Music
Party to an exclusive Zombie Kids mix
With their new album, club and burger place, The Zombie Kids are two normal dudes living the dream.
Zombie Kids
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Since meeting in a vintage clothing store in Madrid, DJs and producers Cumhur Jay and Edgar Candel Kerri have toured the world's dancefloors together as The Zombie Kids, mixing electronica and punk, dubstep and alt-metal.
Meanwhile they've been stealthily turning the Spanish capital into a Zombie playground, complete with burger restaurant, cocktail bar and, of course, the Zombie Club. As they grace the latest issue of Red Bulletin, and to coincide with their exclusive Red Bull mix below, Jay told us a bit about life as a zombie and their forthcoming second album.
According to Rolling Stone you "live surrounded by beautiful women, wads of cash and vinyl." How accurate is this image? At night there are always beautiful women around us, and as DJs we get paid well these days. But the truth is different. You get more than 300 flights a year, you eat rubbish, and try to sleep between gigs. You've toured worldwide, from Mexico to Bali to Serbia. Where have you found the best parties? Right now we're in the middle of a Latin American tour. I haven't seen parties like in Colombia (Club Billares Londres) and Mexico DF (Club M.N.Roy). I like small places and believe me these two clubs are one of a kind. How do you think dance culture has changed in the two years since you released your debut album? Now it's a big boom! The massive rise of EDM in the last two years has been so quick and high. It has changed the vibe of the electronic music scene. I think it divided the dance music culture into two parts. I don't know how this will end, but we always try to keep ourselves unique and away from it. Changes in music is always good, but getting massive is good to avoid.
The Zombie Kids chilling
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What can you tell us about the new album? We want to have a solid sound that you can listen to over years and years, mixing different genres of electronic music from Chicago house to UK garage, from nu-disco to funk. This album has a lot to do with our childhoods and our personal relationships at that time. As a kid you don't judge or analyse music, you just sing and dance. What was it like working with Waka Flocka Flame for your summer single Broke? He seems like a genuinely untamed talent He is huge! I haven't met anybody who has that flow. We recorded some tracks in no more than half an hour. Imagine! You celebrated the first anniversary of your club by handing out 6,000 dollar bills to the public. Have you got anything planned for your album launch? Launching an album is totally different. You need to convince the major label company before anything else, and believe me that is not that easy. We have a couple of ideas but we are not Aphex Twin or Thom Yorke yet!
Record shopping with Edgar and Cumhur
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You studied economics. Has this served you well in terms of surviving the music industry? Do not forget the music industry is a ruthless business, with only a tiny percentage ever reaching the levels of superstardom. Until the late 90s it was much easier for artists to keep up with how much they were getting paid. Somebody would buy a CD or a cassette and all the money would appear months later on your royalty sheet. But now you have to deal with Spotify, YouTube and a bunch of different platforms to consume music. If you don't know anything about the economy part of all these things, believe me, you messed up. Music, burgers, cocktails, fashion… Have you considered any new additions to the Zombie business empire, or do you reckon you’ve basically got the life essentials covered now? It's all our lifestyle. We make music, we have a burger place to go out and meet our friends, and we've got other platforms to demonstrate our taste and opinion on fashion. We are two normal dudes who love going out. That's what it's all about.