LoKii Talks Keeping Things Low Key & His Inspirations in iEDM Exclusive Interview

Without a doubt, we can all agree that Miami Music Week was one for the books. The 8th annual anniversary of this outstanding week had talent from all over and was full of music that brought back your favorite faces in the EDM world along with some new faces such as LoKii.

This year Thomas Shaw aka LoKii made his first appearance to Miami Music Week and what a better way to do it than being on the line up for Kaskade’s own sold-out event SunSoaked.

“Playing beach parties in Miami is one of the most fun things because it is so chill,” LoKii said.

Interviewing this talented guy from Canada with such little information about him out in the world gladly gave iEDM an exclusive interview.

LoKii to asked me, “So I have a question for you, where or how did you find me?” in the middle of the interview.

My response, well I’m a big fan of Kaskade so I noticed you in the line up for SunSoaked and was curious to know who you were.

LoKii did not only talk about who he is and his plans for this upcoming year, but also touched on his life and went deeper into what he went through to get to where he is now. With all of this music he has for us, he tells us his plan of how he will deliver it.

iEDM: So I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s curious about Lokii. Who is LoKii?

LOKII: I used to be part of another DJ duo for a couple years. That went really well and now long story short it was time to go solo.

iEDM: LoKii, where did that come from?

LOKII: Actually my friend came up with the name and when he told me he explained it like “keeping things low key” and I thought it meant like Thor’s brother—the god of mischief. Either way, I really liked the name and the theme of mischief because in my sets I play all kinds of fun stuff that people might not think I would play.

iEDM: How long have you been producing music and how was the transition going solo?

LOKII: I’ve been producing music since just out of high school. For me, it was a natural transition, so it's really cool. I get to express myself a little differently but what you see is me as opposed to two people, which I prefer because I can just be myself and not have to worry about what anyone else would say.

iEDM: I was really excited about this interview because I couldn’t really find anything about you on the internet and wanted to know about the LoKii brand.

LOKII: So originally when I launched Lokii people were more like “Who is this LoKii guy?” “Where did he come from?” and that was kinda cool. I’m hard to find so you guys reaching out to me was perfect.

iEDM: Well now that we know who you are and where you come from, let's talk music.

LOKII: I have so much music man, I checked my project files the other day and have over 370 project files, completed records are around 80. I’ve been making so much music and we basically compiled all of those and that's the LoKii music. I have albums of unreleased stuff ready to go.

iEDM: So what is your sound? how would you describe LoKii

LOKII: I personally love pop music. I like it because you can combine everything, so in pop records, you can combine deep house bases with future cords with real instruments and I always like to incorporate real instruments. So yea I would say pop music, anywhere from future, I have a lot of bass house stuff, I have groovy house.

iEDM: Why do you like to incorporate real instruments and do you play any instruments?

LOKII: I feel like it sounds a little more organic and that's where music comes from right? and even cooler is putting real instruments and then making them sound non-organic so I like that too. YES! I play guitar a little bit of piano a little bit of drum.

iEDM: Would you prefer to release a banger or a song that tells a story?

LOKII: A song that delivers a story. I like to choose vocals that deliver more of a tale story like someone is talking about something not like “put your hands up” I mean there's room for that right? everyone likes bangers. I went through a Trap phase “I love trap” but in terms of actually putting out originals, I prefer songs that are about something, a little more than face value.

iEDM: When did you release your first track?

LOKII: September 1st was “Show of Hands” with Kaskade which it was my first release, my first everything as LoKii and it was pretty cool. It felt like jumping off a building with a parachute that I didn’t know where I was going to land.

iEDM: So when and where was your first show and was the crowds' response?

LOKII: My first show was in San Francisco this New Years, it was dope man. I was direct support for Kaskade which was sick “Thank you, Ryan, that was awesome.” I got to play my own unreleased music and man I got a lot of Instagrams followers from that, It was sick.

iEDM: So Kaskade, How did he inspired you?

LOKII: Man, he’s just a mega, super champion, hero, superstar. I was lucky enough to actually go to L.A. and work with him in the studio and that was sick. We have been friends for a couple years before so to actually get down and sit in the studio was fun.

iEDM: What other producers you look up to?

LOKII: Right now? I love Illenium, obviously, Kaskade is one of my heroes, I really like what ZEDD is doing and Grey. Grey is probably one of my favorites right now, their sound is tight. I would love to sit in the studio with those guys.

iEDM: What would you say your strengths are and even weaknesses if any?

LOKII: I’m a very technical producer, I’m all about mixing and mastering sound design, meaning it sounds clean as possible, complicated but audible and things like that. Whereas some producers aren’t like that at all, is about how they write and that's what definitely I say my weakness is, I’m not a strong writer as I am a technical producer.

iEDM: So here is a random question and only reason I’m asking is that you love House Music, what do you think about dubstep?

LOKII: Here is what I think about Dubstep, I’ll tell you about Dubstep. To me is super impressive to make and to find things like Virtual Riot, man their sound is ridiculous and is super sick. At first, I really didn’t like it and you might not like it but it doesn’t mean is bad. A good quote Oliver Heldens said, I think it was him who said this “If you don’t like a piece of music, you just haven’t enjoyed it in the right context yet” or something like that. So I saw that and said, “I’m changing my life” and after listening to it, I was like: ok I get it.

iEDM: I feel like I will be listening to more Dubstep now. So whats another story that your fans definitely don’t know about you.

LOKII: So I wanted a guitar so bad and my parents wouldn’t buy me one but they got my sister one for some reason at a garage sale so that was kind of a sad day. I was in a bunch of musicals in high school and also in choir. I made my first album in grade 12th, it was an acoustic album. I convinced one of my teachers to let me make an album as a final, I got out of a lot of class to work on it so that was pretty cool. Got it done, terrible but it was done.

iEDM: That's awesome man. so with that being said what are your plans for this year?

LOKII: I want to release a song every six weeks and I have the music to do it. I’m so excited about the originals that are coming out “Originals are sick” “they're different enough.” So yes release music and play shows that's my plan.