Interview with Kuma, AKA...

First, I'd like to say thank you to the wonderful and talented Kuma for being the first person to interview for Scene Weekly! It means a lot to me! You can find links to Kuma's music at the end of the interview!

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Q: Hello :3! Why don't we start with a little bit about yourself?

A: Hi! :3 Well, I’m kind of a kooky character I suppose. I’m 28 years old, I make strange & sexy music (along with an endless myriad of other stuff— images, stories), and I’m also only kind of what you would call a “person.”

Q: What's your history with the Scene and it's influence on what you create?

A: As a kid, I grew up listening to a lot of old music. My parents were old when they had me, so the CD’s we had were like The Beach Boys, Queen, The Eagles, shit like that, and we didn’t listen to the radio like at all so I basically had little to no inkling of what most other kinds of music sounded like until I was like a preteen. All of this is to say that as a kid I was kinda trained to like certain shit—vocal harmonies, guitars—but when I was like 12 a friend played a track for me by Scary Kids Scaring Kids, and I guess my brain was like, “INTERESTING, the vocals are pretty, but he screams sometimes and also the music is more… visceral, than what I’m used to.” I was especially into that sort of contrast between clean and harsh vocals, that dynamic. Anyway I got sucked down the rabbit hole of like iTunes recommending me different bands and stuff. Got really into the late 00’s metalcore/post-hardcore thing (Greeley Estates, Alesana, A Day to Remember, I See Stars, A Skylit Drive, etc.), but SIMULTANEOUSLY I stumbled on other pockets of scene, like the whole bedroom pop realm of like Nickasaur and Owl City, or the mall goth realm of The Birthday Massacre/i:Scintilla/Emilie Autumn, not to mention the SEXY ELECTROPOP REALM, AKA Millionaires/Breathe Carolina/MSI/BOTDF (none of which I was ready to fully embrace at the time, though I remember endlessly replaying the 30 second samples of their songs on iTunes— and it should be noted that since then that kinda thing has become like my fav genre of music tbh X3). Oh God, not to fucking mention Newgrounds— I got into Newgrounds when I was 12 or 13, and the other musicians I found on there influenced the hell out of me too, then and now. All of this blends together to make up my varied stylistic mesh— and meanwhile I experiment here and there too with sounds from outside of the scene to add texture and make stuff more atmospheric or aesthetically dynamic.

Q: What would you say inspires your music?

A: My experience with psychedelics informs a lot. Positively and negatively. I’m very grateful for the insights that I’ve been granted from that stuff, but I also have PTSD from an experience I had on an unknown drug (I was told it was LSD when I bought it, but to my understanding the effects it had were not really something that LSD can do). Anyway a lot of the details of the world I’ve created through my music and fiction comes from psychedelic experiences. HOWEVER I’m also very inspired by my partners and friends. Also anime and movies. Oh, and Sonic the Hedgehog. I’ve got a plushie of Mephiles from Sonic ‘06 hanging from the ceiling fan above me right now (and Shadow the Hedgehog is goated, aesthetically peak).

Q: Who is an artist you look up to and why?

A: Oh, man. Uh. Shit, I woulda said Grimes once. Still do to an extent, but like man she went in a weird direction. Really admired her creative philosophy though, she just followed her intuition— she had this genuine combination of playfulness and ambition, man when she was great she was GREAT. Grimes isn’t my pick though. That said picking one is fucking impossible. Avril Lavigne, for sure. She doesn’t give a fuck, and she’s not trying to impress you, she literally just makes her shit in earnest. She likes what she makes, and she doesn’t give a fuck if you don’t. Millionaires… I can barely speak to how rad you have to be to make the music they make. You have to be the most swagged out people alive to make that shit. And one last mention, if I could, the band “Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas.” They’re this fuckin Japanese electronicore band, and if you watch their music videos, these boys are the embodiment of the sentiment “embrace yourself, love yourself, engage with what you are and be that to the fullest.” Making the art that only I would make, engaging with myself on that level, that’s all I could ever aspire to.

Q: Tell us something you're really passionate about, can be related to music or anything else!

A: If there is anything I am the most passionate about, it’s stories. All I think about is stories. I would argue to an extent all anyone thinks about is stories, seeing as we all feed ourselves narratives in order to justify everything we do and everything that happens around us. Anyway, yeah I’ve always wanted to share the stories that fill my head with the outside world, and by now I’ve honed in more on finding the people with whom they resonate and growing through my interactions with those others.

Q: Where did your name 'Kuma, AKA...' come from?

A: When I was a kid—I’ve been making music since I was like 13—I went through a lot of artist names, so when I landed on the Kuma, AKA… thing I was originally kinda setting out to end that. The “Kuma” part is based on the recurrence of Bear imagery in my life, the bear having been a powerful symbol for me that has slowly but surely entangled itself with my soul. And then the “AKA” was like “I’m Kuma, A.K.A. That And Whatever Else I Could Come Up With Until The End Of Forever,” meaning I have been and will continue to be so many things, but this name acknowledges that, so I won’t be changing it anymore. That said, overtime I uncovered more meaning once I really started to develop the “character” of Kuma, but you can read about that elsewhere ;3

Q: If you had to name a few bands/artists you feel like have a similar sound or vibe to your music who would they be?

A: Well, it would kinda always have to be combinations. Like if you mashed together like The Medic Droid and Greeley Estates or something, you might get something close to me. Or like the Birthday Massacre and the Millionaires. Some of my music sounds a lot like the Soundtrack to the Shadow the Hedgehog game, but with some freaky bitch on the mic.

Q: Can you tell us about your latest release, the EP 'Faye Loves You'?

A: “Faye Loves You” is a release I’m very happy with. I made the title track on a whim cause I was tired of working on larger more long-winded projects, and then… Faye Loves You became a larger more long-winded project— HOWEVER, it was made with a different, more spontaneous sensibility than prior projects of mine. Most of the tracks were each made in like a few hours, with the exceptions of “Dead Things” and “Never Before, And Always Now.” The project itself is really just about embodying the spirit of the character Faye Rockitt, who is integral to my identity and to the fabric of the fictional universe “Rhinestone Skies,” which all of my work is centered around.

Q: Would you say that your queer identity influences your music, & if so how?

A: My queerness is inexorable from my work. In 2019, I recorded a song called “Frankly, My Koyomi Onii-Chan, I Don’t Give A Damn!1!!” And when I finished recording, I listened back to it, and I cried like a little bitch. I had truly tapped into something that had lied dormant in me for a long time— I was not a man. I was not a man, and I did not give a fuck what anyone thought about that. I wanted to be what I truly was, and ever since then, life has been about that. I know that there will be people who find my work to be “degenerate” or “garish” or any number of terms that really just mean “it makes me uncomfortable,” but I have elected to become in spite of that.

Q: Anything you want to share about any upcoming projects?

A: I have two big things in the works!! One is an album that’s half-finished, though I’m kind of on indefinite hiatus from working on that. It’s just a very ambitious project and working on it got a little burdensome at a point. It will get done, just not till a little later down the line. Hopefully later this year. I’ll do other smaller music stuff until then. The second big thing though is I’m working on a comic book! The first of many in fact! It takes place in the same universe as my music and my other artwork, and it centers around Kuma & The Plushie Punks! I’m ecstatic to share it with the world; I just adore these characters that live inside my head, and I hope others will too.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about where Rhinestone Skies came from or where it started?

A: Just wanna say I really appreciate you including this last question, and I’ll try not to be too overlong with my answer. Rhinestone Skies is my life’s work. It is a culmination of stories and world-building elements that have been slowly accumulating in the wake of many initially abandoned creative projects from over the years, a great big assemblage of lore that I have built. The scale is pretty massive; there are other planets, metaphysical realms, magic systems, a detailed “reincarnation” cycle, strange beasts, fantastical societies— it’s a lot. And everything I make is a part of that. It’s my own little world, and I just wanna make it more real by sharing it with others, more and more real until it’s a place that anyone who wants to can visit it in their mind, in all its wonder.

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I want to say thank you one more time to Kuma for the interview! Check out here music on these platforms:

Soundcloud (check out the "Faye Loves You" EP)

Bandcamp

Newgrounds

Art pictured throughout are all album covers made by Kuma!