The Grind: KLSR

MEET KLSR

From his early days in teenage bands, through the trenches producing lo-fi beats on Soundcloud, to his current role merging his soundscapes with entrancing visuals, and contributing stage visuals to artists like RL Grime, Alesso, and Linkin Park, KLSR relentlessly evolves in pursuit of his muse.

KLSR’s work explores the real-time integration of music, light and textures, blurring the boundaries of digital mediums.

As a music producer, KLSR’s sonic compositions both soothe and excite. Futuristic synths contort and distort over classical keys and angelic strings. As a digital visual artist, KLSR marries his music with audio-reactive digital kaleidoscopes, creating immersive experiences of sonic and visual Synesthesia.

We sat down to learn about his journey, how he prioritizes his well-being, and why he doesn’t believe the myth of the tortured soul for creating.

Read on for our interview with KLSR…

KLSR’s recent piece "Image" highlights his signature marriage of sonic and visual surprises into one seamless experience.

Okay, let’s start with a little about who you are and what you create?

I’m KLSR. I’m an audio-visual digital artist. I’ve been a music producer for the past ten years, and I started getting into visual art maybe two or three years ago.

A lot of what I do is audio reactive pieces. I make a lot of music, then I come up with weird visuals that go with the music, and they make their own world.

Very cool, tell us about your name?

It’s basically the word “closer.” I’ve been using that alias for maybe eight years. When I first started making music I tried to make a load of different stuff, and I used to make lo-fi hip-hop on Soundcloud. There was a big scene of swapping letters and vowels in names haha, that’s where it came from.

Did you experience breakthrough quickly, or was it a very steady slow grind over the years?

Over the past six months, it’s been a pretty steady increase. For years I had a few hundred followers on Instagram.

I think what made things blow up was learning more about the program I use, learning from people, and putting out something unique or different. People will see it and respect it, if it’s a genuine thing.

I’ll never understand social media and how the algorithm works. I don’t think I want to. When I got 100,000 followers earlier this year, I was like how has that happened? It’s mental to me. I’m so grateful to anyone that follows me and likes what I post. It’s really nice, it feels good.

What do you think was the key to your success?

The main thing is learning new things and trying to perfect what you want to do. I’m always watching tutorials and trying to make what I’m doing better.

I don’t think there’s ever a time where you’ve learned everything, and you’re done. If you want to take things to the next level, you just have to put in the grind, you just have to keep making stuff. Even if it’s not good, just make it. I was doing it for years and years just because I wanted to do it.

When I started making music I was so frustrated, I didn’t know how to make what I wanted. For years I was just making really terrible, awful music. I’m at a point now where I’m pretty happy with the kind of stuff that I’m making, but I still want to get better.

I don’t think there’s ever a time where you’ve learned everything, and you’re done. If you want to take things to the next level, you just have to put in the grind, you just have to keep making stuff.

KLSR's work was recently showcased in Linkin Park's brand new live show.

LVCIDIA’s founder has discussed how career success often inversely impacts mental health. Have you experienced something similar?

Yeah, if you’re an artist, especially a freelance artist and you don’t have a full-time thing paying you, a lot of the stress in life does come down to financial security.

“Where is the next job is going to come from? What do I do now? Do I just keep working until something happens? Hit the emails and just try and make something happen?” It’s a weird one. You never know when something good is going to happen. You have to work for good things to happen, but you just never know.

As an artist, how do you manage the demands of your work, with your physical and mental well-being?

I think it’s best to try and find some kind of structure where you’re not solely working all the time. If you’re an artist, and lucky enough to do it full-time, it’s very easy to slip into, “I can just do this all day, every day.”

It’s very easy to forget I need a social life. I need to have fun. I need to switch off every now and then. It’s hard, but you have to switch off and put the laptop away.

I love making music and art, so a lot of the time in the day I’m messing around making stuff. If it’s not work for somebody else, I’m trying to work on something for myself. It’s definitely important to find a structure, and to think of it as work sometimes.

What do you feel the role of mental and physical health is in your art, and how does it affect your creative process and your productivity?

It relates to the structure. I go to the gym a few times a week and that’s good obviously. If it was up to me, I’d be sitting at my desk making music all day, every day, and I’d just turn into a mess. It’s good to keep active, I’m a human body, it needs things to survive.

In terms of the mental side, it’s important to talk to people about things, and nourish your well-being. For me it comes out in my art. I always make the best kind of stuff when I’m in a good space and I’m looking after myself. You hear a lot about tortured artists, and obviously that works for some people, but I’ve never been like that. If I’m sad or not going to the gym, I’m just making trash. That doesn’t work for me.

It’s important to keep on top of things outside of work and art, and to look after yourself. It will benefit the outcome and how productive you are at the end of the day.

“I always make the best kind of stuff when I’m in a good space and I’m looking after myself.”

How do you balance your time and schedule with a day job, freelancing, and your artist life? Are evenings and weekends for art?

I have a day job right now, and I’ve been doing freelance visual work for the past two or three years. Over the past six months, things have been getting busier on Instagram and TikTok, they’ve been the biggest tool for me to get reach and work.

I pretty much work whenever I’m free. If I don’t have any plans, I’m doing art stuff. If I’m out during the day for work, as soon as I get home, I’ll start on a new thing. I think I’m quite bad for working on the weekends. If I’m not doing anything Saturday, I’ll open up my laptop and start working on something. It’ll be five hours later and I’ll think, “fuck, I shouldn’t have today.” It goes back to the structure of things.

Have you ever made a mistake in your career you’ve really learned from, that’s beneficial for others to hear about?

I’ve definitely made lots and lots of mistakes. I think that’s just normal and that’s natural. At the start of a freelance career, I do think it’s important to stand your ground a bit and do what you believe is the right thing to do.

A common thing might be payment. You might undercharge someone for something because it would be a good exposure thing. Doing stuff for exposure can be good, but a lot of the time, it’s good not to undersell what you’re doing.

I used to do that a lot, I wanted work so badly, I was always scared of saying no. Sometimes you just gotta say no.

Do you feel there might be an underlying reason artists will undersell themselves?

I’ve never really thought about that too much. Maybe I should talk about this in therapy, haha.

If someone I really admire approaches me, or there’s a really cool opportunity, sometimes I still feel like I should do the work no matter the cost. But I’ve also got to pay rent. That’s really common with people that start freelancing. It takes a level of confidence to sell yourself.

It’s a difficult thing to figure out. Every now and again there will be a client who wants your work for next to nothing. Maybe they’re a big brand and they think they’re in a position to. That’s a difficult thing to navigate. You just have to charge what you think it’s worth.

What’s the end goal for you as an artist?

I have an existential crisis almost every single day about this. I don’t really care about being super rich. I don’t think anyone should get into art because they want to be super rich. But it’s nice if that happens.

I just want to live a life where I can make things that I like, and other people like. That’s all I really want. I like to have autonomy in my own life. I don’t want to be constrained or limited to one sort of thing.

I think the best thing about art and the freelance world is the opportunity to expand and grow and learn new things. If I get to live a comfortable life doing this, I’m happy with that.

“I like to have autonomy in my own life. I don’t want to be constrained or limited to one sort of thing.”

So for you, location freedom and time freedom are very important to strive towards?

Yeah, for sure. I used to watch a lot of Anthony Bourdain. We’re all on this planet and there’s so much to see, it would be great to go out and see it all, and do something that allows me to. It’s an exciting, scary, weird thing to think about, because we’re not here for a long time.

What else would you say to digital artists who want to break through and elevate their work?

Just do it every day. What’s the thing they say, you have to do something for 10,000 hours. You just gotta do it. You just gotta keep doing it. Whatever you’re doing, if you want to get better, and if you want more people to see it, a lot of the time it’s as simple as that.

It is difficult to break through with things now, Instagram, TikTok and X, there’s a lot of art out there which is great. But it can maybe be demotivating. You know there’s so many amazing people out there and you’re trying to push through and be seen by people. But you just gotta keep doing it.