJing in my room like a lot of teenagers do now; first on my computer, then on CDJ 900 my parents bought me for Christmas. I was playing only for myself and wanted to go further. That’s how I came to production and to production school three years ago. I really wanted to play my sounds, even if it was just for me and a few friends, I liked it, just for fun. This experience of music production school in London brought me a larger musical culture. At the time I was listening EDM big room things like Swedish House Mafia, Avicii and more. I loved it and in London I met people which brought me to other kind of music, where I discovered Deep House. That’s the main thing which remains, and lead me to do this kind of music.

TMN: You really got into electronic music as a teenager (which seems to be a typical time for most young people to experience electronic music), do you remember who was the first group or artist you heard? All it takes is one really amazing song to speak to you.

K: As I said, I was fan of EDM, but at the same time, I was and still am fan of pop like Coldplay, Oasis… I think this is what brought me to do electronic music with acoustic instruments and songs in it. The song which stays for me is “Wonderwall” from Oasis, it’s not very original, but this song still does something for me.

TMN: How old were you when you started to DJ and how did you transition from that to producing your own original works?

K: I think I was like 15 years old. It was just that I wanted to play my music, even if it was really terrible at the beginning. It does something when you have a small production you did in your headphone. Also I understood that if I wanted to do something in music I had to actually create some music. That’s why I started.

TMN: Now you actually went to London to attend a production and music school for a year. Can you talk to us about that experience?

K: It was really interesting for me, I learned a lot of stuff, but not everything of course and I still have so much things to learn. Also as I said It opened my mind to a lot of cultures and different kinds of music. I loved London for this, I discovered a lot of stuff, and opened my mind to house, deep house, tech house and minimal. When I came in London I was absolutely not listening this kind of music.

TMN: A lot of producers today talk about self-taught and with the ability of YouTube and online tutorials, it makes it easy for many people to learn the trade. Many artists like yourself also have the benefit of a musical background. Would you recommend for new producers to acquire music by attending school/classes or is there benefits from being self-taught?

K: I think you can do both. I still have a lot of things to learn, and sometimes I also use YouTube tutorial or help from some friends. Music is so large, and production possibilities are almost infinite. So it depends on what you want to do but of course doing both a school and learning a lot of things by yourself are complementary.

TMN: Talk to us about how it felt when you released your first single ‘Jubel’. Always nerve-racking to put yourself out into the music world but obviously, you received much praise from artists and critics alike.

K: To be honest, when I released Jubel the first time on Soundcloud, I never imagine all the story which was starting. For me it was like “ok my friend, what do you think of this? I did it with my heart and hope you’ll like it.” Nothing more! Just to share with my friends and families. So I wasn’t nervous. I’m more nervous now that I’m working on new tracks because people love Jubel and Punga and I want to provide an awesome new single.

TMN: Now we know you are hard at work on some new singles and an EP due out later this year (exciting!). What else can we expect from you this year and into the new year?

K: Exactly, I’m in studio this month working on a few new tracks, and I’ll release a new single, EP in the following weeks/months. I’m totally focused on this now, and I’ll of course continue my tour, starting in October in the UK, then US tour, and in November a few shows in Asia. Next year I’ll visit Australia and many more countries. I just want to do good music and have fun. I also want to develop a live show, but this will come when we will be ready with my team on the album.

TMN: We know you have been doing a lot of touring in Europe, where would you say is your favorite place that you have played so far and where is the one place you want to play more than anything?

K: This is a tough question and I never know what to answer, I met so much fantastic crowds, in Germany, in Sweden, in Norway, in UK, in France of course… and many more. Italy is really really crazy and I love to go there, Bravalla Festival in Sweden was a really good memory, of course Tomorrowland was a dream!! And I cross my fingers to go back to these festivals next year. Everywhere it was amazing and when I have people dancing and smiling in front of me, it’s fabulous.

TMN: You live in France, tell us one awesome thing about living there and maybe one not so great thing about living there.

K: You know i think the awesome thing is to be in the middle of Europe, be able to travel all around, and when you travel in France, see all this beautiful monuments and landscape, all french history. The not so great thing is maybe that french music culture is not really open, and formatted by media. And there is not so much big electronic music festivals in France. It’s coming but it’s really difficult for organizers to do it.

TMN: How about, you form a band tomorrow, who would you want to be in it with you?

K: Honestly I don’t know, if you wait for big names. It’s difficult to say, I want my sax, my singers, my musicians around me. Never thought in details about this question.

TMN: Who is one musician you listen to by yourself who you may not publicly admit to listening to, until now that is…

K: Don’t think there is someone I can’t admit I’m listening to, maybe Miley Cyrus haha 🙂

TMN: Favorite candy…

K: Not a big fan of sugar, I prefer fresh fruits!!

TMN: And finally, if your music were an animal, what type of animal would it be and why?

K: Something relaxing like a cat? or something tropical like a parrot, or simply a bird singing. Don’t know, what do you think?

TMN: Klingande, thank you so much for spending time chatting with us. Best of luck the rest of the year, cannot wait to hear all that you have in store!

K: Thank you for our time and for your invitation! Stay tuned and follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to have all news about next releases.