From “missing everything and I can’t stop missing us” to “I decided it was time to find a / new meaning,” Camp Kona evolves into the up-and-coming Asian American musician Gen-Z celebrates. With her trendy thrifted clothes and blonde streaks of hair that frame her front face, Koyoki Narter is a twenty-two-year-old California native attending New York University. With her down-to-earth attitude, cool demeanour, and forward way of talking, she is another Gen-Z living her life in New York City. However, there’s more to her than just an NYU student from California; as a biracial teen, she aims to push the boundaries of Asian American representation with her music and bridge the gap between two cultures.
Camp Kona is releasing two new songs that represent her evolution as an artist. When you listen to “Second Tattoo,” you feel empowered by the message it sends, which Narter explained to Rice & Spice, is about rediscovering yourself after a relationship. “There are things about [my last significant relationship] that led me to reconsider who I have in my life, not that he was that terrible, but there were some comments made that I was like, ‘Oh, you don't really understand what it's like to be me because you have never experienced this,’” Narter further elucidated. With softened beats inspired by ‘80s dance music, there’s a refreshing feel when the song peaks to the chorus where she croons “And I’m breathing again,” sung in her velvety voice with soft light beats. “Second Tattoo” gives us the sensation when you release something, similar to the paparazzi-turned-meme image of Nicole Kidman when she walked from the lawyer’s after divorcing Tom Cruise.
Unlike her previous songs that dwell on the past, her next release “Soft” is about her experiences of meeting someone new. This is a new direction, as Narter explains to me over iced matcha lattes on an Autumn Sunday afternoonat the East Village, in the musician’s work and it’s another sign of her evolution as an artist as she’s exploring more concepts and conversations in her music.
“But I’ve got excuses / of tryna get to know ya,” Narter sings in a fluttery vocal run. The intro starts in a soft and blurred melody, almost like a lo-fi beat that’s similar to UMI, another biracial musician who Narter cites as one of her influences. Through the skilled control of the notes that accompany the soft hip-hop intro, Narter shows off her singing finesse; the layers of harmonies of her voice in different notes reflect her choir experience. The chorus (“You’re so so-oo-ooft / whenever we ta-aa-aalk”) is an addicting beat, one that could be played on repeat on the radio without getting old. Her music is a breath of fresh air for this generation - minimalistic and thoughtfully produced music that represents Narter’s stage name: Camp Kona.
Where did the name “Camp Kona” come from? I asked, my pen ready to scribble her story. “The pretty answer is that I grew up in summer camp. It was a very formative part of my life,” she explained to me, her eyes shining with nostalgia as she reminisced. “Summer camp, to me, really signifies drama. When you go to camp for two weeks you make all these friends [and you’re] like, these are my people. And then, you might never see them again.” Narter also worked in summer camps as a counselor growing up. “My friend wanted to make me a private [personal] Instagram account. At the time, I was like, I don't need a private Instagram. Why do we have multiple Instagrams? […] But I think summer camp has grown to have a different meaning.”
Koyuki’s eyes reflected introspective contemplation when we began to discuss how her identity intertwines with her music. The scratchy wheels of skateboards skidded the concrete path, the honks of New York City cab drivers along Second Avenue, and her deep exhale blended together as we dug in and unraveled the framework of her music and art.
As someone who grew up with two different cultures, Narter wants to use her music and brand to bridge the gap between her cultural identities. “Humans like to categorize each other,” she told Rice & Spice after a sip of her matcha latte. She wore a pink, printed cloth mask and wore an outfit that looked like a New Yorker from the Lower East Side - bell-bottom jeans and a cardigan that looked like it came straight from L Train Vintage. “Being biracial has forced me to think outside of that in other aspects of my life [...], like the way I look at other people I try and not see everything so black and white.”
Narter grew up in the Bay Area in California to a Japanese immigrant and a white father from Nebraska. Although she was primarily raised in the States, she expressed that she still retains a connection with the other part of her identity. “I grew up speaking Japanese with my mom and she made it a point to teach us, which is not the case with a lot of my friends who grew up with immigrant parents,” she told Rice & Spice. “There are many reasons to learn or not to learn a language…but I’ve been trying to incorporate Japanese more into my music.”
Inspired by thegreats like Rina Sawayama, Mitski, and Raveena, as well as UMI, Narter wants to use her music to create more space for Asian American representation. “I’ve been really making an effort as much as possible to make sure my creative team reflects that,” she answered when we asked Narter how she planned to incorporate her biracial identity to her work.
For her, it’s important to ensure that women of color are chosen to be part of her projects. “I’ve been working on a song that’s in Japanese and English, and I would love to have a Japanese producer [and] videographer and invite other people’s experiences of being Asian.” Narter, with over 1,700 monthly listeners on Spotify, is slowly growing into the inclusive, dynamic, and talented producer and singer that Gen-Z stands for.
With her androgynous style and short hair, her cool and down-to-earth demeanor, and her ambitions as an artist walking in the streets of the concrete jungle where dreams are made of, Narter is just in the early stages of launching her career as a musician. Harnessing her creative power, she is shaping her own narrative and redefining what it means to be a biracial Asian American artist.
