Kat Kikta – Magic

Kat Kikta is an artist of experiences, using a variegation of media to get her vibes across – be it sound design, music or film. As a practicing therapist, yoga teacher and meditation instructor, much of that vibe involves being one with oneself – and she works across dimensions to simulate and guide a meditative experience for her listeners. She describes her latest single Magic, as a sanctuary to fall back to where you can realign, stop running and face on with the world as it stands. As a song, it is sung as a bridge to a feeling all humans are capable of, where there is infinite courage, a strong stillness, a universal warmth that can be felt even in the harshest conditions. 

It’s hard to place a genre-bucket on her work, but it is a blend of meditative synths and whispering, in an altpop or altfolk style. The track is guided by chants and hymns, and Kat’s breathy affirmations, and combines organically found and electronic beats to create an intricately layered cinematic work of art. The music video for Magic finds Kat centring herself and embracing stillness – creating an air of meditative calm for the track to unwind to. The hazy montage-like production and pacing of the track blurs the boundaries of time and place, between dream and reality.

Kat’s is definitely a unique approach to the meaning of music itself, trying to rekindle the souls of listeners with spiritual healing. Her passion for the craft is notable, with Kat giving her all uninhibited to every musical journey she creates. It’s avant-garde for pop music, so I had to have the artist help me get a better sense of everything the song embodied.

You’re an artist of many media. Could you share a bit about your relationship with music and how you got into it? It’s something I was born to do, I had an unbelievably loud voice as a baby, or so my mum tells me. I grew up singing folk songs – where I’m from we have many of them. Those folk songs are a long way from the music I make now, but some of them are pretty deep. They have stories, messages, and morals hidden in them, I like music that guides you back to yourself so I suppose I’ve always leaned towards things like that. For a long time, I simply didn’t believe that I would ever be good enough to sing and make music, I was afraid to even try. After a break up I went on a journey that involved Yoga and mediation – I learned how to take care of myself and build myself up, and then the time came when I knew I had to do it – put all my life experiences together, align them and create what I had always wanted to create. Make the songs I want to sing. I’ve always been writing in notebooks, ever since I can remember. I would write a journal, dream diary, little poems, and observations. From a young age, my notebook was my best friend who showed me my way forward. That’s when I learned to listen to that quiet voice within. And by listening to it, the voice grew stronger and louder, and I learned to trust it. I’ve never heard any music like yours, what would your musical influences be? Or are the influences outside of music? Is there something about meditation in there? Many of my songs (especially lyrics) come to me either when I meditate or in a dream, so there surely is something other-dimensional happening. It’s really important for me to create from a place of connection and true inspiration. As far as influences go – I’m inspired and motivated by artists who devote their careers to their own originality and innovation. I’m sure I am influenced by everything I’ve ever listened to, how could I not be, but what I chase is originality and creative truth, or as near as I can get to it. Years ago I did a Sonic Arts course which influenced the way I heard everything around me – it was when I first started recording sounds around me, creating soundscapes that influence my production process to date. I was told I sound like Bjork and Enya’s love-child and I was very happy to hear that reference as I love them both. I love how Brian Eno would talk about the music he creates as creating another world – I like thinking about my music in that way. I’m just expressing another world I sometimes get glimpses of. Could you give us a clue about the conceptualisation of Magic? What does it mean to you? This song grew out of a soundscape that was made of a field recording of a small harbour in Weymouth at night. The noise of the lines on the masts of the boats clicking and clacking in the wind was really hypnotic and had a very profound presence. Beckoning and magical. It was the environment that created this track, all I did was witness it, record it and then arrange it. Lyrically, however, it was a different story entirely. The lyrics came to me while I was traveling home to the Tatra mountains of Slovakia to be with my father, who was very ill and did not have much time left. It was during that trip when I realized how precious our time is, and that all I really have is the present moment. I wrote the lyrics on the train, returning from Dad’s hospital visit. What brought these lyrics together with this soundscape, was that they both were very purely of their moment, and reflected it timelessly and beautifully. They just fitted. I made the soundscape a couple of years before the lyrics came, and I always thought I could hear melodies and harmonies hidden in the sounds, but it never really felt finished. It wasn’t until the lyrics presented themselves that the two pieces finished each other and became a song. You view music very differently than most artists. Where do you see your creative explorations taking you? Thank you, that’s a nice observation. I am working with my dreams a lot at the moment, writing lyrics that are sometimes surprising me as to where they’re coming from, but I feel I need to give them chance to become what they’re trying to become. I would like to create healing, meditational music, but also change gears and create super uplifting high-energy music you can dance and release to. I’ve started collaborating with other producers and will have high-energy remixes of my songs, so I’m looking forward to that. Also, I’d like to travel more and sonically – bring about new sounds inspired by different cultures – sounds which I’m perhaps not even aware of as we speak.

Magic is the third release towards Kat’s upcoming EP, Moldavite. It follows I Let You Go and Deja Vu, which are also both hypnotic cinematic experience that can be found here! Do check it out 🙂

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Discovered via http://musosoup.com

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