KUNGS – A.K.A – King Of The Summer

KUNGS Interview

Having owned the European summer with his smash hit track ‘This Girl’ we catch up with French producer KUNGS, also known as Valentin Brunel whilst he suns himself in the South of France. Having supported David Guetta this summer on tour, we see big things in the pipeline for this young producer.

Hello Valentin, how are you?
I’m fine thank you!

Good, so where are you right now?
I’m in the South of France at home in Provence.

Ah nice! How is the weather there today?
Amazing, sunny and hot, like every day in the South of France.

So being from the South of France, do you feel the sunny weather inspires your music?
Yeah, I think that I started to make ‘This Girl’ one year ago, and I made it in Provence, so I think the sunnier weather helps you to make a track like this.

I’ve noticed your love of big instrumental sounds. Tell me more about that.
I loved to put some real instrument sounds in my tracks, some trumpets, or some guitars, because it’s a bit of a twist between old school sounds like in ‘This Girl’ and new sounds like with the trumpets and the bass. So I like to incorporate some old stuff and some new stuff in my tracks.

Your remixes of Bob Marley’s ‘Jammin’ and Lost Frequencies, they’ve done really, really well. How do you decide which track you want to remix?
For the Bob Marley remix I just found some guitars on YouTube and was like wow this guitar sounds amazing, maybe I should try to find an acapella of the track. So I just found it and it was amazing to do it, and it was so simple – I don’t know why – I made the track in two hours. Then with Lost Frequencies, they came to me as we are friends and said they had a big track, do you want to remix it? So I said OK, no problem!

What have you got in the pipeline coming up?
I’ve got an album coming out at the end of September/ beginning of October. So I’m preparing a lot of stuff at the moment. I’ve been in the studio in London and Paris, and I’ve worked with really good artists, including singers and guitarists, so I’m doing a lot of different styles. So some meloding stuff some club stuff, like heavy tracks, so yeah there will be a lot of things in my album!

Cool! How do you go about finding the artists you’re working with?
I work with Universal and so they just telling me ‘We have these artists, which ones do you prefer’, so I just pick up my favourite artist, and we go into the studio together and we share a few good moments for one day!

How did the collaboration come about with David Guetta?
I just began making his warm ups in December and because we have the same booking agency, so they just told me one day that David Guetta was doing a big show in France in the biggest venue in France, so he said he wants you to make his warm ups so I said ‘OK! No problem’. So I just made it two times in December and 5 times in January and all over Europe. And we made some really cool gigs together and now I am touring a lot with him in Europe. It’s amazing to have such a support as he is a legend for me.

Do you feel that’s a career highlight for you so far?
My career highlight is playing Macedonia with David Guetta as I just played in front of 20,000 people. And people were so hooked and they were amazing, and I’d never seen a crowd like this. It was in a big stadium so it was an amazing feeling to play here. So I think it the highlight of my career, for the moment!

Will you be touring outside of Europe?
Yes I’m off on a US tour this September, as ‘This Girl’ is doing pretty well in the US so I think we’re preparing a big US tour for September and then Mexico or Australia. As the track is doing well in the world, we have to go everywhere in the world to show that I’m here!

How does it feel to have a track that’s blown up so big?
I can’t describe the feeling as I think it’s a dream that every artist or DJ has, so when it happens to you, you just don’t realise ‘cause it’s just amazing. And yes it’s such a good feeling when you arrive in a country you’ve never been to in your life and people know you for your music. It’s just amazing!

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By Hannah Shakir