Behind „Euphoria”: Producer/DJ 8Kays
I believe music is an abstract language, and everyone hears and feels something different through it.
8KAYS
We would like to gradually introduce you to the artists behind ‘Euphoria’. This is an interview with 8Kays who co-created the title track for the new #1 album.
What first pulled you toward becoming a producer and composer?
Before I started producing music, I was a DJ. Like many DJs, I was a passionate music lover. I think there comes a point for every DJ when you either can’t quite find the music you’re looking for more, or you feel the need to dive deeper into the creative process itself. For me, it was both. I was deeply curious about the world of music production. At the beginning, it was challenging to focus and start from scratch, but over time, the process completely drew me in and became something I truly enjoy.
Was it a clear calling or a quiet, gradual pull?
It wasn’t a sudden decision or a clear calling. As someone who has always loved music and spent a lot of time playing it, I slowly came to a point where self-expression through my own music became essential for me. The move into production happened gradually and organically. It was a process that unfolded over time rather than something immediate.
Before music became your profession, what were you searching for — creatively or emotionally?
Before music became my profession, I was working as a lawyer. But creatively and emotionally, music was always where my heart was. I dreamed of giving myself to it fully of letting it become the one space that could absorb me completely, without distractions. Music had been a constant presence in my life, shaping me emotionally and accompanying me through different chapters. It felt like a close friend, something that connected me to others and gave me strength, comfort, and emotional energy in every kind of life situation.
What part of your creative identity has taken the longest to understand or accept?
I feel like I’m still discovering and understanding different parts of my creative identity and that’s the beauty of making music. For me, it’s an endless process of uncovering something new, and at the same time, discovering myself through it.
But if I had to name the most challenging part, it would be learning to accept my own musical taste. Learning to trust my intuition, to listen to my inner sense of what feels right, and to allow myself more freedom beyond the frames imposed from the outside, especially those shaped by the music industry
What are your dreams right now — not just career goals, but deeper wishes for yourself and your life?
Right now, I’m in a period of rethinking my music and my artistic language. I feel a desire to reshape myself once again, to open new sides of my musical identity and allow it to evolve naturally.
More than anything, I wish for more inner freedom the kind of freedom in my own mind that allows me to make bolder, more honest decisions, without fear or overthinking.
When you look at your journey so far, what has music given you that nothing else could?
Music is my life. In that sense, you could say that music gave me life.
It’s a world of its own parallel existence that you step into and truly live through. And like life itself, it’s not made only of euphoria and joy. It contains doubt, vulnerability, silence, and struggle as well.
How did the collaboration with SCHILLER enter your life, and why did it feel meaningful to you?
Collaborating with Christopher, felt like an unexpected turn of fate. I’ve loved his music for a very long time and his tracks were with me from the moment I first started listening to electronic music. Back then, his work played a real role in shaping my musical taste, and his music has stayed with me ever since.
His music is also deeply connected to a specific period of my life and to certain people who were important to me at that time. Because of that, it carries a very personal meaning for me, it’s tied not only to sound, but to memory and lived experience.
That’s why working together felt especially meaningful. It was surreal to collaborate with an artist whose music once lived quietly in my playlists, and to discover not only a remarkable musician, but also a genuinely kind and open person. That openness made the entire creative process feel soft, natural, and deeply inspiring.
What did you discover about yourself as an artist through working together on this album?
Working with Christopher on our track “Euphoria” in the studio, I realized something essential as an artist. Experience, background, or even musical preferences don’t matter as much as we often think. When there is real musical synergy, you become one whole and that’s when something truly meaningful can emerge.
I genuinely believe in that back-to-back studio energy, when two people create together and their energies begin to intertwine. In those moments, music feels less like a constructed process and more like a shared flow.
At the same time, I was happy to discover that Christopher and I share very similar views on many things, both musically and beyond. That shared understanding made the entire process even softer, more joyful, and deeply natural.
When collaborating, how do you balance openness with staying true to your own artistic voice?
I never felt the need to consciously balance anything while working with Christopher. In this collaboration, that tension simply didn’t exist.