Kai Sadao Interview

Who Is Kai Sadao

Rising artist Kai Sadao is one of the many talented musicians who has been making his way into the public eye. With his second album having been released and music being featured onto iHeart music radio, he continues to captivate a growing audience. I will be diving in to understand what goes on behind the music and mind of Kai Sadao

Intro to Making Music

To start off, I asked Kai the common question you would any music artist which is "what is your favorite type of music?" and he responded with "Reggae music has always been in my life, especially roots reggae like Bob, Tosh, and Steel Pulse. It was played for me even before I was born. I also feel like the beat of the music just matches the beat of my mind. I seriously love it." "who are your favorite artists and why?" and he goes on to list a variety of artists with detail such as "Bob Marley; his songs are written and recorded so well. To me it's magical how powerful his songs are. It also intrigues me how he writes such uplifting songs about struggle and trouble. It's really hard for me to explain how much his music means to me. Lianne La Havas;... the melodies and lyrics she sings are so emotion filled. Every song has such a different and new sound, like it could have been recorded in the seventies but it was made a couple years ago. I wanna do what she's doing in the music scene for sure, bring a new different sound. Charles Mingus; Mingus was one of the best jazz musicians and composers of all time. Each of his songs is like a whole movie, and they have such interesting melodies and harmony. There's an album he does called Mingus Plays Piano that I think is super underrated. Nirvana; Kurt Cobain's voice to me is the most alarming but powerful voice. I love it, it's perfect. He also has a tendency to write lyrics that you can't really understand the first time around but sound amazing. There are so many other artists that I just kinda grew up with and love so here's a few more; Blue Six, Peter Tosh, Steel Pulse, MJ, Angelique Kidjo, Yussef Dayes." I furthered my questioning as my interest grew I asked, "What made you wanna start music? Was it the same artists that inspired you or are there other reasons?" and he replies in reminiscent "When I was in elementary school, my mum forced me into the afterschool band program with a $50 clarinet, it was terrible. The teacher was very mean, so I never wanted to practice. But my band teacher in middle school ended up making me love playing music. I originally wanted to be a visual artist, but it's mainly my parents who showed me all the different musical artists when I was a wee lad. So, it wasn't the artists who started me with music, but it was those artists that gave me the tools to start." Kai's introductory to making music is just as unique as any other person's experience. With the way he was introduced and the variety of music he listens too you can tell his value for music is high by listening to his songs, especially.

About his Music

Many music artist tend to stay in one genre when making music or have even felt they have created a new genre entirely. I asked him "What type of genre do you consider your music?" and he stated "Genreless... I don't think I need to put my music in any genre, I'll let other people do that for me. Whatever music I make is just another cool thing I say." Getting his introduction to making music from having been in school band I asked him "Do you make the instrumentals to all your songs? Or do you ever have anyone else produce your stuff?..." and he answered with "I always produce my own music. I hear it in my head, and if it's put down any other way it won't purely be the idea I had. I'm also used to putting all the work of production, and it becomes pretty fulfilling every time I get in a good take or add the right balance in the mix." Continuing on topic I then asked "Do you write your own lyrics as well?" and in a similar manner he responded with "Yes I always write my own lyrics. I actually write so many lyrics but I think that other people might make those lyrics sound better." Getting into his perspective when making music I questioned, "Is there a process when it comes to your music like do you need certain things around you or do you do anything special before starting to make music?" He went on to explain, "If there's ever a moment where I'm not in the zone, I'll take a break from the music, do something else. It just makes me not focus on the music so much, so I can make fun ideas instead of overthought ideas." Going more into depth I also asked "Do you or have you ever smoked or done any drugs to produce music?" and his response was "Yes, recently I've been getting a little faded to help my body relax and let my mind work separately. I've made some pretty cool songs and ideas so far." Moving on to what his music means to other people I brought up one of his recent accomplishments which is his music playing on iHeart radio. I went on to ask "Your music recently played on the radio, how did that make you feel?" He answered with

"Honestly at first I didn't know what to think because I told myself that it happens to everyone, but hey, now I know my music was played on iHeart radio! I'm really excited for whatever opportunities are coming." Having completed such an achievement I asked "Do you have any goals you wanna reach with your music?" to which he humbly replied "I want to make enough money with my music to live off of it. So that I can make the most money off of doing what I love." His answer brought me to ask "So would you say you do music more for you than you would fans?" He began to clarify

"Yes and no. Yes because I am my own artist, and I make my arts to sustain my sense of self and express my thoughts in another way. But also no, because I also make my art to help people understand me, themselves, and life in general." Expressing his emotions and helping others do the same is what kai's music is all about and you can hear it in his new album Opera 2

About Opera 2

Opera 2 is the second album to Opera 1,has a total of 12 songs, and features Nic Skrabak, ARYA, and Kenpo. To learn more about is second album I asked "What makes opera 2 opera 2 and not jus another album?" His reply was ""Opera" is a plural form of the word "opus" which is a composition...Opera I's cover art is a photo of me underwater but laidback, it kinda symbolizes how I was deep in my emotions, sort of drowning in them, but it was all cool and I was okay with it. Opera II's cover art is me with a butterfly mask, like a butterfly emerging out of it's cocoon. In Opera II, I've come out of the water, and I'm more in tune with my emotions and sort of display them in a beautiful way. Some songs correlate with ones from Opera I, others are just thoughts I've had over that time. I want people to see my music as my history, like if someone were to listen to Opera I, they'd think, "wow, this sounds different from his new stuff. Interesting how he evolved into something else but still remained the same." To dive deeper I followed up with "how long did you take to make it and was it longer than when you made opera 1?" He said "A couple songs on Opera II I've had had for 3 years before I released them (Chains and Up & Down). Other songs didn't take long to make. I'm definitely more proud of Opera II than Opera I though, my songs on Opera II are structured and recorded easier because I switched programs. Technically, in total it took me a couple months to come back to all of the songs to record them. Sometimes I would have my college classes online, and have one screen be my class, and on the other screen I would be recording vocals." Wanting to get more detail I questioned him "you explained how you grew more and it’s as if you grew out of your cocoon, what specifically makes you feel that way other than the ability to express yourself more?" He responded with "I used to use a smaller program to make my songs, but now I use ableton. Plus I have a bunch of better instruments and better recording equipment at my disposal so that's definitely a growing factor. Also I've played with so many new people and have more musical knowledge and ability than I did a couple years ago." Feeling improved it's no surprise that Kai has started to broaden his horizons and bring more onto the table.

Potential/Future Projects

Even after just releasing Opera 2 Kai has already started working on more music. With both albums having the same title I asked "Are there gonna be more opera albums or is the second one the last one? " He replied back "There are going to be many more Opera albums, though I think in the future I'm going to try to make albums where all the songs fit into a certain story sort of like a musical. I'm not sure when that's going to be yet, because I don't have a full story in my head, but I sure want to do that." I followed up with "Speaking of musicals, do you plan on doing any other projects similar to music such as making music for theatre, making art, doing photography/videography, etc." and his response was "I'm already really into photography, but I want to pick up on videography or even filmography...I love live music videos too, so I could try to set up my own live music video in the near future." Having only 3 features yet still wanting to explore more I brought up the question "Are you going to try and be featured on others peoples music in the future as well or do you prefer it the other way around?" and he revealed "really want to get on other people's tracks for sure. Although I'm already pretty used to doing things my way and hearing it that way. The doors are open, but I still have the keys." Kai is still ever-growing when it comes to his music and other projects so if you haven't listened to him yet you are missing out on a different experience. With the way he stays himself along with the potential he has it will be no surprise to see Kai more in the spotlight in the future.