Music's Week: What inspired you to start making music, and what drives your creative process?
Jia Kai: I think I was inspired to start making music after going to the rave Paradiso at the Gorge in 2012 (before it became Beyond Wonderland).
At the time, I didn’t really know much about how to produce, but I just got the trial version of fruity loops and started figuring out how to make EDM by trial and error, then reading the help manual a lot and seeing how all the software worked.
That experimentation phase lasted a really long time. Since I didn’t go to some Ableton academy or whatever, I was totally messing up all the time, doing things the wrong way with this plugin or that. I still experiment like that with the software all the time, even though I know how to use it the “right way.”
My creative process is driven by what moves me—and I mean that broadly. It’s both sounds that make you move in the club and move you emotionally when you’re sad. I love music to provoke emotion, so I usually check my gut on how it moves me when making creative decisions.
Music's Week: Can you tell us about your musical upbringing? Did you grow up in a musical family or have any formal training?
Jia Kai: I started playing classical violin when I was five and I kept it up through high school, even doing some regional competitions. And that definitely helped with pitch training and understanding scales and all that.
Later, I got tutoring in music theory, piano and voice. I never got beyond a beginner level at those three but I think it was really important for me to have a foundational understanding at least.
And then I brought it all together after studying audio production at the state university. So that was learning stuff like mic placement, sound recording, manipulation, processing. Since then, I’ve worked as contract producer for other musicians (like I make the instrumental and they sing over it).
But it also led me to sound design (for film and podcasts). I really love experimenting with new sounds and seeing where they take the story. And you can definitely hear that in my music. A lot of the instrumentation I make up on the spot cause it’s fun and I think it gives it an interesting emotional texture.
And then for the past six years, I’ve been working as a DJ everywhere I’ve lived. Like I’ve DJd at clubs in Shanghai when I lived there, in Seattle, in LA now. I’ve also performed in SD and SF.
Music's Week: How do you approach songwriting? Do you have a specific process or do you let the music come naturally?
Jia Kai: At least for this song, I had a pretty clear idea in my head about what I wanted to say, so I had a good idea for the structure.
I got laid off from my day job at a podcast studio last year as part of a mass layoff. And while I was searching for jobs (and not getting many callbacks), I realized that it wasn’t my fault. There were layoffs across the entire podcast industry. But the way you get rejected so many times, it really messes with you. And I had this thought that kept coming into my head: it’s really like dating a fuccboi, cause one moment the job market wants you and the next it doesn’t.
The chorus: Fuccboii, to whom it concern, fuccboi, just a great interview, fuccboi, but we’re goin with someone else, Fuccboi, sincerely yours.
That was basically stuff I’d been hearing over and over by hiring managers.
So that was the seed of the song, and I build the structure around that.
Music's Week: What's the most challenging part of being a musician for you, and how do you overcome those challenges?
Jia Kai: The most challenging part for me is self-promotion. I’m introverted and have social anxiety. Networking and promoting my work, especially on social media, can be daunting. I’m working on overcoming these challenges. I try to keep good friends around me who will hype me up.
Music's Week: Can you describe your live shows? What kind of energy do you try to bring to your performances?
Jia Kai: My live performances have been DJ sets where I set it off with KPOP or dance pop or EDM. Based on what crowd I’m DJing for, it’s different, but I always try to know what they’ll like and what’s gonna make them dance and shake their ass.
So when I bring this single to the public, I may have to make an dance edit to keep with the set.
Music's Week: How do you balance your artistic vision with the demands of the music industry?
Jia Kai: I have no idea honestly. Sometimes I feel like that is THE question. Like how much of my artistic vision intersects with what’s marketable? I love to give the crowd what it wants, but I’d never throw down a song that I don’t like. I think if we stay in that lane, it’ll be ok.
Music's Week: Who are some of your biggest influences, and how have they shaped your sound?
Jia Kai: Porter Robinson is a huge influence in terms of production aesthetic. I’ve always loved this maximalist sound—more is more sometimes. And I also love the way he works with different sounds every album.
It made me realize that different noises can have different emotional response. And if anything can be sampled as an instrument, if synthesizers can create so many unimaginable sounds, it would be silly not to explore them more than what’s considered mainstream.
In songwriting, it’s probably Amy Winehouse— the honesty and plainspokenness of her lyrics. Her music is just heart wrenching. And I’d love for my music to be that level emotional and relatable.
I’m secretly a sad boi and this song is so much of my experience. The whole bridge, like “got summa sociology, but baby money sets you free.” That’s me. I got a summa in sociology, and I loved it, but it definitely didn’t give me a leg up in the job market.
Music's Week: Can you walk us through your recording process? Do you work with a specific producer or have a favorite studio?
Jia Kai: I do have someone that I turn to when writing. It’s Nathan Ramos Park (he’s a fellow gaysian (gay Asian) creative in LA). He’s a brilliant writer and he helps me a lot figuring out how to distill the lyrics from the raw emotion that I’m carrying. I bounce ideas off of him and he’s got a great ear for musical phrasing.
After that, I’m lucky that I have recording training so I actually just record on my own with my own mic and gear, and I can record all the music with my keyboard and plug ins.
I kind of love that I can do a lot of the process on my own because I can actually iterate on it. Like I’ll sing a verse and that will influence how I do the production, and the production will affect how I sing and so on.
Music's Week: How do you stay connected with your fans and build a sense of community around your music?
Jia Kai: I make music for my community. Oftentimes I’m performing in queer spaces, often queer POC spaces, often gaysian (gay Asian spaces) like parties, birthdays, clubs. And these people actually are my community. I see them all the time cause we’re friends and we get dinner and all that. So I do feel pretty connected to them regularly.
But beyond that, there’s also the socials and tik tok and Instagram and facebook.
Music's Week: What's next for you? Are there any new projects or collaborations on the horizon?
Jia Kai: The next public performance will be September 15 at Kombu in the Arts district of LA for a mid autumn festival queer POC party.
In terms of songwriting though, I’m gonna release a new track in the fall! And I’m gonna do a mashup of some NewJeans songs cause they rock and I keep hearing them everywhere I go and I want to drop it in a DJ set soon.
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