While it’s still fairly likely that you haven’t heard of Lost Kings, if their current trajectory in the electronic music world is any indicator, they’ll be a household name soon enough.
The L.A.-based duo – comprised of Boston-born Rob Gainley and Baltimore native Nick Shanholtz – began the project shortly after meeting on the former member’s birthday in 2014. After a series of remixes, they have now begun to release originals that have all the makings of EDM gold without sounding quite like anything else on the airwaves at the moment.
After the genre-bending “Bad,” which features vocals by Jessame, Gainley and Shanholtz have reinforced their trademark style of melodic, euphoric house music with “You” – on which pop singer Katelyn Tarver contributes a strong top line.
Following the warm reception of these tracks, Gainley caught up with We Got This Covered to talk about the Lost Kings’ next step as a budding EDM enterprise. Check out what he had to say below, and enjoy.
We were big fans of your latest track, “You.” Can you tell me how that came together from beginning to end?
Lost Kings: When we finished the production for “You” we knew that we wanted Katelyn to sing on it. So we reached out to he and then all got in the studio. We ended up rewriting the majority of the song together and had so much fun with it. I think that atmosphere in the studio really translated into the song, because we all really had a great time working on it.
Now that you guys have started putting out more originals instead of just doing remixes, your emerging sound is really unique. Have you put a lot of deliberate effort into making your sound stand out or did it just kind of happen while you were making the music you want to make?
Lost Kings: Obviously you want your sound to stand out because you always want to be pushing boundaries and not just making music that sounds generic. I think we have been able to do that because we don’t care about genres. We just want to make great music. By focusing on the music more than the genre, it allows us to be more creative, and thus develop our own sound.
Your other big, recent track was “Bad.” What was it like working with Jessame?
Lost Kings: Jessame was a good friend from before we did “Bad,” so it was great finally getting to work on a track together. He’s so talented and it’s awesome having him around.
I understand that you guys worked in music before your current project. What kind of work did you do?
Lost Kings: Well I [Robert] DJ’d and worked radio, and Dr. No was working in a studio and went to recording school.
You guys are based out of L.A., and bass house is all the rage out there. I’ve heard a track or two of it in your sets, but have you found yourselves compelled to experiment with the genre at all?
Lost Kings: Well, never say never. But right now, no.
Now that you’ve got such a recognizable sound, it seems like it’s about time for you guys to crank out a debut album. Any plans to do so in the near future?
Lost Kings: We are stockpiling tons of original content, whether it’s for an album or not is TBD. We definitely want to put one out at some point, but it has to be at the right time, you know?
How about any dream collaborations? Are there any artists you’d really like to team up with on a track?
Lost Kings: Well, in the electronic world we love Galantis. I’d be honor to work with them. As for singers, there’s a ton! Jess Glynne, Years and Years, obviously The Weeknd, and Chris Martin.
Is there any significance behind your stage name and slogan, or did it just kind of come to you?
Lost Kings: There is. To make it short, we both felt pretty lost for a while when we first moved out to LA, but we did have goals we wanted to accomplish. Our stories were pretty similar and so the name Lost Kings just really worked for us.
This concludes our interview with the Lost Kings, but be sure to check back for updates from the up-and-coming electronic music duo, as they’ve got a ton of exciting stuff in store for us.