I lost my job to the pandemic and ever since then I’ve been making music full time. I was a nightclub manager getting ready for the events that weekend when I got the call telling me my salary had been cut and the nightclub would be closed due to a state of emergency in California, and due to a city ordinance in San Francisco. I’d held that job for eight years. I invested my life into it. It seemed to me like I’d get married, have kids, and feed a family with it. And then in one week, on one day, it was gone.

 

Moments like that can wreck you.  And if you only take one thing from following me on my journey, it’s this.  In your lowest moments, when you feel lost, when it seems like everything around you has crumbled, know there are seeds in that rubble – seeds that otherwise would not have been set free had your world not fallen apart. With those seeds you can grow a different life for yourself; one that’s greater and more fulfilling than the one before. In brokenness, there is opportunity. When your life falls apart, it is to set free a better one.

 

Alright, second part. I’ve been sober for 10+ years, and if you're curious as to why I've used skulls in my artwork, my merch and so on, here’s why. The last bottle gifted to me before I went sober was a bottle shaped like a skull. I still have it, unopened in my living room. When I see that bottle, and I saw it every day before I gave up my home to live nomad, I don’t see a crutch or a temptation, I see the light that only began to shine once my life was dark enough. I believe reinterpreting the darkest points in your life as sources of strength and personal growth is key to blooming as a human being. The way I’ve flipped that skull to mean something positive in my world reflects that way of thinking. When you see the skulls I put out there, I want you to see what I've just described – and in the same way, when life gives you death, I hope you see the light that wreaths it.

 

I’m funded by no one except those of you who support me on Patreon (you can jump in here, if you want to support me directly). I’m managed by no one. The music you’re hearing was recorded in my bedroom or on the road. Everything about what I do is brought to you as honestly. If I could’ve handwritten this instead, I would’ve, because that more-so represents my approach to all this.  I’m a human being, and I don’t ever want to obscure that. In pursuit of success, some people feel like they need to become a lie. That’s not what I believe. You don’t need the mask to become a hero in your own life.

​

Recently, I gave up my home to travel the country and write songs, fully nomad. Before this, I was a creature of habit. My apartment was my world. This traveling project, which I'm calling Made in / Place, was very much 'not me' when I started it. Sometimes our best decisions are locked behind our own made up idea of who we are. To grow, to expand, to blossom, we need to rebel against the aspects of ourselves that built our prison. We need to lose our life to gain it.

 

If you want support my work, you can join my community on Patreon: patreon.com/kaistraw. Patreon is a key aspect of my income, so huge thanks if you dive in. To receive updates from me directly, text me at (707) 289-3895. After the first couple sign-up texts, I really do reply to everyone.

 

Send me a DM on IG, email me, text me, or hit me up on X. I love connecting with whoever’s got me in their headphones.