Daily Discovery: Spazzkid

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Daily Discovery is a feature that will highlight a new or recently discovered artist that we’re excited about. See the rest of our Daily Discoveries here.


We first came across Spazzkid’s music when we explored the wonderful world of Grimes’ blog a few weeks back. The timing could not have been better because he is currently on the road for a North American tour with Giraffage, so if you like what you hear, it’s not too late to catch him in a city near you. In 2013, Spazzkid released his debut LP, Desire, followed by last last year’s Promise EP. Using “uplifting beats” as his vehicle, Spazzkid takes listeners on an adventure through a forcefield of posi-vibes.

Not only are we premiering this brand new starRo remix of Spazzkid’s latest single, “Daytime Disco” featuring Neon Bunny, but we also sat down to chat with the producer. Check it all out below.


Could you tell us a bit about yourself?

Yeah! So I am Mark Redito. I go by the name Spazzkid. I’m currently based in Los Angeles. I have been doing music close to ten years. My background is playing in bands, specifically punk bands. That’s one of the reasons why I chose the name Spazzkid. Spazz was a really hardcore band that I was into like 10 years ago and I was obsessed with them, and then I added the “kid” and that became my moniker. I make a ton of music leaning towards pop and in bands, that kind of stuff.

How did you get involved with making music?

My Dad was involved in church and so my first kind of soiree into music was me playing in his band, playing drums. That’s how I learned how to play instruments. And then after that in high school, I was involved in the punk scene. I was playing a lot of pop punk, ska, all that shit. And then after that I kind of grew tired of band stuff, the usual guitar, drums shit. So I started recording myself with earlier versions of Audacity and Fruity Loops. I started recording demos initially for my band, and then I just kind of got obsessed with it. You know, I started making my own songs under lots of different monikers and from there, I’ve just been doing it ever since.

I always wonder when people actually start letting their friends listen to what they’re making. Did you kind of just put it out on the Internet first and then eventually people started to figure it out or did you give them a preview?

I think I started posting my music online when Myspace was big. So I was posting music there and sharing it with my friends. It was a very scary thing for me to do being a very introverted person, it’s just hard for me to be out there and share my music with people, but there’s something about Myspace and the Internet and all these music sharing sites where you don’t necessarily need to be in front of people for them to listen to your music. You could just put it up online and some random dude will listen to it. So that’s how I got started with sharing my music and putting it out there.

I read that you grew up in the Philippines. What was that like and when did you come to the States?

I was born and raised in the Philippines. For me, it was a normal childhood. I grew up in the suburb of San Pedro that’s in Laguna. It’s the suburbs, it’s quiet, I guess it’s a good breeding ground for bands because me and my friends would get together and make songs. That’s what we’d do as a pastime. And then close to ten years ago I moved to the States, went to a music school, and then just stayed here ever since.

Are you still working with the label Magical Properties?

I’m working with different labels currently. I’m not exclusively tied to anybody right now, but Magical Properties released my latest EP and then Cascine Records released my latest single. It’s been great so far. The support that I’ve been getting from these labels and collectives is amazing.

I heard that you’re working on another project to potentially release this summer. Can you share any details about it?

Yeah. At this point, I don’t know yet. I do have little loops and backbones for songs that might make it on an EP or an LP, we’ll see. I think just being on the road puts me in a different mindset and it’s hard to create on the road. And with me having less time in my own element a.k.a. my own bedroom, it’s been hard. So we shall see, we shall see! I do get little bursts of creativity when on the road, and sometimes I just need to record on the fly so that I won’t forget it, and then come back to it when I come home.


What is the story behind the song “Daytime Disco”? What is it about? What were you feeling inspired by when you put it together?

“Daytime Disco” is a song that I was highly unsure about. It’s a song that has been sitting on my hard drive for more than two years. I’ve worked with a lot of vocalists, but it’s never worked out, and then I finally heard Neon Bunny’s work and I randomly hit her up. I sent her an email saying, “Hey, do you want to collab on this track that I’m making?” And she replied and says, “Oh my god, I’m such a fan of your stuff!” It was like a moment where we’re like “Oh my god, we’re both fans of each other! Let’s make shit happen.” We were just so excited. So I sent the song to her and after a few days, she sent the vocals and that was that. But after that, it took a while before it got released. I let it sit for more than four to six months before finally releasing it with Cascine, but I’m really so glad that people are digging it.

I know it was released a while ago, but how did you come up with the concept for the “40 winks” video? Was it mainly the director’s vision or did you have a say in it?

I was very hands on. I’d been talking to the director, Czar, for a while about making a music video. He would always propose storylines and plots to me, and he would show me little bits of inspiration like, “Oh, check out this movie, it would be great if we could make a music video that has that same kind of vibe.” And so we’d been doing that for six months to almost a year, and then finally he was like, “Dude, I’m going to Tokyo next month. Do you want to make this happen?” And I was like, “Yeah, let’s make this happen.”

And so he went there and then we were looking for an actress so I went on Twitter and I have a lot of followers in Japan and did an open announcement, and started talking to Rika, she’s the one in the video. She’s a great DJ and model as well from Japan and she said yes, and Czar started filming a few days after that. And then in a month or two, I saw the final cults for the video and I just had tears in my eyes. There is an exact vibe that I had when I made that song and it was just perfect. That’s how everything fell into place.


I think it’s so awesome how now, with the Internet, we have the ability to communicate and get in touch with people so easily and put together all of these creative projects.

It’s amazing. I feel like a lot of this project’s success is from collaborations. Not only from people within the U.S., like this whole global artist community. I’m just so grateful that I have all of these relationships with people.

The Internet provides so much for electronic music. Without Soundcloud I don’t know how I would find half of the producers that I listen to now.

Totally, totally. Soundcloud continues to be a good resource for me in terms of finding inspiration or connecting with some producers that I feel drawn towards to. It’s amazing how we have all these systems set up for artists and creative people to collaborate.

What other places do you usually go to not only to find new music, but to get in touch with other artists?

Primarily Soundcloud, I use that app a lot. That and then Twitter and Facebook, I’m a heavy user of both of those. It’s just amazing having access to all of these artists and it’s also good that most of these artists reply to you directly too. It offers a direct access to the creators themselves that you don’t have to go through managment or go through all their agents. It’s just like artist to artist, and it’s such a straight connection.

What are you hoping to achieve with your music?

A lot of things! I think primarily, I just want to continue expressing myself through my chosen art, which is music. I also want to work with other artists outside of music like filmmakers, visual artists, and animators. I would love to do that and to do some scoring. I just want to live a creative life and provide for myself a sustainable way, and making music and focusing on it. I just lost my train of thought right now… [laughs]

Is Spazzkid all that you’re doing right now, or do you do other things outside of music?

I make music full-time, but I am also an aspiring photographer. That’s pretty much what I do for the most part. Oh, and by the way, I am a big food guy! I love to cook and I love to learn new things. So outside of music, when people ask me, “If you’re not doing music, what are you doing?” I would probably say I would be a cook or working towards being a chef.

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