Interview with Singer and Songwriter Kaiza
Kaiza is a 22-year-old cinematic pop singer and songwriter whose musical style is heavily noted by romantic overtones and powerful ethereal vocals laced with poetic lyrics. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Kaiza is currently in a contract with LVRN/Sony Orchard as of 2024 and over 128k followers on Instagram. Before she turned her attention to pop music, Kaiza performed opera as a child at world renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall. She writes all of her own lyrics and melodies.
Kaiza recently discussed her career via an exclusive interview.
Meagan Meehan (Q): How did you discover your talent for singing and why did you gravitate towards opera when you were a child?
Kaiza: I was always singing as a child, writing melodies on the piano and making little songs. My parents had noticed this and offered to put me in vocal training to further my abilities. I would say my vocal coaches growing up had a massive impact on my decision to start in opera.
Q: What was your childhood like and how did it influence you musically?
Kaiza: My childhood involved a lot of moving around, which I think made it easy for me to jump into music as a constant in my life. It was not only something I enjoyed experimenting with but also a therapeutic outlet for me as I navigated through my earlier stages of life.
Q: How did you find your own unique musical style?
Kaiza: I think I just always wanted to stay as authentically me as possible. I’ve had a lot of pressuring to make other kinds of music, but ultimately, I feel like I wouldn’t enjoy the songwriting and recording process nearly as much if I wasn’t able to write from my heart and soul.
Q: What kind of technical skills did you need to learn in order to create your music?
Kaiza: I was really lucky to grow up learning the piano, that’s a major key in my process.
Q: What typically comes to you first, melodies or lyrics?
Kaiza: It’s pretty much always a piano melody first for me and the lyrics just kind of flow from there.
Q: How many songs have you created to date and do you have any favorites?
Kaiza: I have a little vault full of unreleased music that I honestly don’t know when or if I’ll release. It’s a strange thing to feel so past a season of life when you wrote a song. I secretly hope some of them get leaked one day. My favorite is actually not released yet but will be releasing in the next couple of months!
Q: Are you considering making music videos to accompany these songs?
Kaiza: I definitely am considering that. I’ve had a team put together some visualizers for my last few songs but I absolutely adore full music videos and bringing a song’s concept to life with visual storytelling. I think that would be absolutely amazing to do for my own music.
Q: What do you hope audiences take away your music?
Kaiza: I really just hope they feel something. I write mostly romantic songs and I think it’s such a beautiful thing to hear a song that describes the way you feel in love. Those are my favorite songs to listen to and I would love for my songs to translate that as well with people.
Q: How does living in Atlanta help you find connections? For instance, why did you choose Atlanta over New York or Los Angeles or Nashville?
Kaiza: I actually spent quite a bit of time in New York and lived in Los Angeles as well in between my times in Atlanta. I had been living around the Atlanta area since I was seventeen and it’s the closest thing to a home city for me. I would never trade my time in LA and New York, but I think in the last few years it’s also been really nice to come back to a more familiar city at the end of the day.
Q: What are your ultimate goals for the future?
Kaiza: Continuing to feel happy and fulfilled in life is the biggest thing for me. Music is a huge part of what contributes to that feeling for me, so I’m extremely grateful to be doing what I love so much.
