Squid The Kid
Fresh from his final's performance on the 'Vans Musicians Wanted' competition. Squid The Kid continues to show why he is one of the most exciting, emerging hip-hop and R&B artists in Australia, releasing the seasonal anthem KOZYSZN. Hazy Days Music would like to thank Squid for taking the time out and having a chat.
Hey Squid! You’ve had such an impressive start to your music career. When did you first start getting into music? And where did the name Squid The Kid originate?
It's a funny story. I initially got into music accidentally. My little sister was taking piano lessons, and my parents wanted to switch her over to this new Filipino teacher. Being Filipino, we like to support each other wherever we can. But when we got to the door, my sister just buckled and did not want to go in. I guess she got nervous. I don't know why I just put my hand up to do the lessons. I think I did it to save my parents from embarrassment (they are a bit shy as well). I said I wanted to do the lesson's, but I want to learn the guitar, not the piano. And from there, it led me to singing, then rapping.
In terms of starting Squid The Kid.
I studied nursing for a bit as soon as I finished high school, but I wasn't really feeling it. I just came to the conclusion that I would rather chase happiness and chase my dreams. I never want to have to answer those “what-if” questions later on in life. So with that mindset, I pulled the trigger, left uni and started chasing this dream of mine.
Finding this alias/alter ego Squid came from my boy Jaal. He's a rapper and part of the rap collective Noble Nativez. We were walking to school one day, and apparently, I had some weird haircut. He just looked at me and called me Squidward for some reason. I just blew it off like, cool, whatever. My real name is Matthew Cerio, but I never really pictured myself selling records or performing under that name. I don't think it really rolls off the tongue in terms of a marketing standpoint.
When I was thinking of an alter ego, Squid came to mind. It just fits my personality and what I'm trying to portray as an artist and a human. I don't want to be taken too seriously, but I still want people to appreciate the music. It’s a cool name, and not too serious at the same time like you can have a laugh with it.
Your latest single, KOZYSZN, is one of my favourite releases of 2021. What can you share about writing this song? And how it links in with your brand KOZY?
The whole KOZYSZN project is all about our love for the winter season. Me and a group of boys call ourselves the KOZY KIDZ. We've launched the brand KOZY, releasing apparel, put up videos on YouTube, all that stuff.
I think the song just came about naturally. My boy Kaine produced a mad beat, and when I first started writing, it was coming up on the winter season. Around that time, our brand KOZY was kicking off. We started our YouTube channel, the first drop of clothing was about to be released, we were about to go on this snow trip, we just had all these things going down.
During that period, the only thing on my mind was how to build this brand in different ways. I think that's why I wrote about it. It was just always on my mind.
I’m pretty stoked about the song. I think you can see growth in terms of my lyricism and the production. I'm constantly trying to better myself as an artist, and I’m just more comfortable and confident with my sound. I'm pretty rapt with the whole process, from the album cover to all the visualisers we have made.
I’ve got a music video coming out with the release. The video is a candid road trip that I went on with a few of the boys. We mixed a bunch of different videos together to make the video.
The first KOZY KHRONICALS episode you put up on YouTube is insane! I’m so keen for the next one to be released. Is Episode two on it’s way?
It’s a bit hard at the moment, I could do a bunch of videos by myself, but at the same time, it gets boring. The whole KOZY thing is a collective, it’s not just me. I want to shed some light on some of the other people in the group.
We've been in lockdown and have all been pretty limited with what we can and can’t do. We got some great feedback from the first one and are keen to make more. We had a laugh, and that’s just what we wanted to do, make people laugh and have some fun with it all.
We're keen to film more and make it different from other stuff that's out.
It must have been a crazy experience performing and making the finals for the 'Vans Musicians Wanted' competition. What was that experience like? (I feel you were pretty ripped off with your final score).
Dude, that's been the highlight of my music journey!
First of all, a big shout out to Vans. Being a global brand and the shoes I grew up on. Unlike your Adidas and Nikes/Jordans, Vans were pretty affordable. My mum was always buying me and my sister Vans growing up.
Just to be a part of that whole competition was sick! It was just unreal. I can’t even fathom how crazy it was. I've missed performing live so much and I was just so happy to be playing again. Getting praise and criticism from YUNGBLUD, Denzel Curry and Sean Miyashiro, (owner of 88rising, a massive label over in the USA/Asia Pacific region), was surreal.
Plus, I got a bunch of free shoes. I work at Footlocker, and even before then, I’ve always been about shoes, so to get a bunch of free kicks from a company that I mess with was crazy.
I still can't believe I've had this opportunity so early in my career. I'm only four songs in, and to be put on a platform where I'm seen by artists + music industry professionals of that level was a dream come true.
Q the trumpet deserved the win. Being a top-five finalist that had over thirty thousand applicants apply from all over the world and to finish as one of fifteen finalists (five from each region), that’s a win in itself. I'm just a small kid from Hampton Park, and to see them vibing out to my music. I’ll take that any day.
(Watch Squids Vans performance here)
For anyone who hasn’t seen you play live before, could you run us through the very talented musicians in your band?
So we have Daniel and Kaine, who are my best mates and are the masterminds of this whole ship. They produce all my songs. Daniel is the drummer, he has a mad ear for music and is so talented. Kaine's the guitarist and normally fills in the gaps when Daniel needs a bit of help, but Kaine has slipped into the limelight producing KOZYSZN and is getting a bit more confident with his production style. We have two bass players. We started off with Strangelove (Marcus Ketch) on bass. That's my brother, man. He has his own stuff blowing up at the moment, and I want him to focus on his craft. We also have Montel Thomas on bass, he played the Vans performance. He is a genius engineer, he knows all the in's and outs and it's so good to have someone like that I can learn from. Montel, Daniel, Kaine and I all went to the same school, so it's cool to be on this journey with them.
And we have Holly, who is the glue. I wish we could’ve had Holly down for the Vans performance, she lives a bit too far away to make it. Holly is one of a kind. The way she plays the piano is insane! She plays with multiple bands and has her own project, Holly Hebe. She can slide right in and play any genre and make it sound complete. Shout out to Holly, man.
That’s the band, everyone is just a master at their craft, so I’m pretty blessed to have this collective around me. And It’s cool because we are all under the same management, IVY MUSIC GROUP.
Do you have plans to release an EP or album? Or keen to keep it too singles at the moment?
I’m really liking the single game. I take a lot of pride in the whole rollout process with a single, from writing to directing the music video. It's been great, I've directed all of my music videos so far, and it's something I want to keep working on. I'd love to be able to direct/co-direct for other artists' videos in the future.
I just think singles are just the way to go for me at the moment. With an album, that process is a bit different, and if I'm making a cohesive body of work, I want to be giving it my all and have lots of people hear my message.
I'm just using all these singles as my training ground. I can genre bend and do whatever I want. I don’t have to worry about a cohesive storyline. I do want to drop an album in the future, it's something that I’ve always wanted to do, but I’m still figuring out my sound and getting comfortable as a musician.
Plus, with the social media era we are in today. I don’t think people really listen to an album anymore. It's just hard to get someone's attention for that long, everything is just moving so quickly these days.
It’s been great chatting. Is there anything you’d like to add before you go?
Hopefully, depending on how Melbourne goes, I’d like to bank one more show this year. But if not, there is always next year.
And we've also got some merch following this release. I'm definitely trying to build the brand and make more music.
Stay up to date with Squid The Kid on Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.