Kygo – real name Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll – is always on the go. When we caught up with the tropical house sensation, he was in New York, doing promo for his new sophomore album, ‘Kids In Love’. It won’t be long until he’s jumping on a plane to his next destination.

 

The 26-year-old DJ and producer wasn’t planning a career in music, but what started off as experimentation on Soundcloud has resulted in a meteoric rise to fame, billions of streams, and shows at huge festivals such as Coachella and TomorrowWorld. We caught up with Kygo to chat about mixing up his sound, his dreams to work with Ed Sheeran and never sitting still.

 

How has your unexpected success affected you personally and how do you stay grounded when you’re playing gigs to thousands of people on an almost daily basis?

It’s about the people you surround yourself with. I’ve kept all my old friends, my manager, my girlfriend. They keep me grounded. It [fame] doesn’t really affect me that much. I see my family, I keep busy by always traveling and playing shows. I get to do what I love for a living.

 

You popularised tropical house to the point where you were working with superstars such as Ellie Goulding and Selena Gomez. How did you arrive at this unique personal sound?

It was just through a period of experimenting. When I was studying [at university] I would play music in my bedroom all the time. I spent hours and hours experimenting with different sounds. I was inspired by [artists like] Avicii and Swedish House Mafia but I felt like everyone else was trying to sound like them, so I started listening to other stuff like deep house and found the sound I have now. It wasn’t like a plan, it was just stuff that I thought was cool.

 

How do you prepare to play live? Do you have any pre-show rituals?

I like to take ten or fifteen minutes before the show to concentrate and get in the zone. There’s always so much stuff going on and so many people around.

You’ve recently collaborated with a plethora of artists such on your new album; some which are well known, like John Newman and OneRepublic, but some which are still largely under the radar like The Night Game. Why did you choose to work with these artists in particular?

My label sets up a lot of studio sessions for me. They recommend people to work with. I like to be very open-minded about people I work with. Even some songwriters or artists I’ve never heard of before, I’ll just try it and see what happens.

 

Is there anyone you’d love to work with down the line?

There’s a lot of people! Always on top of the list is Ed Sheeran. I did some remixes of Ed Sheeran four years ago. The Weeknd would be cool. Coldplay could be cool. Imagine Dragons as well.

 

In what way is your new album, ‘Kids in Love’ the follow-up or partner album to your last record, ‘Cloud 9’?

I think it’s a follow-up. There’s definitely some of the same sounds in there but a little different. I’ve tried to have fun with myself and my sound and mix it up. I didn’t want to make the same album or a similar album all over again, I wanted to make something new. I’m very happy with it. Some of the songs I’d be jamming on the piano but some of the songs were demos that would get sent over that I’d feel really inspired by. With the OneRepublic track and The Night Game track, we wrote those both from scratch together.

Do you have a favourite song from the album?

It’s always tough to pick a favourite as I like all the songs on the album but I think ‘Kids In Love’, the title track if I had to pick, would probably be my favourite.

 

Is it because it means the most to you?

Yeah, it does! I’d been working on the song for over a year. When I make a track it only takes three days or a week or two, then after a while, you make some tweaks and release it. I usually like to tweak a song but it doesn’t make it much better. It’s not good to change it too much. This song sounded so big and powerful that I wanted to make sure it was perfect before I released it, so I spent a lot of time on it.

What is your FAULT?

I’m definitely always late. I can’t sit still. If I’m sitting in a chair I always have to move my feet. It must be quite annoying – not for me but for the people around me!

 

Words: Aimee Phillips 

Photography: Conor Clinch 

Styling: Dee Moran

Grooming: Graziella Vella using Becca and Kevyn Aucoin

Production: Adina Ilie