Kaina

Kaina Castillo arrived to the music industry by way of Irving Park to historic Northside neighborhood, Logan Square, in Chicago, IL. Logan Square—a site where copious working-class, brown folks are being displaced from their homes—is comprised of predominantly white and Hispanic families. Kaina resides there currently and says, “[Logan Square] is getting pretty gentrified, but I have vivid memories of coming to this place with my parents when I was a child; there was a megamall I visited before it was knocked down, my pediatrician, and this little music store called ‘Disco City’.” Logan Square continues to rapidly reshape its structure, bringing a stark myriad of changes to the way Kaina remembers the Windy City locale. With commitment to her ever-changing home strapped onto her back, Kaina has spent the latter half of 2018 soldiering through concert performances, collaborations with big names, and preparation for an upcoming studio album. These recent credits might deceive newcomers into believing Kaina’s ongoing rise materialized from thin air, but her roots and creativity have been married to community and self-care through the facet of art since childhood.

When Kaina was eighteen, her extracurriculars included participating in the Young Chicago Authors program as a high school student, a local organization dedicated to cultivating the artistic, writing abilities of the multi-talented youth of Chicago through workshops and open mics. Young Chicago Authors employs a highly decorated squad of mentors, teachers and more — their current staff enlists Kevin Coval as Artistic Director, Jamila Woods as an Associate Artistic Director, Britteney Black Rose Kapri as an Artistic Fellow, and José Olivarez as a Teaching Artist Fellow. Kaina sculpted a vignette of her time with the organization as we spoke, saying,“With Young Chicago Authors, I started out attending their open mics and slammed my senior year of high school where they sent some of their Teaching Artists to help us develop our skills; I then interned as a Programming and Production intern.”

Kaina would later matriculate to DePaul University as a first-generation college student, enrolling as a Public Relations and Advertising major before leaving the institution to further pursue her growing musical interests with the support of her peers, one of which includes longtime friend and producer, Sen Morimoto. Sen is responsible for a majority of the production on Kaina’s upcoming, untitled full-length album. Kaina humbles herself by admitting it wasn’t until recently did she begin to involve intentionality around her writing process, oscillating from creating songs composed of unedited journal entries of her youth to edited articulations of her songwriting skills for public consumption. The conversation we had about this change in approach unveiled the difficulties of becoming a public figure and creative. There’s a difficulty Kaina and I bonded over in terms of holding yourself accountable as marginalized people of color with voices. We often struggle for representation, and when that representation is granted, it might force us into becoming the tokenized spokesperson for our communities. Being an acclaimed artist is more than empty fame; we have responsibilities to the many worlds that shape us and this undoubtedly entangles itself in the writing process.

Kaina informed me that originally writing her thoughts down and recording them from the pad, as is, provided her with an early feeling of authenticity, but challenging that perspective to hone her craft feels like a necessity and a form of holding herself accountable. There was a time when jotting down her anger, sadness and frustrations about her friendships and relationships then recording them immediately made sense; however, throughout our conversation, it became clear that Kaina was concerned about how unedited emotions might allow for miscommunication and hurting the people she cares about. Now, she welcomes the song-editing process as self-growth.

Diving into Kaina’s past discography offered me the 2016 EP “Sweet ASL,” (pronounced “Sweet as hell,” a nod to Chicago slang) with the Burn Twins and Bedows. Kaina heard the confusion in my pronunciation immediately and shot back, jokingly, “Are you from Chicago?” The project consists of a warming interlude, “Perspective,” where Kaina and friends sing as a collective, “Maybe life is all about the way you put it in perspective / Maybe life is all about the way you put it in perspective.” The soulful jazz instrumentation fits in with what I believe to be the Chicago renaissance , coming on the heels of Drill rap. But, Kaina informs me that the scene in Chicago is vast, there isn’t one singular sound or movement, but rather sounds that exists alongside each other, “Chicago sound is so distinct. Chicago music has such a lineage between blues music and house, soul and more. I think that’s why a lot of Chicago artists and myself sound like an iteration of soul and the hustle of the city, with a sweetness that’s sort of haunting but honest.”

“Sweet ASL” demonstrated a challenge to the notion that Kaina’s singing-songwriting abilities were unrefined; there’s a brilliance to the way Kaina rawly evokes contemplation both in her past and present music. Castillo’s YouTube page is home to a more recent single, “Happy,” where she sings with a gaze fixed on the camera. The music video is framed in a lush, bluish hue, a juxtaposition to the song’s meditations on happiness, “My head’s on right where it should be / When you stand close to me / My smile jumps to a starlit night / When you are happy / My head’s on right where it should be / When you stand close to me / My smile jumps to a starlit night / When you are happy.” The imagery elicits melancholy, but the words inspire love, closeness and, romance. Kaina said to me that “Happy” is accepting love in the forms it presents itself in, although sometimes that looks different from what we’re used to or expect, “[‘Happy’] is hopeful and about gratitude but we’re also human and we sometimes feel conflicted or confused about our feelings themselves. In the end, I feel like I can always pause and think about the way people or love shows up for me in my life that I may be glazing over. Ultimately, I’m happy even if it’s not in its most digestible form for me.” We have to acknowledge that love exists in many fashions and that we have to familiarize ourselves with those forms and decide which ones we accept and leave behind.

This year Kaina has become an unstoppable force. Pivoting as Saba’s, fellow Chicagoan, supporting vocalist for his NPR Tiny Desk concert, performing at Red Bull’s Latinx Music Festival alongside household names such as Princess Nokia, and opening for Kali Uchis. And although the story of opening for Kali Uchis is an impressive one (she was retweeted by fans to Uchis’ attention) Kaina’s moments of glory have and continue to be results of hard work, and are far from sheer luck. After the Kali Uchis concert, some of Kaina’s fans let her know how heartfelt the experience was for them as young, brown kids trying to find their own relationships with Latinx identity. Kaina is reaching people by being authentically herself through her music whether unedited and edited lyrics alike. Her response about her role in music “I didn’t really speak Spanish much growing up, and now I’m offered the possibility to ride the wave of Spanish-speaking music for quick, mainstream popularity, in addition to helping people be seen, but there’s a version of myself that makes people feel visible too.” Though she wants to use her identity as a tool for inspiration, Castillo refuses to broadcast her multilingualism solely for commodification.

Kaina cites neo-soul staple, D’Angelo, and Afro-Cuban megastar, Celia Cruz as a couple of her most important influences musically, saying, “Someone asked me who my musical influences are the other day and I said D’Angelo, Celia Cruz and, Sen Morimoto, who is my best friend, but sort of signifies how much I feel inspired by my direct community. It’s funny, because D’Angelo and Celia Cruz are incredibly similar but different in many ways. I feel like my new material lies within the intersection of these performers.” While Celia Cruz and D’Angelo might seem polarized to some, both artists embody triumph, inspiration, and dedication to pushing musicality forward with unbridled honesty that Kaina wields as signature themes of her songs. When I listen to her music, I hear the same intensity of emotion that reminds me of the head-nodding D’Angelo’s “Black Messiah” sends me into every time.

Kaina is an emerging artist from Chicago uncovering what it means to grow as both an individual, and as an artist, while maintaining the respect for and dedication to the community she loves dearly. Kaina’s process isn’t solely about writing beautiful songs, she yearns to develop strong relationships with her collaborators and fans, and works towards manifesting community in all aspects of her artistry. We spoke for over an hour about the amount of juggling required to perform all these roles, not just adequately but impressively, and the grip she has on all of the hats she wears is a testament to the force that is KAINA.