People You Need to Hear: Christian Kuria

This Bay Area-based artist's carefully crafted sound will make you swoon.

Christian Kuria/Brianna Ellis-Mitchell

Each week, it seems, there are dozens of emerging musical artists whose work is worth listening to (we admit, it can be hard to keep up). That's why we're making the search for your newest heavy rotation easier with our biweekly introduction to up-and-coming artists you should be listening to. Next up: Christian Kuria's thoughtful alt-R&B.

Shondaland: When did you fall in love with music? Do you come from a musical family?

Christian Kuria: I come from a musical family. I come from a family that's very involved in church music, so from both sides of my family, there are musicians and singers everywhere. I have some uncles who are full-time musicians. They're teachers, they're writers, my grandma was a pianist, my mom was a pianist, and my dad sings, my mom sings. I was born into a musical atmosphere. When I was young, it was just all around me at all times.

SL: For the people who are meeting you for the first time, how would you describe your sound?

That's what I try to convey in my music… that soulful sound that makes people feel something.

CK: I would describe it as alternative R&B. I grew up in church, so I think that there's an interesting dynamic with the musical side of things, with the way that the instruments fall, the way that the melodies are laid out. That's definitely something that people can hear [in my music], but ultimately, it's just R&B. I love soul and I love R&B, and that's what I try to convey in my music, is that soulful sound that makes people feel something.

SL: Which artists would you say have influenced your sound? Who are some of your favorites?

CK: One of the biggest influences for me is actually John Mayer, especially because I'm a guitar player. I love old soul, like Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, all the way up to today, like Daniel Caesar, Jorja Smith. I'm inspired by everything that I hear, so I'm very easily influenced by creative people, and just creative energy in general.

SL: Explain what your creative process is like — especially for "Complicated," one of my favorite songs.

CK: It usually starts with an idea. I'll be driving and a melody will pop in my head and usually, I'm sitting in an emotion for a little while before it becomes a song. It starts with a desire to write about something that I'm feeling, and I'll hear an idea, whether it be a harmonic or melodic, or something I can do on guitar or lay down on the keys. And that idea will just be playing in my head until the point where I realize that, "This has been stuck in my head for a while." I try to create something of it.

With "Complicated" specifically, it was just that. I had the melody for the chorus in my head. I tried many different approaches of how I wanted the melody to sit, different feels and different swings and different ways that it would sit in a song. I have friends that know that I overthink things a lot, and they said, "Just make something that's really simple, and just sing your heart out over it." I get very affected by the people I love, and the people I'm involved with on an emotional level. If you’ve heard any of my songs, you could probably pick up on the fact that I love very intensely.

So many people have told me, "Oh man, that song made me cry." When I showed it to my friends the first time, they literally started crying, and I was like, "Why are you crying?" I think it's just because love is what moves people, and being let down in love is something that everybody has to go through. It's part of the human experience. With "Complicated," it wasn't a struggle to write that song because there were so many different things that I had to say. I almost had to cut down and say, "OK, what is the core message that I'm trying to portray in this song?" I think it came out pretty naturally.


[As for] the actual process, I do everything myself. I literally do everything in my own little home studio. I record all my own work. Everything you hear is played by me, produced by me, and written by me. It's been fun learning how to do that myself.

SL: Did you know how to do that before, or was it something you learned along the way?

CK: It started last year. I think it was April [2017] when my friend convinced me to put out a cover on YouTube. I was kind of skeptical about the whole idea. I tend to be very particular about the way that people perceive me, and especially perceive my music. I decided to try it out, and it started out very simple. I produced my own covers of popular songs, so I think my first was "Location" by Khalid, because that song was super hot back then. I realized how much I enjoyed doing it. Surprisingly, people were like, "Wow, have you been producing?" And I'm like, "No, this is literally my first thing." I've been playing around with production for years, but never anything serious. But last year was when I really started getting serious about it, and I taught myself.

By the end of 2017, I knew that I wanted to show people that I wrote my own songs. At the time, I already had an EP out, but I wasn't quite sure of how I wanted to do it. You can get caught up over the title of an album, or a song, or a project. I was just like, "Look, I'm just going to start creating songs, creating these tracks, in my bedroom on my own. I'm going to write everything, and I'm going to put it out in the same that I put out my covers." Which, at the time, had begun to get a little bit of a following online, which was surprising to me. Then I put out "Vain," and from there, it was just whatever I was feeling from the current month. This whole entire year has just been one extensive project of challenging myself to write and record and put out music that I'm feeling for that particular time. And not overthink the process.

SL: Do you think learning how to produce your own music, and getting positive reactions to it, has helped you overthink less and relax a little bit more?

CK: It's definitely helped me form a better sense of self and what I'm creating. All that matters is that I love what I'm making. I love the process, and the people who I'm creating for are enjoying what I'm putting out. When people tell me, "I came across your music and I'm a fan, I love it," I absolutely love that, because I feel like this is my calling and this is what I was put here to do. For my whole life, I devoted all of my time to music, and I've always been in love with music. Being able to create and being able to turn emotional experiences into a piece of art that [can resonate with] somebody that I don't even know, who lives across the world, that's an insanely gratifying experience.

SL: It's so interesting how young people are coming up and creating such good music, but it sounds so soulful, like it could be played back in the day.

CK: I think [in] the culture, music culture specifically, there is this craving for authentic, stripped-down soul. I feel like people are just in a more honest place, collectively, and soul music is honest in that way. The flashy stuff is fine — I'm a huge hip-hop fan, I'm a huge pop fan, I draw influence from so many places — but there's something about soul music that people are resonating with.

[Soul] was just something that I was attracted to and a sound that was a part of my DNA.

I've been playing shows all over the Bay Area for several years, just doing it by myself with an acoustic guitar. I would play covers of old soul music, and for me, it's always been natural. It was never a decision, like, "I'm going to play soul music." It was just something that I was attracted to and a sound that was a part of my DNA.

SL: What advice would you give to someone looking to pursue a career in music?

CK: I feel like the best thing that you can do is just do it. We live in an age now where we have the technology that allows people to have a platform, wherever they are. YouTube is my platform, and there never was a time where I was like, "OK, I have the equipment, now let me start doing this." All you need is a phone.

Long answer short, do what you love, don't overthink it, and you can learn along the way. But always push yourself to be better. Always push yourself to improve on your craft.

SL: What's next for you? What are you working on?

CK: I'm in the middle of this project that is kind of interesting. In a weird way, I was inspired by daily vloggers, how they are able to put out a video of themselves, every day or every week. And over the course of time, you're able to see how they've changed, and how they've improved, not only in what they do, like the production of what they do, but just in themselves personally. I kind of wanted to do the same thing, musically. What I've done is — kind of like what I was explaining earlier — I challenge myself to write a song, produce it, and just put it out, and then focus on the next thing.

Over the course of 2018, I'm making this extended EP where I'm releasing the project song by song. I'm getting into the second part of it where I challenge myself to strip back a little bit, because the three songs I have right now — "Vain," "When You're Lonely," and "Complicated" — are very inspired by house and hip-hop. Now I want to shift gears a little bit, and go more straight-up R&B, soul, almost a new Motown sound. I'm working on the next several singles that will be coming out in the next couple weeks. And then I'm getting ready to put together an album that will be out next year. I'm working on new YouTube content. The ideas are constantly shifting. My life is a constant brainstorm session.

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