When you load up Spotify, a great big chunk of the time you can’t think what to play, right? You default back to your old favourites, those albums and songs you played on repeat when you first discovered you could make them yours. 

This isn’t about guilty pleasures; it’s about those songs you’ll still be listening to when you’re old and in your rocking chair. So, enter Teenage Kicks – a playlist series that sees bands running through the music they listened to in their formative years.

Next up, KennyHoopla.

This was one of my first personal coming-of-age internet discoveries that changed a lot for me. You know when you're old enough to start surfing the internet and cultivating your own taste? The Drums were one of those artists for me. This is easily one of my top two favourite songs ever, constantly competing with #1. I've always loved indie rock, and this was just punk, romantic, and indie enough for me. I wanted to be just like The Drums.
I grew up poor, wearing a lot of hand-me-downs and thrifting, and I could tell Jonny did that too, but in the coolest way possible. We had a similar style, but when I saw The Drums, I was like, "Ohhhh, this is how it’s really done." The music felt like true indie rock, my kind of indie rock. The music video showed them loitering around a town that reminded me of the small one I grew up in, and the lyrics hit so hard. Wanting to be more than you are for someone. Being in love with the rich girl but not being able to afford her. Just having a pure heart and coming up short and confused.

This is the song that competes with 'Money' for my number one spot. I found them randomly on YouTube one day. I truly believe this is one of the best experimental alternative rock records of the last decade. It was produced by Stephen Street, who I’m pretty sure produced a lot of The Smiths’ stuff.
I'm in love with the innovation and poetry on this album. It still resonates with me. This is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. The guitar riffs feel quite Midwest emo and melancholic to me, and the lead singer is just pouring his heart out. You’d think it was the last song he was ever going to make.
This is like indie rock’s version of Notorious B.I.G.’s 'Suicidal Thoughts' or Kanye West’s 'Runaway'. I’ve been trying to get this band back together since the day I gained any popularity. I truly believe they would be one of the biggest around.
"Mother, can't you help me now?
'Cause I've been drowning in the sound
Lying on the motorway
Writing songs and wasting away"

Another underrated indie rock band I love. This whole album is great, but this song is a hit. I wish they never broke up. I hope to make bangers like this one day. So scratchy and warm.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. I used to listen to this all the time in high school. This song and 'Household goods' take me back to late nights driving around the backroads of my small town, backseat DJing with my friends.
This was a second coming of electronic music for me, after my Aphex Twin phase in my early teens. TEED revolutionised "EDM" for me. It was the perfect palette for what I needed at that time in life. I’m still digesting this album to this day.

Cudi is my GOAT of all GOATs. He saved my life. I truly see myself in Cudi more than anyone else. He was a Black kid into more alternative things. He was emo and in tune with himself.
One thing I’ve always loved is how he used a lot of bright or happy-feeling samples. This song is about a love triangle, very lighthearted, and one of my favourite Cudi deep cuts. I used to listen to this every day on the bus when I had to go to summer school. Thanks for getting me through that, Cudi.

One of my favourite songs. Another band I found during a YouTube rabbit hole one summer. They’re amazing producers, so good at making colour, and brilliant poets. I pulled from this band a lot on my recent EP. I’m still learning from them today.

This is just an indie rock anthem. Nothing else to say. Honorary member, for real.

I just loved beautiful music like this. Electro-pop, indie rock, whatever you want to call it. Something I always look for in bands is that feeling of telepathy between the members. These guys had it. You can just tell they’ve been friends forever. They’ve studied, cried, laughed together, and that shows in the music.
This was also just emo, in its own way. "Sometimes I wanna disappear." I listened to this a lot when I was depressed.

This remix introduced me to how witch house and indie rock could co-exist. One of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. I’m obsessed with the guitar tones.
This remix still informs a lot for me today. I might go as far as to say I’ve always wished all my music felt like this song, even before I started making music.

This was Now, Now Every Children, before they became just Now, Now. I’ve always been a fan of Cacie’s lyrics. She’s a huge inspiration to me, and Brad’s production, too.
I’ll never get over these drum tones. I love music that sounds like a demo. This one still has that melancholic punk feel. I hold these songs close. I think the first time I got my heart broken, I was 16, and I listened to this in my room, journaling and crying.

Peak. My favourite Two Door Cinema Club song. I truly don’t even know where to start. The outro of this track is one of my all-time favourite musical moments.
This was the soundtrack to my youth more than anything else. Those riffs changed me. I knew how I wanted to play guitar. How I wanted it to feel. I fell in love to this song.

I think I was 14 or 15 when I first discovered Phoenix. This is one of the most romantic songs ever. The album it’s on is probably the best album I’ve ever heard.
I’m a romantic, and this is as romantic as it gets. There’s an art to being loud by being quiet or chill, and Phoenix nail it. Colour, colour, colour.
RIP Philippe Zdar, best to ever do it.

This was my Bright Eyes, hahah. I spent an embarrassing amount of time depressed listening to this music, but it did so much for me.
I've recently started listening again and using it as a way to practise guitar. The songs are simple but effective. Love you, Flatsound.

I have this memory of walking home from school in the rain, throwing my backpack down, falling on the couch, and falling asleep to this song.
I love his use of those carnival-like sounds. Very wonky and melancholic. This is what rainy spring days in the Midwest feel like.

This one changed everything. I was sitting on the couch watching TV with my mum when this came on in a Sprint commercial. It was like an epiphany. It sounded like organised chaos, colour everywhere.
After that, I became obsessed. Another song that made me want my lyrics to have depth and not be so obvious. I always say Passion Pit were my generation’s Aphex Twin or Radiohead.
I truly think Passion Pit are one of the greatest producers of my generation. A lot of my early teens were spent running this album and Phoenix's 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix' on a loop.
I wish I could say more, but my brain’s a little cooked right now. I owe so, so much to Passion Pit. I learned how to hit certain notes by copying his singing. Some music feels like a hug that could’ve suffocated me.

Taken from the October 2025 issue of Dork. KennyHoopla's EP 'conditions of an orphan//' is out now.