Norwegian music makers CasioKids are heading down under for Southbound. They’ll be bringing with them their special brand of bouncy electro, the kind filled with songs about a boy looking for his pet dog. It gets stranger – they’re also known for doing a swathe of shows to kindergarten kids… yes, they honestly appeal to all kinds of audiences, not just the festival crowd. Ketil Endresen spoke to OUTinPerth about the uniqueness of this band.
If your music were an animal, what would it be and why? If it were an animal I guess it’d be a wild horse then, which is the name of one of our songs. It’s so varied and uncontrollable, the style we play. Very diverse. Very restless. We’re not wild in the sense of being aggressively wild, but we’re just making so much varied music, we’re just making music that feels right and doesn’t particularly fit into that style that people have fit us.
What can you tell us about your songs? Actually in the beginning when we started the band we decided not to sing. We originally used human voices that were sampled from audio books and interviews that we did ourselves. When we finally did do vocals in the studio we decided to do something that was true to our everyday lives and personal experiences. But I think the rhythms and melodies come across in a way as such that you instantly enjoy it even though you don’t understand what we’re singing about.
What lead you to play in kindergartens across Norway? That came about as a coincidence. We got offered to do a concert in a kindergarten and we didn’t know what to expect but the feedback was so amazing and the kids responded in such a way that we got a lot more offers. No other bands were doing anything like that with kids in the area at the time. So a lot of offers started coming in and suddenly we found ourselves playing almost as much for kids as we were for grown ups.
Best festival experience ever? Last year in Hobe we got offered to play a concert in a hot air balloon.
CasioKids will be appearing at Southbound from January 1 until 3. www.southboundfestival.com.au
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
