Interview: Kaya Nova

August 30, 2021

Kaya Nova is making art on her own terms. Nova, a singer-songwriter and inter-disciplinary artist based in New York City, is a classically trained vocalist, graduating from both Spelman College and Berklee College of Music. Attending both schools afforded Nova an opportunity to learn from world class faculty, gaining the knowledge and technical know-how needed to make and perform music.

But over the past few years, Kaya Nova has also fashioned herself beyond the boundaries of music, founding Grown Magazine, an online magazine for young black women who are “grown, but still growing;” as a writer, designer, and more. In part, Nova’s adeptness across mediums could be attributed to her curious nature — having an openness and willingness to learn new things — but it could also be attributed to necessity.

For independent artists, there is often the task of wearing many hats — producer, creative director, video editor; any, and every, thing you could imagine — often hats from disparate areas. In turn, this means not only thinking about the intricacies of songwriting and song composition, but also thinking about how the music will be delivered as well, what does the cover art look like? Will there be merchandise? It’s no easy task. But with that comes a level of freedom; freedom to make decisions, and art, on ones own terms.

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On Friday, August 27th, Kaya Nova released her latest single, More Than That, a tune that is both of desire and introspective inquiry. Following the release of her new single, I got the chance to talk to Kaya Nova about her inspirations as a songwriter, what it means to work as an inter-disciplinary artist, and her favorite music from her adolescence! Here’s our conversation:

Stanley: To start, I'm interested in what inspires you, particularly as a songwriter?

Kaya Nova: As cliche as it sounds life inspires me. At the moment, my life is all of these hard lessons about my own values, the kind of love I want, the kind of life I hope to create for myself and others. I’m moved by my own ability as a writer and reader outside of music, and that just makes me more excited to bring that passion to a song. I really just want to tell the story of what it’s like being a person just trying to figure it out because that’s what my journey is.

Stanley: You went to Spelman for undergrad and Berklee for graduate school. What were those experiences like, respectively? How have they contributed to your artistic development?

Kaya Nova: Spelman and Berklee were both experiences I never thought that I’d have. Spelman is this beautiful place grounded on so much tradition, and it taught me about how to enter a room and make an impact. Spelman taught me about standards, and about excelling, how to be confident on stage especially as a classically trained vocalist. Spelman gave me the part of me that isn’t afraid to challenge barriers.

Berklee taught me how to be an artist, how to own my sound and how to be okay being uncomfortable in the art I wanted to make. Berklee was unique because I was also living in Spain at the time so it was culture shock for a number of reasons, and I felt like I had to figure out how to be okay being this black girl with these big ideas. I was recording and performing all the time so it really gave me stamina as an artist as well.

But ironically I never fully felt like I fit in at either space, and I guess when you’re an artist you never really do. So as much as I gained earning both my bachelor’s and masters at great institutions, I still had to do the work to make those places work for me. I could never settle with what was given to me. And that’s basically what the industry is like as well.

I really just want to tell the story of what it’s like being a person just trying to figure it out because that’s what my journey is — Kaya Nova

Stanley: There’s a really interesting and exciting sonic consistency across the music you’ve been releasing. You produce and/or co-produce all of your music, too. I was wondering if you could talk a bit about some of the producers you’ve worked with of late, and how you approach creating your sound?

Kaya Nova: So it’s interesting actually I tend to have bad luck with producers. I’m not going to lie I’m extremely picky, and when I first started honing in on my sound—which is very neo-soul—most producers were not making that kind of music. So I taught myself to produce as a way to kind of better communicate the sound I wanted, so a producer could take the idea and make it even better. But that never happened, so I figured I had to either learn how to actually produce a track or be okay with whatever sound a producer gave me. So… I learned how to make a track.

Somebody’s Sun is my only single to this day that I didn’t produce. It was really given to me by chance, Ro$egold was amazing in just wanting me to have it. And as soon as I heard it I was like “YESSSS!” and those moments are so rare out here.

With my new single, More Than That, and a few other songs I have coming out the approach is almost like new wave neo-soul. I really have an obsession with minimal tracks, where you can hear each layer even if it just keys, bass, drums, and guitar or something simple. I like to make songs that sound like we could vamp all day on stage and do a sing along with the audience. But I also like some of the sounds of new age R&B, it’s very digital and hip-hop influenced. So I try to blend the two. But i’m still obsessed with the idea of being a female artist with her own band one day, so I kind of want to bring that feel back to R&B.

Stanley: I’m curious about some of your musical influences. Like, what is a 12-year old Kaya listening to?

Kaya Nova: 12-year old Kaya was listening to A LOT of Paramore, Fall Out Boy, Green Day, Maroon 5, Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson, Pussycat Dolls. If it was a top hit on the pop radio stations? I knew it. My middle school music taste was extremely pop and punk rock, but then I’d go home and my mom would be blasting Musiq Soulchild, Anita Baker, Ray Charles, Bob Marley. My older sister always kept me current with new R&B and Hip-hop—she had ‘Confessions’ and ‘College Drop Out’ on repeat. And then my dad was always listening to new artists, he’s actually the one that got me into Drake and Adele.

So even though I had my own personal taste, I was always surrounded in music. I began to really idolize vocalists more in high school and of course college as a voice major. That’s when I became an official member of the Bey Hive, but also admired people like Barbara Streisand, Celine Dion, Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, Michael Jackson. All of these talents that could get on stage and captivate thousands without even moving. Just singing. Just their presence. I knew I wanted that.

Stanley: You’re very much the interdisciplinary artist, and engage in a bunch of different mediums. You're an artist-in-residence at Stonehenge NYC, you design your own merch — which looks incredible! — you’ve photographed and designed your own cover art, shot your own music videos, serve as a creative coach, and more. With this in mind, I’m interested in learning more about your creative practice. What is your process like? Especially since you work across mediums.

Kaya Nova: I think when you’re an indie artist you have no choice but to look at the bigger picture. I’d love to just be able to write the song sometimes and not stress about anything else, but I don’t have that privilege right now. In my head if I don’t learn how to do something that relates to my art, I’m risking my own integrity and putting my dream on someone else’s timeline.

So when I began to kind of venture into different aspects of my own career, it never really felt like I was working across mediums. It felt like “okay this thing needs to get done but I can’t afford to pay someone so… how can I figure this out myself?” and so many artists work that way out of survival so we never really feel empowered by all the skills we actually have. But most of us are creative directors, graphic designers, photographers, producers, all that. Because that’s what we’d want out of our own teams.

Now with my residency I’m learning a big lesson in patience, how to collaborate more, and not get so caught up in the end goal that I forget to take things project by project. So yes, I still write songs and think about how I’ll perform them, but I’ve gotten better at not holding on to music until I can shoot a perfect video for it. I’m working on just letting these songs have their own space and if God says it’s time for a visual a way will be made for me to make one.

Stanley: We all go through different phases/chapters of our lives. What would you call this chapter of your life?

Kaya Nova: This chapter is definitely called patience. I think for the longest time I based my happiness on how well my life was going, mostly around if I was stable, had a certain amount of money, if my brands were doing well, etc. But now I’m getting to that point of adulthood where you realize life is often more a mix of things you just have to handle or process constantly.

I’ve had some amazing wins this year, and also some hard tragedies and I think that’s how it always will be. This constant ebb and flow of challenges and rewards, and if I’m only happy when I’m being rewarded or winning? Well… I’ll never really have any peace. And the more hyper-visible I become, the more I care about peace and quiet. I’m trying to protect that as much as I can.

So I’m relearning everything I thought I knew about being an artist but also just as a woman. It’s not easy and it’s not supposed to be. So I have to give myself more grace even when things feel like they’re falling apart.