Cole Knight Keeps It Cute and Energetic on Her Latest EP

Cole Knight's manager gave her one directive for her latest EP, Keep It Cute.

"He said, 'Just keep it cute.' So I said, 'You know what, Alex, we keep it cute, we keep it classy,'" she explains.

Knight is sitting down with New Times at Admari Tea in Miami's Little River neighborhood. Crystals are scattered throughout the space, and she's sipping oolong while discussing her latest release.

Born and raised in southern Illinois, the DJ/producer grew up in America's electronic music belt. She traveled the world as a young model before studying computer science at Michigan State University. She spent time in techno's birthplace, Detroit, and through modeling, brushed up on all things house music in Chicago.

In 2017, Knight decamped for Los Angeles, where she learned to DJ and took classes on producing electronic music.

"I began messing around with Ableton during COVID, but I was using it to meditate," she explains. "Me and my roommate would record our voices and put them in Ableton. It was like making a movie."

While in Los Angeles, she spent hours in her friend's garage, learning to mix and hold a room. Eventually, the self-declared "farm girl" landed in the Magic City in 2022.

"I've played instruments growing up and started modeling at a young age. I felt music was always there for me," she says. "When I moved to L.A., I thought about DJing. I didn't do it; I was too intimidated. A couple of years ago, I started throwing myself out there, recording mixes and sending them around."

After taking the leap, Knight has found herself behind the decks at Club Space and booking a gig at III Points. She also played at Coachella and began globetrotting, spending her summers playing in Ibiza.

"I think being in L.A. helped," Knight reflects. "I think my music is just hard to put a genre on. I can't put myself in a box. Sometimes I try to, but it's a little bit of acid, a little bit of techno. It's groovy and kind of sexy with a lot of female vocals but also house-y. It's journey music, I guess."
Released last month on Diplo's Higher Ground label, Keep It Cute kicks off with the title track, an homage to the ghetto house subgenre. Described by author and associate arts professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Dan Charnas as "a hyper-blend of Miami bass and Detroit techno," ghetto house is known for its simple, captivating kick, bouncy bass, and raunchy lyrics. DJs like DJ Slugo pioneered the subgenre, while Nina Kraviz's "Ghetto Kraviz" brought the sound to the masses.

"Keep It Cute" adds more connective tissue with bellowing synths, modulating basslines, and her commandeering vocal work and lyrics. Knight admits writing the lyrics is not akin to Leonard Cohen, nor is it needed to make an earworm. "We keep it cute/We keep it classy/ We keep it cool/We keep it nasty…/We're here to win/We're here to ride/We're here to dance/We dance all night."

"Nina's early stuff, the 'Ghetto Kraviz' era, is some of my favorite music," Knight says. "I guess it subconsciously influenced my stuff. I use a lot of my voice, sometimes more spoken words. I also love that bass-y, simplistic feeling of oomph energy — a little aggressive and powerful, making you want to groove with it."

"The Girls Go Walking" closes the EP with a more formidable beat. The percussion hits and a classic acid rhythm fortifies the track into a dance-floor showstopper.

"The lyrics for 'The Girls Go Walking' are from my friend, Stevie," she adds. "I wanted to make something super acid-y for the dance floor. I needed a vocal, and I started looking through all my old voice memos, and I found one from a trip to Costa Rica with my British friends. I didn't even think I was recording; it was nonsense."

Knight's production credits also include a remix of Diplo's "Don't Forget My Love" in collaboration with Fedele. It's an acidic cluster of sleek breaks with soaring highs after each drop.

"Fedele and I went to a Chemical Brothers concert and left so inspired that we stayed up all night to make Diplo's remix," Knight explains.

In anticipation of a busy Miami Art Week next month, Knight is letting the decks cool off in November to work on her studio and push her upcoming production. On December 7, she'll go back-to-back with close friend Airrica for Rüfüs Du Sol's Rose Avenue party at Factory Town. "We just have fun going back-to-back," she adds.

Knight is currently sitting on six completed tracks she will sprinkle out next year and shop around for a label. "I feel more confident in the studio than ever have," she says. Knight expects her next EP, A Little Fun, will feature a vibe similar to Keep It Cute but at a higher octane. She also says she's working on an ambient live set for her side project as a sound healer.

"Facilitating sound as a tool to drop into a deep state of meditation really grounded me before I got into the other side of sound, which is dance music," she explains." It's so powerful that it can make you go into meditation and also put you in ecstasy and a deep state of trance."

Ultimately, Keep It Cute's lasting legacy is the push it gave Knight to use her voice, something she's been afraid to do before.

"After I recorded, I was like, 'Damn, this sounds pretty good. I should learn how to use my voice,'" she says. "I'm drawn to the female voice. It just sounds sexy. Vocals are memorable."