Categorie: Muziek

Kat heeft een interview met Wonderland Magazine gehad over haar nieuwe album ‘Long Hot Summer’.

The artist talks her creative process and her work as a human rights activist upon the release of Long Hot Summer.

Kat Graham
Kat Graham’s stand-out track from her latest album Long Hot Summer, entitled Oprah Rich, is sure to put a snarl in your step as you navigate the pallid crowds of your commute. Kat’s unapologetic celebration of her success is the reverb-loaded, bass-laden anthem of an archetypal boss bitch.

When asked what her audience ought to take from her new track, Kat shared, “I really hope that people feel more unapologetically themselves. I hope that people see that they can be every colour that they dream of. The main message is to not just be yourself, but to be the loudest version of you.”

We sat down with Kat to discuss where she got her start in the performative world, the process behind her newest album, and her work as a human rights activist.

Hi Kat! How are you? How has this past year been with you?
Hi! 2022 has definitely been one of the most intense years I’ve had in a long time.

Can you take us back to the beginning of your music career?
My music career started at around age 15. I was taking my beats that I had made in a tiny Hollywood one-bedroom apartment with my mum around to labels in NYC to try and get artists to feature on them. I couldn’t get any artists to get on my beats so I started to record myself on them to demo. One night in Hollywood a few years later I met will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and he liked my work and invited me to get on a couple records with him on his Songs About Girls album. Shortly after that, I toured with him internationally in 2007. I continued making solo records as an artist, got the attention of Perez Hilton who took me on as an artist on his label, and we got a label deal with Interscope in 2010.
(meer…)

Kat Graham is gone—meet Toro Gato.

The former Vampire Diaries star debuted her true identity during E! News’ Daily Pop on Aug. 31.

“I think that we as entertainers have this identity that we have to give to the public and be presentable, and I think sometimes we forget our core and our truth,” Toro Gato exclusively explained today. “As our artist, I want to explore that with this Toro Gato project and this entire NFT collection. I wanted to kind of dismantle my former identity.”

The “SWIM” singer continued, “I actually bury myself in one of these films. So this is a new version. They say it’s the alter ego but I actually think the more and more time I spend in this space, I think Kat is the alter ego and I am becoming the West African, the ruler, the monster, that’s not scared of anything that can show up without shoes on. I think that’s really fun, and a terrifying place to be.”

Toro Gato embraced her tribal ancestors and collected different garments that “represent who I am as a woman and where my ancestors are from.”

Gato noted, “In this Western, vey American-ized world, I think that sometimes it can look like a spectacle, but you will see that it’s not actually a costume,” she opened up. “What we’re wearing is a costume.”

And don’t expect there to be anything unnatural about Toro Gato. “I don’t think Toro Gato wears wigs,” she joked. “I just wanted to annihilate this idea that we needed to be a certain way to be accepted, that we need validation, and I hope that people can see that and find their own monster or creative outlet.”

The name Toro Gato shows the duality between the two egos, according to the artist formerly known as Graham.

“Toro Gato shows the light and the dark sides, so you know when you get really really angry and you’re scared of that monster and you don’t want to let that side out? Like, this is that version of that,” she said. “Gato is maybe the peaceful side, and both sides can exist. It’s showcasing the subconscious mind and the conscious mind.”

Toro Gato concluded, “I think with everything we’ve all experienced with COVID and quarantine and finding our truth, that is just kind of birthed it. I’ve been working on this since 2016 and I didn’t want to come out like this. I think a lot of it was the pandemic, a lot of it was looking at young Black girls crying after watching me celebrate my ‘fro and seeing that there is something really cool in truth.”

Watch the full interview above to meet Toro Gato ahead of her live presentation of “SWIM” on Sept. 8 to celebrate both her birthday and her “death day.”

“SWIM” is available now and the upcoming visual EP, TORO GATO: PART I will drop Sept. 10 and be available as an NFT exclusively through YellowHeart.