Interview w/ Cinema Kid

For my first interview here on E-Dude Talks Music, I was able to reach out to Denver-based DJ and producer Jon Sprott, better known as Cinema Kid (and formerly known as Virtu)! I am a big fan of Cinema Kid's music, and I was even fortunate enough to see him open before Ray Volpe and Illenium in Dillon, Colorado last month (the picture used above is actually from that show, shoutout to rukes.com for taking awesome pictures)! Our discussion occurred in a Discord direct message of all places, but I enjoyed seeing what he had to say, and I hope you will too! For the sake of convenience, I will be abbreviating our names to ED (Elliott Dudoit/E-Dude) and CK (Cinema Kid) in the interview. With that said, here is what we discussed:

ED: What was your first exposure to dance or electronic music? 

CK: My first electronic album that I had listened to was Eiffel 65’s Europop back in 1999. I remember being a little kid and listening to it so much in my room. Then in 2008, I went to my first electronic music festival, EDC in Los Angeles. And I discovered a world I never knew existed, it was wild. Such a huge dance party with over 100,000 people was happening right out in the open, yet it still felt underground somehow. Was such a cool experience and it got me hooked instantly.

ED: What inspired you to become a DJ and producer?

CK: Moby’s DJ set at EDC in 2008 was what inspired me to look into production and DJing. I had never seen someone on stage by themselves doing that stuff. I had been playing in bands in high school and was always reliant on other musicians to make music, but Moby showed me you could do it by yourself at home and that was really appealing to me.

ED: Who would you say are your biggest musical influences today? 

CK: Today, I’d say my biggest musical influences are The 1975, Nine Inch Nails, Skrillex, Mk.Gee, Fred again.., MPH, and Sega Bodega. They’re all pretty different, but they all seem to be making music that’s true to their taste and who they are.

ED: Outside of electronic music, what other genres do you enjoy?

CK: Most of the music I listen to is outside of EDM honestly. I listen to a lot of jazz, film scores, rock bands like Royal and the Serpent, and even a little country lately. I find it keeps your taste evolving and every genre of music has something amazing to offer if you find the right artists.

ED: When recording a song, what instruments do you normally play, and what instruments do you sample? 

CK: I usually play in piano, I sing my own vocals, and I record my own guitar. All the synth sounds and drum sounds are produced and designed in the box.

ED: In 2022, you released a collaborative single with fellow producer William Black, titled “You're Not Alone.” What typically goes into the process of making an electronic song with another artist? 

CK:  Every collaboration is different. William Black is one of my best friends and we’ve been making music together for a decade now, but a lot of it doesn’t get released. I originally wrote and recorded the piano and vocals for “You’re Not Alone” as a slower 80s sounding song that was just gonna be a Cinema Kid song. I sent it to Will to see what he thought and he wanted to work on it so it turned into a collab that leaned more EDM after he worked on it. We worked on that one online mostly because we were living in different cities so we passed the Ableton session back and forth until it was done.

ED: Earlier this year, you released your first full-length album, “Everything Is Alright.” How did it feel achieving a milestone as big as that?

CK: It felt awesome to finally have a larger body of work out there. I spent a long time gathering songs I felt would fit in the same world for it and finishing it was such an undertaking, but I’m glad it’s out and I feel very accomplished having finished it.

ED: What goals do you hope to reach as you continue to evolve as an artist?

CK: My main goal is always to write great music. It might sound a little simple or juvenile, but my only goal has been to write amazing music that can affect peoples’ lives in a positive way. Anything that comes out of that is a bonus. Like playing at the Dillon Amphitheater was awesome, but it wasn’t my goal. It wasn’t a by product of endlessly trying to create a connection to people through art and that’s all I ever really care about. That being said, I would love to score a feature film someday. That’s a huge goal of mine because it’s something I haven’t been able to do yet. Fingers crossed!

And there you have it! A big thanks to Jon for taking some time out of his day to do this! He is a really cool guy who makes some great music! If you haven't already, go check out some of his songs and albums. He's on Apple Music, Spotify, Soundcloud, pretty much anywhere you stream music! 

Hopefully soon I will be able to get some more interviews in for you guys! Thanks for reading this article! - Elliott Dudoit