Flourishing Across Multiple Mediums: Kayo's Creative Pursuit
Photography by Julien Carr
Kayo is a musician with an insatiable pursuit for artistic growth. The 23-year-old Chicago native bleeds R&B and rap beats but has no limits when it comes to conquering any creative field. According to his most recent single, “Talk,” he’s nearly a therapist too. The hook “I don’t wanna talk” is sometimes the only response to a charged situation and perhaps Kayo’s wisest advice when it comes to a tumultuous relationship. Kayo’s lyrics across his entire discography are absolutely raw and introspective, prompting a mandatory dive into self-reflection for listeners. His tracks encompass the essence of being an emotional human being with a need to express that.
The entrepreneur flourishes across a multitude of platforms, including music, film, and even fashion. Kayo launched his global brand Southside Blue Hearts in 2017 and has since deemed it a “creative house” with no bounds. The initiative supports various charities and serves as a community for those with the ambition to create.
Kayo’s upcoming album has an unannounced release date but is much anticipated as the artist regards the project as his best work so far. I had the opportunity to chat with Kayo about his upcoming release and his multimedia work in general. Read our conversation below.
What are you listening to right now?
I've been listening to Gospel, actually, and I’m not even the biggest gospel fan. But the last two months, I’ve been listening to heavy gospel. I actually just found a song by Yolanda Adams this morning on my way to work that I’ve had on repeat this entire day. Other than that, just the usual, of course, Kanye West all day. Jay-Z All day. And Usher.
So you're not only a musician. You're the designer of the Southside Blue Hearts clothing brand. Tell me about your “creative house” and what compelled you to create it and how it ties into your music, if at all.
Well, it actually started… I released a project in 2017 that was titled Southside Blue Hearts. And a very close companion of mine, his name is Third, his name will more than likely come up a lot during this interview. And he’s probably the most important piece to my musical base. He just called me one day was like, “Yo, that name is like way too good to not be used on a global scale, you know? So you need to create something out of it.” So we had the idea to just create the clothing brand and yeah, I've always had a love for fashion. I dress pretty well. So, from there we just started the brand. I started designing. I really want to branch out into having other designers as well, but as of right now, it's just me, myself, and my own hands designing clothes- designing, you know, the fonts and images and stuff. That's how that started.
And then the creative house aspect of it, we just wanted it to be more important than just clothes. Like everybody has T-shirts now, and hoodies and hats and stuff. And we were like, Look, we should make this something bigger. And of course we all do music. Myself, my guy Third, all of my friends and all of the people closest to me. Almost everyone does music. Male and female. So we were like, okay, let's take it from just this selfish thing to where it’s just the business that we make money off of, kind of make something that could be a service to everybody. So now it's helping artists and signing artists. We do artists merch, of course. So just doing different artists merch and helping out with that aspect of things that a lot of artists, as necessary as it is, they don't have the access to do it on the level that we can.
That's awesome. So you're your friend third- he helps you with everything that you do basically?
Yeah. So he started as just a best friend, but it slowly moved into an advisor kind of. So he has one track on my album that's releasing soon. He is a producer that has one track on the album. But more than a producer or a music friend, he’s more so like an advisor. If I have a decision I need to make- he’s getting that first call.
Okay, gotcha. You have such a powerful way of being honest and personal in your lyrics, and in your songs, I feel like your listeners really get to know you through your lyrics. Who are your influences? Who did you listen to growing up and who do you draw inspiration from now?
My inspirations in terms of my writing would easily be Andre 3000 and Frank Ocean. Of course, Kanye West. And that'll probably be my three in terms of writing.
Have you always been big fans of theirs?
That's what's crazy. I've always been a big Kanye West fan, but Frank Ocean and Andre 3000, honestly, it's not even a fan thing. It's almost like a competitive thing. It's like you look at who's the Michael Jordan of your field. It's like, “you do this better than me” so I’m gonna take these pieces that you do better than me and learn.
So your new single “Talk,” is riddled with elements of communication upkeep and relationship struggles. What was your songwriting process for that song specifically?
It was a quick process, actually. So that song kind of wrote itself. A lot of songs of mine do, but that one was a little bit special. I actually was going through an argument with a significant other at the time. And I was in L.A. working on the album and it was my birthday actually. And I was flying back and of course I get my wifi on the plane and I’m just arguing. I regretted getting wifi on that plane.
So, like, yeah, and I'm just you're going back and forth or whatever. And of course, without getting too detailed, it was basically spending too much time on this passion of mine and this dream of mine and not enough time on my personal life. My train of thought was, this is my birthday- you should be able to spend your birthday how you want.
But long story less long, I get to the hotel back in Chicago. I got my hotel for my birthday, whatever. Literally that night, like 12 midnight, I just went into the bathroom and the entire song just wrote itself and the beat had already been sitting in my notes- I'd been meaning to write to it. So I go to my notes app and I'm scrolling through all the beats and pick that one. I literally wrote it in like seven minutes.
Well, I also wanted to ask you about your video for your song “Memories.” I love that video. It included a lot of childhood film and reminiscing, provoking a lot of nostalgia for anyone that was watching. How did it feel to make such an emotional video? Tell me about the process of making that.
That one was, I'm not going to say the most challenging video, because “Tall” was the most challenging. That was the most mentally taxing. We were trying to go through a lot of footage to find… well, just from a physical standpoint, I had to physically go get actual hard drives. Obviously when we were kids it was VHS like it wasn't iPhones. Had to go get multiple physical hard drives and physical cameras that nobody even has the chords to anymore.
So you get a lot of the footage that was on that. So it was not only physically taxing, but it was also mentally. Like I'm going through videos of an uncle that passed and a cousin that passed. I’m like oh my gosh, I forgot all about all these memories, no pun intended. So, that part was taxing, but it honestly was the most rewarding because full transparency, that was the first time that the people that aren’t in my age group in my life were actually proud of my music. My minister, my parents, my grandparents, like people literally from everywhere. My mom's old friend from law school randomly Facebook messaged me that the video was so powerful. So that was the first time the people that don't really understand this thing that we do finally understood it. It was my first experience of seeing them be proud of me and understand what this mission is. So, yeah, it was the most taxing, but also the most rewarding.
That's amazing. I can totally relate to that feeling. Okay, so you have your album coming out in the next few months, hopefully soon. You have two singles released from it. What can your fans expect from you and from the rest of this project? Without spoiling too much.
Honestly, you could expect literally… I'm not even gonna lie to you… I know a lot of people say this, but I was just in the studio last night, and I'm confirmed this is the best piece of music that exists in this climate right now.
And not so much because we're just doing groundbreaking things and using even something as simple as, plug-ins that people usually don't use. You know, production stuff as simple as that. But on a more macro level, just talking about topics that nobody dives into, going into things that nobody talks about and coming in with a different perspective. And I think that's something that a lot of albums lack. Not that I want to bring down the albums around me, but something that a lot of art lacks is the resolve. And I don't think that artists realize humans aren’t built that way.
If someone tells you a story, you want to hear it out to the end. It's subconscious but that's what a lot of music doesn’t sit. You don't know why it is. It's a subconscious thing, but subconsciously, you need to hear that resolve.
This album- there's so much resolve. Like in the last three songs it’s just a big sigh of relief for the listeners.
That's from the writing standpoint. And just from a sonic standpoint, it's just too good. You can expect my best body of work. Of course we're gonna come to the next one and do it even better. But as of right now, it’s my best body of work.
Yeah. Wow, you're getting me really excited. So, what can we look forward to from you in the future? What are your personal goals in the next year, or just as an artist in general?
Definitely the album is number one on that list. I also want to drop a documentary. I’ve been having my video guy follow me everywhere. So I do want to drop the documentary that kind of coincides with the making of the album. That is something that may come early next year. There's a documentary that will be coming out soon that I'm actually working on a soundtrack for. So that's a goal, but a goal that’s a decent amount done.
I also really want to go on tour. Like really badly. I just wanna go on any tour. Like, I don't even care. I just want to leave my city consistently and play music.