An Interview with Grammy-nominated recording artist: Kenna
Justin Timberlake says, “Kenna is just what the world needs to hear… they just don’t know it yet.” In 2003, Kenna released his first album New Sacred Cow. He has since released Make Sure they See my Face, and Land 2 Air Chronicles. Kenna’s contributions extend beyond music, however. In 2010, Kenna and friends including Jessica Biel, Lupe Fiasco and Isabel Lucas, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise awareness for the clean water crisis. You may not recognize him from the radio, but here is your chance to get to know Kenna a little better.
AV: Can you talk a little bit about your experience with Summit on the Summit, its importance to you and the impact you think it has had?
Kenna: Yea, that’s a really big question. Everything in my life boils down to impetus. At the end of the day, where something begins, the inception of something is the most important thing. That applies to my music. That applies to my business, and obviously applies to philanthropy. I think people gravitate towards the cause, or thing that means the most to them for familiar reasons. They understand someone else has gone through that or been through, or something to that effect. Clean water is a personal interest to me because of my own family history. I got involved with it because my father suffered from water borne disease as a child and my uncle died from water borne disease. My dad suffered so much and made it through to get to America, get an education and to raise his kids here so that I can find my passion and become a musician and be passionate about something very specific, and be successful at it. So, it means the world to me to be able to support other people in getting clean water because I know the results of it could be beautiful. The case of me being able to be on the phone with you and doing an interview is truly because my father survived a very difficult situation as a child. Everything comes down to the impetus: where it began. When it comes to Summit and me on the summit, when my dad told me about it I didn’t understand. So I did research and started studying water. It’s the seminal issue of our lifetime and lifetimes to come. Water is everywhere. 80% of the world is water, 80% of our bodies is water. It is a very significant part of our lives no matter what. But, the fact that less than one percent of the water is drinkable and that we all are frivolous with it makes it very important. I built Summit on the Summit in hopes of challenging the thought on the subject and changing the perception on water: not abundant, but limited. We should not be frivolous, but conservative. We should find a way to be faithful to each other in looking out for that resource, specifically because that is the first thing we need in a crisis. That’s what Summit on the Summit was built off of and its impetus. Its impact. Well you’re asking me about it, so it must have reached somebody. The key to it was that I wanted to do something that would translate through culture. The key to anything is how it translates into culture, the meaning and how people will be able to relate to it. I find that people really do relate to entertainment, so the concept behind Summit on the Summit is bringing things that people are already interested in to the forefront. By attaching a collaborative way, bring the cause along for the ride. This concept of extreme civic risk: risking yourself as a talent of individual. Risking yourself in front of the world for something that you believe in is a powerful statement to the world. People will pay attention to someone they respect, aspire to be or hope the best for.
AV: Do you feel there’s a responsibility being a public figure to give back, or do you see it as a choice but maybe a humanistic responsibility?
Kenna: I think it’s the responsibility of a human being. I don’t think it has anything to do with celebrity or influence or currency. If you have more, then you have more responsibility. I think people skew this whole thing. “Celebrities with causes” seems like it’s a joke in some ways. “To much is given, much is required” is a truth in life. I just think there are a lot of really wonderful people who do great things that will never get credit for what they do and don’t need credit. It is the responsibility of a human being to support the world that they live in. If you have more, then you should give more. And if you have less, you should give what you can. If that means to a food bank or to the person next to you, because you know that they need, and you have to give, then that’s your responsibility.
AV: On your website, your symbol is the greater than sign, less than sign, and equal sign in the middle. What is the inspiration for that?
Kenna: At first it was me looking in the mirror, so it was two K’s for Kenna. In Ethiopia, you don’t really have a last name. You have a first name and you’re the son of someone. So you’re Kenna, son of Zemedkun. When he came to America, he had to change his name to Zemedkun Zemedkun so that I could still be Kenna Zemedkun. So, in time, if I choose to go along with culture, I would change my name to Kenna Kenna. I thought I could just put two K’s, or one K facing the other so that way I could look at myself and say, “what is it that you need to do in this life, so that you can be the very best at what you do, the very best at what you aspire to do, who you want to become?” Everything transpired from that. It was just a double-K symbol, then in the recent years as I really started to embark on my philanthropic efforts, I started to realize that I needed my symbol to mean more than me looking in the mirror. I wanted it to be something that unites us, so I ended up tweaking it with the greater than and less than symbols, recognizing that the three stand alone pillars in the middle represented us. Nothing is greater or less than us. It just means that my responsibility is the person standing next to me, just as much as it is myself. Not saying that I need to hand over my car or house to the person next to me, but if there is a need and I have the time and energy to do so, then it’s my responsibility. Without you, I am nothing. Without you wanting to interview me, I won’t have the power off of your magazine. I won’t have the reach that you will give me in order to use it for the benefit of the world in the future. I need you. Maybe you wanted to do this interview so you can communicate how you feel about what I do, but at the exact same time, you are giving me a vehicle to do better and to do more. That’s the concept, “nothing is greater or less than us.” Without you, I would have less, and without me, you would have less to write.
AV: That is very true. Transitioning to music now, and likely a common question you are asked. You have a very unique sound. Is there a genre of music that you could consider yourself?
Kenna: I feel lucky that I have no idea what genre I fit in. I just call it pop; because I hope that one-day it will become popular. Honestly, what I created with Chad [Hugo] and Pharell on my first album and second album, I feel like right now that sound has finally met the world. It is finally getting to the point where it is being heard. Kid Cudi, The Weeknd and Theophilus London and all of these artists that are coming out now fit the sound that Pharell and myself and Chad have been fighting for in so many ways over the past years. I feel like now I have to ask the question, “What genre is The Weeknd? What genre is Theophilus London?” Because maybe I fit in their genre. But I have no idea and I would rather just be unclassifiable.
AV: Would you ever change? One of the biggest problems when you don’t necessarily have a genre is that playing on the radio becomes much more difficult. Have you ever considered making changes to maybe reach a larger audience?
Kenna: I don’t apply myself to who I can reach as much as: what I have to say. What I have to say has a sonic attached to it. Everything that has meaning has a frequency, has a melody. I build everything like an album or a song. Even Summit on the Summit. Summit on the Summit was my “third album”. The people who climbed were the features on my album. There was a crescendo. We crescendoed on the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. So, everything I do has some overtone that is directly related to music. The power behind that is that if I have something with a clear or simple message, it might actually be something for pop-radio. I’m not sure. I might have something to say on my next album that’s very pop and very for the masses, but up until now my songs have meant something to me. The way I’ve said them happen to only reached the people who they’ve reached. You are the only people who are supposed to have it. It will grow on its own, the way it’s supposed to.
AV: You’ve worked with some fantastic artists from Pharell to Lupe. Has there been one that has influenced you the most musically, or otherwise?
Kenna: If I had to say who’s impacted me most musically, it would be Chad Hugo. He is my music in a lot of ways. Though I may do songs and play instruments and things surrounding it, Chad is the glue that makes it sonically correct (or incorrect as it would be to pop-culture). When it comes down to artists who have impacted me personally- that have charged my mind or helped me pursue new ways of thinking or how I approach things, the one person who has been the most clarion when it comes to the overall broad strokes of music, believe it or not, is Justin Timberlake. That person is actually the one person that across the board has always been incredibly consistent with his communication, the way he pursues his music, the people he chooses to work with. He’s an instrumentalist-he plays the guitar, he plays the piano, he plays the drums, he an entertainer on a lot of levels, a business man on a lot of levels and he’s very, very attuned to what’s happening in the world around him. He’s been the one person who’s actually made the most impact on my thought process. He said to me once, “What do you think my hardest job is?” The first thing I thought was, “uh… choreography? I don’t know…” And he looks at me and says, “No, knowing what people are good at and helping them do it.” I thought that was one of the most astute things I had heard in a long time. Lights went off in my head. He’s my senior in music by seven years- and he’s younger than me! So to answer your question, Timberlake is the one person who’s had the most impact on me.
AV: That’s interesting considering the differences in musical style.
Kenna: Completely different. But he understands my music and understands me. He’s always been a big fan of what I do, and I’ve always been a big ally of his. It’s always interesting where you get your influence.
AV: It is, and speaking of influence: I saw you really like classic literature. There is a story online that Land 2 Air Chronicles is based on an Emerson essay?
Kenna: Yea, “Self-Reliance.”
AV: What is the inspiration you get from someone like Emerson?
Kenna: I reached the point where I want to take my aspirations into reality. The Land 2 Air Chronicles are about putting aside whatever holds you back, conquering your demons, challenging yourself to own yourself and be stronger in yourself, and finally taking flight, for the album which is Songs for Flight. The Emerson “Self-Reliance” is something I read when I was young and I ended up having someone say, “self-reliance” to me in a statement. I went back and I reread it and had such a good time reading it again and realizing there were so many things I’ve learned in my life since I read it as a kid that directly applied to that essay. That essay meant 100 times more to me now than ever. Everything that it communicated were things I struggled with or things I understood and I’ve triumphed over and I love the non-conformist nature of it. I’m not changing. If I decided to make a pop song today, it would not be because the world needed me to, or the industry needed me to, or that I was selling out. If I wrote a pop song it would be because I had something to say that happens to be pop. That’s a non-conformist mentality and that’s what I love about Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”. Each song has a quote from “Self-Reliance”. The first one is “Chaos in the Darkness”, which is a direct quote from “Self-Reliance”. The second one is “Imitation is Suicide” and that’s a direct quote. The last one is called “Self-Reliance” for obvious reasons.
AV: I think that’s great. You don’t see that very often now. Recreating something from Emerson is very unique.
Kenna: At the same time, there are a lot of great artists out there that are influenced by literature and culture and interesting things. My biggest problem with the music industry and artists right now is that they don’t own up to where they receive their inspiration. They don’t divulge it for whatever reason that it eludes the mystery of what they are doing and the thought that maybe they are less original because of it. I think its ridiculous. If you are influenced by someone, you should give them credit for that, and own your version of that in life. You doing it differently makes it original. That’s really what people are afraid of. Own up. If something influences you, give people the root. Give them the footnote. Let them develop it themselves because then they will just believe more depth of you. The second thing that pisses me off is that people don’t have faith. Long lasting faith in their artistry. That’s the reason we are now in the space we are now, where music is regurgitated bullshit.
AV: I find out the album is based on Emerson, and it makes me think higher, not lower of it.
Kenna: And I appreciate that. That’s exactly the point. I don’t think anyone could read that it is based on “Self-Reliance” and go, “wow he sold out, dude.” No one is going to look at it and go, “so I heard you ripped off Emerson.” (Laughs) I’m digging deep to look at someone who has actually died, a historical figure I can use to grow my art. If you’re taking from someone who just came out yesterday, then yea, you might want to come up with something else. But if you are digging deep and picking up time periods. My company is named Gödel. And the reason I chose that is because of Gödel the mathematician. I read a book called Gödel, Escher, Bach, and it’s the correlation from math, art and Bach the composer. I named it because at the turn of the century, they said math was finite. 1+1=2. And Kurt Gödel came in and said, “If I’m a Martian, we use the plus and equal signs? I don’t think so.” So, he comes up with this formula called the incompleteness theorem. And it’s basically the basis for radio, television, Internet, cell phones, everything technology that we use is based on the mathematic that there is no end to mathematics. That’s how infinite art is, and how infinite music is. I’m not going to just listen to Usher. I’m going to go back and find Michael. Then I’m going to go back and find James Brown. Then I’m going to go back and find Muddy Waters. It’s all about the impetus. You have to go back to the beginning. It’s all about the beginning. If you don’t find the root, you are never going to grow.
AV: Also, many of my friends and I may not read a lot of Emerson, or get the whole message from reading that kind of literature anymore. To hear it coming out through the stereo gives it a different light, and reincarnates it into this generation.
Kenna: That’s what school is by the way. The teachers try to give us a new way of looking at things or explicate things in front of us. But with art, you can tell stories in a new way and people can turn around and perceive it differently. I have a good friend, Emma Stone. Emma is in that new movie, Easy A. It was based on Scarlet Letter. They did a whole movie on a new version of this. This girl becomes a whore in school, but she never had sex with anyone. She was making geeks look like heroes. The whole movie was based on the Scarlet Letter and he being persecuted. The movie was really cool because there was a direct correlation to original art. And I thought that was really interesting. When that came out, it was a validation that [Land 2 Air Chronicles] can be pop culture as well. If you are an artist, just dig deep. For the love of God, dig deep because you are boring the shit out of me! Can you please put that in there? DIG DEEP, BECAUSE YOU’RE BORING THE SHIT OUT OF ME! (Laughs)
AV: (laughs) Absolutely, we can put that in the title or something. What are you working on now, whether philanthropy or music?
Kenna: I’m working on “Imitation is Suicide” right now. I’m also simultaneously working on the songs for the album Songs for Flight, which comes out next year. So it’s a ways away. But, I’m doing some shows here and there and pursuing some speaking engagements that are interesting to me. I’m focused on philanthropy, working with www.water.org and working with Charity Water and Water for People. I’m also co-directing Wash Advocate, which is in D.C., and they are the advocacy group concerning clean water in the government. I’m focused on that while making the music, but I’m also producing for other people and I might be taking a professorship at NYU next year, which is going to be interesting. I’m just basically continuing to pursue the very best possible me that I can be, because I know as I walk and breath and live, I may be the only example of worth that someone gets to see. I want to be the best person I can be so I can be an example to anyone around me: my cousins, my sister, my friends, my family, my fans. I feel like it’s my responsibility to be the best person I can be. It’s a cheesy statement, but I don’t give a fuck.
Listen to songs, and find out more about Kenna at www.kenna.com
