Kidswaste releases his new single “Waves,” the final single from his upcoming sophomore EP, Colors of Your Heart, via noted tastemaker imprint Counter Records.
“Waves” follows on the heels of “Time is Mine” with Olivia Reid, “Let Go,” and “Fall In,” featuring Lizzy Land. It also heralds Kidswaste’s highly anticipated, month-long US headlining tour, beginning Tuesday, August 9.
“Waves” showcases Kidswaste’s impressive creative growth and evolving sound since his Spleen EP, which was released in 2017. A new era beckons, fondly coined as the ‘Kiddy’ era which features a more energetic, refined sound and style that reflects the maturation process that he’s gone through over the years.
An internationally celebrated artist, Quentin Beauvois, aka Kidswaste, cut his musical teeth during his formative years as a bedroom producer in the elegant region of Northern France. With his graceful dexterity, Kidswaste broke into the indie-dance space with his debut single “Underwater” – a memorable track that amassed over 2,000,000 streams on Spotify, followed by other infectious tracks like “Free,” “Tonight,” and “Time,” which together racked up 32 million Spotify streams.
Kidswaste’s discography (including his Beauvois side moniker) now boasts well over 200 million streams as he simultaneously draws the curtain back on his forthcoming 2022 EP Colors of Your Heart and prepares for a headlining tour across North America.
Kidswaste will hit the road on August 8th at Barboza in Seattle, Washington for the first stop on his national headlining tour. Making stops in San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Brooklyn, Atlanta and more, the Colors of Your Heart tour will wrap up in Houston, Texas on September 3rd at The Cambridge Room.
CelebMix spoke with Kidswaste to discover more about the person behind the music, the upcoming tour, and where he finds inspiration.
Thanks for joining us Kidswaste and congratulations on the “Waves” release. Tell us where your head is at with the release of your new record.
Hey! I’m feeling great, it feels good to be able to unveil what I’ve been working on for years now!
A massive headlining tour and a new EP on the way. After being in France throughout the majority of the pandemic, are there any nerves to be getting back into the swing of things?
Nerves of excitement for sure! I’m looking forward to traveling again, especially since it’s a headline tour with a project that I really care about. Touring can be stressful at times (mostly because of airports to be fair) but they really help me get outside of my comfort zone and bubble, which I struggled to do so for the past couple years.
Let’s circle back to “Waves” and the upcoming Colors of Your Heart EP. What’s the significance behind this single?
‘Colors of Your Heart’ has been a long and tough process that I’ve been writing on for over 5 years, and during that time a lot of tracks were cut in and out of the project. ‘Waves’ is one of the tracks that I kept including in every iteration as the songwriting really depicts how I feel about my life, about writing music, and artistry as a whole. It reminds me that every once in a while, I will fall back in the waves, and that’s okay.
How would you say you’ve grown since the release of your Spleen EP a few years ago?
I’d like to think I’ve grown in every way! My production skills are better, my songwriting is better, and my vision for the project as a whole is much more refined and I feel really proud of that. This EP tells the story of my progress from a Soundcloud kid to an artist with strong values and symbolics. I was inactive for many years trying to prepare this evolution the best I could, and as I kept getting better at my craft, I kept changing the tracklist to eventually have tracks from 5 years ago, to tracks that were finished a month before release. They’re actually pretty much in order from old to new.
Tell us about the unveiling of “Kiddy.” What can fans expect?
Kiddy is a stage in the evolution of Kidswaste, a story both visual and musical of magic and discovery. My old logo on Soundcloud used to be this little guy I called Kiddy, and I always had in the back of my mind to have him grow into a boy, then a teenager, and eventually an adult. If I had to guess, Kiddy is probably 8-10 years younger than me, and there are a lot of “what-ifs” or things I think were cool then that I’m able to project on him. In the next few years, Kiddy will go to different places and accumulate memories, tokens, new masks, and grow up, as I have. The masks are pretty important too. But that’s a story for later!
Between your Kidswaste and Beauvois monikers, your songs have streamed over 200 million times worldwide. How does it feel to know that so many people love your music?
It’s a little weird! I’m not very big on social media and I tend to be pretty discrete online as I do enjoy my privacy and space a lot, and the occasions to see the impact my music has have been pretty rare outside of touring, which plays a big part in why I’m excited to go back on the road as well! What’s always funny to me is telling someone my monikers at a party or something and having them go “oh wait, I’ve heard your stuff before!” The streaming era has anonymized a lot of musicians like myself and it can be both a curse and a blessing depending on your goals. I’d consider it as a blessing for now.
What are some artistic rules you live by? Any superstitions?
I don’t really know! It changed a lot over the years and it’s always changing. Breaking the rules is kind of part of my creative process and I thrive in chasing whatever I think is right even if people disagree with me. Maybe that would be the rule! To not have any!
Having released a fair amount of music in your career so far, where do you look for inspiration?
I think it’s never been easier to look for inspiration! There are so many interesting artists that have something a little different from another, and as a listener, you get to be so incredibly picky in your likings since every niche now has a dozen references dedicated to it. It’s awesome and it only makes artists thrive more towards new genres and new sounds. I’m very grateful for how the bedroom-producer side of the industry has evolved and even if the market is oversaturating rapidly, it doesn’t get harder to find things to your liking.
Have you set any short- or long-term goals for yourself in your career?
Yes! I really want to get into creating video content, such as music videos, tour recaps, or even more TikTok/Reels! Not only do I think the music and vision are now in a good place, it’s the only thing that’s left to develop. For the long-term, I’d like to get into fully animated videos of the Kiddy era, as I have a lot of ideas that I started writing down for such a project. We’ll see!
What would you like to say to your fans ahead of your much-anticipated US return?
Hi!! I am SO excited to release this project and I really hope everyone will be as passionate as I am for it. The set will be tons of edits of my old classics, mashups with the new stuff, just overall very housey and high-energy! I’m coming back to have fun and jump for an hour straight and if that sounds fun, then grab your tickets!!!
Full Tour Dates:
Tuesday, August 9 – Seattle, WA – Barboza
Wednesday, August 10 – Portland, OR – Holocene
Friday, August 12 – San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop
Saturday, August 13 – Palm Springs, CA – Splash House
Sunday, August 14 – Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge
Tuesday, August 16 – Salt Lake City, UT – Soundwell
Wednesday, August 17 – Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge
Friday, August 19 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry
Saturday, August 20 – Chicago, IL – Schubas
Monday, August 22 – Toronto, ON – Adelaide Hall
Tuesday, August 23 – Montreal, QC – Bar Le Ritz
Wednesday, August 24 – Boston, MA – Middle East (Upstairs)
Thursday, August 25 – Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right
Friday, August 26 – Washington, DC – Songbyrd
Sunday, August 28 – Philadelphia, PA – MilkBoy
Tuesday, August 30 – Atlanta, GA – Aisle 5
Wednesday, September 1 – New Orleans, LA – The Parish
Thursday, September 2 – Houston, TX – The Bronze Peacock
Friday, September 3 – Dallas, TX – The Cambridge Room