Rising Stars: Meet Khamal.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Khamal.

Hi Khamal., thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’d like to consider my story as a bit of an ongoing odyssey of learning, growth, and self-acceptance. I am a 26 years old Los Angeles Native whose roots cross the boundaries between the Los Angeles, Inglewood, and Slauson Crenshaw District. From a young age, I found myself fascinated with art disciplines particularly music which would eventually lead me into studying digital media arts at California State Dominguez Hills with a focus in audio recording and engineering. While these are my educational and geographical roots, I’d like to focus on how I got started and what has lead me to pursue a career as a multidisciplinary artist and musician. From a young age, my life was littered with constant health challenges due to a congenital heart defect I was born with known as Tetralogy of the Fallot which impacted my physical abilities and growth. Not only was the very real danger of a premature death constantly looming over my head from a young age the pain and trauma from multiple surgeries and the physically comparative nature of existence that comes with growing up as a black youth in the inner city often lead me to self-disparaging thoughts and feelings of inadequacy. The thing I did excel was school particularly writing and after joining my school choir, I found myself intrigued by the combination of lyric and songwriting and how the two concepts come together to tell a rhythmic and literal story. After discovering the works of Prince at the age of eight, I knew that I wanted a career in music and sound and knew what I had to do to achieve such. Through constant successes and failures, I made it a point to focus on the technical aspect of music production as when I was growing up, my mother could not afford music lessons.

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?
Growing up in the cliche but poignant single-parent household, I often felt alone. Furthermore, the cruelty of children due to my disability would weigh on me quite often. Feelings of alienation due to the way I expressed myself was also a source of contention being told I talked too white or that I was into things that black kids “weren’t supposed to be” also had its effect on me, while my classmates were listening to Ying Yang Twins I was listening to Gil Scott Heron, Sly and the Family Stone, and Prince as we grew older I’d imagine we all began to embrace new types of music we weren’t initially introduced to in our childhood but those initial feelings of being different often crossed my mind and I found myself ostracized for it at times. During high school and onward this culminated in a suppression of some of my interests and ideas to better to navigate the social climate of the times and find acceptance when in reality, the only acceptance needed is your own.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My music production has been described as a renegade amalgamation of various genres being that Prince is my number influence for music and art, I find myself often exploring the grey sections of sonic, philosophical, and cultural concepts. What does this mean? For music and sound, it implies a frequent use of genre-bending elements to create music that checks the boxes for multiple genres at once. Some of the most prominent genres featured in my music are synth-wave, rap, and retro 80’s rock and funk influences. My philosophies also take a front seat within my music whether it’s an unwillingness to conform to a political ideology or challenging the ideas of masculine expression through fashion; my journey through self-acceptance has challenged me to express what I wish in the most visceral and vulnerable ways I can regardless of how it may be perceived. Simply put Art is not meant to please. It is meant to move. Regardless of that movement’s polarity. What sets me apart from others is the nature of my music and the all-encompassing subject matters I cover whether it be love, lust, money or something as simple as the beauty in failure. I know my music and art covers some of the most relatable pieces of the human experience in a unique way that captures the listener’s ear as something they’ve never heard before.

What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I was a pretty private kid while I did have an average amount of friends often times the only times I truly came out of my shell was to perform whether it be sing or give a speech at school. I was described by many as a stoic child who often silently observed what was going on as opposed to actively engaging with people and situations. As far as my interest as a kid, I wanted to create comic books and even would draw my own comic books and mangas. I was and still am heavily into Anime like Yu Yu Hakusho and DBZ but I also like animes with deeper meanings like Evangelion an anime that discusses the nature of god existence and the collective human consciousness. Coming up, I also had a profound interest in politics and debate and in fact my I was often requested by my teachers in school to go into politics or become a lawyer. I chose to become an artist Go Figure right? And while there is nothing inherently wrong with those career paths (except for maybe the fact you learn how to lie professionally) I knew that for me, it was the road most traveled for someone of my background and those careers and studies simply did not inspire me or challenge me the way music and expression do. I take hours to compose music sometimes because of the challenge presented to make it sound the way I want it to sound in my head. The constant recursive nature of creating is what brings me back time and time again to face the challenge. Which emphasizes another personality trait of mine I had growing up which was determination and a necessity to push past the roadblocks that appeared on my path.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: khamalperiod.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kha.m.al/?hl=en
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kh_m_l
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsBKC0nbMhtsQCBeb-VtbTg

Image Credits:
Sunni Mullen (BLAK KANVAS) Isaac J Burt