After relocating to Berlin, Kid606 is still bent on rocking you like a hurricane.
Miguel Depedro has been releasing electronic music under the Kid606 guise since the late ‘90s. His debut, Don’t Sweat The Technics, referenced everything from Skinny Puppy to Aphex Twin, and still stands as one of breakcore’s defining statements. Since then, he’s founded two record labels—Tigerbeat6 and its younger sister-imprint Tigerbass—and has gone on to release over a dozen full-lengths and virtually countless singles that run the gamut from sleek synth pop to blistering drum ‘n’ bass and back again.
Recently relocated to Berlin from San Francisco, a move Depedro, who was born in Caracas, says was necessitated by the “decline of America and California… and more about politics and the whole class and over-consuming culture [than music],” at the end of ’08 he dropped a fresh EP, Die Soundboy Die, which finds him trafficking in the same sort of raucous party music he’s built his name on, infusing it with a higher-than-usual dose of UK rave and even a smattering of dubstep’s trademark wobble.
“I would have gone apeshit crazy over the music I am hearing and making now when I was a kid.”
An artist seemingly driven by the sheer possibility inherent in electronic music production, Depedro is very much in love with his craft. “I would have gone apeshit crazy over the music I am hearing and making now when I was a kid,” he confesses. “Lots of the stuff that you can do now with computers and putting so much control into the hands of really young people I dreamed about and predicted for years, to see it come to life is really satisfying.”
Having successfully dabbled in nearly ever genre within the multi-faceted electronic music universe, Depedro has grown into a producer as prolific as he is skilled. Holed away in his ever-expanding studio, Depedro already has two new Kid606 albums in the can for 2009, both of which he claims are complete stylistic turns from his recent efforts. What’s his secret, though? “Overall, just pushing myself and changing things up and hopefully inspiring as many people as I piss off,” he says, adding: “live fast, die hard, yadda, yadda, yadda.”
Words: Carl Ritger
as featured in Issue 25