Carlos Cid won his first Grammy in 2014, but he didn’t get up onstage to accept the award. His name wasn’t pulled from any envelopes. His name wasn’t even on the nomination. Technically, Cedric Gervais won the Grammy for best remixed recording, non-classical for his work on Lana Del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness,” and as a non-credited co-producer, CID‘s win came in a bit of shadow.
“At the stage that I was, it wasn’t an opportunity that would have come to me,” Cid tells Billboard Dance. “It was an amazing experience back then, because it gave me that confidence to say, ‘Hey, I worked on this with Cedric and it got here. I can do this for myself.’ It was kind of a jumping point where I said, ‘I really want to focus on my own career.’”
It’s been a goal of Cid’s to get back to the Grammy Awards in his own spotlight ever since. He thought it might take 10 years or so, but come Feb. 10, he’ll reach that bar way ahead of schedule, as he stands alongside Kaskade, Mura Masa, EDX and Cosmic Gate as the nominees for best remixed recording, non-classical once more.
In 2019, CID is up for his remix of LSD’s “Audio.” LSD is the pop powerhouse trio Labrinth, Sia and Diplo, and the latter has been steadily supportive of Cid’s career, first playing his remixes, then more of his originals before he finally reached out about the “Audio” rework opportunity.
“Sia and Labrinth are both artists that I think are at the top of everything,” he says. “Her voice is incredible. His voice is incredible. They’re both incredible songwriters. It was one of those that I definitely was really excited to be a part of.”
In 2018, Cid refocused his energy into house tracks for the club. With “Audio,” he amped the radio ballad’s tempo and electrified its melodies with cinematic builds and a funky hook. It plays well off the original sentiment but kicks it into real dance floor territory. It was one of a handful of remixes from CID that year, but it was the one everyone kept congratulating him on, even before the Grammy nod. He still never would have imagined it would get this recognition.
“I was in bed sleeping,” he says of when he got the news. “I’m a pretty deep sleeper, but my phone kept buzzing and I was like, ‘what the hell is going on?’ I was in the studio late the night before, and I’ve never been a morning person. After my phone went off like five times, I looked and saw a bunch of missed calls. It was just a bunch of friends, other artists. Then I couldn’t go back to sleep.”
He’s not nervous about the event, and he doesn’t see the win as a necessity. He’s made it back where he wanted to be, getting the recognition from the public years ahead of where he thought he might be. He’s even more focused on the future, working steadily on new originals and putting the final work in on a label set to launch in 2019.
“The label’s just going to be strictly club stuff,” he says. “I want to grow something like what Don Diablo did with Hexagon, what Steve Angello did with Size, what Tiesto did with Musical Freedom; create a platform for other artists that I can develop on the label.”
The label will also launch a radio show on Diplo’s Revolution channel on SiriusXM in February, so no matter what happens at the Grammys, Cid knows his wins aren’t over. Tune in to the Grammy awards Sunday, Feb. 10, to see who takes home the trophy, and listen to CID’s remix of “Audio” from LSD below.
