Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristen Smith
Hi Kristen, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Briefly? Haha I’ll do my very best! Well, first and foremost my name is Kristen, my artist name is Kaali. I’m 30 years young and I have a 6 year old son. I currently reside in Southern California. I’ve been in music for 12 years and man have I seen and been through it all.
I started going to shows/raves at a fairly young age. It was 2008 and I was about 13/14. I would always go to these events just to watch the DJ. After a couple years into the scene, I met a lot of interesting people. I was able to make connections left and right. Learned how to DJ when I was 17 and from there, I’d DJ your local house party. It was during the years of 2011-2013. If you were around during that time, then YOU KNOW how iconic that era was.
Back in 2013 was when things started to stir up a bit in music for me. My best friend at the time just started going to raves. She found out that Motive Events was hiring promoters. We jumped on that position so fast haha from that point, I was networking faster than I could keep up with. I put my entire passion into promoting because I really wanted to show my boss that I was down with the get down. Come 4/20 Festival in 2014, Motive booked me to go back to back with a good friend of mine. Little did I know the impact that night would have on me for the rest of my life.
After 4/20 Festival, I quickly became a resident DJ for Motive Events. They truly took me under their wing and allowed me to authentically be and push myself. I still keep in touch with them to this day. They’re family! I’ve landed many opportunities due to their support.
From 2014-2017, I was playing for every local company you can think of. Started playing at Insomniac clubs like Sutra and Create. Had opportunity to promote for Insomniac, TomorrowWorld and Q-Dance. When Motive Events turned into Dreamstate, that was when the support unfolded ten fold.
While things were going great in the music world, I was caught by surprise. Drugs are huge in the scene and as an upcoming artist, it was given to me like water. I accepted every time no matter the quantity. I would take them all as they were given to me and found myself addicted. This was a cycle from 2014-2016. I was down BAD. Over-dosed twice. It was such a dark and scary time. I did everything in my power to take myself out because I simply wanted to die. I didn’t care about life. I come from a dark childhood and getting mixed in abusive relationships probably wasn’t the best mix for me. Now, I’m 8 years clean!
In 2017, I was going at a peak with an abusive relationship, got ran over a few times in music and decided to take a step back from working for companies and wanted to dabble in throwing my own events. The guy I was seeing at the time and I decided to go halfsies on events. He would do all the back of house tasks and I would do all the front of house tasks. It went well for a year but we couldn’t keep it going because we ended up pregnant. It was a high risk pregnancy so we had no choice but to put an end to it. Last show we had was when I was 4 months pregnant.
I had my son on September 29th, 2018. My light, my life was being held in my arms. Buddy, my son, is the most perfect thing I’ve ever seen. Was finally here. During the first year of Buddy’s life, we moved an awful lot. Kept going back and fourth from LA to IE because living situations weren’t ideal. Eventually just stayed with my mom. Two happy homes and significantly better than one toxic one. We shouldn’t ever be together haha
Fast forward to 2021, the pandemic is over and I’m finally back to work. At that time, I was a single mom, doing the most to keep us afloat. I had Buddy and I at a good pace in life to live comfortably. That’s always a huge goal in life. By the end of 2021, the itch to come back to music was almost haunting me. I needed to come back. It was like a drug and I was feening haha my best buddy mentioned joining a harm reduction team on Insomniac called Ground Control. I was hesitant at first because I KNEW what I would be getting myself into. Long story short, I’m celebrating my 3 year anniversary with them this Escape. Next Beyond Wonderland is my 2 year anniversary on their management team. In Ground Control, I met someone who I look up to so much. She was looking for people to join her team with Goldenvoice. I immediately joined. Camping Operations gave me insight into myself and what I really want to do. Event production has my entire heart. THAT and music production is what I want to do.
Life made a whole 360 in 2022. Everything was going great until June 2022. My son, Buddy had gotten extremely sick. Never had a seizure in his life and they hit him out of no where and hard. To put the long story short, we were in the hospital for about 6 months. From June 4th – December 2nd was the duration of his hospitalization. He would have 150+ seizures a day. His last seizure lasted 3 hours. He underwent left hemispherectomy to put an immediate stop to the seizures. He has the surgery October 7th, 2022 and hasn’t had a seizure since. Shout out to CHLA for saving my son. It hasn’t been easy but it’s worth it.
Honestly, If I lost Buddy, I wouldn’t be here right now or even bother with music. So the fact that I’m here, writing this, is so surreal. We are BLESSED and it makes me emotional.
Fast forward to November 2023. Buddy is recovering is astronomical ways so I went ahead and put my entire being back into music, Insomniac Ground Control and Goldenvoice Camping Ops. I landed management with Camping Ops and was coming up on my 1 year on GC management. I got booked to work EDC Orlando with GC and it was the best experience of my life. Shout to to my Passport family and for being hospitable. They were able to get me on to play and I knew what my plans were after that. Mission: make sure I’m always on a stage. It was my first show back after my hiatus and my adrenaline was pumping,
Let’s hit the fast forward one more time. Buddy and I are living so good. I’m no longer a single mom, I’m a single woman! Buddy’s thriving, mom is thriving. Music is starting to take off for me. I just release a new song and it’s going so well! Buddy starts school soon. LIFE IS GOOD!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No, it’s be HARD. My son getting sick, personal struggles, trying to keep going when all you want to do is give up.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
What sets me apart from others is definitely the way I think, my energy and the way I carry myself. I specialize in event/festival production and music production. I’m most proud of myself for always coming back to what I love no matter how far I might of gotten from it.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Waking up every day, pulling yourself out of what weighs you, to reach this big goals you gotta get through the small ones first. The small ones matter more than we think.
Pricing:
- To book me, please message me directly
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/kaalidnb
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3hdbUXec_hNrakV51C0ltQ
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/kaalidnb
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/61hat8u1OpDhaKV6ueRusz?si=Lpz_1OUPSeG4UlBYkyKQ7A
