Artist Spotlight: Kai Kwasi
South London bred, 23 year old producer, songwriter, musician and an artist who dabbles in many talents, Kai Kwasi released his debut EP, jalilah on the 18th of November.
The upcoming artist infuses an assortment of influences and styles to embody a comprehensive element to his music. This is further exemplified by his innate ability to personally capture this further through other outlets, for instance creating music videos, writing and producing nearly all of his tracks. Birthing an EP like jalilah, soundly immersive with an element of familiarity and nostalgia to it as it illuminates his character, his meaning …
Over Zoom, I got to speak with the artist and decipher that motif of openness detailed in each song of his mindful 7-track debut EP.
How would you describe yourself as a person ?
Ooo, it’s a deep one! Um, I am someone who wants to do as much as I can in my time as much as possible… So I wanna try all the things whether I’m good or bad at it, I’ll just go for it and I think it reflects in my music cuz it’s quite a wide range of influences and things that I listen to and things that I want to try. I guess the more stuff I put out, the more that’ll come across as well.
What were the other things that you do ?
I started making jewellery two years ago, I do my own videos, I started doing my own artwork. I’ve never been an artist as per se but I wanted to try it so I started doing it.
So what would you describe your music as ?
My music, like I said, is probably a reflection of that, it’s whatever I am listening to at the time or sometimes before I start working on something, I’ll go and listen to certain things and try and focus. Like I’ll listen to Stevie Wonder or Frank Ocean or something, but it’s eclectic.
Who or what would you say are your main influences ?
So I grew upon a lot on a lot of soul and RNB so Erykah, Stevie Wonder then probably more recently like 2016 onwards like, Frank Ocean. There’s this artist called Dijon I listen to a lot, then Joni Mitchell and I listen to a lot of High Life - so I had that a lot growing up, Kanye West was a big one, Pharrell that whole movement as well. My dad was a rapper growing up as well so I listened to a lot of Kano and Dizzy.
There’s also Anderson Paak, artists like him show you can do whatever you want, you know what I mean ? You can just branch out and some people may like it and some people just won’t but are allowed to do that. Seeing other artists do that kind of gave me the freedom to feel like I can. I can just do what I want.
How did you get into making music ?
I used to like guitar and got one when I was about 12, 13 and I never got any lessons but I would watch YouTube videos and try to figure stuff out. In secondary school, I played in a blues cover band and though it was a blues cover band we did other shit that wasn’t blues as well. We ended up doing rock tunes and our school even did musicals, so we even did Bugzy Malone for one of them. So I played guitar and did all of that musical stuf but didn’t get into writing my own music until lockdown pretty much. I got a student pack that had like Logic final cut and all that stuff in it, so I played around with stuff I had and I have friends that do music as well.
But I never considered myself a writer probably until I had all that time in lockdown.
What was the creative process behind your latest EP, jalilah?
It was lockdown and I had written a bunch of instrumentals and made them into demos and kind of packaged them, packaged and sent them around to people and seen what we could get in terms of distribution bills. I signed with PS and they put me in a room with some cool people like Venna. I’d started production in lockdown and watched Jordan Rakei videos but I wasn’t that good so there was potential in songs but there were places they could go and I couldn’t take them there. Just cuz like my known how, no one tells you music is ICT half the time.
Then I met SHRINK and rield wight. I was a fan of his at first and I got to sit down with him, mix it and go through a lot of other stuff and he did some additional production. But yeah, I was in the learning process like originally I had recorded in my room on like not on a very good mic. So I had problems I wasn’t hearing when I was rerecording it so I had to rerecord it. It was a blessing in the end, it gave me a chance to go through my writing and I went from not writing a lot, to writing very much, so that improved with time.
I was informed that the EP was named after your late grandmother, how do you feel this EP commemorates her ?
She was one of my most influential figures growing up, she introduced me to a lot of the music I listen to now like Joni Mitchell and Otis Redding. She was kind of like my mom, my mom had me when I was quite young so she was almost like a second mom to me. She taught me how the world works and I kind of base the person I wanna be off the kind of person she was.
She was always at protests and at them she always had something to say she would, well I don’t know how I would explain it, she died when I was about 12, 13. But she was one of them people and you don’t clock it until you’re older but she treated me with the same respect that she treated other adults, she wouldn’t sugarcoat things. She like respected me enough to tell me the truth about certain things.
What was the significance of the sample used in the outro of jugular?
The sample, that’s my grandma on my dad’s side, my grandma on my mom’s side is jalilah and I tried to find a voice memo or something of mine, but I couldn’t. This is significant cuz it’s like significant figures in my life, she was one as well. I used to stay at my Nannas and go to church in the morning. A lot growing up I would be at my Nannas. But with my first project I wanted that to be a reflection of myself, but I guess myself as a reflection of people who helped me to get where I am and figure out who I wanna be.
But yeah that makes sense, she was one of those people.
The song, T.I.A.R which stands for To Start A Riot, I found to have powerful messaging and matching tone in the music video, what is this reflective of ?
I produced this song, home after the George Floyd protest and like I dunno, I think may be it’s our generation but no protest I have been too before that has ever felt like that, it was so big, it was so collective and there was a moment where I was like this is fucking huge.
I think because it was lockdown it felt so huge, it was good because everyone felt so alone in it and when you are kind of sitting at home there is nothing you can do about it. There was just this power to it and I realised in that moment how important that is. The importance of community and that people need to be outraged for shit to change.
T.I.A.R. was named because of a conversation I had with my mom about the riots in America and there’s like a viewpoint that riots are just destructive and they want to break shit. I believe they are really important and that that we owe a lot of people that have been brave enough to you know go fuck shit up. I think it is important and I think it is necessary.
With ain’t that just the way who was the “big man” ?
Oh yeah, it’s me !
Where was your headspace in writing that ?
I’m pretty sure it was just after a break up, it was about conversations after that and figuring it all out. Who are you after a break-up, after a long-term relationship ? Themes of ego, things like that.
Anyone going into this EP what would you want them to know ?
Honestly as little as possible. One of the things I love about music is that you can take whatever you want from it. I love a lot of Spanish music or music in other languages because I can impress as much meaning as I want into it. So yeah, I guess be open and you know, just listen to it like let it be whatever you need it to be to you.