Kaina (singer)

Last updated

Kaina
Born
Kaina Castillo

(1996-01-22) January 22, 1996 (age 28)
Occupations
  • Singer
  • songwriter
Years active2016–present
Musical career
Genres
InstrumentVocals
Website kaina.live

Kaina Castillo (born January 22, 1996), known simply as, KAINA (stylized in all caps), is an American singer-songwriter. On July 12, 2019, she released her debut album, Next to the Sun. In 2022, she released her second studio album, It Was a Home . [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Early life

Castillo was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, to a Venezuelan mother and Guatemalan father. She started discovering music at the age of nine, such as Stevie Wonder, Celia Cruz, and Oscar D'León. She also performed with The Happiness Club, a nonprofit that offers diverse youth a space to explore music, dance, and visual arts. [6] [7]

She studied public relations and advertising at DePaul University for two years. [8]

Career

2019–2020: Next to the Sun

In early 2019, she released the single "Green". The music video gives a glimpse into her life in Chicago, with a visual of a family dinner. [9]

On July 12, 2019, Castillo released her debut album, Next to The Sun, through Sooper Records. [10]

2021–present: It Was a Home

On August 9, 2021, Castillo did a cover of "Come Back as a Flower" by Stevie Wonder, along with a music video. [11] This cover served as the first single of Castillo's second studio album. A second single was released, "Casita", on November 2, 2021. The third single, "Anybody Can Be In Love", was released with the announcement of her second studio album. Castillo revealed a tour for the second album was in the works, which will occur in North America and Europe. On January 9, 2022, "Apple" was released as the fourth single. [12]

On March 4, 2022, It Was a Home was released through City Slang. The second album includes collaborations with Sen Morimoto, Sleater-Kinney, and Helado Negro. Two days after the release of the album, the single "Golden Mirror" was released. In April 2022, Castillo announced the official American tour dates for the It Was a Home Tour. For the European tour dates, it ended up postponed or cancelled due to unknown reasons. The North American tour have commenced on March 16 and is set to conclude on July 17, 2022. [13]

Discography

Kaina discography
Studio albums2
EPs2
Live albums1
Singles6

Studio albums

TitleDetailsRef.
Next to the Sun
  • Released: July 12, 2019
  • Label: Sooper
  • Format: Vinyl, streaming, digital download
[14]
It Was a Home
  • Released: March 4, 2022
  • Label: City Slang
  • Format: Vinyl, streaming, digital download
[15]

Extended plays

TitleDetailsRef.
Sweet Asl.
  • Released: August 9, 2016
  • Label: Self-released
  • Format: Streaming, digital download
[16]
4U
  • Released: March 16, 2018
  • Label: Self-released
  • Format: Streaming, digital download
[17]

Live albums

TitleDetailsRef.
KAINA on Audiotree Live
  • Released: October 2, 2019
  • Label: Audiotree Music
  • Format: Streaming, digital download
[18]

Singles

TitleYearAlbum
"Love in a Crowd"
(ft. Sen Morimoto)
2017
"F*cked Up"2018
"Green"Sweet Asl.
"Comeback as a Flower"2021It Was a Home
"Casita"
"Anybody Can Be In Love"
"Apple"2022
"Golden Mirror"

Music videos

TitleYearAlbumDirector(s)
"Happy"20184UDennis Larance
"Green"2019Next to the Sun Jean Deaux
"Come Back As A Flower"2021It Was a HomeCarolina Aguirre
"Anybody Can Be In Love"Weird Life Films
"Apple"2022
"Golden Mirror"

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aimee Mann</span> American singer-songwriter (born 1960)

Aimee Elizabeth Mann is an American singer-songwriter. Over the course of four decades, she has released ten studio albums as a solo artist. She is noted for her sardonic and literate lyrics about dark subjects, often describing lost or lonely underdog characters. Her work with the producer Jon Brion in the 1990s was influential on American alternative rock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grimes</span> Canadian musician (born 1988)

Claire Elise Boucher, known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her lyrics often touch on science fiction and feminist themes. The visuals in her videos are elaborate and sometimes have fantasy themes. She has released five studio albums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julianna Barwick</span> American musician

Julianna Barwick is an American musician who composes using electronic loops. Her first album, The Magic Place, was released in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waxahatchee</span> American indie music project

Waxahatchee is an American indie music project, formed in 2010 by American singer-songwriter Kathryn Crutchfield, known professionally as Katie Crutchfield, following the breakup of her previous band P.S. Eliot. The band is named after Waxahatchee Creek, in Alabama, where Crutchfield grew up. Originally an acoustic solo project, her recordings now tend to involve a full backing band. As Waxahatchee, she has released six solo studio albums to date: American Weekend (2012), Cerulean Salt (2013), Ivy Tripp (2015), Out in the Storm (2017), Saint Cloud (2020) and Tigers Blood (2024), which was nominated for the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Americana Album. Away from Waxahatchee, Crutchfield was also a member of alternative country duo Plains alongside Jess Williamson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hannah Diamond</span> British singer, songwriter, photographer and visual artist

Hannah Amond, known professionally as Hannah Diamond, is an English singer, songwriter, photographer, and visual artist. She has recorded on A.G. Cook's PC Music label since 2013, beginning with her debut single "Pink and Blue". Her music and visual art employs an aesthetic of hyperreality and heavily produced cuteness in tension with sincerity. Diamond released her debut studio album, Reflections, in November 2019. Her second studio album, Perfect Picture, was released in October 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Empress Of</span> American singer-songwriter (born 1989)

Lorely Rodriguez, known professionally as Empress Of, is an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer based in Los Angeles, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noname (rapper)</span> American rapper

Fatimah Nyeema Warner, known professionally as Noname, is an American rapper. She began rapping and performing slam poetry in 2010, and gained wider recognition in 2013 for her appearance on the track "Lost" from Chance the Rapper's mixtape Acid Rap. She released her debut mixtape, Telefone, in 2016 to critical acclaim. Her debut album, Room 25, was released in 2018 and received further acclaim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ari Lennox</span> American R&B singer-songwriter (born 1991)

Courtney Shanade Salter, known professionally as Ari Lennox, is an American R&B singer-songwriter from Washington, D.C. She signed with J. Cole's Dreamville Records, an imprint of Interscope Records as the former label's first female artist in 2015. She started gaining recognition after the release of her second extended play (EP) and major label debut, Pho (2016). That same year, she made an uncredited guest appearance on Cole's song "Change". Her debut studio album, Shea Butter Baby (2019), was met with critical praise and lukewarm commercial response.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Dacus</span> American singer-songwriter (born 1995)

Lucy Elizabeth Dacus is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Dacus first gained fame following the release of her debut album, No Burden (2016), which led to a deal with Matador Records. Historian, her second album, was released in 2018 to critical acclaim. Home Video, her third studio album, was released in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese Breakfast</span> American indie pop band

Japanese Breakfast is an American indie pop band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania formed in 2013. The project is fronted by vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter Michelle Zauner, alongside Peter Bradley (guitar), Deven Craige (bass) and Craig Hendrix.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jay Som</span> American singer (born 1994)

Melina Mae Cortez Duterte, better known by her stage name Jay Som, is an American, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and mixing engineer. Her debut record Everybody Works was released on Double Denim Records & Polyvinyl Records in March 2017, which was preceded by Turn Into, a collection of songs that first gained her attention as a singer-songwriter. The follow-up to Everybody Works and Jay Som's second home studio album, Anak Ko, was released on August 23, 2019 via Polyvinyl, Lucky Number, and Inertia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helado Negro</span> American musician

Roberto Carlos Lange, better known by his stage name Helado Negro, is an American musician. In 2019 he was awarded a United States Artists Fellow in Music and also the recipient of a 2019 Grants to Artists award in Music from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. In 2015 he received a Joyce Foundation award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sudan Archives</span> American musician

Brittney Denise Parks, better known by her stage name Sudan Archives, is an American violinist, singer, and songwriter based in Los Angeles, California. Parks learned to play the violin by ear as a young child in Cincinnati, Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faye Webster</span> American musician (born 1997)

Faye Webster is an American singer-songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia. She has released five studio albums: Run and Tell (2013), Faye Webster (2017), Atlanta Millionaires Club (2019), I Know I'm Funny Haha (2021), and Underdressed at the Symphony (2024).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raveena Aurora</span> American singer-songwriter

Raveena Aurora, mononymously known as Raveena, is an American singer and songwriter. She gained a following after her debut EP, Shanti, was released independently in 2017. Her debut album, Lucid, was released independently in 2019 and distributed through Empire Distribution which rose to critical acclaim. In 2020, she released her second EP, Moonstone. After signing to Warner Records, she released her second album, Asha's Awakening, on February 11, 2022, and was met with positive reviews from critics. On June 14, 2024, she released her third album, Where the Butterflies Go in the Rain, through Empire Distribution. She is known for integrating R&B and her Indian heritage through her music by using Indian instrumentations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gia Margaret</span> American singer-songwriter

Gia Margaret is an American singer-songwriter and record producer from Chicago, Illinois. She released her debut studio album, There's Always Glimmer, in July 2018. She is currently signed to Orindal Records in the United States and Dalliance Recordings in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arlo Parks</span> British singer

Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho, known professionally as Arlo Parks, is an English singer and songwriter. Her debut studio album, Collapsed in Sunbeams, was released in 2021 to critical acclaim and peaked at number three on the UK Albums Chart. It earned her nominations for Album of the Year, Best New Artist and Best British Female Solo Artist at the 2021 Brit Awards. It won the 2021 Mercury Prize for Best Album.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Remi Wolf</span> American recording artist (born 1996)

Remi Francis Wolf is an American singer and songwriter from Palo Alto, California. As a senior in high school, she appeared as a contestant on American Idol in 2014. After completing her undergraduate music studies in 2018, she made her solo debut with the self-released extended play You're a Dog! in October 2019. Wolf subsequently released her second EP and major-label debut, I'm Allergic to Dogs!, on Island Records and Virgin EMI Records in June 2020, followed by her debut studio album, Juno, in October 2021. She released her second album, Big Ideas, on July 12, 2024.

Buscabulla is a band formed by Luis Alfredo Del Valle and Raquel Berrios, who are married. Their music has been described as tropical synth pop, electro-pop, indie pop, electro-Caribbean, and experimental. They incorporate Latin music styles such as salsa, reggaeton, bachata, merengue and calypso.

<i>It Was a Home</i> 2022 studio album by KAINA

It Was a Home is the second studio album by American singer and songwriter KAINA, which was released worldwide on March 4, 2022, through City Slang. The album was supported by five singles: "Come Back as a Flower", "Casita", "Anybody Can Be in Love", "Apple", and "Golden Mirror". The album features Sen Morimoto, Sleater-Kinney, and Helado Negro.

References

  1. "KAINA and Helado Negro Are Making Music for Each Other". Interview Magazine. March 17, 2022.
  2. "Kaina's 'It Was A Home' samples the mood and music of her childhood". NPR.org.
  3. "This Musician Wants To Be "A Latina Mr. Rogers"". Bustle. February 20, 2024.
  4. MTV News Staff. "Kaina Built Her Own Community". MTV News. Archived from the original on March 7, 2022.
  5. "Meet KAINA, the Soulful Singer-Songwriter Repping Chicago's Thriving DIY Scene".
  6. "How I Made It: KAINA". NPR.org. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  7. "KAINA Is a Restless R&B Healer Charting a Course to Self-Acceptance". Pitchfork. November 7, 2019. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  8. "KAINA is a Restless R&B Healer Charting a Course to Self-Acceptance". Pitchfork . November 7, 2019.
  9. "KAINA's "Green" music video is a love-filled family affair". The FADER. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  10. Rindner, Grant (July 12, 2019). "KAINA Has Been Chicago's Best-Kept Musical Secret—But Now The Secret's Out". Nylon. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  11. "Meet KAINA, the Soulful Singer-Songwriter Repping Chicago's Thriving DIY Scene".
  12. "New Mix: PUP, Kaina, Uwade, More : All Songs Considered". NPR.org. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  13. "Kaina Announces New Album It Was a Home, Shares New Video". Pitchfork. November 2, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  14. "7 Albums Out Today You Should Listen to Now: Purple Mountains, Blood Orange, and More". Pitchfork. July 12, 2019. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  15. "KAINA, "It Was a Home"". Bandcamp Daily. March 4, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  16. Sweet Asl. – EP by KAINA, Bedows & Burns Twins, August 9, 2016, retrieved April 8, 2022
  17. 4U – Single by KAINA, March 16, 2018, retrieved April 8, 2022
  18. "KAINA". Audiotree. September 10, 2019. Retrieved April 8, 2022.