That’s how I am inside. These sounds, these frequencies and all this vibration that’s what goes on inside of myself. When I’m asleep and I’m dreaming it’s always like these intense scenes and these spiritual situations.

I get a lot of calmness from my music. Like with meditation, I’m very present and there’s no thinking.

I am always already visualizing situations before, so when they happen, I’m very comfortable in them. This is when my brain goes quiet. When it happens it’s just like I am in control, it’s like lucid dreaming.

I came from a very religious background, we used to read the Bible back-to-back. I reached a point in my life whereby I had more questions than I could get answers for, and it was better to live life and have these experiences through music, instead of just being told how life should be.

We started doing this kind of music to just do something we love. And no one understood it, everyone was telling us not to do, this is not good for you, you’re getting lost, you’re going into the darkness. But it was important to me. So you’d rather do it because at the end of the day, you only have one life and you will be alone in the last minute. So why not just live for you.

I just believe we are one. I believe we should help each other out and be kind to each other because it’s just been getting darker and darker through the ages. I think we should start believing once again in mankind and humans bro.

In our music, in the shows it’s all about oneness, equality, coming together and appreciating each other across all these different dynamic backgrounds and all these places where we’ve all come from. Everything that is wrong was indoctrinated to us, it was taught, people came here pure. At the end of the day, we should always come back to being together as one and enjoying the energy and the vibration.

I believe whatever you put out comes back to you and I’ve seen it in my lyrics: I would write some lyrics and then they would happen to me in real life, so I’m very careful with what I put in the music. If you go through the lyrics and if you see the videos and the message behind it, it’s very encouraging and uplifting music, honestly.

No, I don’t feel anger at all. I feel more of empowerment and inspiration, like motivated. It puts me at an advantage that I don’t have any advantage. I have a different mindset. I’m very hungry, ambitious, and aggressive.

Yes, I have many times, being an entrepreneur and also a musician at the same time running a label, making music, you know, there’s a lot of challenges. I had lots of people saying “quit, go back home, give up, you know, that’s it, man, it’s never gonna work”.

But I always told myself I’ve come so far. It’s too late now, we are in too deep. At some point, you just realize that you’ve worked so hard, and you’ve sacrificed so much. I came to respecting that and celebrating the wins along the way.

My new EP and my new performances are an extension of my first album’s themes of the Mau Mau and how they went through the tough, tough colonial times when they were fighting against the oppressors.

We are exploring narratives of abuse, control, displacement, betrayal, loss of land, loss of freedom, and loss of culture. Colonization brought so much loss.

We are also trying to address themes of reclamation, hope, resistance, and renewal. Renewal is a powerful response to the inequalities that happened, all the oppression and systemic violence that had occurred.

We are doing an audio-visual show with NMR CC that’s going to be to be merged with the music, which is going to create a whole universal world that people can travel into, experiencing this message we have and understanding it as a warning.

Its a cautionary tale of what can happen if we don’t stand for our things and our culture, how we can get eroded and how we should always protect and achieve total control of what we have lost, so the future generations can also enjoy it.

ICYKOF: Oh, I’d say an artist or a visionary. I’ve always just followed my gut feeling, and I’ve always just pivoted towards what I feel like I want to achieve as an artist. Yeah. And right now, with music, I want to heal people and just be an advocate for my generation. 

I believe it’s a constant thing as you age. I started when I was in my teens – like 16, 17. So now I’m 27, going into the 30s. I’ve naturally just pivoted my interests and who I am as a person. And I believe I’m at a state where I’m in control of my time and my environment more so than I was when I was younger. So I’m able to achieve things with intention and things that are more fulfilling for me versus when I was younger – I was just doing whatever, you know, that was happening. Following trends and hypes and just being around everything. 

Now I can kind of filter through it and understand more as to what I want to do with my time.

Yeah, there’s a few tracks coming out and it’s all coming together like an EP.

It’s called “Truth Is Infront of You”. And the whole concept is just about how with all the distractions in your life, you reach a point in time where you eventually filter through it all and you understand more about what’s presented to you. 

“Designer“ is a track that’s coming out first and it’s very fun. On the surface, it’s very much about just going shopping with your friends. You know, buying these cool brands and just celebrating having a paycheck and having fun. Yeah. But the deeper meaning behind it, it is all about how commercialism just sucks you in and you kind of lose yourself within this commercialism. And it’s all about trying to find a way out of that bubble you’re in.

I was just really in my headspace after releasing the first EP. It was like this: The anxiety of releasing music’s gone. I can really express myself and be more vulnerable with music. As an artist, it’s allowed me to produce something that shows where my headspace is currently at, which was just finding the light at the end of the tunnel from that whole hyper commercialism I was in.

That whole streetwear era that became super luxury and, just getting lost in it.

And then you’re eventually chasing every drop just to be relevant or just to be a part of a circle. Then it became a thing, if you’re wearing this, now you’re part of this group. And it’s just a case of leaving that world and leaving that headspace and realizing, none of that really matters.

The only thing that matters is yourself. And you should really take time to focus on yourself.

Techno to me is just like a case of energy. Yeah. It’s just the energy I’m on – It’s the speed, it’s the culture. It takes me away from everything else.

And it allows me to just be in the moment. Just being in the moment and letting go of everything in your day-to-day life.

Whether you have like a nine-to-five job or like, stresses with family or loved ones. Techno has allowed me to just not think about any of that. Just be in the moment.

And that’s why I just fell in love with this whole genre. 

I really liked Mark Broom’s approach to Detroit techno. I went through this whole rabbit hole. And the 80s and 90s, then hard house, acid house. UK influences. I just discovered a range of artists. But I think the thing that linked everything together was just the passion to make something current. And something of their time. Like hard house was very of that time, melodic, minimal techno was of that time.

And I don’t know, I feel lockdown and all the current affairs and politics …  It’s just too much for one person to digest. So I feel like this music lets you not think about anything.

I mean, growing up, I was on Tumblr. And I remember even Instagram didn’t have the video uploading feature back then. So it was so early on. And it was like this weird platform. Back then, we were all kids looking for platforms. And we all had Twitter, which was still kind of mid. So Instagram was this cool thing where you could upload pictures of your lifestyle. So it wasn’t like Tumblr where you repost things. This was more personal. And it became this cool space where you could like search for someone you found on Tumblr that you thought was cool. And they had an Instagram. But it’s not of what they’re reposting. It’s of them. So that was so cool. And you just followed each other.

And it became this safe bubble, which later became streetwear, which then became luxury fashion. And it got exploited. We became consumers of like all these ads. It just became so much.

It’s cool seeing all these luxury brands make cool things for us, whatever. But it just became too much so fast. And you just wanted to step away from it all, you know? And that became a case with Instagram and all these platforms. So I just had to step away from that.

Yeah. It was just like, we’re just doing what we love, you know? No one could comprehend what it would become. Even my video with Drake or something, you don’t process what the outcome is or you don’t process what the reach will be.

I’ve never really processed it. It’s hard because it’s my life. It’s just my day to day. And the fashion I document, it’s just the lifestyle. That’s it really. So it’s kind of hard to reflect upon it and be like, oh, this is what’s happening. There’s no strategy around it.

If anything, doing music allowed me to step back and take a rough two years off YouTube to like really find what I like in life. And now I’ve come back to the platform. It’s grown to this super cult community. It’s really cool.

Everyone was against me doing these videos because they’re very expensive. I’m shooting on 16 millimeter film. So it’s very, very expensive to put a film alone. And then you still got to color correct it. You still got to edit it. It’s very expensive. But it’s always been a case of doing something I love or don’t bother doing it at all. I mean, I’ve gone to YouTube from filmmaking when I was studying it in school as well. So I’ve always wanted to do this. And I’ve been trying to do it on my YouTube journey.

With storytelling my world, it is important for me to direct everything, so people understand. Like how Tyler the Creator directs his film and his world. You understand that that’s his world. So it’s very important to me. And there’ll definitely be a couple more music videos coming out this summer. It’s just a case of executing them. It’s always hard to find the right team perfect for each case.

Well, I think it’s old movies that I find, like Fallen Angel or any of these old Asian movies. I love the cinematography. I feel like directors in Asia just have so much freedom to explore cinematography. And that’s what brought me back to YouTube. And I started uploading these vlogs every Sunday. That’s why I really focus on sound design and color corrections. I started doing color correcting now. And I’m a bit obsessed.

But I think right now my biggest interest, my biggest inspiration is just fitness. I’m really into being outside as much as I can. Especially when I’m in the music studio all the time or in the clubs. So I started really doing road racing, like cycling and lots of running and entering competitions.

And I always meet new people doing this and they tell me about their lives. And I have an extension of somebody that’s not in my bubble or in my headspace. It’s like an outside perspective that I can talk to about my world. They give me another perspective. And these perspectives are so important.

I mean, I do want to make my own non-alcoholic alcohol. That’d be like one of my goals. I’m obsessed with Lewis Hamilton’s alcohol brand he released, which is tequila, but it’s not alcoholic tequila because he’s an athlete. And I’m just obsessed with the idea of like, you can go to the club and buy tequila, but it’s not alcoholic.

Yeah. Because I can’t be drinking, like DJing 190 days a year. That’s just so toxic.

That’s probably something in terms of business, but you know. Just building the world with everything.

I’m DJing properly in Berlin. I’m excited. Yeah. I don’t know what to expect as well, but I’m excited.

Yeah, there’s like too much happening. I’m just excited to see what like Jonathan W. Anderson does for the whole of Dior. I feel like he’s the one guy, where I want to watch his whole journey now from the very beginning onwards. And like invest in his world as well.

And I’m a massive fan of Heider Ackermann. It’s someone that’s so niche. I’m like, why not? Then Tom Ford, I am very interested.

There’s too much going on. Complete beginning of a whole new era. And we’re old enough to navigate it and understand it. But when we were kids and it was like Raf Simons and back in 2015, I was just too young. I was more of a fan and exploring fun subculture vibes. But now I can pivot and navigate side-by-side with people I like.

It’s something I’ve been doing now. I started like two weeks ago. I’m enjoying it, honestly. I use this super cool camera, that’s better than my Casey Neistat setup that I’ve been using for years. So I’m having fun with this little device, filming stuff. And I have a lot of traveling coming up, especially with DJing. So it’s gonna be nice, like touring life. Filming cool people that I like. I still find people super interesting. That’s why I started what people are wearing. So maybe there’ll be like a new version of that, but in a vlog.

I don’t know what to expect. But it’s going to be exciting. I feel like the videos are going to be like when I used to film what people were wearing at Dior shows. It was very interesting because you felt like you were me. So you felt my anxiety and still not feeling like I’m one of those big celebrities I could go up and film. There is always this invisible wall. And that’s still going to be the case with DJing and going to these clubs for the first time, showcasing my perspective of it all going into the space as like a new DJ in that professional world. I think people are going to really enjoy those videos. It’s going to be very like … I don’t know, the camera will be low. It’ll be kind of hidden. I’ll like press record when no one’s there. And then you’ll see the evolution of building confidence in a space to film.

Lenny Altaras: My parents always let us approach art with caution, because of course it’s not an easy business. And the dream of a Jewish mother is always a doctor or a lawyer. That worked out well for us haha.

Art was always a topic, it was always discussed at the table. My father is a composer and I had to start playing violin when I was five, there wasn’t a single day off in the week. Today I’m grateful for that, it’s an artistic foundation I got at home, and that’s priceless.

What I find so inspiring about my mother is that, despite her personal understanding of art, she has this fundamental pragmatism, she just sits down and gets things done. She was an actress, a director, then started writing books, published six of them, and now she’s doing stand-up comedy. She doesn’t leave anything alone; she sits down, tackles it, and just does it without overthinking. That’s incredibly inspiring. You don’t have to stick to just one job in life, I think that’s such a beautiful idea. In art, everything is connected anyway. And that’s exactly how I see it too.

I’ve always floated somewhere between film and music; both are still my biggest interests in life.

Music is what fulfills me, but it’s incredibly refreshing to dive into the world of film from time to time. Every job eventually gets monotonous.

What makes Berlin special to me is that it’s poor but sexy. I enjoy Berlin and think it’s a great city to come back to, because time just ticks differently here. Even when you’re at a stressful intersection, at Kottbusser Damm, somewhere on Kottbusser Brücke, where a lot is actually going on. The clock ticks very slowly here. It’s a curse and a blessing in this city that you can still have a high quality of life for little money. It’s easy to lose your drive to be productive, you’re just left alone here.

A basic atmosphere in ALCATRAZ is the longing for something you can never really reach. That’s a core vibe you find a lot in 80s music, and also a bit in the music I started with like Darkwave, Synthwave, and of course Italo-Disco too.

My next project will be called Eurotrash. For me it can be a way of living, a group of people, certain activities that define a certain lifestyle. Eurotrash is a festival nomad from central europe, ecstasy on a beach in Croatia, couchsurfing in Barcelona, playing bingo in a village pub in Albania. Half dropout, half scene kid, half lost soul, half legend.

Hedonistic, improvised, subcultural, and slightly self-destructive.

With Eurotrash, I have a visual world in my head, very cinematic. I use lots of film reference and let myself be inspired by a character or an image that I still have in mind. Then I try to transform the whole thing into music.

I made the instrumental myself in Berlin, and then I was in L.A. in May to work on music, I was in the studio with a Dutch producer.

I had rented a red Mustang back then. I guess you could call that my American guilty pleasure.

And then he said, just make it about your Mustang. Something totally banal. I loved the idea and it really fit the song.

It’s about breaking away, caught somewhere between emotional detachment and vulnerability. For me, it captures the feeling of young love, passion, and rebellion.

No, I don’t think so haha. A red Mustang in Berlin… I don’t know if that would work, but of course it would be very on brand if it happened. Let’s see…