Kaki King (Interview)

Today we’re listening to Kaki King, an American guitarist from Atlanta. We’ve recommended her music twice before, in 2019 and in 2023. Growing up, King played the drums in addition to guitar, on which she developed an adept fingerstyle technique, demonstrated on her 2003 masterpiece debut, Everybody Loves You. Fast forward to 2020 which saw the release of Modern Yesterdays, a contemplative solo guitar record that we’re revisiting this day. First, though, we’re playing her new EP, Tutto Passa, a collection of demos from around 2010 that were recently finished by her collaborator Dan Brantigan. It’s a very cool and inventive record, a departure from the solo pickings from prior albums. A conversation with Kaki follows the streaming links.

Tutto Passa - Kaki King (24m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal

Modern Yesterdays - Kaki King (50m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal

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What's your earliest memory of music?

My dad playing air guitar while listening to his reel to reel.

Tell us about the first music you made.

I made a bunch of 4 track recordings. I'd record drums and bounce them to a single track, followed by guitars and bass and then vocals. It was awesome to get early experience learning how to multi-track.

You've used the guitar as a percussive instrument going back to your debut, Everybody Loves You. How do you think your background in drums influenced your composition and performance style?

The main way my drumming influences my guitar is the independence of the hands. My hands are often doing two very separate things on the strings which are combined rhythmically, even when I'm not doing anything that would be considered percussive. So that's the influence of being a drummer on the guitar.

Tutto Passa is a really cool EP. It has plenty of guitar to be sure, but it sounds like it's a full band playing, and perhaps incorporates drum machines/samples. Tell us about the musical journey you went on from Modern Yesterdays to this EP.

Demos for this EP were actually recorded around 2010. I was working with my friend Dan Brantigan on new music and we made these at my apartment. He was playing synth trumpet and flugelhorn and I was playing a lot of slide and baritone guitar. Shortly after we did this work my life spiraled completely out of control and I had to make a decision to sober up, which I was really really fortunate to be able to do. In 2022 Dan sent a mysterious link to me. It contained the finished version of all of the demos. He had held onto them for that long and decided to complete them as a surprise. It was the kindest most generous act of love. So Tutto Passa is exactly that--demos from that time period made whole ten years later by someone who never gave up on me. I think if you compare them to some of my albums around the 2010 period that the make more sense in that context.

How do you discover new music these days? Any recent notable finds?

Been listening to Hayden Pedigo, Arc de Soleil, and Dawn of Midi. I don't have much time to just zone out and listen to music, and there is so so so much amazing stuff out there, but I'm trying to take more time to actively listen.

Name an underrated artist from the past 50 years.

Dorothy Ashby

What are you working on next?

A children's show called BUGS. It. Is. Crazy.