NORA is one of those songs that instantly grabs you with its luxe textures, mysterious sound and haunting vocals. With a forward-thinking electronic layer at its base, NORA compellingly fuses ideas and genres. And behind all this ingenuity is Sydney-based vocalist and producer Kid Fiction, an artist you need to keep on your radar.
Kid Fiction has only been creating music since 2018 but is already making a name for himself with his intriguing style that you can’t place in a box. The same year, he toured around Europe with his self-titled debut and in 2019 released the enigmatic project Unburdened.
We caught up with Kid Fiction from the other side of the world to find out more.
Welcome to the world of Kid Fiction.
How would you describe your sound to new listeners?
I feel like the Kid Fiction sound is pretty wide and diverse, each song is its own journey for me. I do my best to take a few familiar pop elements and then run as far as I can in the opposite direction. Genre is where good music goes to die.
Tell us about your new single NORA
NORA is kind of a pop ballad stripped of all its extravagance. It’s bare-bones and elemental. It’s hard making simple music like this because there’s nowhere to hide.
Who or what is inspiring you at the moment?
Living through a crisis era, the world is fraught with so much risk but so much potential right now. It feels like history is being made on a daily basis at the moment. That’s all so fascinating to me, and an energy I’m always trying to capture in my music.
Is there a particular message you would like to get across through your music?
I think a lot of people miss the politics in my music because it’s not always overt. Everything that is personal is also political because none of us are living lives independent of other people. Lyrically, I’m always operating on that level. NORA is so much more about our cold, emotionally detached and in-genuine world than it is about anybody in particular. The best love songs are vehicles for telling deeper truths.
Did the past year and COVID hinder or inspire your creative talent?
Creativity is always a balance between input and output, and when nothing is coming in, it’s pretty hard for anything to come out. So there’s more time, but it’s a double-edged sword. I’m just trying to use the moment to read more, dig for more music and try to write something new every day.
What is the music scene like in Sydney and is there anywhere in the world you would love to travel to and perform?
Sydney is a great city if you’re a banker, a small penis developer or a real estate bro, but it’s a hard place to be an artist. Venues and promoters are always under threat of closure from police and state governments. A lot is happening here but it’s increasingly underground and online, particularly there is some great hip-hop, house/techno and indie bands coming out of the city at the moment.
I’m excited to get back over to Europe to play some shows in 2022. It’s hard to tour in the US because of visas, but I’d love to do that one day too.
What do you find are the biggest challenges of being in the music industry right now?
What isn’t challenging about the music industry? You just have to focus on the music bit and let the cards fall where they fall.
What’s a typical day for Kid Fiction?
I have a studio that I work in for producing, recording, and mixing music for other artists.
What music are you listening to right now? Anyone in particular who inspires you established or up and coming artist wise?
I’m writing this from lockdown at the moment, but I’m pretty excited about the state of music when the clubs reopen. Jungle is having another resurgence, Chicago house is back, guitars and lo-fi aesthetic are back. Autotuned vocals are feeling stayed and boring, people are finally sick of corny marketing gimmicks. There is a renewed focus on the local community and the music happening on your block, which is fertile ground for new sounds and scenes to develop.
Which 5 famous people, alive or dead, would you invite to dinner?
James Baldwin (writer), Hunter S Thompson (writer, madman), Michael Brooks (journalist, activist), Mark Fisher (writer, cultural theorist), Toussaint L’Ouverture (former slave, leader of Haitian Independence), Slavoj Žižek (philosopher, political theorist), Lula Da Silva (political prisoner, next president of Brazil). It would be a pretty weird night.
What are the two things you cannot live without and why?
Headphones to block out the world. My eye mask (don’t talk to me if I haven’t had a good nights sleep!)
What’s next for Kid Fiction?
I have an EP landing in October, but I’m already hard at work at a full length for later in the year or early next year. Stay tuned!
NORA is out now.