Most producers long to forge a sonic footprint that is uniquely theirs, and instantly recognisable – for Kaytranada, having a “signature sound” isn’t something he fully accepts.

Kaytranada recently released his fourth album, titled Ain’t No Damn Way!, back in August 2025. He believes his sound across his discography is inspired by a range of influences, from hip-hop and R&B, all the way to disco. Having drawn from so much inspiration, he’s not so sure if he can fully take ownership over a specific sound.

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Speaking to Billboard, he looks back on his debut album, 99%, and how he was inspired by MSTRKRFT’s Fist Of God album when making it.

“My approach was like, ‘How about I do whatever they’re doing, but in a hip-hop and R&B filter way.’ That was the main inspiration of that album, or even of my journey into making electronic music. I don’t think there were a lot of people doing that, so I embraced that fully.

“For some reason, I’m the pioneer of what that became… some people call it the Kaytranada sound, which is funny, because I was just inspired by what was going on in the electronic scene and fusing it with hip-hop, R&B and boogie music, like disco. That was the influence,” he says.

“For that to be called ‘the Kaytranada sound’ is still funny to me. I don’t know if it’s [my] humbleness or whatever, but it’s not something I fully embrace, because I was inspired by so many things.”

Moving on to his most recent album, he goes on to add: “That [new] album is a collection of beats I had stashed, and also some new ones… It was a lot of instrumentals that were meant to be on previous projects, and I just tweaked them a bit and made it become a compilation, because part of me wanted to showcase my beats.

“I’m very inspired by beat tapes. Daily I listen to J Dilla beat tapes, Madlib beat tapes, Black Milk beat tapes. Those producers, who are mainly hip-hop producers, are my inspiration. Even the producer Knowledge has dropped a couple house tapes on his Bandcamp, and that was also an inspiration to the project.”

Kaytranada is currently working on new music. You can catch him live later this year, with shows kicking off in May – find out more via his official website.

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