Kaz Moon brings his first headlining tour, "Year of Reverse," to Los Angeles
by Hyunwoo (Daniel) Park || photographed and interviewed on Sep. 28 at The Moroccan Lounge
The first thing I wanted to ask you is about your name. I read that your real name is Cody Yao. Naming is a very big part of branding and your identity. What made you or led you to make your artist name “Kaz Moon?”
There's literally no reason at all. I just needed a name on SoundCloud. I wish there was a story here, but I [just] needed to fill out something. I remember there was actually something before that, and I changed it at some point, and then I just ran with it. But the reason why I like that is when you pick a name that's meaningless, the way that it's kind of meaningless, it takes on the qualities of whatever you do with it. So if I make something good, it'll be [cool]. If I make something bad, it's gonna sound bad. I think that's the benefit. So I didn't really want a name that conveyed something specific, because part of making it was about letting it be whatever it's gonna do.
When people think of your name, what kind of image do you want the public to perceive you as? Is it the same perception that you have of yourself?
I don't think those things could be the same, like other people's perception[s] and my own. I think they're definitely different. As I've gotten older, there's definitely a difference between who I am and what the project is, whereas maybe before, they'd be kind of the same. It was just a bucket for everything I like to do, but now [...] it's grown. I could do whatever I wanted with it when I first started. And now, people really like it. They kind of have a say now, everyone who likes it. So the “Kaz Moon” stuff is almost like a collaboration between me and the people who listen to it now. So it's like a different thing. But to answer your question, I think they like [the name]. I want it to feel vulnerable and cinematic. And I don't want it to feel like real life. I want it to feel like some magical other place.
What are some things that you like doing outside of music? What does your day-to-day look like when you're not touring or not going to the studio to make music?
I feel like if you want to do a really difficult thing, which is try[ing] to be a musician full time, it's super difficult, and it demands a lot of you. You have to kind of adapt or adopt a practice of creating nonstop. But you gotta go nonstop, not to mention all the other things you gotta do, like organize tours [...] You have to put yourself in that space nonstop to keep making things. So what I do when I'm not doing those things is honestly find time to just not do. I try to move back to any kind of activity that isn't a doing type [of] thing. I like to explore New York, [where I live]. I like to live, read, rest, isolate, listen to music, take things in, and get away from the doing, which is 80% of the rest.
This is your third stop, your third city that you're touring in. What has your experience been in the other two cities in Arizona? Is there something that you're looking forward to in LA that you might not have experienced yet in Arizona?
I mean, each stop is different. I honestly just feel grateful that the shows seem to be doing well. This is my first headline tour, so we played a bunch of shows [in the past], but it just feels like an experiment, no matter what you do, no matter how prepared you are. As far as the Arizona shows, I was just happy they happened well, and people seemed to enjoy them. It was a good time. But they were smaller venues, so what I'm looking forward to this show is just doing it with more things going on. And I feel like we've already moved some shit around since playing it twice. We're like, Oh, let's try this and this instead, just tightening it. That's what I'm looking forward to, just the process of making it a better set.
What's your favorite and least favorite part about touring?
What I like about tour is that every day is kind of its own operation and no day is exactly the same as the other. When you're making things, it can kind of be days or weeks in a row where you're just doing the same thing with no gap. But on tour, every day you got to get somewhere, you got to do this, and it all ends with a show at the end of the night, and then you rinse and repeat, and every day is different. So just doing that, having every day be sort of like a unique project. That's the best thing about tour. The worst thing about tour is, just like hoping people will show up [...] Just like panicking, hoping people like it.
I read this quote on your website, and it stood out to me. It said, “I've always wanted to give my best, and that goalpost keeps moving. It's been moving faster, which is a good thing.” And so I just wanted to ask you a little bit about that sentence. Did you always expect your career to be moving this fast to where you are right now? And then unexpectedly, there might be times where you feel like you are stalling, or there's a little bit of a pause, or a break, and how do you deal with that when you feel like you're not moving as fast as you are?
It's definitely like a marathon. You have to adopt a marathon mentality with it. Because I think what gets to people is they start becoming really self-aware of their pace, and they try to force it when that's just not always something you could do, like dictate when something happens. It's just not possible.
I think a big thing that chilled me out [...] It was just really helpful when you realize and remind yourself that you can do whatever you want. If you have a goal and you want to hit it, fine, if you don't hit it, get a new goal. Replace it [...] If you have a dream and it inspires you and then it stops inspiring, you make a better dream. Just keep fixing it. Keep trying new things. Just go at your own pace.
If there is a message that you want to bring out with your [recent] album [“Year of Reverse”], what would it be?
I hope it just feels like— and I try to do this with everything— but I hope people listen to it and feel like it didn't come from this lifetime. That's it. Not in that I wanted to make it necessarily even feel futuristic or whatever. It's more about I hope people hear it and feel like it's a different place from everyday life. They know who I am and stuff and I'm just a person, but I hope when they hear it, it feels like they're transported somewhere else.
