Shy Kidx

What's considered to be "punk" is constantly evolving, so it makes sense that the latest group of musical outcasts have embraced laptops instead of traditional instrumentation in order to make music that is truly innovative. Epitaph has always been a trailblazing label when it comes to finding new talent regardless of genre or geography and nothing could make that more evident than the signing of Italian electronic dance music sensation Shy Kidx. Cutting his teeth as a teenager playing in punk bands, Shy Kidx has since honed in his talent as an artist on the cutting edge of electronica and he is about to take his unique brand of EDM sound Stateside as one of the most compelling artists of the year .

"Originally Shy Kidx was a collaboration between me and my friend that started as something we just did for fun. Eventually he left the band but I never gave up--and I think the fact that I've always been involved in the production aspect of my own bands allowed me to pick things up pretty quickly," he explains, adding that he was influenced by a slew electronica pioneers such as the Bloody Beetroots and Skrillex. After touring extensively and building a palplable buzz around his music, Shy Kidx started getting calls from labels including one from a brand that had a huge influence on him growing up.

"One day I was working on songs my studio and the next day Brett Gurewitz was sending me a message that he wanted to sign me to one of my favorite labels," Shy Kidx explains when asked about how he ended up on Epitaph, "it was crazy but it proved that music was really getting people's attention." Although Shy Kidx's rise has been relatively fast, from the beginning he's fully immersed himself in electronic music, built a huge fanbase who religiously attend his live shows and, true to his work ethic, he's almost never seen without the laptop he wrote and produced the Orion EP on. "I bring my laptop with me on the road even when I'm not touring so all of these songs were written in different parts of the world which I think gives them their own character," he explains. Correspondingly from the carefully controlled chaos of "Orion" the shimmering pop gem "Majestic 12," this EP shows the incredible sonic range that Shy Kidx has been able to achieve, a fact that he will put to the test when he realizes another dream this summer by bringing his upbeat dance party to The Vans Warped Tour.

Furthermore Shy Kidx has no doubt that he'll be able to captivate Warped fans due to the sheer power of live shows. "To me the attitude in electronica and punk rock are the same even if there are no lyrics in the music because they both come from the underground," he explains. "There's a definite relationship between those two worlds because neither one is doing what we're traditionally supposed to be doing with music--and that's what drew me to both genres in the first place." While Shy Kidx freely admits that his moniker fits hid personality, songs like "Final Warning" do the speaking for him via hypnotic synthesizers, syncopated drums and Earth-shaking grooves that are a far cry from the typical drum and bass soundtrack you'll hear at dance clubs. "The most amazing part about electronic music to me is that it's so international and it just seems to keep growing; it's like there's a community all over the world and we're all working toward the same goal," he explains. Shy Kidx is undeniably ready to take on the worlds of both punk and EDM with this EP and he shows no signs of stopping there, so we recommend stopping and taking notice before he's a household name. "I've always dreamed of doing things like Warped Tour and I feel so lucky that Epitaph believes in this type of music so much to give me a chance even if it's not the traditional thing they release," he summarizes. "I just can't wait to bring this music to whoever wants to hear it and make people dance."