DBMK
Two boys from Tampa, DBMK’s passion for music pushes them to continuously create. Since their 2014 debut album The Abyss, Kyle Knudsen and Colton Ward have produced an impressive 2 more albums, not to mention 10 singles (6 of which were released this year) and an EP. Their music is distinctly emotional, often painting stories of heartache, chaos, and entropy that have in turn given the duo millions of streams and a significant following - one that’s helped them sell out across Florida and launch multiple US tours. Utterly genre-defying, Knudsen and Ward sample virtually everything, from orchestral arrangements to electronic film scores. But, no matter where they draw inspiration from, it always seems to work. We recently spoke with DBMK about their musical influences, upcoming projects, and more!
How did you start making music?
Kyle: I started writing songs when I was maybe 13 or 14?
Colton: I’ve been playing the drums for as long as I can remember. Writing music was always something I wanted to get into, but I never knew how to get started until I met Kyle when I was 15. We immediately started writing songs and the rest is history.
Who are your biggest musical inspirations?
We’re influenced by so much music, but lately we’ve been studying a lot of Brockhampton, half alive, and Twin Shadow.
What’s a staple of a DBMK song?
Given that our music is often so all-over-the-place and sometimes neurotic, the main staple in all of our songs is probably our lyrical style.
Which of your songs is your favorite? What went into writing it?
Kyle: My favorite song right now is “Refrigerator”. It’s made up of so many little moments that defined the song along the way and sort of feels like music that we grew up with.
Colton: That is always changing, but right now my favorite is the song is also “Refrigerator”. We wrote this whole song in like two days, and then cut a song from our record to add it in last minute. We also worked with a few of our really close friends on it, so it makes it even more special to me.
It’s your day off: How are you spending it?
Kyle: We haven’t been able to take a full day off in a long time, but funny enough, we’ve been scheming the perfect day for the last few weeks: It begins after a proper sleep in, then it’s straight to a nice little, um, affordable brunch, followed by thrifting for new clothes and maybe a matching tattoo appointment somewhere near the end there. We’re not far from a married couple.
Colton: Ditto to all of that. I also was able to take a weekend off recently and go to the beach for a few days with some friends, and that was pretty perfect as well.
Let’s say you could collab with any artist: Which are you choosing?
Colton: Right now I would absolutely love to get Denzel Curry on a track with us. Denzel, if you’re reading, we have a few open verses you would kill it on. If Denzel was busy we would SO work with Jack Antonoff or Caroline Polachek in any way, shape, or form.
What’s next for you guys?
Kyle: We’re in the middle of releasing and telling the Jump in The Dark story, and we can’t wait to show what’s next. But, one of our main priorities right now is working out how to play shows in a world being shaken by a pandemic. Our favorite thing about touring and playing shows is getting to meet and talk with our fans, so we’re working tirelessly on how we can bring our live show back to them.
