I have been studying classical piano pretty seriously since I was five. I started composing classical chamber music and shit for solo piano and also began songwriting when I was 13. I never really thought about putting my music out. I mean, I went to camps and things for composition, but songwriting was really something I did when I was feeling down and has pretty much been a private process for me. I started putting some of my classical compositions on soundcloud when I was 16 and put a couple songwriting things out without any expectations and I guess it worked out. People surprisingly seemed to like it.

My biggest influences come from a lot of different genres of music, but my all-time favorite writers/performers are probably Radiohead, Joni Mitchell, Caetano Veloso, Helen Merrill, and A Tribe Called Quest. Classical music has also had a pretty big influence on me since I’ve been playing for so long. Some of my favorite composers are Vivaldi, Bach, Ravel, Sati, and especially Arvo Part.

Being an artist in today’s digital age is really something special. My music is really confessional, so it’s always been a very honest and private part of me. The fact that people around the world that I’ve never met before can find something in it is fucking crazy. I feel pretty weird when people I know in my everyday life approach me about it because it’s not really something I openly share with my friends, etc.. It feels like somebody is reading my diary or something. There’s a connection there though, I think. Having a total stranger on the internet read your diary and relate to it, that’s really special and I like that idea.

For the most part I’ve stayed pretty anonymous on the internet. I’ve never had a facebook personally or musically and really am not into social media because a lot it feels very artificial to me. I guess there is a kind of paradox in that I’m putting this raw and very important part of me anonymously on the internet but that’s the way I really want it for now at least. That way it’s really about the music and nothing else.
 

To Listen to more of Kaya’s music. Follow her on soundcloud.