Astrology tells us that an Aquarius is outgoing, friendly and socially active. Put two of them together and you get a whole lot of fun and excitement – put two of them together in New Zealand, and you are treated to the musical adventure that is Kids of 88.
It’s not hard to believe that the pair, who formed under the then-name of Kids of (19)88, place some kind of sanctity on their birthdates. One half of the duo, Sam McCarthy, insists that while one can never really be too far into star signs, “if you had to put a label on an Aquarius, then you may as well just choose us, because we’re pretty typical.”
These Aquarian best mates have been making music for about a decade now – starting with messing around with house tracks in high school, through to developing their own pop sound as time has gone on. “It started out as a project between friends but the songs had an appeal to the time we were making them,” says McCarthy, “and they seemed to grow a few opportunities for us. So then we decided to take it a bit more seriously and form the music into a bit more of a juggernaut, I suppose, than of a bedroom production.”
McCarthy explains that the friendship with his “other half” (known to us as Jordan Arts) was born out of interesting schoolyard rivalries, “Jordan was known as the cool guy who could play drums, and I was the dweeby guy who could play guitar. We would kind of look each other up and down in the schoolyard – thinking that each other was just cooler then the other.”
“We had this assignment for our English class,” remembers McCarthy, “where we had to bring in our favourite songs – I think I was just trying to be as wanky as I possibly could so I borrowed from my dads record collection as opposed to my own.” He laughs before adding, “everyone else was bringing in music from the Top 40 of the time, and there were a few Limp Bizkit choices. I brought in Jimi Hendrix, and so did Jordan.” Thus began the friendship and their music passion flourished.
You know how Aquarians make for fun folks and best mates? Well, they also make good business people, and these kids have stayed true to form with the establishment of their own local record label, Dryden Street Records. What started out as a local outlet to promote and release their own music as well as that of other local bands, has became something much more valuable. “When Kids of 88 started to sign record deals it became quite a good legal umbrella because it meant we could secure a lot of our own personal rights and what-not,” says the makeshift label head.
“It’s been fantastic because it means that we have been able to go deal with a lot of international companies but at the same time, control everything from the local level.” Because of this attitude and flexibility for creativity, Dryden Street Records has since been able to collect other artists to work with, including Zimbabwean-born, New Zealand MC and songwriter, Loui the Zu, and Indie rock/hip hop band, The Wild.
Despite the establishment and successful running of the record label, the Kids have somehow found time to prepare a second album. Modern Love (due to be released in August), is about, as McCarthy explains, life’s different relationships, “relationships that have always been there but have been influenced by other things as the journey goes on, such as the modern day and technology.”
For anyone born in the 1980s, the album promises to have a nostalgic ring to it. “There is a lot of influence from 80s and 90s pop songs, which is what we grew up on. There is a lot more scope in the album, so you are taken on more of a journey. Which is not really what happened with our first album, we were younger and more juvenile and just had lot of energy to burn. This time around we are using our brains a bit more.”
The first released single, Tucan, contains a beat the boys “kind of just felt out.” It combines sounds likened to 80s-era Michael Jackson along with African choir samples and sporadic modern rhythms. The lyrics are thought-provoking, and blissfully discuss astral projection – the ability to leave your body in a controlled dream state – “we wanted to take it somewhere a little more than one idiot, drunk and sweaty in a dirty club, you know? We did that when we were 21,” says McCarthy.
Kids of 88 are skipping over the pond to pay us a visit on the eve of their album release next month. “We are so, so excited, we haven’t been to Australia for a while and we always have a ridiculously good time there,” says the enthusiastic McCarthy, we cannot be surprised with this response after the boys played at Melbourne’s beloved Espy (That’s the Esplanade Hotel to those out-of-towners) on Australia Day in 2010. “That bloody went off mate!” McCarthy announced in his best Australian accent, “It was awesome… it was like a user friendly crowd, everyone was just absolutely wasted and we just supplied the music. I couldn’t have hoped for it to go better!”
The stars are telling this perfectionist Virgo that we are in for a real treat from these Aquarians in the next lunar month.
Kids of 88 play Brisbane’s Alhambra Lounge on June 9, Sydney’s Beach Road Hotel on June 13 and Melbourne’s Espy on June 15. Tickets available from Oz Tix
