Tune into Nico Kahl, The Cty

by junior rendon a&e editor

Nico Kahl ‘26, known as The Cty on Spotify, Soundcloud and Apple Music, is exploring his talent for producing upbeat, electronic music. He has plans to produce a mix of electronic and jazz music in the future.

Kahl started off his musical career by playing piano for nine years before deciding to try a new genre of music. He chose to switch to electronic beats and has stuck with the style for the past three years.

He produces his music from the comfort of his own studio garage. The process begins when Kahl chooses to make a beat at the studio or returns to the piano to create something there.

“I sit down and start out with a sound or just any idea really,” said Kahl. “Sometimes I’ll sit at a piano, or I’ll just sit down right in the studio and come up with something, and I’ll just build off of that. I’ll keep building on it, and that’s usually how songs go.”

However, the process for creating can end as quickly as it started, depending on if the beats meet Kahl’s qualifications for a good song.

“If it works, it works, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t,” said Kahl. “Sometimes it’s good, and sometimes it’s not good. It’s a hit or miss.”

Kahl has officially released six songs, all of them with an electronic beat. Moving forward as a musician, Kahl is tapping into the jazz world and plans on releasing a contemporary jazz album toward the end of the 2022–23 school year.

“I’m really trying to get into jazz, and that’s the type of music I want to make going forward,” said Kahl. “That album is probably going to be out at the end of the school year.”

While no songs have been teased yet, Kahl has stated that the upcoming tracks on his new album have been his favorites to produce. They feature new styles of music that Kahl has not produced and released before.

“[The new songs are] pretty trippy,” said Kahl. “They’ve got this cool, jazz–fusion section and then this boom bap hip–hop section. It’s going to be crazy.”

Jazz fusion is a music genre that mixes modern jazz with elements of drumming, bass lines, rock music and strong electronic instruments. Boom bap hip–hop is a subgenre of hip–hop that utilizes hard–hitting drums such as snare drums, kick drums and many other percussion instruments.

On the upcoming album, Kahl has also collaborated with many artists, one being jazz musician Madeline Sanders ‘26.

“[Sanders] plays the double bass, so [there’s] an insane bass section,” said Kahl. “You [have to] wait for the new album to drop to hear that one.”

As a fellow jazz musician, Sanders greatly recognizes Kahl’s talents as an artist.

“Nico [Kahl] is extremely passionate about music,” said Sanders. “He has great talent in jazz, improv and interpretation. He is amazing at spontaneously making music and is a very notable musician to jam with.”

Although Kahl’s new music will not all be electronic as his previous songs have been, he plans to incorporate some electronic elements with jazz ones to create something new.

“When this new album drops, it’s going to be really different,” said Kahl. “I used to produce electronic stuff, and now I’m more in the jazz world, so it’s a fusion of that. It’s all of those influences coming together.”

Apart from the new album, Kahl has also produced music with producer Howard Johnson ‘26. The two released their first single together on Oct. 7, 2022.

“We’ve made our new group called Mixed Edition,” said Johnson. “We made one song ... called ‘Hello’, but we’re coming up with new music.”

Kahl fuses his vast knowledge of different music genres and styles together as he creates a unique sound for his first album.

“I made it,” said Kahl. “It’s got my own little secret sauce on it. It’s got the garage sauce [and] it’s different.”