Kay Cola: Love & Music

Merc80:  When is your birthday?

Kay:  May 7th, 1985.  I’m a Taurus.

Ohhh!  So are you stubborn?

I’ve been told I’m stubborn.  Yeah.  I’m trying to work on that though! (laughs)

What are some things you might be stubborn about?  For instance, when it comes to singing or work?

I don’t have a lot of pet peeves when it comes to work.  I mean, I want people to stay focused.  I don’t want a lot of nonsense in the studio.  I don’t like studio groupies!  (laughs)  Male or female because there’s both.  People who come to hang out and they’re just not trying to learn or work.  Other than that I’m pretty open.

Were you born and raised in California?

I was born at Cedars-Sinai [Medical Center].  I was bicoastal between New York and Los Angeles until I was 10 because my dad played in the Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall.  I literally grew up on the stage, crawling around listening to opera singers, just going back and forth.  I went to high school and college out here though.

Both of the songs that you recently released feature West Coast Hip Hop artists.  Was that a purposeful decision?

I’m a huge fan of H.O.P.E., and I happen to know his manager.  So I was like,  if I can get him on a song that would make my life!  I mean he’s amazing.  He’s so intelligent and he’s so young.  So his manager called him, I emailed him the song and he loved it.  With Skeme and Dubb, I respect them so much and I definitely think they’re amazingly talented.  I definitely think the West, we need to stick together.  I think the West Coast is definitely making a comeback with music.  With Kendrick [Lamar] and Skeme and Dubb and Jhene [Aiko]…So it was a good look for them to be on those records and representing the West Coast for sure.

When it comes to songwriting, what method works best for you?  Do you sit and make time for it or just scribble random thoughts?

Most of the time I’ll hear a track, and I’ll have a couple song concepts in my head.  Or the track will inspire me.  That’s one of the reasons why I won’t work with a lot of different producers, because I have to be inspired by their work.  I’ll hear the track, and depending on what the track is it will inspire me to think of something.  From there I’ll do some melodies on the mic and then start writing lyrics.  I freestyle occasionally as well.  And then sometimes I’ll write stuff at home and have someone build around what I’ve written melodically. That usually comes from an experience, like what I’m going through, or if I saw something recently that inspired me to write a song.

Give me 2 or 3 songs and tell me how the pieces came together to inspire you to make a track.

For “Need That”, I was dating a guy and he would always say  “I need that. I need that.”  And I thought that was a really cute phrase. So I was thinking about the title of the EP, Love N Music, and somehow I came up with “needing good love”, and love being music because I feel like music and love, they go hand in hand.

I think people are inspired by love to write music, and I think a lot of people who listen to music use it for their different relationships, and things like that.

With “Home”, I was thinking about how life can be really stressful.  And how it’s really dope to have that one person who will be there for you, and take all that stress away when you come home. Oh, I put out a record called “In My Dream”, and that came about because I had a friend, and I had a dream about him, and in the dream we kinda hooked up, and it made me look at him differently, (laughs)

DOWNLOAD:  Kay Cola – I Need That f. H.O.P.E. | Mediafire

When would you say you first started songwriting?

I was nine, and I wrote a song based off a Pocahontas book (laughs).  And the title of the book was A Lesson in Friendship.  Basically, the song was all about what it means to be a good friend.  I was nine, it was really cheesy. When I was growing up I wrote a lot of short plays, and short stories. I won a poetry contest in high school, I’ve always just really been into writing period.

They usually say that kids are the best test for songs.  Do you ever use your kids to…?

Oh my gosh!  Seriously, when Mikey likes a song, I know it’s a smash! Because he doesn’t like every song. I try to get them to listen to a lot of different music because I grew up listening to a lot of different music.

Who are some folks you’re listening to now?

I listen to Frank Ocean.  I started writing because of James Fauntleroy.  He wrote with Frank, and he got me writing. My best friend TK, he’s a writer.  I’m really influenced by the writers around me.  I listen to Imogen Heap.  I like Incubus.  I like Sade.  I love Stevie Wonder.

Most people, especially now, want to get in the entertainment industry.  For you, how did it happen?  Did someone just say, “Here’s your break!”?

No, not at all (laughs).  Honestly, I grew up in it.  I was literally a studio baby because my dad is a musician.  So I’ve been around music my entire life.  I was singing in talent shows in school, and choirs and everything.  People just knew me as a singer.  This guy had a group named Isyss, and one of the girls dropped out so they asked me to be in Isyss…

That was in the 90s or something wasn’t it?

That was in the early 2000’s.  I remember cause they wanted me to leave my college.  It was a big deal and my mom was like “No!”  I was going to join the group, but something told me don’t do it.  So I started working with J.R. Hudson, he’s done stuff with Jill Scott. James Fauntleroy and I were friends from high school, and he invited me to The Underdogs [studio], and James got me writing and everything.  They had so many people come through there from Chris Brown, Beyoncé, to everybody in between.  All the dope writers were always there in the Edmond Towers.  Babyface was on one of the floors, then underneath us was Tyrese.  So just from being there all the time and even sleeping there, they saw that I was not playing.  I guess it’s just your work ethic, with your talent, with the people you know.  But you get to know those people because you stay dedicated and you stay around.

A lot of people get the idea that making a song doesn’t take that much work.  What kind of work do people not see?  

You know it’s funny because Ne-Yo will write a song in like, fifteen minutes.  Then you have the Country singers in Nashville who can take up to five days.

I’m a perfectionist. I want to say the words so that the the audience can relate to it, but I also want to say it in a way that no one has said it before.

So even trying to make the words rhyme and just all of that.  Finding the perfect melody.  I could lay ten different tracks just for a verse melody until I know- OK, that’s it.  That could take several hours.  You don’t ever wanna force anything.  You could be spending an hour on two lines, because you wanna say it the right way, you know what I mean?

Have you ever felt like the business of the industry has gotten in the way of your songwriting?

Oh my gosh!  Yes!  That is why I started working on my project, because the placement game is ridiculous!  You can have an incredible song and it won’t get placed just because you aren’t tied to a certain camp.  It’s very cliquish.  It can be very high school.  So I just decided I don’t want to be told how my song needs to sound.  I don’t want to be told “OK, you’re writing a song for Rihanna, so it needs to sound like this, and have this, and it has to have four hooks.”  So, I was like, you know what?  I’m just gonna write and work on my project because I don’t want to fall out of love with music.  I’m genuinely in this because I love music, and not because I just wanna be famous, or blah blah blah.  I love music.

Was there a particular turning point where you made that decision to make your move on your own project?

I wrote a song for Pleasure P.  I was working on his album.  And the song Bad Girl ended up on his mix-tape.  I did the demo and the demo got leaked.  And it was on Hot New Hip Hop, and everybody was like “Oh my God, who is that?”  They were hitting me up like “Do you have a project?  Do you have a mix-tape?”  And I had several friends that were like “Why aren’t you working on your own stuff?”  I was doing the placement game for so long and I found myself getting frustrated and I was like, you know what?  Screw this.  I’m going to just do my own thing and be happy.  Then I started seeing Frank Ocean, and all these other people come out with mix-tapes and was like, this is where it needs to go.  The indie artist.

We need to bring the love of music back, and not be so worried about getting a hit on the radio that we water down our music, you know?

Along with that, there’s a lot that rides on image and outward appearance.  When someone sees or hears Kay Cola, what do you want them to see?

I just want them to fall in love with my music and feel passion.

When I first saw the video for “Need That”, it was…I shouldn’t have to say “respectable”, but it was respectable.  It didn’t sound overtly sexual, it had some sophistication to it.  Is that part of the quality your trying to breed?

That’s exactly it! (laughs)  It’s so funny because my whole life, just based off how I looked, everybody wanted me to be this overly sexed up R&B singer, right?  And to me, you can be sexy like Sade, and not say those things, you know what I mean?  There’s a way you can still do it and not be raunchy, or just out of character.  I am a mother, and I am still young, so I want to be able to be sexy, but not get carried away.  So with that song, I definitely was trying to portray…I mean, that’s exactly who I am.

My music is exactly who I am.  I’m not fronting, I’m not trying to impress anybody.  It’s me, for sure.

After the interview I walked Kay, Mikey, and Noa back to their car.  As we walked, Mikey was focused on the game he was playing on Kay’s phone, nearly bumping into pedestrians as he walked.  I told her how accident prone I was as a kid, constantly bumping into things and getting knots on my head.  Kay told me how she was recently texting on her phone and hit her head on a pole.  She laughed and said, “If I hadn’t been a little tipsy I think it would’ve hurt more!”

I said, “You know what, Kay?  I really appreciate how real you can be to admit that you bumped your head on something.  Most people would be too worried about looking cool to even admit that.”

She simply replied, “I think it’s cool to not be cool.  You know?”

Love N Music.

Out now! Download the free mixtape

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