Watch out! Los Angeles has two musicians in town known as KidEyes. They are a true music force to be reckoned with. The band was formed by Greg Cahn and Ben Epand who both previously belonged to other bands, until fate and other unknown musical forces welded them together. With their indie vibes and electric tones, KidEyes brings a unique sound to music lovers ears.
Greg and Ben have worked passionately and diligently to produce their self-titled debut EP out today! The KidEyes EP features six tracks that include melodic waves. Just listening to the whole EP, you get a mixtures of different tones, rhythm and harmonics. You really enjoy the distinctness of each song and the way it flows on to the next one. My favorite is is track six, Spellbound, as it’s just how it sounds. It pushes and pulls you back in with its soft beginning and captivating chorus, you can’t help but to listen on repeat.
If you’re lucky enough to be in Los Angeles you can check these guys out live during their residency at The Hi Hat in Highland Park, sponsored by KROQ, We Found New Music and Ditto Music. You can listen to the KidEyes EP on Spotify or Soundcloud. Click the links now! You won’t regret it.
Track List
- Let Go
- Take Me Back In Time
- Malibu
- Ghost
- Alive
- Spellbound
Below is the official music video for “Malibu” off the KidEyes EP:
I had the pleasure of speaking with Greg Cahn and learning the latest with KidEyes. Check out what they had to say below!
Marina: With the new EP album out Oct 4th. What emotions have you experienced? What kind of journey has it been?
Greg: The journey has been fruitful. It’s been fruitful from the moment that Ben and I met and started on the journey of creating KidEyes. We didn’t know what to expect, where to go or where this would take us. Would this be a three month thing and end or a lifetime thing. We tried not to get our expectations to high. Ben and I are both passionate and focused people. We just built a creative partnership. Suddenly we wrote a collection of songs and packaged it into a EP and gave it life. The emotional side of it. Being a artist your just an emotional person. Anything you come in contact with and touch there is always emotions. To finally package this body of work and release it to the public there has been so much emotions. The songs were such a timestamp of both of our lives at that time. We were both ready to bottle up those emotions and release them into the ocean and continue to move forward.
M: What upcoming shows do you have planned?
Greg: We are currently in a residency. We have a residency going on in Highland Park at a club called The Hi Hat. We just had night two. It’s a bi weekly residency for September and October. It’s sponsored by KROQ, We Found New Music and Ditto Music. Its been amazing! I think what’s great about having a residency, is that you have three nights to kind of call the stage your home and the energy is incredible.
M: What do you love about being on stage?
Greg: For me personally my favorite part of being an artist and songwriter is when your in a studio you have a thousand takes to get it right. When your on stage you have one take. It’s just one single take and within that one take it’s moment to moment and trying to just stay connected to the moment is the thrill for me. The audience is giving you there time and I think time is such a precious thing that I don’t take lightly. It’s just as much for them as it is for me. There are those moments of transcendence where you and your audience become one. I think your always on that adventure and journey if you get there its the most profound thing. That’s what ultimately for me as an artist propels me to the next day and the next day continuing on this journey. Like everything else its hard. Every industry is hard in so many ways. For me in my career with this project you just go though those exponential moments. To keep going and propel yourself to get past those tough moments of the business industry and the things you can’t control. So I think the live aspect allows that for me. It gives me the chance to really be connected and challenge myself emotionally everyday. Your in a very vulnerable position. I’ve been asking myself this question lately. Why do I perform? What is it for? At the end of the day the audience and the performer both look forward to it. Everybody is out seeking those moments of getting lost in something emotionally. I think its for both the performer and the audience. Were just looking for those moments of getting lost in your emotions and life in the best way. Music and live performances definitely does that for me.
M: Growing up who were your musical influences?
Greg: So many! My parents were Woodstock Hippies. That threw so much great music at my sister and I. Everything from the 5os to the 70s from Rolling Stones, Otis Redding, Hendrix. My grandparents were products of the 40s and 50s. Early on I got introduced to Frank Sinatra and Ellen Fitzgerald. I know it’s cliche to say, but I really love all music. I honestly really do! Once I started discovering music on my own when I was 90s kid. By early 2000 I had been consuming decades and decades of music. I had a discussion with the other guitarist in the car. There is a part in “take me back in time” where it reminds me of a billy idol song. There is so much influence. I think the hard part is taking all the influences and leaving them on a table and placing myself there. My musician self knows that I’m influenced by so much music constantly and currently. Music is never ending and everyday there is more and more. I really try to listen and understand music as much as I can. When I write I need to be aware I can let go and find me. I think the thrill of songwriting is knowing that some of these things subconsciously are coming from those musical influences but consciously knowing it’s still me in there.
M: What influenced the newly released single “Take Me Back In Time”?
Greg: Take me back in time was a song that was based around nostalgia. The comfort of going back to a place where there was love, joy or a good moment, like comfort in that memory. There is also a little bit of pain because your looking back and your feeling nostalgic and your currently not there anymore. Your trying to swim back to that moment and you can’t. Its a love story. It’s like nostalgia wrapped in love.
M: Out of the six songs on the EP which one was your favorite to work on?
Greg: I think “let go“. It’s the last song we play live, always. It’s our closer it was the first song we ever wrote. It feels like the anthem to our project. It solidifies everything about us. It’s a song about not giving up and knowing that the struggle is real. The outcome and the possibilities are whats important. it’s not the rocks in the road its the road itself. For us, we both feel its a really important song for KidEyes.
M: What exciting plans are in store for 2020?
Greg: Yes! We just got done shooting a music video for our song “Malibu”. That is going to be released sometime in the beginning of October. Then we have a couple shows all around California. We have some really good offers coming our way in October to play. Then we have The EP coming out oct 4th. We will be riding that momentum going into 2020. We have a whole new batch of songs were getting mixed and mastered for a quarter one and quarter two release in 2020. Probably another EP coming out in quarter one or quarter two of 2020. Were just staying inspired and continuing to grow.
M: Is there anything you want to share with our readers?
Greg: Listen to KidEyes. Please listen to KidEyes! Your going to have a great time. It’s an emotional journey. Our live shows are the same. Were super grateful to be doing what were doing. Being in that grateful place right now as an artist is amazing. It brings out the truth plus all the good things you look for in music. Grateful for the project and all the positive feedback. Knowing that some of the songs were writing right now are the best songs we will write. I can’t wait to see as we evolve what songs will be in stored for the future. I can’t wait to see KidEyes fully maturated.
