Kid Infinity

cb1

Ryan Pardeiro and Nathan Huber, better known to their legion of neon-clad followers as Kid Infinity

by Amorn Bholsangngam

Since transplanting themselves into the heart of Los Angeles from their respective East Coast hometowns, Ryan Pardeiro and Nathan Huber, better known to their legion of neon-clad followers as Kid Infinity, have continually woven a place for themselves in the city’s rich musical tapestry as innovators in electro, punk, and hip hop.

Their distinctive blend of abrasive beats, playfully snarky rhymes, and uninhibited, fuck-it-all energy has become a fixture in the joyous noise pollution that has come to characterize the greatest nights Downtown has to offer its patrons. Their legendary (not to mention groundbreaking) 3D shows, which employ visual technology originally intended to debut on Michael Jackson’s ill-fated This is It tour, have earned them a well-deserved reputation as the most forward thinking party starters in town. Pardeiro and Huber have turned their adopted home into a place a little easier to dance, mosh, and grind in.

But the dance-pop duo’s evolution into the hard-partying darlings of L.A.’s underground music scene didn’t occur overnight. Four years ago, neither of them had ever even touched a sequencer, much less knew of the delicate balance in commanding an audience. The creative potential in electronic music had to present itself to the pair before they would christen themselves Kid Infinity.

Pardeiro, once a self-proclaimed “rock kid who played guitar all the time,” explains, “My headspace wasn’t in the music world at the time. I had sort of moved away from it and was working in film. But then one night, I was randomly drunk over at a friend’s place, and he had just set up a new microphone in his recording booth. We were just fucking around and taking turns singing into the mic. And just like some clichéd Hollywood story plays out, he ends up showing that track to some electronic producer friend of his who asks, ‘Who’s that guy? I want to meet him. That guy’s going to be something.’”

He parlayed that serendipitous recording into work as a vocalist on several house tracks. One night of drunken debauchery had led Pardeiro stumbling mouth first into unfamiliar but exciting territory. Suddenly, the rock kid was thrust into a world of blips and beeps and chest-rattling bass, not to mention producers who didn’t exactly accommodate his punk rock aesthetic.

“I didn’t vibe with any of those guys creatively because they wanted something really specific - standard house vocals. I had that rock mentality of let’s try this and let’s try that. So I get myself an MPC, and that’s how I started making this weird electronic music that really doesn’t fit into the house music genre. It’s this weird hodgepodge of hip hop, rock, and electro, and naturally, they didn’t know what the hell to make of it. They wanted something very, very straightforward, and that’s not at all what I’m interested in,” muses Pardeiro.

Having jumped ship from the constrictive house music projects he had been working on, the MC was in search of a new partner in crime, one that would actually facilitate his artistic ambitions instead of stifling them. He found the perfect match in an old partner in crime – his college schoolmate, roommate, friend, and constant collaborator Nathan Huber. Huber had acquired a taste for the genre since attending Daft Punk’s Alive tour (“It really sold me on electronic music”) and was looking to explore similar sonic terrain. It was a no-brainer to enlist Huber, an enthusiast on the nuances of sound, to man the decks and control the electronics in spite of their vast differences.

“We come from two different worlds. I listen to a lot of Beach Boys and Animal Collective, and they’re major influences for me. Ryan comes from a completely different school of music, which is cool because it gives us the ability to bridge the gap between genres,” says Huber.

Pardeiro elaborates, “We complement each other in a strange way because we’re polar opposites. We have a lot of mutual respect for each other, so we’re able to work well together with those differences instead of butting heads all the time. In the end, each of us makes up for what the other person lacks. That’s what helps us make much stronger art. We would each have a tendency toward something a lot weaker without having someone else to balance things out.”

There was still a lot of work, a lot of development in their music as well as their stage show, to be done after the two joined forces. Kid Infinity played its very first show at Chinatown’s Mountain Bar in 2008, and it was a far cry from the raging, raucous, sweat-drenched dance marathons that their 3D shows are these days.

“We didn’t know what we were doing. We were just discovering our sound, how to perform, and what are vibe was going to be. We messed around for a while before we found what we were supposed to be,” Pardeiro reflects on the early stages of the group.

Over time, however, the duo has refined its sonic identity and transformed its performances into full blown events. Pardeiro has come into his own as a frontman, exuding charisma and manic energy that makes every crowd want to dance through the night. Huber has grown into a bold and innovative producer with a fine ear for texture and rhythm. The infectious “P.Y.C.O.” is a certified anthem that elicits “heys” and “hos” out of every person in attendance at their shows. Their 3D concerts, the first of which Pardeiro describes as “the best night of my life,” are some of the most acclaimed and hotly anticipated events in town. And they even had a homeless man thank them endlessly for bringing the party to his home in an abandoned parking garage during the last FMLY ride.

With all of their recent triumphs, preserving the restless creative spirit that the group was forged on is Kid Infinity’s top priority, according to Huber.

“It’s still morphing. That’s part of what Ryan and I do. We make sure we don’t get stagnant and that everything has a different flavor. With what we’re creating, we’re always trying to push ourselves in different directions. It’s all based on the moment we’re in as we’re creating it. You never know what we’re going to get, but we’re going to keep experimenting.”

ADVERTISEMENT