BRISBANE, Australia — If success really does have many parents, then consider Konstantin Kersting a boss.
The multi-lingual producer and musician had a big hand in one of the biggest success stories of our age, Tones And I’s “Dance Monkey.”
Kersting (known as “Kon” to his friends and family) produced and mixed the 2019 hit, which blew up on charts around the globe and is now recognized as one of the most-played songs of the streaming era.
The numbers are staggering. Tones’ monster blasted to No. 1 in 30 markets, including the U.K., where it led the national singles chart for 11 weeks, a record for a solo female artist. In Australia, its 24-week reign is an all-time record. It’s ranked No. 3 on the list of most-played tracks on Spotify.
In the year of its release, Kersting was nominated for two ARIA Awards. Tones won four.
Everything changed for Tones, who had cut her teeth busking on the streets of Byron Bay when she was discovered. And for Kersting, life “changed in a way that doors opened that wouldn’t have opened otherwise.” The music industry loves a success story.
Kersting got his own musical education in Berlin. It was in the German capital where he learned how to play violin, bass guitar and double bass, and to play with others in a jazz band, and orchestra. He also discovered his love of techno and clubbing.
Relocating to Brisbane, Australia in his mid-teens, Kersting took that education into the studio. As a producer, engineer and mix engineer, he’s gone on to work with the likes of German electronic outfit Milky Chance, and Australian acts Mallrat, The Jungle Giants, The Rubens, Eves Karydas, WAAX and Dami Im.
With “Dance Monkey” catching fire on streaming platforms, the doors flung wide open. “When the Tones stuff was happening, it was crazy,” he recounts. “Tones and I were texting, saying, ‘have you seen where it’s at?’ No one expected it to happen, which made it almost sweeter.”
In 2019 and 2020, Kersting visited Stockholm and Los Angeles for writing sessions, and was overseas when the song first hit No. 1 in Australia.
And then, as the pandemic struck, doors everywhere slid shut.
“Due to COVID, it’s a bit harder now,” he says of life as an Australia-based producer. “But not impossible.”
Ask anyone who calls Australia home, the worst part of living Down Under is its isolation.
Like so many other intrepid creators and tech-savvy types, Kersting switched gears. During one of Melbourne’s deep lockdowns, he mixed an album online with two-time AIR Award-winning indie act The Jungle Giants, whose frontman Sam Hales is currently based in the Victorian capital.
“We recorded it, we produced it and mixed it over Zoom, which is the first time I’ve done that,” he explains. It’s a solution, though nothing beats the experience of working in the same room with an artist.
Kersting should know. His production and writing contributions have contributed to over 7.5 billion streams and 14 million combined sales worldwide. Of that tally, Australian music fans accounted for 2 million sales in just two years.
His list of credits is extensive, and includes work on Tones And I’ “Bad Child” (five-times platinum ARIA Certifications), “Never Seen The Rain” (five-times platinum) and “Johnny Run Away” (two-times platinum); The Jungle Giants’ “Heavy Hearted” (two-times platinum) and Jack Johnson & Milky Chance’s “Don’t Let Me Down,” which topped Billboard’s Adult Alternative Songs airplay chart in July 2020.
While many of us stacked on the pounds during the darkest months of the pandemic, and exhausted all the decent content on Netflix, Kersting hit his straps. He’s working on Spacey Jane’s eagerly-awaited sophomore record, the followup to the indie band’s Sunlight album, which bowed at No. 5 last month on the Australian Artist Albums chart. And with Eliza And The Delusionals on their forthcoming LP. Also, he’s contributed to Mallrat’s anticipated full-length album, the followup to 2019’s Driving Music LP, and to Tones And I’s debut album Welcome to the Madhouse, due out July 16. Kersting is also working on a record with the band he started his career with, and shaping a solo record.
Australia is “an amazing bubble,” percolating with different types of music, he explains.
“It’s a really cool time to be around music because everyone is creating all the time, and no one is traveling. There’s nothing else to do, especially if you’re a touring artist,” he continues. “You’ve got to find a silver lining.”
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