N othing feels so soft and gentle as the tender whisper of the wind against your shoulder. Ever-flowing, it nudges you forward in tune with time’s perpetual mo- tion and the natural rhythm of the earth’s rotation. And while we are aware of its di- vine power—always attempting to harness its energy for our own use and intention— who are we to grasp at these natural powers we were never meant to have? But is that so for all of us? Perhaps not. See Haitian-Ca- nadian musician and record producer, Kay- tranada, defiantly channeling the energy of the winds, paying tribute to the calm and the chaos of it all, as he laces the breath- lessness of the earth into every melody he arranges. Kaytranada sits by two open windows.
that he truly knew he was destined to explore the soundscapes and atmospherics of desire. Seeing producers like Just Blaze and Pharrell converge in the studio, listening to the dialogue that created his inspirations—and then finding their names in the credits of his favorite songs—was all he needed to seal his fate. That fate found its footing a mere decade ago when Kaytranada’s bedroom me- anderings of Janet Jackson’s “If” received immediate traction on SoundCloud. Like a musical archaeologist, Kaytranada finds forgotten songs from the past and re-envisions popular songs honoring them with new life. “I just got to find a connection with one song, and that’s when I’ll try to do something,” he shares. “I was listening to ‘If’ pretty much like two years straight. So I feel like a lot of those successful songs that I had, it came from me loving them too much.” A year later, the artist debuted a revered Boiler Room set that seemingly revivified music in the 2010s. The sonic archeology continued in his debut full-length, 99.9%. “TRACK UNO” sampled lost tracks like “I Figure I’m Out Of Your Life” by Delegation, from 1982, and “GOT IT GOOD” reimagines Jaime e Nair’s 1979 hit, “Olho de Vidro.” 99.9%, from XL Recordings, cemented Kaytranada as not just a fair weather producer, but a long-last- ing and idiosyncratic sound of warm, glistening synths. “I was working on them for so long,” Kaytranada explains, “It always feels like I’m 90% done, and that’s why I named it 99.9% . To get to 100%,” he continues, “you just have to send the album in. I’m just waiting to have those moments where I have nothing else to give.”The album gives and gives, and features Syd from The Internet against an evergreen bass line in “YOU’RE THE ONE,” and Grammy-decorated Anderson .Paak lending to “GLOWED UP”’ with mellow rhythmics and bright-eyed percussion. The output is unrelenting. Kaytranada released his sophomore collection of work, BUBBA, right at the end of 2019, giving us one last reason to dance before the end of the 2010s.The 17-track effort is entangled with his signature synths, where the bass tra- verses through the chorus taking a scenic route through the melody.The record features Pharrell, Kali Uchis, GoldLink, and Estelle, using their voices as instruments, where their syllables became beats and breaths as pauses. BUBBA earned Kaytranada a nom- ination for Best New Artist and two GRAMMYs for the Best Dance/Electronic Album, for which he is the first Black artist to do so, and Best Dance Recording [for “10%” featuring Kali Uchis]. “I really felt validation,” Kaytranada says of earning the prestigious award. “It’s not
Throughout our conversation, we find each other repeating ourselves, because it is al- most as if the wind, kissing the room from our vantage point, wants to partake in our connection as well. We welcome it, raising our voices a little higher, becoming more intentional with our listening. And as our conversation progresses, it’s evident that although the winds may move unpredict- ably, if you happen the be of the lucky few that harness them, intention and purpose will take the lead. Kaytranada recalls his first memory of watching Tina Turner and Brandy in a compilation performance at the GRAM- MYs, foreshadowing what was to come to the young artist in Montreal, creating beats in his room. He adds that it was through watching Jay-Z’s Fade to Black documen- tary, which follows the rapper’s process of creating “99 Problems” with Rick Rubin,
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