KAIYA – “GAMES”
KAIYA was born in Dnipropetrovsk, in central Ukraine, from a non-musical family. However she has wanted to sing ever since she was 4, but quickly learned about the setbacks artists may face during their careers. At 4, she lost a part in a pre-school play because another girl physically suited the part. This upset her. Then she planned on being in the following year’s play…but her parents moved to a different city. Growing up she began singing in a school choir but her parents didn’t think she sang loud enough and convinced her to finish art school which she hated. Along the way she fell in love with a musician who taught her to play the bass guitar.
After graduating from art school KAIYA never had the time to sing as she moved to Paris and took up modeling. From there she would move to Tokyo, London and finally to New York, where she met songwriter and producer ÅMBE.
Finally she had returned to her first love which resulted in the release – on April 7th 2017 – of her debut single “GAMES” released by ADIM Records. KAIYA is currently working on her EP which is planned to drop this fall.
It’s fair to say that female electro-pop and indie pop artists have enjoyed an explosion of popularity, crafting decent debuts within the genre with just enough pop to trouble the charts, and just enough social media worship to sit well within the indie community. The latest to join this roster is KAIYA.
Somehow KAIYA effectively manages to take pop music and give it the kind of pastel vibe that works well. She has one of those oddly gentle and melodic voices similar to that of Kylie Minogue that could work equally well singing something folksy as it does the more socially recognized pop and dance music.
I can see a song like “GAMES” take over the radio; the bubbly bass drop and slow, groovy melody are intoxicating. What makes KAIYA’s haunting sound so fresh is that she keeps it consistent without making it appear cheesy or repetitive.
ÅMBE’s methods of songwriting are expressive, passionate and marvelously creative. The slow-burning funky ambience she creates on “GAMES”, takes on a new form of indie-pop music that suits KAIYA’s angelic voice perfectly.
The song has a distinctively alternative take inclined to overtake the shellacked pop overtones of the mainstream industry and its female icons. This comes with a sparkling synth that permeates across the melody and rhythm of the track, courtesy of the mindful hands of producers, ÅMBE and Brian Forbes.
It’s almost as though the minds of these individuals come together in such a way that they meld their tastes together instead of conforming to anyone’s distinctive worldview, making for a neat amalgam of synth-pop that certainly belongs on the Top 40 charts, but with a weary and intelligent alternative nature tagged along with it.
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