Based in California, Kid Giant is a powerful duo comprised of Johnny Ashby and Carl Thomson. Originally from the UK, the duo formed Kid Giant earlier this year and have swiftly become known for the anthem-like musicianship that touches on themes about achieving the impossible, feeling like an outsider and coming together. Kid Giant’s debut EP is available now and the duo has plans to release a full-length album in 2020!
Kid Giant’s new single “This Is Home” features John Waugh of The 1975 and fuses a superb use of melody with a brilliant musical build-up and a multi-layered warmth. The single is quick to embrace listeners and pours through with an incredibly satisfying yet creatively refreshing aura right up to its finish. Complete with stunning flickers of guitar work, thoughtful lyrics, and just enough vocal personality to add further to that inherent sound and style that is quickly becoming known as Kid Giant. I’m happy to throw professionalism out of the window for this one, just turn up the volume, and let the beat and brightness of the music pump you up ready for the weekend. Spectacular songwriting and impeccable musicianship. Here’s hoping we can catch a live show sometime soon.
Listen to “This Is Home” here and read more with Kid Giant below in our interview!
Welcome to BuzzMusic Kid Giant! What was it like moving from the UK to Los Angeles? Did you move here together? How has it further shaped you as artists?
It’s been great! We both met in LA actually! Carl’s been here for about 7 years and I’ve been here for about 5. We knew each other for 2 years before we decided we should write together! We love working together though, it’s so fun! Sometime’s I’ll reference a song or a band and Carl knows what I’m talking about straight away because we were both raised on the same music. Brit-pop mainly, Oasis and all that. Moving to LA has had a funny influence on the music we write though. We both love American pop culture and we’re so inspired by it, but since moving to California I think we are both more drawn to our British roots in the music we write.
We absolutely love your latest release! Are you able to explain to our listeners what your main message is in "This Is Home"?
Thank you! We really appreciate the support from you guys! I think for us it wasn’t originally a message directly about being “at home” but more of a metaphor for being “in the right place”. A fan of ours sent us a video of their kid rocking out with an air guitar to one of our songs and it sparked something creatively for us. I did the same thing so many times as a kid in front of the mirror, I think everyone has! We have so many dreams and aspirations of where we want to go and who we want to be and sometimes those dreams can get lost when you get older. Sometimes they can seem so far out of reach. When we’re kids we have the whole world at our feet and anything is possible. With This is Home, it’s a reminder to be happy at the moment and to trust that you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be, sometimes we forget that.
As a collective that incorporates a variety of alternative elements into your music, would you ever feel comfortable blending in elements from contrasting genres that you've never worked with before?
Yes absolutely. I mean on This is Home initially we were both a bit skeptical about introducing the saxophone part but it worked, better than we thought it would! There are other songs where we’ve stepped out of our depth into unknown waters creatively, but that’s a good thing. It feels good to challenge ourselves and to move out of our comfort zone. Sometimes it doesn’t work but when it does it feels so much more rewarding.
What would you say is the most useful piece of criticism you’ve received thus far within your career? Do you typically take criticism to your advantage?
Sure. We’ve had a lot of criticism but we’ve also had a lot of people saying that what we’re doing is really good. It’s important to listen to other people's opinions but I don’t know if creatively we would change what we’re doing for someone else just because they don’t like it. You’re either going to like what we’re doing or you won’t. But that’s what art is, it’s supposed to get people talking and it’s impossible to get everyone to like it.
Thank you so much for chatting with us! We're highly anticipating your upcoming album release! What can you tell us about it!? Do you have an official release date?
Well you guys will be the first to know… we won’t be releasing everything as an album. We’re actually going to be releasing the album as a series of singles instead. We want to release one single every month until there’s none left! When they’re all out I think we’d both like to release a special edition with some live recordings and outtakes though. For the sake of being nostalgic we’d like to do a vinyl pack and a cassette too! This is Home comes out October 4th and the next single after that is called California Dreams and comes out November 1st. We’re just really excited and we can’t wait, we’re so happy with them.
Photo by: @jovannareyes