When someone is being heralded as one of the most exciting talents of this day and age by none other than Kanine and Andromedik, themselves former rising stars that have since ascended to international headliner status, you simply ought to pay attention.
From the metropolis of stunning marble palaces and oversized breaded meat that is Vienna, Austrian up-and-comer Kilian Braun – aka SKIYE – has been chipping away at the established dancefloor scene’s foundations for quite some time now, with his musical efforts having become truly unavoidable this past year. Whether it’s via the set lists of veterans like Andy C, Camo & Krooked, and Delta Heavy, through his own radio appearances on BBC Radio 1 and FM4’s iconic La Boum de Luxe show, or the discographies of labels like DnB Allstars, Liquicity’s Ridmic, and High Tea Music, chances are you’ve been exposed to at least one of Kilian’s magnificently manifold productions in recent times – and if not, this is the exact right time to start paying attention!
With 2026 looking to be his biggest year yet, we sat down with him to talk about how his intrinsic drive for songwriting almost lead him to an early stardom on The Voice, how he started out deep inside the vortex of Belgian jump up even though he lives a good 800km away from its origins, the lessons he learned to get where he is now, and what’s lurking on the horizon.
About a year ago you wrote a forward-looking post that said: “2025 could be a big one.” So, was it a big one?
It was definitely way bigger than I ever imagined!
At the start of 2025, I was still kind of stuck in Liquid and didn’t really want to go in a direction as hard as ‘Walkman’, for example. I was more focused on radio-friendly mainstream stuff. But then in March, Anas got in touch – who’s now my manager – and that’s when I started realizing what’s actually possible.
Through that, I kind of found my way back to myself, or rather my old self. In other words, back when I was still known as Skydrill, when I was still making Belgian jump up! Just the craziest stuff. So I started making more club-ready music again, but with a crucial difference: this time I also began sending my tracks out to big DJs – which worked amazingly well!
I think Kanine was one of the first big names who sort of discovered me back then. Actually, it was Sudley who sent him my stuff, funnily enough.
Sudley sent it to him?
Yeah, exactly! I’d been in contact with him for quite a while and he had all my dubs. At some point he asked if he could send them to Fergus. I was like, “Who’s Fergus?” and he said, “You know, Kanine!” And I was just stunned like, “Oh! Yeah, please do!” Then he sent me a screenshot with Kanine saying “These are crazy!” – I could not believe my eyes.
And that’s how it all started! I actually had a really good conversion rate – about 15–20% of the people I sent tunes to replied the first time, and some of them even played them! That obviously pushed the networking forward step by step, and that’s one of the reasons the last half of 2025 was so incredible for me.
What would you say was the craziest clip or place you heard your tune being played?
The coolest moment was in Bratislava at DnB Allstars. I played before Kanine – from 10 to 11 PM, so he played 11 to midnight. Right after my set, I quickly went backstage to grab a drink or two, then went back on stage and heard him drop the John Summit remix at that exact moment. I was just like, wow!
You’ve got gigs coming up in the UK, the Netherlands, and of course Austria – what’s your personal highlight?
Probably Andromedik Invites in Prague, at EPIC! An absolute honour to be invited to play at such a massive show. The day after I am also flying straight over to the UK, where I’ll be playing my first-ever b2b with El Pablo, which is especially exciting as we are also working on a project together that’s coming up!
You’ve also played in your home country Austria a fair bit, I assume?
A little bit, yeah. Back when I was still known as Skydrill, I was actually playing in Belgium most of the time! Nowadays, in part thanks to all the changes I made at the start of 2025 and in part because it’s just where I’m from, I’m appearing on a few more lineups in Austria as well. But now that I look through my current schedule, it seems like I’ll be travelling outside of Austria quite a bit again!
Speaking of your old alias, let’s talk a bit about your past as Skydrill – let’s drill down into your history, so to speak. Going through your discography from start to finish, you can tell you’ve got quite the sense for musicality, even in the earliest, way dirtier belgian jump up tunes. So I wonder where this is all coming from – did you have a musical childhood?
Yeah, actually I did. I went to a music-focused secondary school where I learned a lot of theory and practical stuff. Before that I’d already started playing guitar and bass, played in a band, and sang. I even auditioned for The Voice Kids back then.
No way! Your career path could have gone very differently!
Totally! I didn’t make it onto the televised show though, I only made it to the audition in Munich. So I didn’t get into the Blind Auditions. You know, the one where the chairs turn around. I could always sing well, but once puberty hit… maybe not as much anymore. Still, I’ve always had a feel for notes and songwriting. Even when I was four or five, I’d be singing stuff that didn’t even exist, basically making up songs in my head in the shower.
I guess that’s how that creative drive shows itself at that young an age! No rules, no structure or anything, just pure creativity.
Exactly. When I was 16, I remember it so clearly, I was in New York with my dad and grandma. I heard a song, something from Machine Gun Kelly, on the radio in the hotel lounge and thought, “Man, I love this song, but it should be just a little bit different.” When we got home, I immediately downloaded FL Studio and changed it around until that craving was satisfied.
A proper belgian jump up remix then?
Hah! No, no, I actually started with lo-fi. I was already going to jump up raves and stuff back then, but producing it myself was really difficult, so I had to get into it and, like, learn the ropes first. I taught myself everything, completely learning by doing, an actually extremely exhausting, but ultimately quite rewarding process. Jump Up came a bit later though!
What was the timeline like? You started Skydrill at 16, right?
I started around April or May 2019. By September, I knew FL Studio much better, so I moved away from the calmer stuff and almost exclusively did jump up. Of course, I learned a lot from that, but by mid-2023, I started craving creating more melodic, musical things again.
You already had the London Bridge Policeman Bootleg in 2022, which was also completely different from anything else you had done before. A bit of 4×4, and even a bit of liquid at the end. Was that the “turning point” for you?
I’d actually say it started one or two months before that, with the Southstar bootleg! That was my first tune to hit over 100k views on SoundCloud. With both that and the London Bridge remix, I realised how much I enjoyed that direction. Jump Up continued for a bit – I had to keep the Skydrill sound going after all – but I could feel it dying down, you know. You can even hear it in the name Skydrill – it “drills” you, à la “In-die-Fresse-Rap, jetzt gibt’s Heckmeck”.
For those who are non-German speaking; This references a famous line by german rapper Haftbefehl and roughly translates to “In-your-face rap, now there’s going to be trouble!”
Ha, good reference!
I had to make a clean break, a fresh start somehow; that sort of stuff was still the me from my childhood. Since people always called me “Sky”, I thought to myself, “Why not just go with Sky?” But just spelling it S-K-Y would have been so generic, of course. Every other person online has called themselves that. And don’t get me started on the media company!
Or just the normal English word!
Exactly. So I added an “I” after the K and an “E” at the end to make it visually unique and easier to find online. But it’s still pronounced “Sky”, for anyone wondering.
How did you get into drum and bass in the first place? Especially Belgian jump up I don’t necessarily associate with the beautiful mountains of Austria! Or is it a big thing over there?
Back then, absolutely! In fact, around 2018/2019, Belgian jump up was the thing in Austria. Everyone wanted to play a show down here, because we just went so crazy for it! Sometimes you couldn’t even hear the music anymore, because people were screaming so loud. At the time artists like Woodlock, Captain Bass, and Primate were getting tons and tons of SoundCloud plays – with like 70% coming from Austria!
But to answer the question: it was actually through my older brother. Around 2016, he was already going out to drum & bass events, and when Belgian jump up started becoming a big thing here, he fell in love with it. I remember it so clearly: On my mom’s wedding, on December 31, 2018, he showed me a Woodlock tune on his phone. I loved it so much I asked him to take me to the next Belgian jump up event, as soon as possible! I’d been to a drum & bass rave before, some event where A.M.C was playing, so it wasn’t entirely new to me, but when I went to my first real purely jump up party, in like January 2019, I remember only thinking one thing the entire time: “Wow, this is crazy.”
I fell so far down that particular niche that I also barely knew other parts of drum & bass. For instance, I didn’t even know Sub Focus until 2022!
What?!
I know right! And now I’m a huge fan of his, of course! Even at the time, I just thought to myself, “How could I not know the biggest icon of the genre?!” It took until around 2022 for my taste to broaden. At the very beginning, before even jump up, I actually listened to more neurofunk, like Mefjus, Signal aka IMANU, and of course also Camo & Krooked. But dancefloor took a bit longer to get into. In my defence, I’m still quite young!
You are forgiven! Even if you may not have known them until recently, you have since received a good amount of support from them.
Totally! It’s wild, even outside DnB. Like for example, Timmy Trumpet has played some of my stuff.
Excuse me, but what?
Right? Timmy posted a clip of it on his Instagram, which Andromedik then told me about – he is honestly such a supportive guy, both online and in real life.
Big up Axel!
Kanine‘s also right up there, of course. At the Let It Roll show in Vienna recently, I was talking to him backstage and he said that he sees his younger, aspiring self in me – just such an unbelievably sweet thing to say! Like, wow! That really touched me deeply, especially because he is my absolute role model. My idol.
That’s an incredible compliment, what a sweetie!
To put you in the role of the established mentor now: What would you say was the most important change in your approach to this career, the thing that really made SKIYE take off?
I already alluded to it earlier: Send-outs. Just, sending tracks to big DJs. I never used to do it, and that’s how all this started. I always tell people: put your stuff out there on SoundCloud, maybe as a free download. Let people know you’re producing! Build a catalog. Be consistent. Then, little by little, you can also get on streaming services via a distributor. And when you’re ready, when you really like the tunes yourself, then send them out to artists! Big names, medium-sized names, whatever makes sense. Because if one of them likes you and your tunes, they might play the tune or even post a clip of it, and then suddenly a whole new world of opportunities opens up!
Networking and all that!
Exactly! Then maybe an agency or a manager will notice you – like Anas did with me. Without him, it never would have become as big as it is now. But that’s how it starts: you have to make yourself visible, that’s the most important thing.
Another thing that helped me is sometimes just looking beyond your perfectionism and just releasing your tracks into the wild, even if you’re not 100% happy with them yet. I was battling that inner perfectionism issue for years. The tunes I really love are only now starting to finally come out: ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ last month, then ‘Sound of the Underground’, then El Pablo‘s ‘Walkman’ remix, then ‘Body Talk’, and so on. In my eyes, those are absolutely the best things I’ve ever produced. You have to get past your ego and say, “This is the best I can present right now,” instead of sitting on tracks forever, starting new ones, never finishing anything, and eventually not even liking the old stuff anymore, and discarding it.
You learn so much when you actually work through the entire process until the very end more often!
Plus, you have to test it live some time! Or upload it, or send it out. Perfectionism is heaven and hell at the same time. I’m really glad I learned to tune it out a bit. I never start a new project if I’m still working on another one that I still see potential in, for example. You have to know yourself and what works best for you, set boundaries accordingly and stick to them.
Of course, there are moments when I struggle with writer’s block as well. What really helps me in those times is taking a tune I love – any genre – and recreating it. Then I gradually change more and more until I’ve added so much of myself that it becomes my own tune – or at the very least I’ve learned a ton in the process. Even just analyzing tracks with a plugin can help a lot. It definitely helped me!
Let’s circle back to our intro and take a look into the crystal ball. What do you think, will 2026 be a “big one”?
I can’t see the future of course, but there’s a 99% chance 2026 will be my biggest year ever. The number of confirmed shows already, the releases planned – there’s a new one every five weeks! We’re recording a set for the second volume of my Golden Hour mix series. My show at Donauinselfest will also be fully recorded and uploaded. So a lot is going to happen. A lot, a lot, a lot! I’m not just talking big, it is actually going to be big!
That’s a quote right there!
Yeah! I don’t want to waste any time, and keep pushing forward.
