CLOSEUP Artist Spotlight: Youth Killed It

youth killed it

This week, London quintet Youth Killed It chat to CLOSEUP for our Artist Spotlight feature ahead of their two headline shows in Manchester and London.

Youth Killed It it’s great to have a chat! We love your music as you well know. This Feb you take on one a huge London headline show, what should we expect!?!

Banging Tunes, Pink Balloons and…Dad Dance Moves.

What’s your favourite live show you’ve done, and of course, why?

We once played a stage on a molehill at Illusive festival, we were also joined on stage by Mr Blobby and none other than Jesus Christ himself, although we have suspicions he was just a long hair guy who flew too close to the sun.

Your tunes have been listened to millions of times across the world as Spotify informs us, Spotify is now such a big player in the industry, how important do you think it is for acts?

Spotify is a big asset, having your music easily available to anyone in the world is fantastic. Definitely beats selling our CD’s outside Woolworths in Hammersmith, never got so much as some pic’n’mix back then.

If you created a Youth Killed It Festival, and could pick three headliners, who would you go for?!

Bonnie Tyler (because total eclipse of the heart is the best song ever written).
The guy that did the Ghost Busters theme tune. (obvious reasons)
Bon Iver (so we can all relax on the Sunday ya know?)

What inspired new single, Dad Dance Moves?

Well, it was dark and stormy evening in Shoreditch, we had taken refuge at well known Shoreditch bar and kitchen but we won’t give that name away. With the rain pouring down and our van left abandoned on the bleak wastelands of the M25 after breaking down, we had nothing else to do but find a booth, light a fire and try to recover the feeling in our feet. I remember thinking “this is the worst birthday I’ve ever had, 1am, freezing and flat out broke”.

But then, something happened. Something magical that you can only understand if you’ve experienced it…From the back of the room, WE HEARD OUR TUNE! Our heads perked up like meerkats coming out of their burrows and we grooved over to the dance floor. Gods knows how many drinks we had had by this point, but we KNEW we had the moves.

The night was saved in crescendo of amazingly bad dance moves, joy and booze. A celebration of Dad Dancing that could be heard all across the land. “Hazar” the crowds chanted as they crowned us Dad Dancing Champions of the World. And that is where the song came from.