Natasha Kmeto is a Portland based electronic musician who’s part Beyonce, part Grimes, and all Natasha. Her tight productions have a supremely lush quality, owing to both her technical skill as a producer and equally to her throaty, velveteen vocals.
With a holistic approach to her craft, Natasha writes, produces and performs all aspects of her music and the result is a sense of genuine emotion that permeates her latest album, Inevitable, bleeding from one track into the next. Also evident on Inevitable is her relationship to her queer identity, which she explores on her first single, “I Thought You Had A Boyfriend” and which winds it way through the rest of the album (“On A String” I’m looking at you).
We recently caught up with Natasha on the new album and life in the fast lane.
AfterEllen.com: How did you find yourself in electronic music?
Natasha Kmeto: I went to school at Musicians Institute in LA. I went to study keyboards because previously I’d been a vocalist and I really wanted to learn how to songwriter. The heart of their program was digital productions and I fell in love with producing and getting into that side of things. I just went from there.
AE: What’s changed for you personally and as an artist between Crisis and your recently released LP Inevitable?
NK: They actually weren’t written that far apart-although they are, in my mind, bookends to each other. I think as far as the personal background behind what I was writing about, Inevitable comes from a place of solid confidence, whereas Crisis is more about seeking discovery and it had a little bit more of a trepidatious feeling to it. Also I think the technical aspect of the music on Inevitable is a lot more upfront vocally and it explores more of the frequency ranges.
AE: When you put a song together where does it start, lyrics or beat?
NK: It depends. More often than not it will start with music, the beat or a tone that I really like. Sometimes it will start with a melody that occurs to me. I write everything basically holed up in my studio by myself. So it’s like-whatever sounds sort of start going in a emotional direction is usually where I try to come from.
AE: How would you describe the difference between performing more straightforward live music, like a full band, and electronic?
NK: I played in bands leading up to working on this project, and I have a side project band as well now, and while I really do enjoy the collaborative efforts of a band, from an organizational perspective it can be harder to work faster towards an end goal. That’s what initially prompted me wanting to do this on my own. I also had so many experiences in the industry being marginalized as a woman. Working with men songwriting, I didn’t feel like I could fully express my vision. That’s also what led to me to doing this by myself.
Definitely the biggest difference in performing live is that I feel a lot more vulnerable. I’m a lot more alone on stage, but I think from that perspective I’m able to engage with people in a really direct way, which I enjoy so much. It’s my favorite part of doing this. I think, for me, if I can get myself to a place where I can captivate an audience by myself then that’s the zone I really need to be in and I feel like sometimes playing in bands I get lost in the dynamics of what’s going on onstage between the band instead of relating to the audience.
AE: How has being an out queer musician impacted your music?
NK: I don’t know. I feel like it’s awesome on the positive end to be able to talk about it and to be able to present a different narrative for people. It’s refreshing to hear or watch something and actually relate to it instead of the sort of heteronormative visions that bombast us daily. But I get asked a lot how being queer and how being a woman affects how I make music and it’s impossible for me to differentiate what it would be like if I wasn’t.
AE: If your being queer and the music you make are inextricably linked, how then would you describe the landscape of the industry like for queer women?
NK: It’s hard because I in no way want to feel like I’m [excluding] anybody from relating to my music-because in the end it’s just human music and I’m writing from my own perspective and my own life. I don’t want to make it feel like an exclusive thing at all, but I also do think it’s really important and compelling for people to start taking in different narratives. I think that goes in pretty much any field of any industry and I think the landscape is not great, but I don’t think that it’s great for women or female identified people pretty much in any industry and I think that being part of that change is really important to me.
AE: What advice would you give to young, queer artists who want to make a go at making electronic music?
NK: I would just encourage them to stay at it. I don’t want to be someone that tries to make it sound like it’s too hard, but it is really hard and that’s what makes it good, and that’s what makes it worth it and that’s what makes it necessary. If there’s no one pushing for change then it’s not going to happen.
AE: What’s pumping you up right now?
NK: I’ve being going through a serious Cocteau Twins phase. I feel like a lot of people I’ve been talking to have been going through that. I recently DJed a night with one of my friends and we did a whole punk punk kind of thing, since then I’ve been getting fixated on that era of music which has been really cool.
Also I read comic books like Bitch Planet, it’s awesome I love that one. I’ve been reading Saga, obviously, like everybody. Then there’s been a couple releases that have come out recently, I don’t know if you’re familiar with the label Ghostly International but they put out an EP from the artist Shigeto that I’ve been really, really into. I’m actually touring with one of their bands called Beacon and I got an advanced copy of their record that’s really, really good too.
AE: What’s one thing we wouldn’t be able to find out about you in a deep internet lurk?
NK: Probably the thing that I am really, really into but not really open about being into is that I like crystals. I recently admitted this in a panel-people thought it was really funny-but I’m really drawn to power of crystals and rocks and things. I think that’s something no one would be able to figure out about me. I’m probably a lot more psychedelic than people would probably imagine, but I don’t know.
AE: Is there anything else on your mind?
NK: I guess that kind of in addition to what you were saying about younger artists is that I’m actually part of two locally based collectives of female-identified people that are trying to bolster support for other female producers and DJs and I would just encourage younger women to make community for themselves as much as they can. Because it’s amazing to me the impact it’s having with there being an actual support system.
AE: Can you tell us the names of those collectives so we can all check them out?
NK: In Portland there’s one called Women’s Beat League, and then in Seattle there’s a collective called Tuf. Check them out.
For more on Natasha check out her website, and if you happen to be in New York on February 11th you can catch her at Bowery Ballroom. Maybe we can go together.
