Stars are born, not made. This is exactly what comes to mind when we think of DJ and producer, KURA. He’s 28 years old and is already the 61st most popular DJ in the world according to DJ Mag’s Top100 2015, and is signed to the most important worldwide EDM label, Spinnin Records and with bookings managed by world renowned, Anna Agency.
KURA has under his belt several releases for labels such as Hardwell’s Revealed Recordings, Oxygen/Spinnin Records, Ferry Corsten’s Flashover Recordings, Robbie Rivera’s Juicy Music, Nicky Romero’s Protocol Recordings, and Armin Van Buuren’s Trice/Armada Music, as well as Ultra Music, among others, and lots more are on the way. Add to this his remarkable charisma and talents on a DJ booth and you have the key ingredients to make it in today’s competitive and worldwide electronic scene.

It’s rather curious for a DJ that names Hardwell, Axwell, Nicky Romero and Alesso as his main references when it comes to music production to have been introduced to dance music through Carl Cox’s Fact 2 compilation. KURA was 11 years old when a classmate’s Walkman playing “Fact 2” captured his attention. This was the first electronic dance music CD bought by young KURA, and the dance music expedition began. By the early 2000s he started going out to clubs and his attention grew sonically to the disco filtered french touch of Martin Solveig, Modjo, Black Legend, and of course, to the big beat of his all-time musical heroes, Daft Punk. Growing up with such musical diversity had a long and withstanding effect on Kura: he loves music whether it’s underground or commercial, as long as it’s good and strong, he’ll surely and happily play it. The high school’s radio station was just one step ahead and that’s where Kura began to select records and play them for an audience.
By 2005 he landed on his part time job at a skate shop near the beach on the outskirts of Lisbon. Luckily for the rest of us there was a DJ booth at the shop, and when no one was around, KURA would play and practice on it. Opportunity knocked and young KURA started to organize parties, just to play, in Cascais’s club, Coconuts. His first DJ residency came along and he became Bahaus resident DJ for 3 years. Having to play regularly before a crowd created the emergency for music production – “I needed my own edits. I needed to change what I didn’t like or thought wouldn’t work on a dancefloor” – he states. His first bootleg was a hit among his peers – Sydney Samson’s “Work It” on Hardwell’s remix crossed with Bob Marley – made a dancefloor stomper and soon after his fellow DJs were asking him for the bootleg. More edits came along and his music production skills were starting to be noticed. KURA upgraded to Logic Pro 8 and made his first original track, “Russian Guitar” that was pick up by Portugal’s first and finest label, Kaos Records.

His name grew as a DJ and he was invited to play as a resident DJ at Lisbon’s Kapital, and then at the summer club, Tamariz, and then to Gossip, a 1.500 people capacity club in Lisbon. Production wise his tracks and remixes were coming out regularly and the invitations to play in other clubs started to come in, it was time to leave his residencies and focus on a freelance career, and that’s what KURA did. As his productions got stronger his invitations to play in bigger & better clubs grew.
The international breakthrough would come with his track “Brazil”. Roger Sanchez picked it up from the thousands of promos he usually received and played it on his infamous Release Yourself Radio Show. The track was released and KURA’s name became the one to keep an eye on as the fastest riser on the Portuguese EDM scene in years. But it wouldn’t be only Roger Sanchez to notice KURA’s music production talents, Thomas Gold would also play his tracks “Polaris”, “Love Will Find You”, a remix of “Nightrain” as well as a bootleg of Adele signed by KURA on his radio show. Besides these KURA also got support for his tracks from Hardwell, Nicky Romero and EDX, amongst many others.
By early 2012 he had caught the eye of many in the industry and was invited to join the Swiss based agency WDB Management. From then on and until today WDB Management does his management.

In 2015 Spinnin Records, the world’s leading EDM label, signs KURA in a clear signal of all the potential of the producer and DJ. He’s chosen to remix Coca-Cola’s “First Time, First Love”, the mega brand hymn and star in their #beijafelicidade campaign.
“Namek” is released in July and October sees the release of “King Kong”, a massive track and collaboration with Dutch rising star, Tony Junior. And Hardwell reveals he’s collaborating with KURA, so what’s to come is nothing short of amazing. KURA is once more on DJ Mag’s Top100 and on the 61st spot in 2015.
The end of 2015 will see his release of “Kubano” through Doorn records setting yet another great label on KURA’s already long list of releases.
The future is so bright he has got to wear shades!

iFLYER