It all started with ‘Blood Sugar’…
The drum & bass journey of KNGHT started by listening to Pendulum and Netsky during school breaks, which led him to download Ableton and start producing himself. Fast forward a few years later, and he’s releasing bangers on labels like Ridmic Records and High Tea. He’s also played some massive events like Rampage Open Air and Liquicity in Antwerp. And that’s not all! Earlier this year, he got signed by Tea Leaves, promising a bright future.
In this exclusive mix, he shares his love for those liquid vibes and combines it with sing-alongs and energy-filled dancefloor.
Hi KNGHT! There are a lot of lyrics, dancefloor tunes, and liquid vibes in this mix. Why did you go for this?
I live by the motto “liquid vibes and dancefloor energy!” I love both subgenres. Liquid drum & bass is so chill and smooth, that you can completely lose yourself in the vibe and drift away while daydreaming. To balance it out, I love some good dancefloor. I love how energising and empowering it can be and make you feel like anything is possible! Put on top of those two some good lyrics that you can sing along to loudly, and you have, as I’d like to say, “Good Soup!”.
How do you put together your sets?
How do you put together your sets?I regularly have jamming sessions at home to discover new and fun double or triple drops. When preparing a set, I often first select some songs I would like to play and then combine them with some of those fun double drops I found. The ones that really work I tend to use a bit more often. In this mix, I wanted to include both liquid and dancefloor drum & bass. I also wanted to show off some of my previous and upcoming releases. This mix contains a bit more dancefloor drum & bass since I would like to present that side of myself and my music more to the people. I included some of my favourite tracks from the two Ridmic EPs, such as “Forever”, “Rewind” and “Don’t Say Goodbye”, High Tea releases like “Next To Me”, and a track I released myself called “Never Enough”. But I also included about five new tracks that will be released throughout the year. I’m curious if listeners can spot them!
Take us back to where it all began… Do you remember how you fell in love with drum & bass?
To me, it all began with Liquicity. Artists like Netsky, Maduk, T & Sugah, NCT, Andromedik, Fox Stevenson (as Stan SB back in the day), Hybrid Minds… They are some artists who opened the world of D&B for me, leading me to discover more artists like Fred V & Grafix, Delta Heavy, Sub Focus, Culture Shock, Pola & Bryson, Dimension and Metrik. They all made me fall in love with the genre.
One of the first drum & bass tracks I ever heard must have been ‘Blood Sugar’ by Pendulum. We used to play it non-stop on our phones back then. I also have some vivid memories of listening to drum & bass at the end of my high school career. During lunch, we used to have the first Netsky album and Chase & Status tracks on repeat. Only when I started studying at university, I really got into drum & bass. During my first exams, I remember putting on some background music on YouTube. That’s when I randomly found the first Liquicity 2012 Yearmix, and they had just uploaded it. I played that one on repeat for months.
What made you decide to start mixing and producing yourself?
A few years after I began messing around in Ableton, I started to really love producing, but I missed performing on a stage, which I used to do with a pop rock band called Record 25 when I was younger. That’s when I decided to buy a DJ controller and I started learning how to DJ using YouTube tutorials. The idea was to mainly focus on getting better at music production, and in parallel to have some fun with the DJ controller until the opportunity to play somewhere arose. At the end of 2022, I got the chance to play my first gig at Liquicity at Trix Antwerp, which was an amazing experience!
What’s your favourite memory from being a DJ so far?
What’s your favourite memory from being a DJ so far?It’s hard to pick one. Every event is so much fun! Events like Liquicity Winterfestival or Rampage Open Air are both gigs I’ll never forget. The production was bigger than at shows I had played before, so I had a great time playing at those events! If I must pick one, I guess it would be my first gig at Liquicity Trix in 2022. At that point, I had been producing music and going to those events for a few years, and I always dreamed of playing my own set on that stage one day. You can imagine how euphoric I was because that gig confirmed one thing to me: as long as you put in the effort, you can achieve any goal in life you put your mind to.
One of your most recent gigs was a B2B with Synoxis at High Rollerz. Do you do B2Bs often?
That one went amazing! It could not have gone better in any way, even at 4h30 in the morning the energy level of the crowd was still so high, which made it such a great set. In terms of playing B2Bs, I haven’t done a lot of those yet. The first one was last year with Cloudgrinder, a good friend of mine, at Warrecords, a record store in Antwerp. It was the perfect opportunity to try out the B2B concept, which went well. My second one was the one together with Synoxis, so having such nice first experiences with B2B sets, I’d for sure be open to doing more of them. Coincidence or not, a new one will be announced soon!
What’s more to come from KNGHT this year?
Short answer: new music. Long answer: as I mentioned before, I would love to present the more energetic side of myself and my music. In the past months, I have been working on a lot of new music, and I’m releasing two new EPs this year still. A few dancefloor D&B singles are planned for release later this year, and I am working on a few collaborations with some amazing artists which I am very excited about. I’m also super excited about joining the Tea Leaves agency as of earlier this year, we’re aiming to add some gigs to the list this year. A lot to look forward to in 2024!
