Hot Sh*t: Casiokids

They released the first Norwegian-language single in the UK, toured kindergartens in Europe and play on stolen keyboards. Welcome to the world of Casiokids.

Sitting backstage with Omar, Joaphim and Ketil, someone orders a pint of Guinness - perhaps a little Dutch courage is needed for their snatched headline show in the midst of supporting Hot Chip on tour.

“Sometimes it can be a bit awkward to be a support band,” explains Omar. “You never know if people are there [for you] or not, but it has been pretty good. The set is very short; it’s about half an hour and by the end people are dancing and ready for Hot Chip.”

Casiokids are unrivalled in their ability to get a crowd dancing. They’re an unusually dynamic band and surprisingly multitalented; during their set they swap instruments and wander around the stage like there is no audience.

Casiokids don’t hide how much they enjoy playing live either; it’s an almost childlike quality that’s completely endearing. There’s no pretence with Casiokids and that makes them endlessly interesting.

When describing their sound, Ketil says they “have a lot of harmonies and a lot of casio sounds,” which is a pretty fair description. What he doesn’t say is they have one of the most identifiable, and popular, dance songs around. ‘Fot I hose’ is a stunning example of Casiokids’ squelchy, wonky, electro sound.

Ketil is more interested in telling me about their beloved, and stolen, casios. “Well, we never gave them back,” he explains. “We needed some keyboards and we managed to get hold of some casios. We started using those casios and in the end we just had to use those casios for every gig and not give them back. In a way we just borrowed them,” he says innocently.

Casiokids sing in Norwegian, naturally. It’s strange, but very refreshing, to be at a gig where people aren’t singing along. I’m not a fan of paying money to watch a singer get drowned out by anyone in the crowd who wants to howl along.

It does make me consider how important lyrics are, or in Casiokids’ case, how unimportant they can be. Ketil says their song ‘Grønt Lys i Alle Ledd’, which means “green lights on all levels,” is about being back home. “It talks about how everything is almost too easy and you have the need for friction,” he explains, “to wake you up a bit.”

“Sometimes it’s only humming and sometimes there aren’t any vocals,” said Ketil. “When we starter the band we didn’t use any vocals.” Casiokids used guest vocals for their first album, but the majority of songs are instrumental. Where they did use voices, Ketil explains that they came from audio books.

Their British fans might not be able to understand the lyrics, but Ketil assures me they are significant, even if it’s just on an acoustic level. “We found that when we started playing, we started singing and writing lyrics for the songs, and we found that singing worked as an instrument as well,” he says. “There are a lot of vocal harmonies and it works well on so many different levels; it’s danceable, atmospheric.”

Their music is also popular with children too. “We have done a couple of kindergarten tours in Norway and also played kids shows in France,” says Ketil as he tells me that children seem to really enjoy the sounds of Casiokids. He prefers playing kindergartens to playing a venue, because the children can watch them without parental supervision. Children tend to be more restricted when their parents are there, he tells me. “In a kindergarten they can just go crazy and mess around,” he says, “and it’s a lot of fun.”

“We just respect them as an audience on the same level as adults so we do shows for them every now and again,” adds Ketil. Omar also enjoys playing gigs for children. “I think it’s kind of exciting to see that kids … like listening to live music,” he says.

Casiokids are playing Roskilde in the summer. “The only festival that’s bigger in Europe is Glastonbury,” says Ketil. But if you’d like to see them play somewhere smaller, a little closer to home, and you missed them supporting Hot Chip, Casiokids are also playing Camden Crawl in May.