Written By: Sam Wolloch
With Nocturnal Wonderland right on the horizon, I caught up with the Baltimore based Kyle O’Shea, who produces and performs as Kayoh (get it, K.O.?), for this next installment of Who Are Ya?!
I found myself at Kayoh’s Soundcloud on the suggestion from a friend and I marveled at the wide range of songs and styles over his five years of posted tracks. I had to know more about the backstory and the artist graciously handed over all the key deets. He’s actually been making music for eight years and began by playing guitar and bass.
Kayoh recalls how he started producing, “I was taking a piano class in high school and was messing with the drum kit and track on track recording. I would lay down a drum beat and then add melodies and bass lines on top of them and kind of became addicted to it.” As a musician, he admits to starting with his love of hip hop tracks, but Kayoh now dabbles across many different genres of EDM, ranging from house and mid-tempo to dubstep and trap.
Just check out the variety of his library. Here’s a trap track he made for World of Dance, “Here We Go Again.” On the other end of the spectrum, you can hear Kayoh get back to his guitar roots for a touching tribute track “Northwind.”
Kayoh credits Soundcloud for some of his creativity, as he is constantly searching for exciting new music ideas. He also admires those artists willing to take chances outside of the norm, while identifying Cashmere Cat, Mr. Carmack, Cristpoh, and Eric Prydz as his favorite producers. And while we’re talking about other artists, check out some of the big name remixes Kayoh has posted: Deadmau5’s “Strobe” and Nero’s “Satisfy.”
Kyle just recently turned 27 on Monday and will celebrate by performing as Kayoh at Nocturnal Wonderland not once, but twice! He gets started 7pm Friday at the Full Moon Camping Pre-Party and features at the Parliament Art Car 5pm Saturday.
Looks like Kayoh is well on his way to accomplishing his next goal, releasing an EP on one of his favorite labels like Deadbeats, Wakaan, or Gud Vibrations. For this weekend though, Kayoh is focused on making more memories for himself and the party people, “…just playing for crowds and getting positive reactions when you drop your own music that you worked hard on. Nothing can beat that!”
