The Würm has turned

“I was always under age when I lived in San Diego, so venues were mainly Ché Café, Soma, WorldBeat Center, and the occasional DIY thing,” says Miguel Trost de Pedro, aka Kid606, a 37-year-old electronic musician now living in Los Angeles.

“I was always the youngest person around, but it was obvious that all these other people started making their music and art when they were really young, so I was inspired by that and felt at home. The unusual thing about how I met these people is that it wasn’t through going to shows or living among them, which would have been wonderful. The way I met all these people was from trading analog synthesizers via the classified ads in the San Diego Reader. I didn’t know who these people were, but I soon found out that they all knew each other and were doing cool stuff.”

The fledgling musician fell in rank with the older crowd, joining an experimental electronic group called Spacewürm that shared a studio with Matt Anderson, head of Gravity Records. Anderson and Spacewürm introduced him to Chula Vista label Vinyl Communications, run by Bob Beyerley of Titwrench and Neighborhood Plumbing.

“I started working with them and that was where I met what would become one of my closest and talented musical allies, Lesser. That was when I started releasing music as Kid606. We started a group with Lesser and Matmos from San Francisco, where I dreamed of living and quickly moved to after I left San Diego.”

About 20 years later, Kid606 returns to San Diego to play at Escondido art incubator Ship in the Woods alongside L.A. electronic pioneers Xiu Xiu and 25 participating artists on Friday, March 17.

“Xiu Xiu is actually the main reason I started playing live again after moving back to L.A. from Berlin. I self-imploded in Berlin and lost my motivation to be involved in music publicly. Jamie [Stewart of Xiu Xiu] asked me to open their record-release party for Angel Guts: Red Classroom, which I couldn’t say no to, but had to then make a live set for. I have always been in love with Xiu Xiu since I first heard them. I honestly don’t know what my show will be like on the 17th, but luckily I have time left to figure it out.”