INTERVIEW: The Booyah! Kids

The Booyah! Kids kicked off their Headline Tour last Thursday night, September 10th, on the second floor of Nikki Lopez. The bedroom pop trio (Julian Kaufman, Emma Lee, and Aidan Ludlam) had listeners dancing, swaying, and enjoying the warm synth sounds and vocal blends. 

The Booyah! Kids’ newfound momentum after their nearly three-year-hiatus has them not only back to making music but performing as well. The first show of the tour was a success. “I feel pretty good and lots of people had nice things to say,” commented Aidan. 

“I think when you go on a hiatus, you lose the plot. And the last year and a half has been us finding our story and charging through it. So now we’ve got our sound, we’ve got kind of more how we want to present ourselves visually, and now we’re just trying to run towards sharing that as much as we can,” said Julian.

In August, they dropped two singles, passionfruit and rwm. The latter, a cover of Nelly’s Ride Wit Me performed well on social media and became a favorite among the band, which led to its official release. “And [for] passionfruit, we used to do a cover of a song live in our show. I think we have a really early recording of it, but we never got around to recording it and wanted to. So when we decided on this project, that was kind of an exciting choice,” shared Emma. 

In addition to the tour, both new fans and longtime listeners can anticipate “Cover Girl,” The Booyah! Kids’ upcoming EP on September 18. “Cover Girl” contains seven cover songs. Listeners can expect to see titles with interesting first letters such as W and a sound that is true to the core bedroom pop sound of The Booyah! Kids. It’s “using the technology of the ‘80s to make the aesthetic of 2010s indie guitar rock, but no guitars,” said Aidan. 

Altogether, this new chapter for The Booyah! Kids is one that celebrates the feeling of connection. Finally, the Kids are playing live in front of the listeners that have connected to their music and developed a love for the Booyah! sound. 

“A lot of shows that have synth bass, the synth bass is like really deep, subby stuff. And a lot of the synths are more washy. So we’re kind of bringing a sound you don’t hear as much live to the stage,” said Julian.

Between the upfront enthusiasm and the smiles at the end of the show, it was clear that everyone felt that a night with The Booyah! Kids was a night well spent. To the fans supportively yelling out “Booyah!” at the shows, the band says, “Say it more!”

Stream “Cover Girl” this Friday, September 18th, on your favorite music platform. Presave it here.

Cover photo via Daniel Krause.