"Please" by Kayan.a (Ambika Nayak) reflects an intensely sultry mood. The sound design is lush and deep, complemented by Kayan.a’s smooth vocals, that slice through the mix effortlessly. The vocal production is squeaky clean, while managing to add the right amount of grit, to make it feel like she’s sitting right next to you. Hats off to Nathan Thomas (Nate08) for contributing some of his excellence to this production. We have some insight into Kayan.a’s world in our interview below :
1. How much of your music and writing involves abstractions versus personal experience?
Almost everything that I write comes from personal experience. There's most definitely the involvement of abstractions for poetic effect, but I'm able to write most honestly when it's based on a personal experience.
2. You are part of two other projects, how different is your artistic process when you work with other musicians and when you write for yourself? It's very interesting how writing with each project is different. Kimochi youkai is a band of 5, so ideas go back and forth, sometimes there's a lot of agreement and sometimes not, which is when we decide to drop the idea/song in that moment and come back to it later. It's the same with Nothing Anonymous , except there's just 2 of us. That sometimes just speeds up the songwriting process, since both Nirmit and I also balance the equation out, in terms of our moods of feelings (more often than not haha). So when I'm writing just by myself, I feel more liberty to pretty much do as I please. I still send ideas/demos to friends and ask for feedback. That's super helpful.
3. According to a study, 62% of people suffer from imposter syndrome, would you say you’re one of them and do you consider yourself a perfectionist when it comes to your music. All music is inspired from some existing idea so I've never really felt that way. In fact, I learn so many songs and even post a lot of covers that I take strong inspiration from. That only helps me understand what I like and don't like and seeps into my songwriting in ways that I actually enjoy. I'm thorough and diligent with what I do but I don't quite understand how I could be a perfectionist when it comes to music. That's so subjective, I work on something till I feel like I've given it my best. Then it's a matter of letting go.
4. During your writing process, how do you find balance between honesty and making your art more "relatable"?
Most of what I write is based on personal experience and talks about various human emotions, which all of us feel at some point or the other. I think that in itself strikes a good balance between being honest and relatable. Then again, some people might relate and some might not. And that's fine.
5. Do you also like to delve into the business aspects of music such as promoting and marketing?
I don't know if I like to, but I do think it's important. I'm pretty active on social media and genuinely love sharing my work, or work that inspires me. That has definitely helped me garner a small audience that is really supportive of what I do and I'm grateful for that. So when I put 'Please' out, the response was beautiful. I had so many people sharing the song including my friends and family and that just helps it reach more people.
You can listen to Kayan.a's single on our playlist "just groove don't dance" linked below :
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