Written by Steven Burgess, photo by Youna Baupoux.
Norwegian-American artist Kaya Wilkins, known by her stage name Okay Kaya, has made waves with her eclectic blend of disco, pop, and orchestral music. Her 2020 record, Watch This Liquid Pour Itself, earned her the Spelman Award for Best Indie/Alternative Artist solidifying her unique place in today’s music scene.
Currently on tour for her latest record, Oh My God, That’s So Me, Okay Kaya continues to captivate audiences with her introspective lyrics and experimental soundscapes.
Q: What was your introduction to music as a kid? Do you have a vivid memory of a song or an artist that clicked with you?
A: My mother is a visual artist. She’s a painter, and she’s really into her music, so I just remember it being music 24/7.
There’s so many artists that she listened to. She would listen to a lot of contemporary music or older music… I remember the first Mariah Carey record being on tape in our Volvo, because that was like one of the only tapes, so that was kind of fun.
[My mom] inherited her mom’s record collection… a lot of jazz [and] Billie Holiday, lots of different sorts of music in all sorts of languages. Lots of Swedish folk singers, whether it’s Cornelis Vreeswijk [and] Lisa Ekdahl.
Q: How do you feel these artists have influenced your work?
A: I feel like mostly, in terms of my practice as a songwriter, I’m influenced by books and reading… As well as movies and also music, of course, but it’s usually the starting point for my songwriting process. It’s like different mediums.
For this record, I wanted to explore a few questions, and I suppose one of the questions was… how can fiction… tell the true story about what a human being is? So, there’s a lot of references to all sorts of people: Tove Jansson, the Finnish writer and artist… [and] Edgar Allan Poe… that’s what kind of makes it fun for me… that most of the songs have a starting point in fiction.
Q: What does the creative process look like for you?
A: It’s kind of hard to tell. It’s a difference from day to day. For me, the most important thing and I think for most artists is to have time to do what you do. Be open [to] things.
I actually really like working within limitations with music because, you know, for example, my guitar skills are quite limited or, I don’t have too many plug ins and logic and stuff like that. So that can kind of like be a good limitation. But I think creatively… staying open is a good call.
Q: Do you remember what the first song you ever wrote was?
A: Me and my friend Ingrid, growing up, she’s my childhood friend since we were about six years old, wrote a song at that age, that had the word boom, and I don’t really remember anything else, or it was something about. It was in English, actually. It was about a song not being long.
I started recording music, in my 20s, onto SoundCloud. And made various mixtapes and whatnot. And it was really enjoyable.
Q: What made you lean into more compositional elements on your newest record, Oh My God, That’s So Me
A: When I wrote The Art of Poetry, which is the last song on the record, I heard… strings happening, and I’ve been really fortunate to collaborate with my friend Frankie, Francesca Aichner… to do live performance… I also worked with Clementine Brown, who’s also a dear friend now.
As the first song of the record [that I] made, I could hear that I really wanted to use that sort of instrumentation… [and] use the strings throughout.
Q: Which of the songs off Oh My God, That’s So Me do you feel the strongest connection to and why?
A: They’re all my little babies, you know. So it’s tricky… I’m bad with favorites, but I think sometimes my favorite songs off the records are songs that were slightly more frustrating to record.
Picture This, which was one of those, very first songs, which I knew was going to be on the record. I had recorded the original record on an Omnichord, which is a very sort of beautiful, bright instrument, and it just wasn’t going very well. The recording… had too much high end and I didn’t really know how to ground it. So I did a guitar version that didn’t work and then ended up being both of those things
I used a lot of energy on it… [and] I’m proud of the outcome of that. So, in some way, it’s my favorite, but only for the reason of like how much time I spent with it.
Q: You were born in New Jersey but grew up in Norway. How do you feel this cross of cultures influences the themes and sonic elements of your music?
A: I was born in New Jersey in a place called Bergen Fields. And six weeks after I was born, I moved to Norway and lived there until I was 18. And then when I was 19, I moved back to New York, relatively close to New Jersey, and then lived there for ten years. So, I knew as a kid growing up in Norway that I really didn’t feel all that Norwegian.
I was always drawn to going to America, and I was really lucky because I have a passport. So, I spent… all [of] my 20s there. And I think a lot of my influences are [from] American… mainstream culture… The reason why I make music is probably because I moved [back].
Whether it was the challenge of moving somewhere new… [or] meeting the amazing people that I met while living [in America]. So, yeah, definitely both.
Q: What have you learned by collaborating with different artists, whether it be New York or Norway, what has pushed you to become a fully realized artist in the way that you record, produce, or compose?
A: I wouldn’t say that I am a fully realized or that would make the rest of my life incredibly boring… Looking for people who, you can collaborate with the from the get-go [that] speak a similar sonic language has been key I think because there needs to be some sort of… spark that doesn’t really have a language. You can’t really talk about music. You can only talk about music, you know, so many ways.
I’ve been fortunate enough to have this click with a lot of different collaborators and people.
Q: How has the process of releasing your music changed with time?
A: Well, it’s quite different… I’ve kind of gone back to self-releasing, which is really amazing because it means that there is the turnaround of when stuff is actually happening.
I wrote a lot of the record this winter of 2024, so I’m really excited that that’s kind of back to the way it was in the old SoundCloud days.
I didn’t think about [creating Heavy Body Records] as bold at the time. I was sure that I was somewhat frustrated, and because I have a little bit of DIY in me and a little bit of spite… I [thought I] can just do it myself. And I think that’s what’s so beautiful about… [how] the internet works for making music and putting it out these days. You kind of just can. I definitely feel like that’s a really positive thing about being part… of the streaming generation.
I don’t know if I could do anything differently. I think it’s so easy to see stuff that went right or wrong in hindsight, but I’ve just been, putting one foot in front of the other, and, crossing my fingers behind my back, so to speak.
Q: What would you say has been a full circle moment in your career up until this point?
A: I feel like Oh My God, That’s So Me feels sort of full circle, just in the shape of it. And, what my team and I have been able to accomplish as of yet, it feels really, fun and free and autonomous and just kind of groovy and all those ways… I’m never really searching for, like, any sort of specific heights, but I do feel like it’s like a really good time to perform.
I feel better performing and just more stoked than ever. So now. Now is good to be here now and for sure… I have the sweetest listeners. Everyone who comes to the show are so, yeah, just great. I think sometimes they worry about my well-being. The first few minutes when I step on the stage. I’ve had people do it, “Hey, are you okay?” And I’m like, “yeah, this is me in real life.” And then, you know, slowly, warm up a little bit.
A lot of, people come up and say, oh, you know, I listen to this and this album that, was helpful for, for personal reasons for them and all that. So, I just think it’s nice that music gets to live and take part in other people’s living experiences.
With time, that’s really different from when I started out being like, oh, this is what I make.
Q: Were there any, concerts or performances that you saw that inspired how you perform?
A: Definitely. Well, I was living in New York at the time, and, I only did my first performance… through friends who asked me, “hey, do you want to sing this song?” My friend asked me about a song that he wrote and I said, “I’d really… just done a lot of karaoke.”
I always loved singing, but I’ve never really been on a stage like that, so that kind of catapulted everything… It’s really nice to support each other, play for each other if you’re in the musical community, put on small gigs together, that’s definitely what I learned the most and cherished the most from, you know, my 20s in New York.
My good friend Aerial East… she made a fantastic record this year, actually, called Talking to Myself. And I’ve been singing alongside her for many, many years now. So, she’s definitely like the voice and presence and everything that comes to mind if I think about… mind-blowing stuff… We actually released a little children’s song EP called Pegagogy… it’s about 4 or 5 songs. There’s one song about a bat or about echolocation, actually, and a song about a rainbow… Simple but bright and hopefully fun.
Q: What’s usually on rotation when you’re on tour?
A: So many different things. I’ve actually been listening to my brother’s music right now because he just released.
He raps in Norwegian. So, I was checking that out because he wants to make 100 songs this year… So, he’s constantly releasing stuff.
He’s 12 years younger than me. So, our musical reference points are actually wildly different. So, I always enjoyed speaking to him because he’ll show me new stuff that I don’t know about.
I would love to collaborate with him, but I like my brother that’s one year older than me. He’s a black metal drummer… I would also like to collaborate with him, to be honest… we’re all very different, but we’re definitely doing our own thing.
Q: Did you think you would grow up to be a musician? Or did you think that life was going to take in a different direction?
A: I didn’t really think about it. I remember really enjoying to sing… from an early age, but, like, picking up a guitar around 12 and then singing in a gospel choir… I wanted to take singing lessons when my mom was like, just do gospel choir, it’s free.
Once I hit high school, I was actually a dancer… doing events in high school. I kind of thought that I would work with emotion and something more somatic. But I yeah, I didn’t really think like, this is going to be a thing, but I don’t know.
After making a couple of records, it’s… my favorite thing, that’s for sure.
Okay Kaya, taken by Youna Baupoux.