KALYN AOLANI Story by Malika Mohan Photos by Sophie Gragg
BEING A GOOD MUSICIAN within the realm of one genre is difficult enough, but young artist Kalyn Aolani manages to blend elements of R&B, hip-hop, pop and a little jazz to create catchy and distinct tracks. Her sound creates a unique juxtaposition between the angelic lilts of her voice and the soulful beats behind it, often described as “dreamy pop”. The L.A. based musician got her start in music around the fifth grade when she first began playing the ukulele and singing Hawaiian music. Aolani’s ukulele career thrived throughout middle and high school as she attended the Orange County School of the Arts, put on an abundance of performances and worked with company KoAloha Ukelele. While she loved this style at the time, as she got older she found herself gravitating more towards the tight rhythms and beats of R&B. “I think as I got older, I just started listening to music more and I kinda found that the type of music that I really loved was R&B… so I started recording a bit more and then I kinda started experimenting my senior year and once I graduated I got more into the show scene,” Aolani shared.
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Her roots in the genre began when she was younger when her mom “would always bump 90s R&B, a lot of TLC, and Mariah Carey.” Now she draws inspiration from the presence and performances of other talented artists like Lauryn Hill and Aliyah, as well as Kali Uchis, in particular, for both her musical and visual style. “I really love Kali Uchis’s aesthetic, I love the way she dresses and I just love her style and I definitely think I get some inspiration from her—the bougie look,” Aolani laughed, “I definitely try to cater my social media to my music.” Aolani finds a way to correlate the cool yet charming vibe of her music with her visual social media presence, a skill that is key to succeed in today’s vast industry. While the final produced music teems with these good vibes and seemingly effortless magic, there’s a lot of hard work that transpires in the process. Creating a track with Logic Express—using tools like recorded guitars or drum samples—either by herself or with friends and other producers is usually the first step, before her favorite part of the creative process: writing lyrics. “I think part of the reason