#and my friend had to explain that the albums r. basically just merch

[the-part-where-i-shut-up]

i’m in my kpop era 

[woozi]

my darling beloved yza,

it's been so long i'm sorryyy, things got crazy, i got some exam results, going to be studying nonstop from now til july probably. how have you been!! I LOVE THE BSS COMEBACK all the songs are a bop but i love lunch slightly more than the others. now that i think about it though. 7pm is a BOP and ofc fighting slays so hard so idkkkk this is a tough question. do you have a favourite? what's yours?

ooh so when i was an assistant it was for kids 1-3 years younger than me, i did computer science/ict and basically helped students who were struggling w grasping concepts, helped during tests and explained things. i taught myself the ict curriculum bc i only did the computer science myself dfshldfs it was quite easy though. when i was w them we mostly did microsoft access!!

how have you beeennnn it's been so long what's going on in yza world! love you lots!

your beloved wife,

honey <3

MY HONEYBUNCH SUGARPLUM PUMPYUMPYUMPKIN <3333333 MY SWEETIEPIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

nothing to be sorry abt at all <33333 i'm grateful u even think of me from time to time 🥺 ALSO OMGGGGGGG the slay and grind never ends w you huh, you're such a busy bee <3

I REALLY LOVED THE CBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB <3 i love how it's a fully fleshed out concept, from the tracks themselves, the idea of the whole album having a specific track for a specific time of day, THE MV, THE MERCH, THE PACKAGING HELLO?????????? it was such a fucking slay bss deserved all those fucking wins tbh <33 ALSO UR TASTE?????????????? all of the songs had to grow on me, but i liked 7pm from the first listen <3 now though i think its fighting > lunch = 7pm for me <33 ur taste though 😋😋😋

WAIT THATS SO COOL???????? + THE FACT U TAUGHT URSELF???????? i'm 🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️ im in the presence of Greatness <333

i've just been busy w uni and real life stuff tbh jfdkjfdjkjkfd my life is going back to its pre-pandemic routine and it's v weird for me </3 i miss coming on here sm and hanging out w u all 🥺 thank u for always checking in on me and for being such a nice kind cute friend u really r the best 🥺🥺🥺 sending u all the love in the world i hope the days always give u reasons to smile <33 ILY MWAH

[mingishoe]

50 kpop questions

Just because I’ve been stuck inside for exactly 31, almost 32 days, which is terrible for my mental health sO i’m doing this to keep my mind off of things. Also I’m really sorry for not posting this week, I’ve been working on requests and I’ve just been taking my time and stuff so yeah. Thank you for being patient babes~~

1.)The first song that got you into kpop? So surprisingly it wasn’t a  BTS song even though Run was the first kpop song I heard... it was Sorry by The Rose  

2.) The first group you starting staning in kpop? So sorry was a song that really stuck with me for the longest time and almost immediately after I started staning The Rose. Usually when I tell people its a band and not necessarily a ‘normal’ kpop group that has choreo and stuff, they’re always really surprised because even now they’re not super super popular. 

3.) Your first bias? So even though The Rose isn’t a normal choreo kpop group my first bias was Dojoon but pretty soon after I got into BTS and before I learned their names I was really drawn to Namjoon, so I’d say either one of those.

4.) Your first bias wrecker? Okay so in The Rose I didn’t really have one but in BTS my bias wrecker was Yoongi and obviously he wrecked me because uhh yeah Yoongi is now my bias BUT it’s still Yoongi after years sooo...

5.) Your favorite boy group? My favourite boy group is Ateez (obviously lmao)

6.)Your favorite girl group? My favourite girl group currently is Itzy but I’m really stuck between BlackPink as well.

7.) Your ultimate bias If it’s not obvious enough, its Mingi... hence my username

8.) The main fandom your apart of? I’d say I’m mainly Atiny, but there’s a huge Army inside of me.

9.) Your ultimate group? My ult group is also Ateez

10.) Your favorite era of your ultimate group?

Dude all of Ateez’ eras are literally all perfect but I’d say either this past comeback, the Answer era or the Wave/Illusion era.

11.) Your opinion, black haired idols or dyed hair? I love me a good pretty hair colour *Cough* mingi’s red hair and Yoongi’s mint hair *cough* but also P L E A S E let their hair B R E A T H E BEFORE IT FALLS OUT!

12.) Aegyo master girls?

So the groups I watch honestly don’t really like/don’t have the best aegyo but Lisa is really cute so I’d say her

13.) Aegyo master boys?

We all know our boy Jooheon- as much as it makes me wanna invert on myself it’s also insanely cute

14.) Your favorite maknae

So you know... it’s between Jongho and Jungkook but I think I’d have to say Kook.

15.) Your ‘child’ group?

I don’t really know what that means so UHHH

16.) The group you could see yourself becoming best friends with?

Dude honestly as much as I love ateez I just wanna be best friends with BTS so FUCKING BAD like dawg they’re just so funny and yeah 

17.) Your favorite boy group kpop song ?

This is a really hard question because there’s like a million answers but I’d say Utopia. That song without a doubt makes me cry every time I listen to it because it’s just so beautiful and it just makes my heart so happy,

18.) Your favorite kpop song girls?

I don’t wanna be basic or anything but it’s either ddu-du-ddu-du by BlackPink or ooh-ahh by Twice

19.) Are you more into girl groups or boy groups?

I’m more of a boy group stan because I’m not a huge fan of the cutesy stuff most girl groups do, but I do enjoy girl groups as well it’s just more difficult for me to get into them.

20.) Favorite kpop girl dance?

Once again I don’t wanna be basic but I really like either Whistle or BOOMBAYAH by BlackPink or Cheer Up by Twice. 

21.) Favorite kpop boy dance?

I really like Love Shot and Ko Ko Bop by EXO or Serendipity by Jimin BTS 

22.) If you were stuck in a horror movie you’d want which group with you?

Okay so no matter what group I’d pick I’d be dead bUT I think my best bet would be maybe Ateez because they got Jongho and that boy is strong and not scared of anything.

23.) Favorite fandom light stick?

By far my favourite is the BlackPink light stick because it’s literally the cutest thing ever aND IT SQUEAKS!!! like someone please buy it for me. Please and Thank You.

24.) Favorite fandom name?

I really like Ikon’s ikonic and Ateez’ Atiny

25.) Visual king?

Yeosang PERIODT, baby gets slept on way too much on his visuals and KQ was right to make him a visual.

26.) Visual queen?

Dude Jisoo from BlackPink. She’s so beautiful and shes in my top 3 of female idols I think are the most gorgeous thing in the world.

27.) Dance queen?

Lisa from BlackPink. If you’ve seen her mentoring on that chinese show- BITCH you can see how serious she takes it and it’s so satisfying to watch but also I’d cry if I’d ever have to dance in front of her.

28.) Dance king?

Hoseok from BTS. Like once again you can physically see how serious he takes it and its insanely hot but also very scary and like Lisa I’d cry if I’d ever have to dance in front of him.

29.) Rap king?

This is an opinion and I’ve met so many people who have actually fought with me on this one but Hoseok from BTS is literally such a good rapper. I understand he might not be the best but he is my favourite rapper in kpop. I just absolutely love his tone of voice and idk UGH i just love Hoseok overall.

30.)Rap queen?

I know a lot of people are probably gonna disagree with me on this one but uh I think Moonbyul, Hyuna, and Jessi are some of the best rappers because personally I just really like their tones and UGH they’re all just beautiful. 

31.) A group you’d really like to get into?

There are SO many groups I would love to get into but I’d say a girl group would be Dreamcatcher because I listen to their songs and they’re all great but I just haven’t found the time to sit down and learn their names or anything. A boy group would be MCND because I saw their debut like an hour after it released and it was really good and once again I really like their debut album but I just haven’t found the time to sit down and learn their names either.

32.)Your favorite ship?

I’m personally not really into ships so I’ll just use ships as friendships so I’d say either Yoonmin, sope, but probably Vmin would be my favourite, which are all BTS ships.

33.) Your favorite intergroup friendship?

I think I’m gonna say Jackson Wang from GOT7 and Namjoon from BTS. They’re both just really cute so yeah kjdfskd

34.)Ballads or upbeat songs?

Personally ballads because I prefer slower more cute or sad songs or the complete opposite and like trap with a loud ass bass.

35.) Have you ever met any of your idols?

No but I would love to. Rationally thinking I think I would completely shut down and not know what to do because some of these people I look up to so highly and literally thank them for the sole reason of me being happy and being able to get through such difficult times.

36.) Do you prefer cute themes or sexy themes?

Once again I don’t really like cutesy themes that much so I’m going to go on the sexy themes side. also i’m a hardstan so obviously.

37.) How long have you been a kpop fan?

So I’ve been around Kpop for a really long time because a few of my friends listened to BTS and Super Junior and stuff like that I always listened to it but I was forcefully trying not to get into it but eventually I gave up and secretely got into kpop around 2017 but then i “Came out of the kpop closet” as my friends like to say after the Burn The Stage movie came out because my friend took me to go see it with her when it came out in 2018. But yeah if I let myself I would’ve been a kpop stan a long ass time ago.

38.) Your favorite comeback song?

There were so many comebacks that I really loved so there’s a few but Got7 You Calling My Name and Ateez Wonderland are two of my favourites.

39.) Do you have any kpop company you tend to prefer?

Not really, but I’d say I listen to many artists from JYP.

40.) Barefaced idols or make up?

I WILL A L W A Y S SAY THIS! BAREFACED IDOLS ARE SUPERIOR! THEY’RE S O BEAUTIFUL NO MATTER HOW MANY “IMPERFECTIONS” THEY HAVE!

41.) Is you bias list as out of control as mine?

My bias list is pretty much all rappers except maybe 2 or 3 so I’d say I have a type sdfskfhskjd

42.) How many groups do you actually keep tabs on?

A lot more than I actually realize but mostly Ateez, BTS, Monsta x, and Itzy. But I heavily rely on twitter for the rest of my groups

43.) Your current favorite kpop song?

I really don’t even know... but I’d say Utopia by Ateez.

44.) First kpop dance you’ve attempted to learn?

So I attempted to learn a bunch of dances but I really just gave up bUT a dance I’ve actually solidly learned is Ddu-du-ddu-du by BlackPink.

45.) When I hear kpop songs in public I....?

Personally I’m not ashamed to like kpop in public or anything. Like I’ll wear merch and stuff in public sO I’d probably not even make a big deal out of it and just sing along quietly.

46.) If I knew someone irl who had the same bias as me I would...?

Honestly we could like thirst and bond over having the same bias> I don’t get the people who get actually offended if people have the same bias and then defensive and possessive whenever they do have the same bias.

47.) Kpop idol I would most like to meet?

I probably would like to meet Wooyoung or San from Ateez. They both just seem like the nicest, sweetest people ever and I’d just love to have that experience.

48.) Kpop idol who is like a role model to me?

Namjoon from BTS. Do I even have to explain that? Honestly that man should be a role model and an inspiration to everyone but...

49.) Favorite kpop lyrics?

Sunrise by Ateez. The lyrics have helped me through many difficult times and every time I listen to it it’s a reminder that everything is going to be okay.

Why is my life so dark? Why, always makes me hard? A lost heart The burden on my shoulders Let's wait a little longer, even if it's cold. It's gonna rise. Sooner or later. Let's wait and see, alright. What I want someone to say to me, even if it's a lie. "You don't have to worry." "You're doing great." "Just keep it up. Just like you do now."

50.) If I had a whole day with my bias I would....”

I would honestly just wanna do something chill. Like Imagine just chilling and watching movies while eating snacks with Mingi- idk about you but honestly that’s probably the best thing I could imagine.

[flyrtreynolds]

Noisey: Is Okay Kaya Living in Pop Music's Future?

Noisey published an abridged version, condensing down the lead so that it read more generic, in my opinion. Here’s my first draft, which I’m more attached to.

Pictures taken by the wonderful Lauren Geisswein 

The San Damiano Mission, like many houses of worship these days, is rolling with the punches. With the encouragement of the Diocese of Brooklyn, two friars have come up with a “novel approach” to cure the dwindling followership of the over-100-year-old Catholic church located between Williamsburg and Greenpoint, mainly consisting of hosting concerts and hucking booze during off-service hours. Thus what once had a congregant of god-fearing Slovak immigrants at the turn of the 20th century now has a Resident Advisor page. 

Maybe no act the church has booked thus far exemplifies that change more than Kaya Wilkins, also known as Okay Kaya. Beneath a mural of angels ascending to heaven — the venue’s Romanesque decor remains very much intact — and bathed in blue light, the stoic and willowy 27-year-old singer hums out a bawdy question to a room full of her faithful adorees:

Do you dance like you fuck? Or do you dance like you make love?

With it, some of the crowd noticeably withers with delight in the pews. I can’t help but view the declaration of such candid words in this setting as a metaphor for the 27-year-old’s best work. Within the timeless format of a pop song, she can place a blunt truth that turns the experience on its head, making it both refreshing and more relatable.

Would you come with me to get an IUD? She coos on the first line of “IUD,” the lead single off her upcoming debut, Both.

Maybe, if you come with me, I will let you come in me.

This candor doesn’t immediately shine through in her persona offstage, however. I learn this the afternoon before the San Damiano show, talking with the songwriter, model, and actress in her cozy (New York tongue for “tiny”) Greenpoint apartment, pleasantly aglow with some springtime sun. Kaya—whose real name is Kaya Wilkins—sits perched on top of her bed, cross legged, talking in small pours, allowing her thoughts to slowly fill the glass. Her demeanor is dulcet and reflective, traits you wouldn't necessarily associate with someone who’s often in front of a camera.

“I think I’ve always had trouble communicating,” she says amid a soft smile, admitting that she’s still getting the hang of interviews. “I found mediums to express what I was feeling.”

Those mediums have grown steadily since her move to New York from her birthplace Norway eight years ago. In addition to her music career, which started with an Arthur Russell-inspired Soundcloud mix of her redolent vocals and has blossomed into a rep as one of the city’s more honest singer-songwriters, she also has her long-time modeling gig that’s recently placed her on high-profile runways around the world. Then there’s her acting work, which started with a flash of brilliance in last year’s Thelma, a Norwegian film about a student who struggles with her feelings for another woman (played by Kaya) and the supernatural powers that get intertwined in them.

But these successes haven’t necessarily come naturally to Kaya; with each new artform, she says, comes a growth period when she must discover where her identity fits into things. Whether it’s flooding a church nave with placid truths, rocking “silk skunk” (a real thing, yes) in a Calvin Klein campaign, or auditioning for a role without much prior acting experience, the underlying strategy of it all is to let her personality be the catalyst for the creativity. “I don’t know how I could get away with it otherwise. I don’t have the skills necessarily, but I do have me,” she explains. “I’m sure of my own voice, my style. And that feels good cause I’m insecure about everything else.”

Like many of us, finding her voice has been a journey for Kaya, one that can be traced back to her childhood in a small peninsula community outside of Oslo. There, in a cottage-like house only 10 minutes from the beach, she grew up with her mother and three brothers (her American father, a former marine that was stationed in Oslo at one point, raised her other two brothers in Boston). She has warm memories of summers there, swimming and playing in her mom’s garden, where she would match her clothing to the purple and yellow flowers that adorned it. She found the frigid winters to be bleaker, however, and the area’s homogeneous community to be problematic in relation to her ambiguity, both in identity and appearance (her mom is white and father black).

So she turned to art, at least in part inspired by her mom who worked as a proofreader by day and a painter by night and was just as likely to play Prince around the house as she was a Swedish jazz singer or Cypress Hill. Kaya would twiddle around with a guitar and sometimes play with her older brother’s metal band, but her first obsession became movement after a dance instructor in high school showed her examples of famous performers who “moved funny,” a descriptor she would often get in ballet classes. She realized she could use her uniqueness as an advantage, turning her small gestures, deemed awkward before, into innovative moves.

While we talk, I can see some of these gestures in her hands, which she nimbly tilts and curls through the air while describing things, like she’s peeling back an invisible curtain to examine them. “I just love to feel connected...like, ‘Oh someone is doing something that doesn’t have as many rules,’” she says of finding her creative niche.

She planned to pursue movement into the future, even pondering going to a “modern mime school” in Paris (“I was going to be like a clown basically”). But fate intervened, and she was discovered by modeling scouts, who encouraged her to take up the profession. After a year of trying to make it in London, she moved to NYC to make more money as an e-commerce model, posing as a “shell of a human” on retail websites like Ann Taylor’s LOFT.

It was during this period, feeling under stimulated, isolated and alone, that she decided to revisit music. She picked up a guitar and started recording short tunes to send to her friends and family back home. To get their attention, she would create rough covers of records by artists that differed wildly in tone than her, like Nate Dogg or the Curtis Mayfield-led Impressions. The songs came out soulful and slow moving, gorgeous recreations of upbeat jams. Eventually, combined with her original recordings, she had enough material to consolidate and post online.

“It’s something I just wanted to work on for a while. That’s all I know really,” she recalls of her first musical sketches. “It felt very necessary.”

What happens next Kaya finds strange to talk about, a familiar situation for seemingly any woman trying to break into the music industry. An A&R found her mix and approached her about management, promising to put out her work and introduce her to notable producers. She agreed, and together they released the songs that would announce her Okay Kaya project to the world, including the heart-tugging “Damn, Gravity,” a slowburner centered around love slipping through the fingertips produced by King Krule and Sampha collaborator Rodiadh McDonald. But the A&R also made strange requests, like pressuring her not to tell producers that she was in a relationship (Kaya has been dating songwriter Aaron Maine, also known as the singer Porches, for the past year). The process began to feel “grimy,” she says, and “really uncomfortable.” So she walked away, leaving behind both a deal with a prominent East Coast imprint and distribution through indie powerhouse XL Recordings. Suddenly the idea of an album seemed distant.

“It didn’t make me happy or even wanting to try for a minute. I think it took like three years for me to feel like I had my voice and...just going back to what I wanted to do.”

With “do,” she gestures her arms in upward circles, indicating the significance of the room surrounding us, where she recorded over half of Both, now set to be self-released on June 1 through her own label, Heavy Body Records. The apartment has become the epicenter of her work and a symbol of her newfound self-reliance in music. A small recording setup of a mic and mixer sits against the wall, next to a scribbled setlist for tomorrow’s show; a pile of clear garbage bags, full of merch Kaya designed with a friend, crams a corner. The soundtrack buzzing softly out of the speakers is made up entirely of women singers—Caroline Polachek, Nina Simone, Sibylle Baier—Kaya found inspiration in during the record’s writing process.

Both is a work of cogitation, poking at concepts and feelings Kaya has encountered in her journeys from Scandinavia to New York, the runway to the silver screen. “Emulate,” for example, examines the idea of projecting love and whether it leads to genuineness or manipulation, a question that lies at the heart of the two young women’s dynamic in Thelma. More directly, “Calendar Girl” was inspired by a time when Kaya felt it difficult to leave her apartment so she’d write simple tasks on a calendar—“walk around the block”—as motivation to break her self-confinement. Most of the arrangements that propel these thoughts, aside from a few co-produced by Maine, are her own.

Which brings us back to “IUD,” a single that many women have accepted as a righteous ode to self care amid the current tumultuous political environment. Kaya has a unique perspective on the situation, as she comes from a country that provides basic healthcare services, no questions asked. Thus, while talking about it, she’s able to underlie its significance and how foolish the alternative would be. “I just wanted to be transparent about it and be like, ‘This is happening. People need this.’”

It’s here that we possibly get a glimpse of the future. Kaya’s music, deeply personal in nature, is slowly becoming tangible outside of her own consciousness. In other words, her songs are no longer just her’s; she now shares them with others. We ponder this truth together in the kitchen, where we’ve moved so she could lean out the window and smoke a cigarette. The sound of hammering wafts up from a renovation on the first floor, placing our words to a grating rhythm. A table cloth of husky red roses, maybe a small ode to her mother’s garden back home, ties the room together.

In the self-financed and -choreographed videos for “IUD” and “Dance Like U,” the second single off Both, Kaya presents her feelings as physical embodiments identical in appearance to herself. One twin is irritating and cumbersome, representing trauma and sadness; the other is gentle and understanding, symbolizing acceptance. The “weird sisters,” as Kaya has dubbed them, were born out of a simple concept—a dualism that could serve as an album’s core theme (hence the title Both) and an interesting visual driver. But first and foremost they’re pieces of her, now barer than ever.

So much on the horizon—the show tomorrow, the album drop, the press that will follow—will put those pieces on display. She admits she’s nervous.

“I have no idea what it’s going to be like,” she says with an exhale of smoke. Her tender smile returns as she remembers the most important lesson she’s learned thus far.

“But wait, who am I trying to be? I’m just trying to be me.”

https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/qvxxmd/okay-kaya-interview-future-of-pop-both-2018