EQUATE Introducing KYE

Introducing KYE. Growing up in the UK to Zimbabwean parents and later on moving all the way to Melbourne, Australia, the songstress has been exposed to a diverse range of sounds, cultures, and music scenes. From singing gospel songs to participating in talent shows and being part of girl bands - KYE has a wealth of experience under her belt and has developed her artistry and grown her fanbase continuously.

With her debut release ‘Sometimes’, KYE further introduced herself as an artist and proved that she is a force to be reckoned with. Only recently, she released ‘Tuesday‘, another stunning slice of R&B. We spoke to her about her journey so far and what fans can expect from her in the coming months.

Read the full interview below…

EQ: What was the first song you ever wrote - do you still have the lyrics somewhere?

K: It’s really interesting because I mean, I guess I started song-writing at like 15, or 16. And the first songs that I wrote actually ended up being my first project under my old name, back when I used to use my full name. I released those songs, I put an EP out. So it’s always really funny to listen back. I wasn’t really making music professionally, or really looking at it that way. I just thought I just put the songs out. So yeah, it’s really funny. I mean, I cringe a little bit, and I do laugh at what I was talking about. You have to trust the process as well. So when you listen to those songs, back then, and to the songs that you are releasing now, you can really see the process.

EQ: That’s interesting! And it’s definitely important to trust the process as well, so you realise how far you have come. You also moved countries - you were born in Zimbabwe, moved to London, and then Melbourne. How has that impacted your sound? And how did moving all those countries shape you as an artist and a person?

K: I think the biggest thing for me is that you know, moving to each country was such a big culture shock every single time. And I think having to adapt to the different cultures, every time really influenced me as a person, to begin with. So I think, you know, even in my personality, there are things that are so involved with and then there are things that are so English still. I think you kind of get the same thing in my music, you know, you get some of the influences from home that you can sometimes hear, especially with the new stuff that I’m writing, so a lot of influences. And then, of course, my love for Britpop, and my love for whatever was playing in 2001, to 2005, when I was little, and discovering more about music, and discovering British radio, there’s so much of that music that still influences my sound. And then, of course, Australian, and particularly the Melbourne R&B scene. It’s such a strong scene, it’s a strong sound. And a lot of my sounds come from there, too. So I just feel like I have this big kind of hybrid mix of all these sounds, and it really plays into the kind of genre of music I make, too, because I don’t really make one kind of genre at all. It’s all really influenced me just as a person and as an artist. And yeah, you can hear its influences a lot.

EQ: That’s incredible, though, I mean, it must be quite exciting to just move around and getting to know all these different cultures. But I’m guessing it was challenging as well to establish yourself as a singer when moving to a new country again, right?

K: It was really, really tough because I mean, in the UK is where kind of started establishing you know, that I wanted to be a singer and I wanted to sing and Australia is very different to the UK when it comes to the arts. There’s a bit of a different mentality, there’s a different attitude. And I think, being a bit more of a boisterous kid coming out of the UK and that being okay, and coming into Australian culture where that’s not really a thing and having to kind of pull that was really, really tough to begin with - to sort of trying to make myself a little bit smaller and then as I’ve grown obviously learning that I shouldn’t do that and I should just embrace myself. It was definitely enriching, moving around and learning all kinds of different cultures, but also definitely really difficult to go into different places.

“It’s just a different feeling, you know when you get onto home soil, and it’s just a sense of belonging that you didn’t have anywhere else”

- KYE

EQ: I can totally understand that. Hard question, but do you have a favourite country out of all of them?

K: Obviously Zim has my heart. That’s where I was born. And that’s where my family is. And, that’s where so much everything is, my roots. And I love going home, and I’ve missed going home. It’s just a different feeling, you know when you get onto home soil, and it’s just a sense of belonging that you didn’t have anywhere else. And then every time I’ve been back to the UK, I feel this sense of like “Oh, I never left. I never went anywhere”. And you know that I’ve been there the whole time, even though it had been probably 10 years between me leaving and the first time I actually got to go back and visit. But I went back and I saw my old friends. And it just felt like I was a UK girl all over again. And then, you know, I stay out of Melbourne long enough, and I want to come home to Australia. So yeah, it’s hard. It’s difficult to choose one and I love them all pretty equally, I would say.

EQ: Yeah, it’s crazy how you can feel at home and in different countries. When I’m in Germany, I feel so at home, but when I’m there for a few weeks, I really want to go back to London again. So yeah, I totally get where you’re coming from. You also recently released your single ‘Gold’ featuring Sampa The Great and 18YOMAN - How did you first meet them? And what was it like collaborating with them?

K: So I saw Sampa a few years ago now. The first time I met her, I was playing a small headline show in Melbourne. And I remember, I saw these girls in the corner, they were hyping me up and they were yelling out and they’re really getting me. I went over them because they were holding their phones up. And I started performing into their phone cameras. And Sampa pulled her phone down. And obviously, I knew her as Sampa is quite a big artist. Yeah. So I got the shock of my life when she pulled her phone down. I was like, “Oh, that’s crazy”. And she came backstage after the show and congratulated me, it was super dope. And she’s like “can I take your number and maybe we’ll catch up sometime and do something”, that was four years ago. So now to have a song together is pretty crazy. Because I mean, there’s probably a year or two that I ended up joining a band and we ended up touring for a couple of years. It’s been a long journey between those moments. 18YOMAN, I met him here in Melbourne as well. And we got set up into a writing session off the cuff. It was a really random day, I think the person was actually meant to be in the writing session and couldn’t make it. So I got thrown into this writing session. He has been part of my musical journey and my friendship group since then.

EQ: Oh, it’s fascinating how things turn out sometimes. Is there anyone else on your list that you would love to collaborate with one day?

K: There are so many people. I don’t even know where to even start. At the moment, I think I’ve got my eyes on the UK and I really love Tiana Major9. I feel like we could do something.

EQ: I can see that. Definitely.

K: Yeah. I absolutely love her. And I like Jorja Smith, and I just think I’ve been really really focused on some of the really amazing female R&B artists coming out of the UK at the moment. So definitely would love to do a big R&B collab.

EQ: Fingers crossed it will happen! Your new EP ‘Good Company’ is out very soon as well, which is very exciting. So first of all, like, how long was it in the making?

K: Oh, it’s been so long in the making now. It’s really interesting. So I mean, I wrote the song, ‘Good Company’, in 2017. And at the time, I was touring with a different band here in Melbourne, and working on some other projects and my solo stuff wasn’t really at the forefront of my mind at the time really. I continued to tour with more and more bands, and we haven’t just put ‘Good Company’ out on a whim. The person who currently manages me now just reached out randomly on a random day and was like, “Hey, how are things going with your music? What have you got at the moment” and I showed him ‘Good Company‘. And he was like, “Cool, well, if you want some help releasing this, let’s release it”. So we kind of just put it out and not really expecting too much. And we put it out there and it just went crazier than we thought it would. So from that point, we said I will get an EP out. And then obviously the pandemic happened which forced me to come home and it was probably in the first couple months of being home I rewrote a whole lot of my catalog and wrote a whole bunch of new music and the EP was written in about a week. So yeah, it happened really quickly. I’m just ready to get them all out and have people hear them.

EQ: Oh, wow, one week? That’s incredible.

K: It was a wild week you know, a lot was changing in the world. And I think my mind was just sort of like “oh, this is the longest we’ve been home for I’ve just had some time to just sit there and think and let my thoughts marinate a little bit more. So yeah, it came very quickly.

EQ: Do you have a favourite song of the EP?

K: It always changes. They’ve all been the favourite at one point. I think my favourite at the moment is the one that’s just come out. I’m really excited for people to hear that.

“You have to trust the process”

- KYE