Born in Detroit, Michigan, Kyle Mack grew up in a state with strong musical influences from Motown to the revolutionary sounds of techno music. We caught up with the snowboarder while at Dew Tour Copper 2021 and got the full scoop on his favorite type of music, learned his DJ name, and how he learned not to ride while playing music. All this and a custom curated music playlist in his latest On Rotation interview below.
Let’s start out with, what’s your favorite music?
I think right now it’s dubstep, any type of dubstep. Grungy stuff like Caspa to any new age stuff like Of The Trees is dope, R.I.P. CharlestheFirst, who passed away.
Have you always been into dubstep music?
Yeah, that’s pretty much the whole reason why I got into music festivals, and everything was because of that type of music. Big festivals is where you can listen to that music, and that’s where I started to meet all my friends, and all of the connections I have in my life come from that type of music. So it’s kind of a big influence in my life.
Right, the music and festival community is all so big community, but everyone is all connected.
It’s so big, yet it’s so small too in the same way. Music is the biggest interest in the world, but once you meet the people, that niche is so small. It’s the same with snowboarding; it’s huge, but it’s such a small niche once you’re in it.
Were you introduced by someone to the whole dubstep and festival scene, or was it something you found yourself?
What got me into it was a couple my good buddies, my good buddy who raps, and my other buddy Alec Ortega who is our photographer. We started listening to music together, and then we all went to Electric Forest together, and that’s where all the music and friendships and everything started intertwining, and then I met my best friend there too.
So was Electric Forest your first music festival?
No, it’s was actually Movement, which is in Detroit and is one of the biggest house and techno festivals.
Detroit is mostly known for Motown music, but it’s a big part of techno music, and warehouse parties started, right?
Yeah, it’s huge in Detroit, and don’t quote me on this, but I’m pretty sure it’s where house music started and all that stuff.
I’ve come across a documentary on the techno scene there and how with all the abandoned warehouses out there, they used to throw underground raves.
Still to this day, they do. We still have some of the craziest, no laws, no rules type of raves.
That’s insane. From what I remember, you DJ yourself, too right?
Yeah, I DJ and mess around it’s fun. I know how it all works, so it’s fun to mess around and stuff. It’s always super hard if you don’t have your music like if you don’t have your own playlist and you have to play through someone else’s, it’s so hard to try to guess on all their stuff. That’s kind of where all my struggles come from is getting together the correct music playlist.
What’s your DJ Name?
I have a couple. Donny Boy is one of them, and I’ve been running that for a while, but Poster Child is another one I like, but there is a music management company called Poster Child.
How about when you’re snowboarding, are you listening to that same type of music?
It’s funny, I actually don’t listen to music when I ride. It was one thing I was taught when I was younger. You lose one of your senses, and your equilibrium gets thrown off. You can’t hear the snow change. You don’t even think about those small things that my coach drilled into my head, and I started really picking up on things that change so fast out there that you want to hear. So if you go to some snow to ice, you don’t feel that you hear it before you can feel it.
How about pre-comp or to get warmed up. Does music play a role into your mental prep?
Yeah, I mean my music is full blast in the car ride here. I’m listening to everything from Tee Grizzly to Big Sean. Those two are my favorite two rappers.
Fair warning for this next question. It sometimes stumps people. If you could pick any song rights free for a video part, what would you pick?
That’s such a hard one. I mean, I was really stoked on my backcountry song this year, BabyJake’s Daddy’s Coming Home. That was one of my favorite songs I was listening to. But I want to make a really hard old-school Skrillex to like a banger video part like heavy rails and stuff like that.
Are there any snowboard videos that influenced you because of the rider and music they used?
Man, it’s so hard it’s such a hit or miss. It could really kill a party or make a video part.
What’s your preference for music type in video parts?
Everyone knows that street parts are way harder, and you want rap, and any backcountry part is way sicker when you have that slow, more like chill and viby music. But I mean, it could go either.
Sound off in the comments below!