Content featuring KIA: Podcast Interview
Worth It
Creating Authentic Songs from the Soul
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Dutch and Indonesian singer soulwriter KIA is an authentic artist based in Los Angeles whose soulful sound and memorable timbre is ready to be heard. Much like her own mixed heritage, her music is a blend of various genres; a base of neo-soul with a strong emphasis on pop and touches of jazz, funk, hip-hop, and R&B. To get in touch, send Kia a message.
KIA, thank you for joining us today at VQS. Take us back in time to how you first fell in love with music.
This goes back to my earliest memory when I was a child. I must’ve been around 4 years old when my siblings and I were recording Lion King songs on my grandmother’s cassette tape recorder. I absolutely LOVED doing this! I think throughout my life I’ve had different moments of falling in love with making music but the consistent side of it has always been listening to music. We’re so blessed and fortunate to have so many talented people in the world that share their art with us and inspire us all on different levels in life.
What 3 core values do you believe are necessary for success?
Confidence – Especially in the music industry you NEED to have confidence in what you’re doing. Everybody knows the saying “If you don’t believe in yourself, who will?”
Now this does not go without Hard Work. You can want something so bad and hope that it will all work out, but life doesn’t work that way. You have to want it so badly that you’re willing to do EVERYTHING for it. Even if that means taking on shitty jobs and grind to perfection your art for the bigger picture: your Goals! Make short-term and long-term goals. We are never done learning so there are no excuses on this, plus it’ll help you to organize your career.
And I’m going to add one more core value to always be Flexible. Everyone is probably dealing with this right now due to the virus pandemic. This is a core value that will and should never change in my opinion. Always hop onto opportunities when you can, sometimes you need to take a different route in order to get to your end game, adjust your mindset, adapt your situation and kill it!
Who have been some of your favorite people/projects to work with?
I’ve worked very closely, ever since my Conservatory days, with film composer Lars Hempel. We’ve worked on so many different cool projects from my own solo project to soundtracks for shows like “Hard Medicine” (USA) and upcoming show “MADAM$” (UK). I loved working with pianist Jason Lindner (Now vs. Now), who produced my single “Secrets”, and right now I’m working a lot with Simon Jay and Luke Shrestha from @thisischapters. Through them I’ve worked on some cool productions like G’day “Honoring Liam Hemsworth & Helen Reddy” and “Standing Together” (USA). At the moment we are writing new music for my solo project.
I’m very fortunate to work with an amazing live band. These are the people that make the dream team: Devin Pruden (drums), Alfi Lucero-Canaan (bass), Erick Garcia (bass), Isaac Garcia (guitar), Natsumi Ono (keys), Simon Jay (keys/ 2ndguitar), Joshua Escutia (saxophone), Jordan Wainwright (trombone), Nia Padilla (backing vocals), Alondra Marquez (backing vocals) and Carly Lyman (backing vocals).
What future opportunities would you like to be involved with?
I would like to work on a publishing deal as a writer and collaborate with other artists and producers. Would love to organize a festival in LA and work on more productions and shows like “The Grammys” or “The Emmys”. I would also love to have a collab with Guitarist/Singer Brandon Taz Niederauer for my solo project.
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