KOAD is Feelin’ “jaunty”

interviewed & shot by Elinor Kry

written by Sydney Ling

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With a pot and stuffed koala sitting on his lap, KOAD tosses paper plates into the air, as they fly above his head. He’s perched in his treehouse, decorated with a glowing green neon light shaped like a koala, his space of creative energy.

KOAD is a feisty 18-year-old Indian American rapper from San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. He creates a vibrant world of twists and turns in his music, recently releasing his single “jaunty” on May 13. The music video, filled with vibrant neon lights, meshes traditional Indian dance and dress with late night concert visuals. “jaunty” reveals a sneak peek of KOAD’s upcoming debut mixtape, TREEHOUSE, which includes the talents of BROCKHAMPTON’s Merlyn Wood, Alex Tumay, and ICECOLDBISHOP. KOAD is ready to share his treehouse of rollercoaster fun, and we’ll be pulled right into it.

Introduce yourself.

I'm KOAD. I'm an 18 year old artist who's awesome.

What was the inspiration behind your stage name?

Koalas. I wanted to base my rap career off of koalas when I was 13. I had to come up with a rap name. So I made a list of 100 different ones, some of the dumbest names I've ever come up with. And it's a mixture of koalas and my real name.

What was the inspiration behind your latest single "jaunty?" How did you infuse your experiences as a first generation South Asian in California into the song? How do the visuals from it reflect messages?

When making the song, I chopped up this folk sample that I was just in love with, because folk is a genre that brown people are not necessarily into with welcome arms. So I wanted to chop up a folk sample and create a song that was rooted in hip hop, with rock elements and folk. The goal for the video was exactly what it's like in the song, to go from zero to brown.

Why are you inspired by folk?

It's predominantly a white genre that someone who looks like me is not accepted into, so I've always found that interesting to me. And after chopping it up and recording over it, I was like, "Yeah, this sounds f*cking amazing."

How do you think you've grown and changed since your first release?

I've just gotten even cuter and even hungrier to keep on going.

How do "pots n' pans" and "jaunty" reflect your upcoming debut mixtape TREEHOUSE? What can we expect from TREEHOUSE?

"pots n' pans" is a song that you think you know where it's headed as soon as you start listening to it, but it doesn't go completely in that direction. That's what you can get from TREEHOUSE, something that is this bright world that you can live in and have a lot of fun in. But there's a lot of weird, abrupt turns that are comforting, despite how abrupt they'll feel. In terms of... I produced the entire project, and there's a lot of beat switches. To me, that's music that comforts me. I'm an angry person. And I think the manic-ness of it is something that calms me in my state of anger and just angry people in general.

Have you found that other music that's like that has calmed you? Or is it the making of that different music that calms you?

The making of music is what calms me. People like to play it safe. For me, playing it safe sometimes leads to just numbness, and I need to feel.

How has your Indian American heritage helped shape your music?

It's just ingrained in me. I'm never consciously thinking "How can I force unnecessary aspects of Indian music?” It's within me, so in every song I'll put Indian culture, because that's just what my brain hears when I'm working on music, and what I'm instantly attracted to.

Are you close with your Indian culture?

Yeah, I grew up in America, but I'm still a brown kid. That reflects in the way that people spoke to me growing up. It reflects in the reason why I work so hard. Because white pop stars are going to have a much easier come up than someone like me would. So that's why I want to kind of bust the door open.

What is your experience being an Indian American, in the music industry? What's that contrast between your experience, versus, let's say, a white person?

I have to work 100 times harder. I have to perform my ass off. I think it's something that motivates me, and I'm glad I grew up in the culture of hip hop, because it's something that really pushes me every day. But it's like, white people get called rock stars, just if they're a white dude with tattoos? I have to perform my ass off to get a title like that.

How did you start your music? What inspired you or who inspired you to?

When I was 13, I really wanted to rap just because I grew up around hip hop. It's the one thing that I found so much comfort in. I wanted to rap over these YouTube type beats, but there's no way that my Indian parents would pay for $20 type beats. So I got them to buy me a beat pad for Christmas. Since then, I've just been producing and rapping over beats I make, and creating worlds.

Have you ever felt like you didn't want to do music anymore?

Not at all. When I dropped out of school, it's the one thing that I came out of the depths of the darkness for. Music is the one thing that makes ridiculous amounts of sense to me.

You are prone to writing your lyrics on plates. Why?

There was a period of my life where I convinced myself I was a pirate, while working on this project. It was like a mini kind of character I built for myself, this pirate on this ship. I had an entire whole project based on a pirate project. And I don't know why, but I decided to start writing all the lyrics for that on plates. Even for the sessions for "pots n' pans," I went to the studio with a bunch of plates in my hand. It's very cool to write on plates, just because.

Does writing your lyrics on plates inspire you more?

It definitely makes me laugh, which I'll say. Laughing inspires me. So yeah, it does.

What is the message behind TREEHOUSE?

My goal in creating TREEHOUSE was to equate childhood with honesty. Because I wish that, when I was 13 years old, going into middle school, I wish I could've heard a project like this, where it's this mad juvenile energy, and I'm saying particularly wild things mixed with really intense, intimate moments. That's the duality that I wish I had in middle school, when it comes to framing conversations about mental health, or sexuality, or difficult emotions in general.

Do you feel like middle school was shallow? Or, why do you think that honesty is such a big thing?

I think just the culture of middle school is where kids are very impressionable. Especially with their idols, whatever they're saying, that's what you're running with. And if one of their idols could be someone who's mad juvenile, but mad honest, that's a fun childhood. So hopefully, I created a soundtrack that can score people's high school and middle school experience.

Growing up in San Fernando Valley as South Asian, how do you think that upbringing has shaped who you are, both as a person and as an artist?

It's one where I wish I knew how much it would affect me, just because I had to learn so many things. The standard of beauty was just completely different in the sense of how my nose was viewed as something that was unattractive to the white kids. I wasn't able to understand why I was not considered as pretty, and I know I'm gorgeous as hell right now, but it's more of the idea of you not being the standard of beauty - you not being what they're used to. That becomes normalized to where they feel comfortable to make jokes like, "You and your family rub sh*t on your body," and I'm like, why can't I make a joke back to you? What is so ingrained in our culture that I can't refute back? That's why I go so hard in my artist career because me existing can help a 13-year-old Indian kid ask out a girl that he's scared to talk to.

Was there an experience when you were younger where you realized that you weren't like the white kids?

Yeah, middle school. Just because there would be those dumb comments of "Your family rub sh*t all over your body," and "you guys smell," or "Indian dudes are creeps" - all the really stereotypical things that are really like jokes to these little white boys, but are real things that whether or not we want it to affect us, it affects us. We have to unlearn certain habits, in the sense of how I had to introduce myself as AJ when my name is Ajay at school. Which is okay, I guess, but then you realize how much that f*cking sucks, to change yourself to appeal to this white audience.

Do you think the feelings that those jokes gave you when you're younger are still part of you today? Does that influence your music?

Whether or not I say it, it does, because the reason why I'm doing my music is so that doesn't happen to the next 13-year-old brown kid. That they have an idol to look up to that is very pretty. And is pretty because he says he's pretty. I'm not as gorgeous as Harry Styles. But I'm a very gorgeous person because I say I'm gorgeous. And there's a lot of power in that. It's very simple for me because brown kids are not given the same confidence that is allowed to be given to a white male.

Your music is very fun and vibrant. How do you think your music reflects who you are? Can you speak about the visuals and sounds that you've curated?

I love my music because it makes me just feel on a base-level thing. I deal with the idea of numbness a lot, and the music that I make really excites me because it gives me the same energy and giddiness that I had when I was a wide-eyed child. I think the world of KOAD is one that is very loud, vibrant, honest, and juvenile. It's just true to myself, because that's that's what I've seen in my idols, and growing up in hip hop. The most powerful thing I can do is tell my story and be myself.

Would you say that like your personality is vibrant and giddy still now?

I've never changed in that way. I really like to have a lot of fun. And anytime I listen to myself on record, that is just naturally how I am feeling and act.

How do you describe like the visuals that are going along with your music?

I love to dance, so I’m dancing in some of them. I never trained classically; I never went to class. I used to sit down in front of YouTube for almost 10 hours a day, just watching my goal. I watched a bunch of performers that brought magic to the stage.

I like wearing vibrant and bright things. I like dancing, and I like creating art monuments. That’s why I built this treehouse, not personally - I called this garage right here the treehouse while I was making TREEHOUSE. And I told my brother, the first order of operation for KOGO, which is my koala, is to build a treehouse. He was like, “What?” And I was like, “Look, trust me, I think this can be f*cking amazing.” A year in after developing the project, we were able to build a treehouse. And that’s that.

What's next for you?

I see a ridiculous amount of things. One, I see me touring and playing to the world. Two, I see myself able to finally go to India for the first time.

I hope to bring to the world these characters that I'm very happy about and developing. I plan on creating a full universe for people to live in. I plan on acting, singing, dancing, performing, doing it all.

What does music mean to you?

I think it's what my definition of life is. Because if I didn't have music, I don't think I would be on this planet. It’s the only thing that makes somewhat sense to me in in this world, on some existential sh*t. Music is the one thing that keeps me grounded.

How did you discover the process for making music?

For making music, it was the beat pad and everything. Watching videos of Tyler produce, Kanye produce, BROCKHAMPTON produce, just being inspired. When it comes to music, my dad used to sing me these Indian bhajans, which are these little prayers to help me go to sleep. Those were always gorgeous.

I remember just weird moments of the first hip hop song that I ever heard. It was so funny, it was the weirdest song to ever hear first - it was “Cyclone” by Baby Bash. I remember being like, “What the f*ck is this.” And then actually listening to much better hip hop songs and being like, this is comforting as hell.

Who would you say are the artists that inspired you first?

Kanye, Tyler. Those are definitely some of the main ones. Kanye because he was able to push forth ideas that were not mainstream into the mainstream, and have success with. he would have massive success- he just pulled things off. And that's what I was obsessed with: the idea of pulling off something that you really care about, and saying specific words and your verses, when you know you have the greatest hook. That’s what it’s all about, knowing you have a moment and really showing that you actually care. I love when people take pride in art.

What is your favorite part about being in the music industry?

Making records. It's a funny industry. I'm here to make records. There's a lot of weird people. There's a lot of weird interactions. I think I have no other choice, but to be involved with it. Because a lot of it disgusts me. And the way it places its value on art, it's just stupid to me. But that kind of motivates me to make some of the biggest records so I can hopefully change some of the problems.

What is the “disgusting” part about the music industry?

It's more of a framework thing. It's more of the way that I'm here to make art, and companies are here to make money. I'm also here to make money, because I need to survive, and I need to pay rent. However, if I have to change my art, because of someone's lack of checker because they want money, that's bullsh*t. And if they try to make me do that, that's even more bullsh*t.

That's why the music industry is not something that is fun. If you know what you want, get it done. Make sure you're around great people, like I've been able to do. But it's not fun. I am here to make records so I can fulfill myself and be happy. So the people around me can eat; so I can be somewhat fulfilled by actually putting out art that I want to put out. But I don't wake up every day saying, “I love the business of the music industry.” I love knowing the fact that I think I can be successful enough that I can be part of the change.

Is there a story behind your koala?

Yeah, I birthed him. And he birthed me. It's really cool. We were both in the hospital and I gave birth to him. He gave birth to me. And he started writing all my lyrics. And I said, “Hey, you got it?” That's the magical, mystical story.

What is your songwriting and producing process?

Honestly, percussion is the one thing where I know, right off the gate, what I want. I like to sample a lot of sounds, whether it's rock samples, folk samples, or sounds that are around the house. Whether it's a pot or pan, or just me knocking on the table, I like mixing that because by mixing computer-generated sounds and human sounds, that's what resembles the human mind at this point. We're all looking at technology so much that I feel like we're almost half-human, half-technology.

But really, it's just making a beat for myself that I'm in love with so I can rap my ass off. I rap every day. I make music every day. I've lived in the KOGO home around 97 days and I've made 90 songs now. That's just what is fun for me. That's what comforts me because as much as I am really doing this for myself, I'm doing this for young brown kids. That pushes me to want to become the best, so they don't have to be scared about saying, “Yeah, my favorite rapper really is someone who looks like me.”

What's the biggest thing you've learned since going into the music industry?

Know what you want and surround yourself with the people who care about you. You care about and you would want to win with. I've just learned to be mad present and to have fun. That's all I'm doing.

Is there anything else you want to say?

If my 13 year old self knew I was doing something like this, he would cry and combust.