Artist Spotlight: Khatumu

Khatumu: Yes!

K: Oh, no way. It's a pretty fun place to be!

K: I just graduated from college. Well, I guess not just now. Almost a year ago! So I graduated in 2024, and I grew up in New Jersey, between New Jersey and New York. My dad is a linguist, so I also lived in Central and West Africa as a kid. That was a fun upbringing. I grew up playing tennis competitively.

When I got to college, I really got into folk music. I joined a folk band - I love the banjo. I think it’s so sick. I also love the guitar. My friends were all folk musicians, and I sort of became part of that scene. Then, in my last year of college, I joined this student-run label called 17o1 Records. It was super cool. I was one of six student acts on it. We’d put on performances around school, and it gave me a taste for what it was like to be a recording musician. I recorded some songs my final year at Yale and started to put them out, including two before I graduated.

A lot of my music (because of my folk background) is rooted in storytelling. I think it’s so cool to tell a story.

K: Totally. Folk is a term that’s so vast. One of the awesome things about having parents from very different backgrounds, and having the luxury of growing up in different places, is that I’ve seen and experienced a lot of different ways of living. That definitely informs how I write and think about things.

I’m not even sure I’m always aware of it while I’m writing, but it informs my perception of the world, and that bleeds into the way I write. So even if I’m not consciously thinking about it, it’s there.

K: Yeah, I get this question all the time in my DMs, especially from women trying to learn how to produce. Are you familiar with Dayglow?

K: This was before Dayglow was big. I went on YouTube and saw a video [from his channel]. He was like, “This is my song and this is how I made it.” I thought it was so cool, and I wanted to learn how to do that.

So I started recreating songs from top to bottom, watching tutorials where people recreated their own or others’ songs. In doing that, you pick up a lot of techniques. If you're someone who doesn't like abstract learning, you get something concrete at the end. Even if it’s not great, it kind of sounds like something, and that keeps you going.

That would be my advice: start hands-on from the get-go. It’s really fun. Are you musical at all?

K: Cool!

K: Yeah, well, I have a whole trove of songs I wrote before I graduated. Some I’ve produced, some I haven’t. But when I first came to LA, I just felt like my first project out in the world needed to be fresh, something that reflected where I was now rather than what I felt before.

I remember writing “departure time” so vividly. I had always imagined myself growing up and then moving to New York with friends. Like I mentioned earlier, I’m from the East Coast, so my family and friends are there, I bump into people on the street in New York all the time. That was always the plan. But then, a month before graduation, I made a last-minute decision not to do that. And it felt like a death, the death of a future I had envisioned for so long.

K: Right. So the whole song is kind of about that. I’ve always had this idea that I want a certain song playing when I die: ”At Last” by Etta James. It’s kind of wild because it’s a love song, but to me it feels like a beautiful, peaceful goodbye. That’s how “departure time” felt, like a beautiful thing that’s over and it’s time for it to be over. That’s why it fades out at the end, it's like it's continuing on in another universe.

K: Also, the last lines: “It’s departure time, I’m gonna love my life”, it’s me telling myself that, but also convincing myself. Like, “You’re going to love your life. It’s all good.”

K: Hopefully you’ll get back to LA.

K: Well, I just announced I’m releasing an EP last week! I’m planning a ton of shows around the EP release, and I’m super pumped. I also shot a music video for “fire drill”.

K: No, someone actually DM’d me. He’s based in Toronto, and he offered to make a video. So he and his team came to LA and we shot for two days. It’s funny and witty. My “boyfriend” in the video is a blow-up doll. I was getting so many crazy stares. It was wild, but fun.

K: Definitely. A big move is always crazy. I have no family here, and it’s expensive, both to live here and to fly back to see my family. I’ve only left California once since moving, and that was recently to Oregon. I saw my family in December, but I wish I could do that more.

At first it was hard finding a community, but now I’ve found a great group of people. I live on the East Side, which is young and cool and full of musicians. There’s this narrative that LA is cutthroat, but at least my friends have been nothing but supportive. We’re all uplifting each other.

K: That’s where I live!

K: I think you just have to be unashamed. Shame is a useful emotion, it keeps us from doing reckless things, but you can’t be ashamed to share your art. I get hate comments all the time, but hey, I’m promoting myself. I’ve had people from high school say what I do is “cringey,” but the moment things start going well, they change their tune. *Laughs*. Even if a post flops, I’m still proud to be authentic and show up. It’s my social media. If I can’t promote myself, who else is going to do it?

K: I loved it! I literally stayed in a frat house. It was March Madness weekend, so the bars were packed. I was with some music clubs at Michigan that were hosting us. Never been that cold in my life, but it was the best. So much fun.

K: I’m pumped! I love writing, but performing live is something else. There’s nothing like having people there for you, singing your lyrics back. Even if it’s just one person who says, “This song means something to me”, that makes it all worth it. Especially when I’m still recording in my bedroom.

K: Yes! PJ Frantz, he helps me with a ton of production. Also, Beeson.

K: No way! Queen. I don’t know her personally, but someone told me she lives in LA too.

K: Idol. Girl crush!

K: City of God—it’s in Portuguese. Everything Everywhere All at Once. Don’t Breathe, a horror movie. And 21 Jump Street.

K: Thank you! So great to meet you.