Kirx Diaz

From the streets of LA to the urban sets of London, Kirx Diaz is no stranger to a busy schedule. This 27-year-old music video director has navigated the videos for the likes of Not3s and Mabel to establishing a space for upcoming creatives in the process. We conversed from our lockdown hangouts and was definitely a contrasting change of pace for Diaz.

With an international upbringing, young Kirx was born in Guildford and moved through Barcelona, Switzerland, and Valencia during his childhood, before he completed college in Portsmouth. During this time Kirx discovered that he was a much better match for the capital and decided to further educate himself in London. Studying Media and Communications at the London College of Communication, Kirx cheekily admitted that he chose this college in order to make the move to the city.

Kirx’s love for the London music scene and diversity, was a primary reason he decided it was good to settle in the city. “All of my friends are from everywhere…it’s nice to have a good mix of everyone”. Following graduation, Kirx worked a series of jobs, including shifts in a shoe shop, pizza delivery and then an estate agent.

“That was like the worst job ever, I hated that. I used to go and say I’m handing leaflets out and then go in my car to an estate where I knew none of the other estate agents would go and just watch movies in my car”

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Whilst working at the estate agents, a friend of Kirx was running video projects in Antigua, during carnival, and invited Kirx to go along with him.  After spending two weeks of making video and promo material in the Caribbean, Kirx returned to the UK and quit his job that same day. He’d found his love for content creation.  Although still very amateur to the video industry at this time, he returned to Antigua to continue his video work. On his return Kirx was a set runner for brands such as Michael Kors and H&M and was taking every opportunity that came his way. “There was one time where I was holding a boat in place for like 4 hours, but I loved it” Kirx worked on the island for 3 months before finally returning back to London.

“I just need the sun man”

His nickname from friends (Kirx) soon evolved into his industry brand and is now seen across his music video credits. Kirx admitted that he added Diaz as his surname as a way to weave in his Latin and Argentinian heritage and thought this would be a organic way to do so. As Kirx’s exposure became increasingly more present in the music video world, he used his showreel from his work abroad to circulate to artists on social media platforms. From this he grew his portfolio breadth, created his own opportunities and honed his craft.

“You have access to the whole world on the internet”

The turning point in Diaz’s career was when he had the opportunity to direct Not3s’ music video for Addison Lee and work with GRM Daily. Following on from this he continued working with Not3s on one of the most viewed UK urban music videos of 2017. As Kirx’s profile continued to expand, more people were noticing him and requesting to work with him – including Mabel and Ramz. It was interesting to see what development can happen in just a few years, “as a creative, I came up from literally earning like £100 a video and people telling me they didn’t want me to do their videos”.

As our conversation progressed, it became increasingly apparent that Diaz often thought outside of the box as he revealed he wanted to explore different ways to use his skills. He often questioned the materialism that stereotypically came hand in hand with grime music videos and revealed it can sometimes become normalised, “but it’s not normal”. This isn’t to say he doesn’t love working on these types of videos, but is now looking to evolve and his expand the types of project he works on. This is cemented with his entrepreneurial endeavours. Currently setting up a studio space aimed at creatives and the founder of his agency, Block Shots (a house of videographers and creatives) he is contributing to buliding platforms for upcoming creatives alongside his video projects.

It’s apparent we still have even bigger things to see from Mr Diaz, and with his goal to one day live in LA, I believe the world is yet to see more of Kirx, his active mindset and work ethic.