interview: kaki king
Glow, last year’s EP from guitarist and composer Kaki King sees a return to her guitar-driven roots. Complex and constantly evolving, her sound has captivated audiences over her 10 year career. Set to tour Australia in May, the talented musician spoke to Lip about her inspirations, her favourite works and travelling.
Some artists prefer to find a sound that works and stick with it. However, your sound is layered, complex and constantly evolving. How important is it to have that growth and change in direction?
Very important I’d say. I love a challenge, and I’m easily bored. Starting as a solo guitarist was wonderful, but I wasn’t going to be satisfied with that sound forever.
It’s unavoidable that music often carries a message, whether it’s general or specific to a particular issue. What message do you hope your music is getting across?
I think it’s avoidable. I’ve written sad breakup songs and songs with political titles but my favorite works are songs that empty you of context and fill you with pure emotion.
How important do you think it is that music, and musicians themselves play a part when it comes to discourse surrounding social issues?
Most of art is political or social discourse, but we have to make room for poetry and emptiness.
You seem to draw inspiration from a huge variety of places, people and cultures – but is there a main source of inspiration?
The Internet. The great evolutionary growth of the collective conscious.
Clearly, you have a broad range of interests and passions beyond music. How important for you is the allow these interests and passions to mix, in order to create something unique?
I like gardening and reading and hanging out. I’m fairly boring. I don’t know how much those things inform my music. Traveling perhaps informs what I do because I spend a lot of time away from my friends and family and I get lonely, so the music I write on the road sounds melancholy sometimes. I hope I understood the question well enough to answer it correctly.
From Everybody Loves You right through to Glow, what is the biggest lesson you’ve learned?
Stick with one airline and collect your frequent flier miles. Seriously, this is hugely important for a traveling artist.
Kaki King tours Australia throughout May, kicking off on the 11th in Brisbane. You can find more info here
