ADRIAN MA, HOST:
As a musician, Leven Kali has spent a lot of his career behind the scenes. He's a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who's made music for a lot of big-name artists...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VIRGO'S GROOVE")
BEYONCE: (Singing) Come over.
MA: ...Like "Virgo's Groove" from Beyonce's Grammy-winning 2022 album "Renaissance." And in recent years, Kali's also produced for the likes of Drake and Skrillex.
LEVEN KALI: Seeing, like, you know, the way that really great people put together a project and the amount of intention that goes into it, it really, you know, inspired me and gave me a blueprint.
MA: A blueprint for his own turn in the spotlight, a new solo album titled "LK99."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BREATHE!")
KALI: (Singing) Just breathe. Nothing left to do but go deep. Just breathe. Nothing...
MA: I know some musicians hate to be asked to describe their sound. So...
KALI: Yeah.
MA: I will give you a choice.
KALI: (Laughter) OK.
MA: Tell me if you want to describe your sound to somebody who's never heard it, or if you want, I could take a crack at it.
KALI: OK, I'm curious what you think, and then I'll tell you what I think.
MA: (Laughter) OK. If I had to come up with a label for what I'm hearing, it would be dream funk.
KALI: Whoa.
MA: And I was getting little whiffs of other artists that I really love. Like, one kind of reminded me of "Earth, Wind, & Fire." I got some Sly Stone, some Frank Ocean, maybe. Even a little bit of Daft Punk.
KALI: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GRAB IT")
KALI: (Singing) If there's something else you want, go ahead and grab it.
Yeah, you killed it. I love it. I haven't said dream funk before, but I like that term. Yeah, I mean, I would say definitely funk is what it is. It's soul music. It's funk music. But it's now. It's today. It's tomorrow. It's not - you know, I try my hardest to honor my inspirations but not copy them, you know? Like, I don't want to ever really, like, do a full retro thing. You know, everything is like - it's for today and tomorrow. And it's - you know, there's a kind of, like, a reaching back and a reaching forward at the same time.
MA: But even though Leven Kali says he's pushing forward with his music, I also wanted to dig a bit into his past.
(SOUNDBITE OF LEVEN KALI SONG, "SLEEPWALKING")
MA: Music was not the career that you had always planned to pursue. I read that you were actually a Division I golfer in college.
KALI: Yeah, that was the plan. I mean, in high school, that was definitely the path that I was on, and I was playing in tournaments and getting scouted by schools. And then I - right around the time that I committed to go to school to celebrate that accomplishment, I told myself that I would, you know, take a moment to enjoy my senior year and, like, you know, do something to get my mind off of golf before I went fully into it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SLEEPWALKING")
KALI: (Singing) I've been sleepwalking and daydreaming, daydreaming, daydreaming.
I, you know, started working on recording music with my friends, and I had always been around music, but I hadn't really been around the recording aspect of it, like, you know, making beats. And I just - you know, at one point, I was like, man, what am I doing with my life? This is what I'm supposed to be doing.
MA: Leven Kali went on to college and played golf seriously, but he still couldn't quite shake the feeling that music is what he should be doing. And so he switched gears. And, honestly, we shouldn't be surprised because he was actually born into a musical family.
Your parents, I understand, are musicians. And according to Wikipedia, you were, quote, "conceived" while they were on tour...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PIECES")
KALI: (Singing) You want to make love. You want to get high. You want to make love.
MA: ...Which makes it sound like you were literally a tour bus baby. Is that true?
KALI: I was definitely a tour baby. I don't know if I was a tour bus baby.
MA: (Laughter) OK. Just to set the record straight.
KALI: But - yeah, to set the record straight. But yeah, I think my parents were - you know, they were in LA and then, during the pregnancy, traveled to Europe, and my dad had some shows going on. My mom would sing with the band sometimes. And I was born in Amsterdam in a town called Blijburg outside of the city.
MA: You were born there, but you really grew up in LA.
KALI: Exactly.
MA: Do you feel a connection to the Netherlands at all?
KALI: I do.
MA: Tell me about that. Like, how does that show up in your life or in your art?
KALI: I mean, first off, I've traveled there a bunch. So I mean, going back and spending time with my godfamily out there. But, you know, I feel like anybody, when you are a child and you're like, overseas, and you're just soaking it up, cultural differences, it just - it affects you in the deepest way, I think. And it's definitely affected the way that I see the world.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RAINING SUN")
KALI: (Singing) Can you feel it, baby? Can you feel it, baby?
I think that, you know, in the Netherlands and, like, in a lot of Western Europe, there's, like, a huge, like, love and respect for funk music and probably in a stronger way than in a lot of places in the States.
MA: So the Dutch - funkier than you would have thought?
KALI: The Dutch are funky. They're funky musically. You know, they're a very, like, curious and intellectual and artsy people, and they're also really freaky and, like, wild, and they're very fun, and they're smiley. And I think that it's a fun place to be. It's - and they love funk music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RAINING SUN")
KALI: (Singing) The speakers blown, nowhere to hide. We hit the red line.
MA: Since you have done so much writing for other musicians, is there a way in which writing for yourself now is a lot different from writing for other people?
KALI: For sure. I think it's easier to write for other people. And then when you write for yourself, you know, the ego kicks in, the pride kicks in. You want to make sure it's exactly representing you how you want to be represented. And, you know, sometimes it's a lesson in, like, intentionally letting go and being like, if I did it like this, that's how I did it. I'm not going to change it.
MA: Well, give me an example. Like, is there a song on this album that feels like, only I could have written this for me? Yeah, I think "Are U Still."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ARE U STILL")
KALI: (Singing) Talk to me. Are you still in love like I am? You still, you still, baby, are you still, are you still, oh.
The way the song moves kind of like an R&B song that turns into a funk record, but the transitions between these R&B and funk sections is kind of this rocked out, intense moment. And it's just something that, you know, I can listen to that and point out so many of my inspirations just in that record. And I can also, like, hear myself and my voice and my groove so clearly. This feels like authentically me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ARE U STILL")
KALI: (Singing) Vibration. They speak to me. Vibration. I feel that, vibration.
MA: Leven Kali's new album is called "LK99." Thanks for talking with us.
KALI: Thank you so much for your time, man.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ARE U STILL")
KALI: (Singing) Still hear your sounds like a ghost inside. It's like the howl of the wolf at night. Still hear you sound like a ghost inside. It's like the howl of the wolf at night. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
