Kacy Hill

Few musicians are credited with potentially revolutionising a genre one single into their career, but that’s the expectation that has been heaped on Kacy Hill. The former American Apparel model sent the internet into a frenzy last September, when she uploaded her enchanting, left-field pop track, “Experience”, to YouTube, with an accompanying video, starring an enigmatic Kacy, veiled by a plastic visor. The resulting praise seems even more deserved when Kacy casually lets slip that “Experience” was one of the very first songs she ever wrote, leading us to believe that, along with peers like FKA Twigs, Shura and Raury, the  LA-based musician is ushering us into a new phase of clever pop music.

And it wasn’t just the blogs and music journalists that were bowled over by her airy falsetto and alluring visuals; one of the biggest names in the business had also clocked Kacy, and during the week of her shoot with Hunger it was announced that she had been signed to Kanye West’s GOOD Music — a sure-fire sign of huge things to come. But before the world knows her name, we sit down with the deep thinker to find out why songwriting has been a process of self-discovery and why subtlety is the key to everything.

Hunger: “Experience” was defined as “future-pop” in the media. Is that a tag you’d agree with?

Kacy Hill: It’s a cool thing to call it future-pop because pop music is moving in a direction where it’s a little less calculated. I guess there’s still a formula to it, but I think people are tired of listening to the same thing over and over again. I’ll happily accept to be put and perceived in the category of something that is progressing.

Pop music has a lot of stereotypes attached to it. Do you think people are sick of it?

There are some negative connotations associated with saying “I write pop music” because there’s an expectation that it’s supposed to be shallow — all “let’s go to the club and put our hands up” — but I think pop music is so much more than that. When I think of albums that I’ve listened to over and over again through the years, it’s all pop music and I think it’s cool to be able to make something that doesn’t have a time stamp on it. That’s the ultimate goal now: make this thing called future-pop but still have it be accessible five or ten years down the line.

How important is honesty and authenticity to your sound?

It’s hard for me to try and write something that isn’t honest. I’ve worked with people who have told me to write party songs, and that’s not what I do because I feel like music has to have a purpose. It’s always good to feel like at the end of a song you’ve got something out of it, and that’s what I want to do. I think Frank Ocean is amazing at making music with purpose, as is Kanye West. I think Kanye is the king of doing it, really. Even if he just makes a party anthem, it’s one with so much substance that he really makes you think.

So is having a message important to you?

Not everything has to be groundbreaking, but as long as there’s some spark on a writing level, and your song speaks to someone, then as a songwriter your goal is accomplished.

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What did you want to say with “Experience”?

“Experience” was one of the earliest songs I wrote, and I just felt like it was an honest representation of me. It’s literally about experiencing life and taking everything for what it is, struggling through and not using anything as a crutch. At that point in my life it was really significant because I was struggling a lot. I felt really lost, and wasn’t sure which direction to go in, so it’s about all the experiences life can offer, whatever they are, and I wanted to portray that in the most honest way possible for me.

You’ve landed on a lot of ones-to-watch lists, but talk us through your musical awakening. How did you get to where you are now?

It started when I met a photographer named Stephen [Garnett] — who actually did the video for “Experience” — back when I was modelling and he wanted to work on a music project, so I said, “Yeah, why not?” A few months passed and I didn’t hear from him, and then last August he introduced me to Jaylien [Wesley], who produced “Experience”. At that point I’d never written music before, but we sat down and started working, and Stephen basically made me sit there until I wrote an entire song, even though I kept saying that I didn’t know what I was doing! It ended up happening very naturally and nothing felt forced; we just liked working together. At the time I was a part-time dancer working at an ice-cream store and two weeks later I ended up getting a dancer’s slot on Kanye’s Yeezus tour. It was a very weird chain of events. So my life turned into rehearsing for that and then going to the studio at about one in the morning to make music. At the time I thought of music as just a little hobby, but then once I finished the Kanye tour I began to take it more seriously and it sort of just came together.

Has music always been a big part of your life?

Honestly it wasn’t until being on the Yeezus tour that I realised that I really wanted music to be my career. It’s impossible to be in front of that many people and not feel something. The energy and creativity was amazing, and seeing all of that made me want to do it more. It was hard to go back to my normal life after that, and to be honest I didn’t really know what else I could do.

And now you’re signed to Kanye West’s label, GOOD Music. Why did that feel like the right place for you?

Number one, I saw the amount of creativity, hard work and vision that goes into everything he does, and I wanted to be a part of that. I also wanted to be with a label that care about music and that understand what they’re putting out, so I think that was the biggest factor for me. They release music because it’s good, not because they need to sell lots of records

"Music makes me understand myself better. You're forced to be really honest when you write"

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How involved has Kanye been in the decisions, and have you learned anything from him?

As it’s still early on in my career and the recording process, it’s been mostly me figuring out my sound up to this point. Everyone is starting to get involved now, but there’s been a lot of self-discovery, which I’m very grateful that the label allowed. They stepped back and let me figure things out for myself, but in the future we’ll see what happens!

How comfortable are you with the idea of celebrity? Is it something you’d welcome?

There’s something really interesting about people wanting to know all about a person. That sounds very weird, but the idea of celebrity interests me on a human level, wanting to know everything about someone’s life is kind of cool, as long as it’s at a healthy level, not obsession! I think I’ll always want to have a little bit of secrecy because I’m a private person. I’ve never been good at sharing too much of myself, but I am becoming more open to the idea of other people being involved in what I do.

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Does it ever get easier to let your guard down?

I think so. Even when you’re writing music, you end up letting your guard down. You don’t always even realise it, but you’re telling people really personal things about your life that you probably wouldn’t tell anyone otherwise. That experience almost conditions you to become more open about your life and your thoughts. There’s a curiosity in everyone to want to know about people’s lives, and now, because of technology, you can delve into anyone’s life without any guilt. People can talk about you however they want, which is really scary sometimes, but it’s interesting to watch.

So what is your view of our society at the moment?

I think that we’re in a transitional phase. We’re at a place where technology has surpassed our intellectual ability, and so I think that we’re having a hard time catching up with how quickly we can make things happen. That’s a scary place to be because I don’t think there’s much sensitivity to consequences now — even on a small scale, like people saying what they want on the internet without any form of reprisal. You can be completely anonymous, which is dangerous. I feel like we move away from positive information and cling to the weird stuff like celebrity tabloids and scandal. And on a global scale, in America there’s a devotion to, and a great deal of money put into, military efforts and nuclear weapons, which makes you realise that we’ve built so much that can destroy the planet, but what’s the purpose when, on a local level, we still don’t have enough good schools. It frustrates me to watch — it seems like we’re moving backwards. We create technology to destroy things and seem to have so little regard for humanity.

You’ve also spoken about creating music that redefines how pop interacts with fashion. What do you plan to do?

I think music and fashion are immensely important. As consumers, people don’t just want music now; there always has to be something to go with it, and fashion and music go so well together. It creates an aesthetic along with a sound. I want to take advantage of the fact that they marry so well together because visuals are very important to me.
I don’t want to be just a designer in sound. Wow, that sounded really pretentious! But I don’t want to limit myself. When I’m writing music I imagine visuals going alongside it. I was modelling and doing photography for a while, and that has definitely stuck with me. Fashion is the most acceptable way to tell someone who you are without saying anything. It’s one of the best forms of self-expression.

The visual message that comes across with a lot of female performers now is one that is overtly sexual, which is something that has led to a lot of discussion, but in “Experience” the sexuality is very subtle. How do you strike a balance?

Subtlety is the key to everything and I’m not really trying to sell sex with what I do. I want my music to speak for itself and I don’t think that I need to be too explicit. I’m not saying “buy my music because you want to look at me”. Again, I think that in “Experience” I wanted to focus on what I do and introduce myself. The intrigue had to be in the subtlety.

Read the rest of Kacy’s interview in issue eight of Hunger, out now, and stay tuned for her exclusive new track and Dirty Video coming soon.