Downtown Kayoto
Downtown Kayoto is a musical visionary, effortlessly blending R&B, lofi rap, pop, and a bit of everything else to create his one of a kind sound. Originally from Zimbabwe, Kayoto is currently based in the northern UK, where he makes his music. Inspired by artists like Frank Ocean, Daniel Caesar, and the Bhundu Boys, the 19-year-old extracts elements from all of their works to make his own. The artist currently boasts close to 60k Spotify streams between 7 singles - the first of which, “Sauce,” debuted in 2017 - and 1 EP. Most impressively, Kayoto’s also managed to snag places on three Spotify-curated playlists, including the much sought after Fresh Finds. We recently spoke with Downtown Kayoto about some of his career goals, future projects in the works, and more!
How did you get started making music?
My secondary school had really good facilities, and one department that was really well funded at the time was the music department. Here I would stay after school with my two friends and we would make music, watch music videos, talk about the current climate of Rap R&B and pop, and just dive head first into the culture. Soon after this, I got into SoundCloud via observing upcoming artists such as Lil Pump, Lil Peep and XXXTentacion. I started to upload my music and really take influences from pop, indie and from rap to create something that I would want to listen to. I soon learned how to engineer my own music and to market my music at the most basic level. I would make three songs every three days end use all my SoundCloud hours experimenting deconstructing and reconstructing my references to make something that was inherently my own.
Your music has such a unique vibe to it. Who are some artists that have influenced your musical style?
I would say I have taken inspiration from numerous artists from different decades and from different genres. I would say the main five that have influenced my work and continue to influence my work till this day would be Frank Ocean, Kanye West, Justin Timberlake, Arctic Monkeys and Childish Gambino.... but I couldn't stress this enough, I take influence from non musical artists as well such as Basquit and Virgil. I would also say iconography brands movements sculptures and scenery all play a vital role in the amalgamation of ideas that is my “muse” .
Which one of your songs came most naturally to you? Why?
I would say for “feels like”, when I wrote this song, I was in a state of questioning myself, my heritage, my appearance, my intelligence and the role that I played within this universe— so it's all came out quite naturally due to it being very confessional in its nature and practically wrote itself .
If you could perform one song for the rest of your life, which would it be and why?
Haha I would say “Me and your Mama” by Childish Gambino. It was quite difficult picking that one from the rest, but that song for me embodies my switch of taste in music. It is rock song its core, but contains elements of funk synthpop, punk, and jazz, and with that song up until its release was performed by a “rapper”. A beautiful song that requires raw emotion and on top of that is beautiful within its structure so I would say that one.
What would be your dream venue?
I don't really have a venue in mind. I think I would say having a set on Camp Flog Gnaw or Coachella would be tight, since I've never been there or set foot in America— performing on arguably one of the biggest sets within that country would be flames .
What do you like to do when you’re not making music?
I peer into alternative realities and daydream, thinking about music, culture, fashion, architecture, houses, food, nature all those things and things that will come to pass. I just express myself even if it's me going on a walk or me sitting down at my laptop listening to music. In a nutshell, when I'm not making music I’m being, and expressing myself........... or playing League of Legends that game is really cool, I can't get into Silver II though I'm lacking .
Anything in the works for fans to get excited about?
Yes, I am bringing out a new track add music video to accompany it at the end of this month and subsequently next month I'm going to be doing the same. This will potentially repeat for the next few months then I think it would be a good time for an EP would you ?
