If you’ve been out in Wicker Park in the last year you’ve seen or heard the name Kid Color. A DJ with a mustache and rat tail, bouncing around happily in the DJ booth. Now Kid Color is gaining a lot more steam with the success of Metro’s One Night Stand, Rehab and now Tuesdays @ Buddha—he doesn’t seem to stop working. Hailing from Southern California, Kid Color’s “Daisy Age” disco vibe just wants to unite the dance floor. Having been taken under the wing of Dark Wave Disco and Curt from Flosstradamus, Kid Color is now coming into his own, with the formation of Yello Fever and now more solo projects than ever. I sat down with the newly legal drinker to talk about his upcoming original, his love for comic books, and of course house party hijinks.

LISTEN: Man Is Doomed - Escape to Europa (Kid Color remix)


by Wilson Standish of Boy Kings

UR: How’d you get into Djing?

Kid Color: I’ve always been into dance music of some kind, like my first cassette I bought was Ace of Bass. And I got the Jock Jams…I always loved to dance, and I’ve been collecting music forever. And then one time I went to a music festival and I saw this DJ Steve Aoki. And this was the first time I ever saw a DJ as an artist. He was having so much fun, and people were loving it. This was my junior year of high-school, and I just thought, “This is what I want to do.” And it just made sense because I had all this music already. I finally got turntables one summer and just locked myself in a room and taught myself. It was cool, it was a lonely summer.

I also did research on DJing and the history of DJing. It’s important to look at what’s behind in order for you to progress.

UR: Did you ever have any problems at gigs being underage?

Kid Color: Well, when I got my fake ID I was using it all over the place. I was stuck on my fake, I was so attached to it. And at Double Door…I had never been there before, this was the first time I got booked. And being young, when I got booked somewhere people usually wouldn’t ID me, they’d be like “cool, come in.” But at this one I gave one guy ID and had another bouncer come over and they totally knew. They just said “this is fake.” And I was just tensing up saying “no it’s not! No it’s not!” They took my ID and as soon as I finished playing they kicked me out. And it was raining that night.

UR: How’d you get hooked up with Yello Fever?

Kid Color: When I moved out here I just started DJing, and just doing house parties and clubs, and then I started thinking maybe I could throw a party. And I would always see Skyler’s name around, and I was thinking of other DJs to book, so I hit up Skyler. We never got that party settled, but then I guess he saw me at a show because he then hit me back and was like, “hey we should hang out,” and then things led to another, wait that sounds like a date [laughs]. And then Skyler was talking to Jobot at the time, who’s also in Yello Fever. We’re trying to work on a system where all three of us can DJ at once. We’re working on original music, and JoJo [Jobot] is a genius when it comes to music. Her ideas are just awesome.



UR: You’re going to school out here aren’t you?

Kid Color: I was. I took this year off, actually. I went to Columbia, studied music business. Before I moved out here I was interning for this music magazine called Filter, and they were also a music marketing firm, and I was doing that for two years, and so I thought, okay, music business. But coming out here and I’ve been meeting a lot more people and learning a lot more just from DJing, rather than school. Not saying that the degree is worthless, but for me I work better out of the classroom. But I am going to go back to school and change my major to illustration, because I want to draw comics, or just write comics, I’m really into that.

UR: What comics have you been reading these days?

Kid Color: The one I got super into was “Fables,” have you heard of “Fables”? Basically it’s all of your favorite fantasy historical figures and anyone Disney made a movie about; all their kingdoms suddenly get attacked by this thing called the Adversary which is this evil power, so they’re forced out of their world and into our world, and they live in New York. And it’s them in human form…it’s hard without going into too much detail, but it’s…oh my God. I’ve also been reading “Y: The Last Man” In this one there was a freak accident and all the men and Y chromosomes die except one male and his pet monkey, who are trying to figure out why they survived…I’m really into “Lost” and all, so I geek out to all this kind of stuff. And just super hero comics—I love them.

UR: How did you integrate into the Chicago scene so fast?

Kid Color: When I first moved out here I lived in the Columbia dorms, in this apartment that I shared with my roommate. And one night we were like, “we should have a dance party.” So, at 10 o’clock at night we cut out pieces of paper that said “Dance party in 807.” By the end of the night we had about 30 kids dancing in the dorm, and it was really fun. The next week we did it again and it got up to 40 people. And then the week after that people started calling me the DJ kid, and we thought this one had to be big.

Moving to a new place, what do you have to do? You have to start your own party, or do your own thing. So for the last and final one we got up to 50 or 60 kids—and when it’s in a dorm room keep in mind people were dancing on the kitchen counter, they were going nuts. But I guess that night there was a fire on the floor below so all the sprinklers went off and they stopped our parties. But word about the parties got around, and it got back to the school and Columbia started booking me for different events. Columbia booked me with Floss and Chuck and Mickey from The Cool Kids, and then Curt texted me two months later and wanted to know if I wanted to DJ with them for the 18 and over party.

I think Chicago is a pretty accepting city, which is one of the main reasons I love it. When I saw the DJ scene out here I was like “that’s what I have to do.” I think it’s a combination of working hard, and I try to give off as much good energy as I can, and I think people really see that…I don’t know.

UR: How did the name come to be?

Kid Color: Well, the first guy I ever saw that made me want to DJ was Steve Aoki. People don’t really know that his original DJ name was Kid Millionaire. So, I was like, “okay, Kid, I like that.” And my older brother always called me “Kid” growing up. And then “Color,” I imagined all the parties I wanted to play, and in my head it’s this party straight from Studio 54. I’m really inspired by the disco era, and I just imagined colorful. I like how one word can have so many different meanings behind people’s idea of it.



UR: What live stuff are you working on?

Kid Color: I’m in the process of starting a live dance act, so people have something more to look at…But, then there’s the crowd that just wants to get drunk and dance, which I’m down with too.

UR: How do you feel about Chicago now that you’ve been here?

Kid Color: Honestly, I love it. It’s my favorite city of all time. I used to go up to L.A. all the time, because like I said I’m from Orange County. And Chicago is so accepting and open-minded. And people say the weather here sucks, but whatever, it only makes the summers amazing.

UR: What would you like to get into next?

Kid Color: I’m working on original music, which is hard because I’m trying to find a sound that I want to identify Kid Color with. But in the meantime I have a lot of my side projects. I’m doing some Disco House with Curt from Flosstradamus. In a year I would like to have at least an EP of original music that really sums me up and doesn’t have to be played in a club.

UR: What do you think partygoers are looking for these days? 

Kid Color: I feel like people still love to dance, but also that the nightlife is looking for a little bit more. Personally, I missed Outdanced because it was DJs and live acts, and I loved that. I fear that it gets to the point where people are bored with someone standing behind a computer, but I do think people are searching for more. That’s why I’m trying to collab’ on music, and live performances.