Isolation Tells The Kali Uchis Story

Every musician has a story to tell. Most of the time that story is greatly influenced by events in their lives that left certain very recognizable marks. Yes, marks on their hearts and souls. Therefore, the music easily comes and touches all of us – the music fans. Every week I see these life events, to varying degrees, providing musical artists a canvas to paint their creation of songs. Regardless of age, gender or geographical origins, life always influences art. Such is the case this week as I have the opportunity to feature another young, brilliant artist. This week, we feature singer/songwriter Kali Uchis.

Karly-Marina Loaiza was born on July 17, 1994 in Alexandria, Virginia. Her parents moved from Pereira, Colombia to the United States in the early 1990s, fleeing the conflict in Colombia. Loaiza and her family moved around back and forth between the U.S. and Colombia. She started elementary school in Colombia and moved back to the U.S. in third grade. Her father gave her the nickname Kali Uchis.

It was during her high school years that Loaiza experienced many of the events that helped her develop into the musician Kali Uchis. She attended T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria. Yes, the same high school made famous after the Denzel Washington football film “Remember The Titans”. However, Kali Uchis’ story is many miles away from the football activities at the school. In fact, she skipped a lot of classes through her high school years. It was during those years that she started to develop musical ability and talent. She learned to play piano and saxophone which she credits to helping her with her sense of melody and overall songwriting.

Kali Uchis, like many teens, was somewhat rebellious. Her parents had trouble navigating successfully through the period. One night, when she was 17, she arrived home past curfew, after her father had left for work, and found a note on her bed. “It said, ‘Even though I love you, you continue to be disrespectful. You have to learn what it’s like to really be on your own. When I get home, I don’t want to see you. Go figure it out.’”

After going through life as a teenager, and the parent of a teenager, I can understand Uchis and her parents. Although I don’t think I would have handled her rebellion the same way. The 17-year-old might be more mature than the average teen, but not really ready to figure out the world. The thought of a child out on the streets alone might be terrifying for everyone. In an article for Fader, Kali Uchis described what happened during this time:

Kali would be on the streets for months, sometimes crashing at a friend’s place, but most of the time in that parking lot, lying in the back of her car, her whole life spilling out of the bags in her trunk. Blankets drawn over her head, she would try to block out the world and all its noise. She went to school during the day, but the nights were long. So she often stayed up late on her computer, or scribbling in her notebook.

Sometimes she got scared, once so bad she drove off, tried to find a different spot in a nearby neighborhood, close to a park. But that was worse. People kept walking by, and she started to get paranoid. Someone could try to break in, rob her, or worse, attack her. So she went back to the parking lot.

Kali Uchis did figure out a lot of things, even as her dad expressed regret. “My dad started calling me after like the second week,” she says, “telling me to come home, that he was sorry, that he just didn’t know what to do with me.” “I realized how much it hurt my dad. When you’re little, you think your parents are these strong, unbreakable people that know everything, and then you start to realize that they’re just human, that they f**k up as much as we do, that they’re going through their own shit.”

“My father is my hero,” she says. “No matter what, I’ll always forgive him.”

In some ways it seems like Kali Uchis just appeared one day, without a lot of struggle. Of course, there was work being done all the time that none could see. Shortly after graduating high school, Uchis released her début mixtape Drunken Babble on August 1, 2012. The mixtape was described as “genre-defying”, noted for its influences from doo-wop, reggae and early 2000s R&B. Uchis stated that she is influenced by music of the 1960s, with its mix of early soul, R&B and doo-wop, saying: “Musically and aesthetically, the culture of it just inspires me.” She also mentioned that she enjoys jazz, stating during her career beginnings that she draws musical inspiration from Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Other musicians she cited as influences on her sound are Curtis Mayfield, Loose Ends, Ralfi Pagan and Irma Thomas. By looking at music from the past, and inserting her own artistic flair, she was creating a sound that worked.

Two years later, in 2013, while working as a cashier at Whole Foods, she released a video for “What They Say” that she co-directed with Tony Katai. In the video, a nod to California’s lowrider culture, a Glock-wielding Kali and her friends steal some guy’s Chrysler and take off on a joyride into the night.

That video attracted a lot of attention. In fact, Snoop Dogg saw it and reached out to young Kali Uchis. “He was the first person to publicly cosign me,” she remembers. “Snoop Dogg was always showing me love.” He asked her to collaborate with him on “On Edge,” a song for his 2014 mixtape, That’s My Work Vol. 3. Other artists also reached out, including Tyler, the Creator, who hit her up on Twitter about getting together for a project. Working with Kali, Tyler says, is amazing. “Her sense of melody is good and works really well with my chords. We knock ideas out quick, and we trust each other.”

Since the work started with Snoop Dogg and Tyler, the collaborations have increased with a variety of artists. In October 2017, Uchis was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award for Record of the Year for “El Ratico”, her collaboration with Colombian musician Juanes. She was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards for “Get You”, her collaboration with Canadian singer Daniel Caesar.

On March 14, 2018, Uchis performed on The Tonight Show and announced her début album, Isolation. It was officially released worldwide on April 6, 2018. The rebellious teen had grown up and made it into American living rooms. From living in her car during high school to major musical success.

Isolation has brought Kali Uchis all the way to solo artist success with a very unique sound. “When I was making this album, I really didn’t want to be influenced by current music or by my peers”, “…I was worried that maybe my music wouldn’t be embraced by other people because it doesn’t really correlate with what’s trending at this moment, but I think embracing the isolation of that and tasking the risk of making things that doesn’t sound like anything else right now makes music exciting. That’s part of what makes life exciting. That’s part of being an artist”

Ilana Kaplan of The Independent wrote that Uchis “has been largely underrated the past few years, but Isolation might just finally give her the attention she deserves”. In a review for Paste, Madison Desler stated that “for an album that’s fifteen tracks to be this consistently good is … an artistic triumph that should place it on every Best Of list at the end of the year”, concluding that the album “perhaps signal[s] a legend in the making.”

I definitely agree. Kali Uchis has created music and a style that is all her own. That style will identify her when she creates more music. As usual with more time and music – we will know.