Exposed Vocals Just caught an Exclusive Interview with KiKstart

KiKstart is a teenage band with a heart.  Started in 2013, these young girls formed a band just to share their passion for music with other people. They have always sung in talent shows since Kindergarten, but they did not discover that they had a natural talent in playing instruments until a variety show in their freshman year in high school. They quickly got passionate about performing and playing their music. Throughout their career, they vowed to always be involved in numerous charities, using their concerts as a means of raising funds to help people and organizations in need. Their very first public performance, outside of variety shows, was at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2013 Relay For Life in their hometown, Santa Clarita. They also have performed in other Relay For Life events like in Covina, Reseda and San Fernando. They have raised funds from their concerts benefitting the SCV Food Pantry, their very own high school Albert Einstein Academy, the seminarians from their parish church  St. Clare of Assisi, and the victims of Typhoon Haiyan, through the Philippine Red Cross just to name a few. Typhoon Haiyan, or Yolanda as it’s known in the Philippines, was one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded in history (2013) that claimed the lives of more than 6,000 people in the Philippines.

Like almost all musicians or artists, KiKstart dreams of making it big one day, but their main reason may be a little different than most. 17-year old twin sisters Kalia and Keeli Javan can’t wait to be a big name in the music industry because when we’re big, we can help more because we’ll have more impact and influence.

In 2014, they released their first song, Heart Might Break Again, and sold copies on CDBaby.com, iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Xbox Live and other sites. It quickly captured the hearts of people everywhere; and in Australia, they were voted by the listeners of Stars of Tomorrow, an FM Radio Program in Sydney, Australia, as Top 5 Artists of 2014.

Follow them on their social media for more information about KiKstart, and help the band help more. Facebook.com/KiKstartBand, Twitter and Instagram: @KiKstartRocks, YouTube.com/KiKstartTV,Reverbnation.com/KiKstartRocks, Soundcloud.com/KiKstartRocks.

KiKstart is comprised of twin sisters, Kalia & Keeli.

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?

Kalia: We’re just going to take turns answering these questions and if one of us disagrees or has a different answer than the other, we’ll just add to it.

Keeli: We grew up in Santa Clarita. It all started in our school’s talent show when we were in 8th grade. Kalia and I were going to sing while a classmate played guitar for us, but we were practicing in our school and they had a piano and drums. So Kalia suggested to play the same chords, but on the piano, so she learned that. Then I just thought “I’m just gonna try the beat on the drums. So I went to it and tried it and it worked out. I just listened to the beat and tried imitating it. So we had a band! And then after that, we just thought “hey we’re not that bad!” A few weeks after the talent show, we were invited to perform at the Opening Ceremony of the Santa Clarita Valley Relay For Life. The week after Relay For Life, we started taking lessons and it just kept progressing from there.

Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?

Kalia: Well, both of our names start with a ‘K’ and we both wanted it to have something to do with our names. So we had the idea KIK, since our other band mate’s name started with an ‘I’ so our dad came up with KIKstart, since KIK is just too short. We have since officially changed the band’s name to KiKstart  one word, with only both the Ks in upper case.

Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?

Keeli: No comment on online music sharing. We haven’t given any music away for free per se. However, sometimes we’ll have raffles, and give away a free download card, or KiKstart merch.

Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?

Kalia: Just keep your eyes open for any gig opportunities and try to perform as much as you can early on so you get used to being in front of an audience as soon as possible and keep trying because nothing comes easy.

Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?

Keeli: Yes, we’ve made some mistakes during performances before. You just have to go on with the show, and don’t make it a big deal because it happens sometimes. Just keep smiling!!!

Kalia: Yes, I take note of it, move on and then practice more so that I don’t make that same mistake again.

Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?

Keeli: We haven’t been on tour YET. Hopefully, we will soon, that would be so awesome!!

Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?

Keeli: We have songwriting classes on Saturday, so that was a big help and really got us moving forward with our songs, but for me, ideas usually come to me when I’m alone, whether I’m outside or just in my room.

Kalia: I get inspiration from anything that is happening or has happened in my life. When I look back at my memories, some of them give me certain feelings and I try to put those feelings into words that seem original and somewhat relatable. In the songwriting classes we have been taking, I start out with chord progressions, then melodies, then lyrics.

Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?

Kalia: We used to have a Web site, but we forgot to renew and someone took the domain name. You can find our music on YouTube (KiKstartTV), and Spotify. We’re also on Facebook (KiKstartBand). On Reverbnation, Sound Cloud, Twitter and Instagram, our username is @KiKstartRocks.

Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?

Keeli: I don’t have anything embarrassing, but the weirdest would probably be my Christmas music ? I like to listen to Christmas music even when it’s not Christmas time.

Kalia: I wouldn’t consider any of my music embarrassing, but I used to have songs from the movie Phantom of the Opera on my phone, the one with Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum, I LOOOVE that movie.

Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?

Keeli: I’d probably want to go to places I haven’t been before, like Hawaii, the Philippines, Greece, Italy. But I obviously wouldn’t just spend it ALL just because I got a year off.

Kalia: oooh… I would probably buy a bunch of new clothes, shoes, and concert tickets!
Keeli: That’s going to be a whole bunch of new clothes, shoes and concerts.

Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?

Kalia: Well we aren’t recording yet, we’re just writing songs for now so we can have enough songs for an EP.

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?

Keeli: Our dad, who is our manager, is in charge of promotion, marketing and booking, so he’ll make posters for upcoming shows and hand them out, or hang them up at public places. We’ll also post on social media so that people know when our upcoming shows are. He would also constantly look at music venues and events.

Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?

Keeli: OOOoooo!! I like that question. I’d probably want to perform with 5 seconds of summer because I love them (Luke Hemmings is my love). I’d also want to perform with Hanson because I love their voices and harmonies and they’re a big inspiration to us. I’d want to perform at places like the House of Blues because it’s more intimate.

Kalia: Oh I would want to perform with R5 or Hanson because they are my musical inspirations, I love their music and their energy on stage. Also they have been my favorite bands for such a long time now. I also have to include Nuno Bettencourt from Extreme  More Than Words is one of our all-time favorite songs to sing. Recently, we performed with other kids from Paramount Academy of Music, as well as several A-listers including Nuno in a fundraising show. You have no idea how much we wanted to perform More Than Words with him that night. He did say, it would be nice to do a three-part harmony on that song. We can’t wait for this to happen. I’m thinking Staples Center.

Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?

Kalia: We’re both in the process of writing songs and two of them are almost done. We’ll perform it live either the last weekend of September or first weekend of October at Lucky Strike Live in Hollywood and Highland. We want to release our first EP soon. We are also working on a Christmas album.

Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

Keeli: I actually don’t even know. I think maybe I’d probably be into criminology.

Kalia: I would probably be trying to get my pilot license or painting and drawing a lot more, I want to be a pilot really bad and I also love making art because it’s relaxing and fun.

Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?

Keeli: the first album I’ve ever bought was Justin Bieber’s My World. I was so excited because I had a little SpongeBob CD player, so I’d always have that with me in the car, and I’d play that CD over and over.

Kalia: The first album I ever got was Selena Gomez’s A Year Without Rain, I used to be so obsessed with Selena, I actually still listen to some of her music. I would play that CD nonstop for the longest time it was a great album.

Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?

Keeli: I think it’s a little easier to balance than it would be senior year, but since we only have 4 classes, we’re able to do our homework at school while waiting to be picked up and then the rest of our day when we’re at home is free and open for music!

Kalia: Well luckily we took a lot of the classes we had to take in our previous years of high school so this year we don’t have as packed of a schedule as last year, so we do homework at school before we get picked up and time at home is open for anything like music.

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?

Kalia: In 2016 fans should look forward to more shows! And in 2017, possibly an EP or album!