A Chat with Kaiyah Mercedes (29.11.22)
Tinged with youthful innocence but also sophisticated maturity, 16-year-old Kaiyah Mercedes has an enchanting sound to intoxicate any listener. We speak with her about her debut album Hindsight, what music means to her, future plans and favourite TV shows.
OSR: What inspires you to create music?
Mercedes: I get inspired by everything in my life from novels and movies, nature, all the way to real things that happen to me and the emotions I feel. I do get inspired to keep writing because it makes me so incredibly happy, and even though a lot of the songs I write are about painful things, being able to create art from these emotions is so fulfilling and helps me deal with life.
OSR: As a 16-year-old you are a rather young musician. Do you think being a young artist influences your music and career?
Mercedes: I think it does. You can see in many highly influential artists how they have changed and evolved as their careers have gone on, but there is something so unique about teen artists. We are still learning how to be alive, how to experience emotions, and how to simply be. Once you’re older, this feeling of newness disappears. It is a unique position I am in to be able to write and sing about how it feels to be a teenager right now, and not only connect with other people my age through my music but show people from previous generations how it feels to be young right now.
OSR: What can you tell us about your debut album Hindsight?
Mercedes: Hindsight is so many things, I could talk for hours about all of the little things that make this album special to me. It’s an album about looking back into the past and understanding everything you’ve experienced from a new, more mature perspective. The album is a mix of real stories and stories I created (though the feelings behind my songs are always real), and through the 12 tracks, I’ve really tried to take my listeners on a journey through the mindset I was in from the ages of 13-15 while I was writing this album. There is a song for everyone because I wanted to try new things and new sounds with every song.
OSR: What was the most exciting and least exciting thing about creating Hindsight?
Mercedes: The most exciting thing about Hindsight has been releasing the music and having so many new, exciting experiences because of it. The people I’ve met and the things I’ve gotten to do this year have just been so surreal and I’m thankful for all of it.
I think the least exciting things were probably the fears and anxieties I got when making the music. I know I’m not alone in saying that putting your words and your voice out there is so scary because you always want your work to be perfect, so putting it out there means you’ve drawn the line and said to yourself, “I can’t keep trying to make this any better, I need to accept my work how it is and stop letting perfectionism get the best of me”. There was of course also a lot of fear that I would be judged by people from my school because, at the end of the day, I’m just a socially anxious teenager who goes to school five days a week, like any other person my age.
OSR: What do you hope people take from the album?
Mercedes: I hope that people can listen to these songs and find it in themselves to move on and forgive their past selves for being naive and making the wrong decisions. When I was writing this album, I was so frustrated at who I was because I knew what the outcome was and how my actions affected me later on, but I learned that we have to be kind to who we were because they didn’t know how it was all going to turn out. We are all products of hindsight and past versions of ourselves. We need to be forgiving and kind to the person that got us to where we are now.
OSR: What does music mean to you?
Mercedes: Music is everything to me. It is a way of talking without conversation, explaining your feelings through art, and understanding other people by listening to the songs they love. It is all a connection and it is what we, as people, are built to need.
OSR: Which TV show is your favourite to binge-watch?
Mercedes: Heartstopper! My favourite show of all time, but a very close second is Young Royals.
OSR: If you could spend the day with any person, who would it be and why that person?
Mercedes: There are two people that come to mind with this question and I really can’t choose between them. Taylor Swift, because after everything she’s been through over the last 16 years and all of the amazing things she’s done throughout her career, she would probably be the most comforting and wise person to talk to about your fears and struggles with music. The second person is Dave Grohl because he is so so incredibly talented and has experienced so much through the decades of his music career. These two people just know so much and have created some of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever heard. I think that even being in the same space as them would be so inspiring.
OSR: If you had a superpower, what would it be?
Mercedes: I think invisibility because having the ability to view life as a fly on the wall without interjecting yourself in the moment would be quite beautiful sometimes. Plus, it means I could totally hide away and write songs and poetry whenever I feel like it so that would be awesome.
OSR: What are your future plans as a singer-songwriter?
Mercedes: I am still writing music, always working towards a new project. I would love to release some more music next year and really step up my game with the songs I release. Hopefully, my next album will be something truly special, and hopefully, I can keep making music for the rest of my life.
Many thanks to Kaiyah Mercedes for speaking with us. For more from Kaiyah Mercedes check out her official website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
