Queen of the queer scene, we caught up with London’s sexiest selector, Kaya. Her deep affection for fashion, music and culture shines bright. Taking us back to the unmistakable atmosphere of 90s raving, Kaya’s sound is a beastly melting pot. From house to garage, NYC’s ballroom and West African drums – she knows her craft. Self-proclaimed vibe-boss and energetic supernova, Kaya celebrates and thrives on taking influence from all over. Anything can be inspiring and Kaya sure is. Sinking her teeth into huge stages at Glastonbury, The Cause and Dalston Superstore recently, this seasoned party princess shows no signs of slipping.
For anyone who doesn’t know about KaYa yet, how would you introduce yourself and sound?
KaYa is a straight up professional party girl. I’ve grown up in festivals and always worked in nightlife and I truly love the dance floor. I love to express myself through my style, in both fashion and music, and I try to hold a space to allow others to do the same. I am very extra, sometimes chaotic and never take myself too seriously. I think this transcends into the music I play. Whilst I love deep, wonky, underground cuts, I also love evoking that nostalgic feeling you get when you hear a song you forgot even existed. I try to feed that into my sets with edits and samples alongside some rarer gems. My sound is quite high energy and fun. Focusing on driving bass-lines and groovy percussion. When I’m playing I am more focused on the energy and vibe I’m creating, rather than the sound I’m playing. As a DJ and as a person I like to provide immaculate vibes, so I’ll take my sound wherever I feel like it needs to go to get you dancing! There are no rules
High key obsessed with your sample selects, so in reference to one… What does dancing feel like?
Dancing feels like SEX of course! No but seriously, before I was a DJ I was working as a dancer and there is no feeling like completely losing yourself in music. I don’t even think I have the words to explain how it feels when you physically cannot stop your body moving and jerking to some serious beats. Sometimes I don’t even want to dance, but it just takes over. It’s almost like a compulsion, in that moment nothing else matters. I’ve made friends on dance floors across the world where the only way we could communicate was through dancing and music. Dancing is universal.
Your style’s not to be messed with, if you had to wear a fellow musicians wardrobe for the week, who’s place are you headed to?
I feel like this answer could change day to day because I have a lot of different moods. I think three people that would always provide the fashion goods would be Green Tea Peng, Erykah Badu and Brooke Candy. I love people with a unique sense of style, that manage to look interesting even if they are wearing their pyjamas. Green Tea Peng and Erykah kind of have a similar vibe with the oversize headwear and loads of accessories. Brooke Candy appeals to my more punk side, with crazy hairstyles, revealing outfits and huge shoes.
Just as in your fashion sense, musically you pull from a load of influences, to start building the ultimate track who/what would make the perfect trifecta for inspiration?
I have a super eclectic music taste and genuinely believe you can find good music within almost every genre. I have a deep love for percussion, I played the drums throughout secondary school and especially love melodic, tribal percussion. Growing up I was exposed to a lot of African music and West African drums like the djembe. Sounds like this and the Punjabi Dhol drum would be a great inspiration, producers like Traumer and Danny Tenaglia use a lot of that melodic sounding percussion, so I’d definitely draw inspiration from those type of sounds. I like my music to have groove but I also enjoy the heavier end of the spectrum. Many people think Techno is soulless but I think the techno coming from Detroit has so much soul and groove as well as impact with heavy, iconic drum machines. I love Floorplan’s music so this would definitely be a source of inspiration for me. Lastly but by no means least, my trifecta would be finished off by none other than UK rave culture. Unfortunately I was born too late to enjoy the second summer of love but I take huge inspiration from the illegal warehouse raves of the 80s and 90s – acid, italo and handbag house especially. Growing up in London in the 90s and 2000s, UK music and culture, like grime, garage, jungle and Notting Hill Carnival, permeate deep within me. I loved growing up in London and feel like we have a very unique and memorable style and sound. When I first started listening to electronic music it was labels like Hessle Audio and DJ’s like Oneman that were championing this bass-laden electronic music that was somehow so distinctly UK, so I’d also like to feed that into my inspirations somehow!
London’s glorious queer scene is your home and where you started out, where could we find you in the early hours after a set?
If I’m gonna be 100% real probably in someone’s kitchen by the early hours! I do really love an Adonis day party though, Shay, the founder, has really cultivated something special there. Alongside Fold, it feels like the closest we have to the Berlin vibe.
All of our best nights include something going slightly west, would you share an embarrassing story or little hiccup that you’ve had to deal with whilst playing or partying?
There’s been lots of embarrassing partying moments but I don’t think they are appropriate for print! Like any human, we all make mistakes. I’ve definitely had my fair share of slip ups when playing, but I don’t get too embarrassed when it happens. I think it’s a nice reminder that there’s actually a person behind the decks and it’s not all just automated machines. Back in the day when everyone was playing vinyl it wasn’t all as perfect as we are used to now that majority use CDJ’s. If you make a mistake it’s more about how you recover and keep it moving than the mistake.
Recently we’ve been obsessing over The Substance, the score especially. Can you
put our readers onto a next level soundtrack?
This might seem like a really obvious one but the Kevin and Perry soundtrack is iconic. As someone who has spent a lot of time in Ibiza I love that film and the songs in it are really nostalgic. Space Jam also has a major soundtrack to really throw it back.
2024’s been a big one for you, and we’ve loved to watch, can you tell us anything you’ve already got on the cards for next year that’s got you gassed?
Aww thanks! This year has felt like a bit of a coming of age for me. I’m starting to find my sound and my path but I am still evolving. It’s still early days for my 2025 calendar, but I’m hoping to make my Ibiza debut in 2025 as well as return to Glastonbury