INTERVIEW: Kisos bares his intimate darkness on VOICES EP

Not many pop projects dive as deeply into an artist’s mind as Kisos does on his debut, VOICES. The EP is a symbolic journal of his post college life—moving cross country to New York City from Fairfield, California, finding confidence in his queer identity, fighting addiction, and of course, a sprinkle of heartbreak, all in just 5 songs. The raw emotionality of his voice creates a vibrant atmosphere for each track, ranging from slow and subdued, to roaring out his pain. Despite each song occupying its own unique vibe, the stories entice the listener to hang onto his every word.

Fully DIY, Kisos wrote and produced the full project in his bedroom, with the exception of Deatomize, for which he partnered up with fellow NYC artist, Kirsten Izer. Take a listen to VOICES and check out our interview where we find out more of the stories that inspired the EP and, most importantly, why he sleeps in a hammock.

VOICES as a whole is very dark. Does that fully reflect how you felt at the time or is it exaggerated for the sake of more dramatic music?

I’m an emotional guy, lots of highs and lows. If I look back at everything I made for this EP, I would say it could honestly be even darker. I try to be 100% honest and vulnerable, and not shy away from sharing anything. I felt truly, suffocatingly hopeless at so many points after entering “the real world,” and especially my first couple years in NYC. But there’s so much beauty even in pain, and I wanted to show that duality, yin & yang. There’s comradery in sadness, we all want to be happy and help each other be happy. That’s the only reason “Symmetry” has a hopeful, encouraging element to the otherwise tense production, and why I decided to include the bonus track, “Self Love Shit” at the end. We can be sad together, and we can uplift each other at the end of it all.

I would say your EP fits well into the indie/alt-pop realm but you inject a definite shot of R&B, soul stylings as well. Where do your influences come from?

I really didn’t listen to music until I got my first car senior year of high school. My mom was afraid of cuss words or us being exposed to any sexual music haha so we only ever listened to the most inoffensive pop. I specifically remember being sick from school when I was 11 or 12 and thinking “what is on these other radio stations?” I stumbled upon “Where Is The Love” by Black Eyed Peas (Fergie RIP) and was mindblown because my mom had made me think all rap was to avoided, and here was this beautiful, melodic, uplifting pop/hip-hop song. Since then I went through my pop punk, emo indie pop phase and then found my way to Jazmine Sullivan who remains my favorite artist. Nobody can sing like her. I started singing around when I discovered her music and used her songs to teach me how to riff and explore different areas of my voice. Joining gospel choir in college really cemented my love and appreciation for the layered harmonies, powerful choruses, and runs that make your knees shake.

“You Said” isn’t a typical breakup song, you’re calling out your own infidelity and addiction from the perspective of your partner, why did you decide to share such an intimate struggle?

Honesty & communication are the most important aspects of a friendship or romantic relationship, and the same goes for my relationship with anyone hearing my music. I owe you all full transparency. I want to publicly admit and reflect on my ugliest flaws, especially in this fake-happy social media landscape, and I wanted to apologize to the partners I hurt. I wrote this from the perspective of the partners I cheated on in order to impress the emotion and gravity of their pain into my being and save any future partner and I from that destructive behavior. I’ve worked hard on myself and beaten that temptation down into the dust, but I’ll say that each slice and incision I reference in the bridge represents someone I hooked up with while taken. I can see why you asked me about drama in the first question!

Despite the gloomy mood of VOICES, you add a playfulness into each track, what are your favorite little moments?

Yes, definitely. I make sad music and, again, tend to be quite emotional, but overall I’m a hyper boy who just wants to dance and make my friends pee their pants laughing, so even in my darkest moments I tend to find something to laugh about. And in my happy moments that playfulness comes second nature. I love tuned demon voices, cute little callouts and Nicki Minaj “Uhhh” sounds. In “Deatomize” I do this little “ch-chikah-ch” before the final chorus that sounds like I’m jamming to my own song, hard to explain but that’s my fave probably. “No Control” has a bunch of fun moments that kick off in the second verse. I really love random noises, and music takes itself so seriously sometimes. “Self Love Shit” definitely is not meant to be serious, I had some friends add little spoken phrases on there for extra effect.

We read that you sleep in a hammock? Please elaborate.

I thought you’d never ask. It goes back to the playfulness, I’m so low maintenance, and down to try most anything. I live in a 2 bedroom but there’s three of us. At first I shared the large room with my best friend but we naturally wanted our own space, also I was having trouble supporting myself financially. We discussed me moving into the living room and paying less rent, but still wanted it to be a common space and a bed just wouldn’t have worked. My roommate mentioned seeing a hammock as a bed alternative, I checked it out, bought it, and it was perfect. I can put it away in like one minute and now I save $300 a month on rent. A necessary sacrifice to give me more freedom to work on music without stressing about bills.

How does being queer influence your music and how do you hope it impacts the LGBT community?

I didn’t necessarily intend for my queer identity to affect my music, and then I wrote “No Control” which is explicitly about how I felt stifled for years after coming out. Like I needed to censor how I act or dress, and never show any affection for my partner in public. Especially after Pulse and Trump I thought, “F*** THIS, I’M GONNA BE SO GAY. NO MORE FEAR.” I’m still getting comfortable, but it’s a process, and I hope other LGBTQ people can identify with that process and we can all pull each other along. Our community is in desperate need of accessible mental healthcare, especially the trans and PoC portions of us. There’s so much shit attacking us psychologically and sometimes physically, every day we live is a rebellion against hate and that’s beautiful. With past music releases I’ve donated 50% of proceeds to Queer Lifespace an organization in SF that provides low or no cost mental health services. In the wake of the Stoneman Douglas shooting in Florida last week, I decided this time I’ll be donating to #NeverAgain and March For Our Lives, a movement to end the epidemic of school shootings in our country, created by student survivors of that attack. It’s a time to make moves, and I know this organization is going to be a major turning point in history.
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You can buy Kisos’s debut EP, VOICES here or connect with him on his official site here.