PHOTO CREDIT: Martin’s Social Club Facebook

Rúben de Almeida, known professionally as Kura, is one of the most hyped up DJ’s and producers in the world. With a long history in the scene, the charismatic and talented artist continues to climb the charts with his highly successful collaborations and numerous mind blowing releases. Recently voted number 39 in DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJ’s of 2018, the Portuguese DJ and producer has plenty in store for the future, and we couldn’t me more excited. 

We recently had the opportunity to catch up with Kura at Musical Freedom’s label night during Amsterdam Dance Event and talk everything from inspirations to superstitions:

How do you feel about being at ADE this week? 

It’s great. I mean, I’ve been coming to ADE for I believe, six years now. Every year is a different challenge, a different story, but I get to see all my DJ friends. I get to meet a lot of fans and new people from the industry so I just love being here; I love the vibe of the city. 

We saw you play last night at Maxximize and tonight at Musical Freedom, how did the two events compare?

Last night and tonight were two different experiences of course; two different kinds of crowds. I would say the Maxximize party would have a little bit more of the big room, hardcore fans, and Musical Freedom fans, they also like big room but they like something a little bit different also. They’re into different genres like bass house and stuff like that which I’m getting into; so it gets me really excited to be on both parts of these kinds of genres of music; and actually today I did a b2b with Laidback Luke which is one of my favourite DJ’s of all time and an inspiration for everybody and it’s just amazing!

How does it feel being crowned the highest charted Portuguese DJ of all time?

I mean, I think it’s only like a detail because obviously it’s very good, it means people like you and they voted for you, but it doesn’t define your career. I’m just grateful of course to be there, but there’s also a lot stuff that’s important. New music coming out, the sound that I’m developing right now which for me is ground breaking and the tracks that I’m going to release don’t sound like anything else; and I mean it! So I’m really much more excited about that and I wanna show the world who I am as a producer in the future, but of course it means a lot to me to be recognised on that kind of list.

Do you have any pre show rituals before you go out on stage?

Actually I have a lot. I’m a very superstitious person, so I have this little kind of, I don’t know what to call it but it’s like an earring that I always have to keep in my pocket, and my wallet has to be in my right pocket and I have a black ring on my left hand. I have to take all of them out and give them to my tour manager before I go on stage. If I don’t do it, and it has happened in the past, the gig goes terribly wrong. So, it has to be done! 

Do you adapt your sets depending on where you play? Whether it’s the country you’re in or the venue being in a club compared to a festival?

Yeah. It mostly depends on the vibe that I’m getting from the crowd. If I feel that they’re more into this kind of genre or they want a little bit harder music, I’ll change it up. If I see less girls on the dance floor, I know that I have to play harder music; but if I see a lot of girls and I know they wanna sing, I’ll play a little bit more commercial with mashups and stuff like that. So I like to mix it up depending on the vibe that I get on the day, on the field. 

Is there anything interesting or unusual on your tour rider? 

I don’t think so. It’s pretty standard: water, red bull. I mean, the only thing I guess that could be considered a little bit off is protein bars. I’m a simple man.

We recently saw Hardwell announce his retirement from DJing and there have been many other artists taking breaks from performing. As a touring artist, have you been able to find a balance between your personal and professional life?

I won’t lie, it’s not easy; but what I do sometimes is I’ll take like one month off and stay at home, just making music, when I want with no pressure. I just stop completely touring for one month and when I’m back, I’m okay. I know a lot of artists struggle to deal with it but the best way to do it is to stop. You cannot force it and continue touring and hurting yourself psychologically because your body will pay the bill later. That’s my way to deal with it, just have periods where I cool off from DJing. 

You recently released Like A Boss which was a follow up to some of your most iconic singles. What was the inspiration behind this track?

I think I wanted to do a track that combined big room sound with ‘techy’ beats; a mixture between them. So, something that’s not too hard but at the same time, has energy; and all the DJ’s can play it like a crossover. Then the breakdown, my inspiration was like a horror movie, so I wanted to create like a kind of a grave yard theme song; and the music video that’s coming out really soon is gonna reflect on that. So that was the main idea behind it. 

 

If you could collaborate with anyone in the world, who would it be and why?

Tiesto for sure. He’s the godfather, you know? He’s done so much for the industry, I have no words for how many people he helped with no intention at all, just for the music, for the culture. So I’m a big fan, that’s one of my goals; to make a collaboration with him. 

 

What can we expect to see from you in the next few months?

So, after ‘Like a Boss’, I have like eight new tracks ready; one of them’s gonna be a collaboration with Deorro, another one a collaboration with R3hab, and a couple of solo singles. One of them is gonna be released on Spinnin’ Records (I mean pretty much all of them are gonna be released on Spinnin’), but it’s gonna be something really really unique and has a vocal, which my tracks normally don’t have; so I’m really curious and excited about the future. 

And finally just a fun little bonus question, who do you think will be crowned the number one DJ for 2018? 

Honestly, I think it’s gonna be Martin again because he has a status that surpasses a DJ; he’s a superstar. I don’t mean that the other DJ’s are not superstars because they are, but he’s like a next level superstar. He’s very talented, a very nice guy, a humble person, a person that when you see him, you feel like you want to hug him. He’s an amazing artist. He’s been putting on amazing shows, good music and I think honestly, that nobody comes close to him in terms of popularity. So I believe that it’s going to be Martin and I think that it’s pretty fair that everybody will be happy with it. 

Is there anything you’d like to add before I let you go?

Thank you for reading, hope you guys will be curious to listen to my new tracks and stay up to date with my social media. Thank you. 

Stream Kura’s latest single ‘Like A Boss’ below and keep up to date with him on Facebook and Instagram.

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