A Chat with Tainted Youth (06.08.2025)
Tainted Youth, the genre-blending duo of Kathleen and Ryan, are steadily carving out a unique space in the world of emotionally charged electronic music. In this candid interview, they reflect on the deeply personal roots of their latest single ‘Drifting Away’, the balance between vulnerability and energy in their sound, and how their creative partnership has evolved since their first session together in 2018. From home studio sessions to future plans, this is a conversation about growth, connection, and the power of music to bridge distance, both emotional and physical.
OSR: ‘Drifting Away’ captures a strong emotional sense of distance. What inspired that feeling in the lyrics?
Kathleen: Well, I originally wrote the topline of the song back in 2018, pretty soon after moving to London from the US, so I think that theme of distance was definitely inspired by my decision to leave my old life behind and move away from home.
OSR: What does the title ‘Drifting Away’ mean to you now, compared to when you first wrote it?
Ryan: The song still has the same meaning as it did in 2018 to us both, but being a lot older now, we’ve both had to leave people behind and kind of lived what the song talks about. On a personal level, the song means a lot to us as we’ve grown individually and together since we wrote this back in 2018. We both got our degrees, started Tainted Youth, we’ve lived together for like four years now and written a lot of songs. So, it’s funny to think back to 2018 when we were basically strangers in a writing session together.
OSR: The production feels both polished and raw. How did you approach producing this track in your home studio?
Ryan: Thank you, that’s exactly what we always aim for in the production of our songs. I think a big part of the production is not overproducing it and keeping it simple while still being interesting. For this song especially, we wanted to make sure the drums and bass were very punchy, which contrasts with the softness and rawness of the piano and the vocals.
OSR: Do you think people underestimate how personal electronic music can be?
Kathleen: I think it’s mostly people who are from a slightly older generation who tend to misjudge electronic music. I think they have this misconception that all electronic music is just repetitive and boring beats that are meant to serve as a vehicle for drug-induced euphoria. That’s definitely not the case, and I’m really glad that more and more people are starting to see how much variety there is in electronic music.
OSR: How do you balance the weight of emotional lyrics with the physical energy of drum & bass?
Kathleen: Depending on the vibe of the track, we decide pretty early on what we want the lyrical content to be and go from there. It’s easy to tell based on the chord progression and instrumentation of a song whether it will lend itself better to being emotional and vulnerable or fun and uplifting. We try our best to have a balance of both types of songs.
OSR: As a duo, how do your creative roles split? Who usually starts the idea, and who finishes it?
Ryan: It definitely varies a little bit from song to song, but typically I’ll start an idea with some chords, drums and some bass. I’ll then make a handful of these and show Kathleen and see what ideas resonate with her. She will then write some melodies and vocal ideas; we’ll go back and forth a bit until we’re both happy with it. We then record vocals, and I’ll then sit and play with it, sometimes changing a lot, sometimes nothing. We then both sit down and make sure we’re both happy with everything. It sounds like a lot of back and forth, but since we live together, it’s easy.
OSR: How do you keep your sound evolving without losing the emotional core?
Kathleen: Life will always find a way to provide the plot twists and happy moments that inspire our music. No matter how much our sound evolves, there will always be source material from life that we can draw inspiration from and use in our songwriting.
OSR: What’s the relationship between music and memory for you? Does creating always feel like reflection?
Ryan: We both grew up in musical families; my mum is a singer, and Kathleen’s grandparents played in an orchestra, so we both have a lot of memories from being young and doing music. I think for us, what makes our music stand apart is a combination of being reflective in the vocals, but also thinking about how to do something new within that. The possibilities are endless in electronic music, so it’s definitely a combination of reflective and relatable stories we tell while trying to find new and creative ways to tell them.
OSR: And what would you like your music to bring to the world?
Kathleen: I think I can speak for Ryan when I say that we want people to hear our music and relate to it. Music has always been a source of comfort and respite for me when I feel lonely, and that’s what I want our music to do for other people. Although not all of our music is emotional and introspective, we definitely want people to hear our music and feel like they found something that resonates with them on a personal level. That’s what makes music so special, how it brings us all together.
OSR: What’s next for Tainted Youth? An EP, more singles, or something totally different?
Ryan: We’re not exactly sure. We have some finished songs ready to go, and we’re always making new songs. So, more than likely, some more singles for the rest of 2025 and early 2026. We do have a good concept for a larger body of work we’ve started work on. So hopefully we can continue with that and release that next year.
Many thanks to Kathleen and Ryan for speaking with us. Find out more about Tainted Youth on their Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Spotify
