Kama Tala is an American musician who plays multiple genres of music. His strong vocals and guitars are always present on every single, suggesting he’s inclined towards alternative rock more than other genres. Today we are gonna have a little chat with Kama Tala to learn more about his new single entitled ‘You Got Love From Me Now’ and how he wrote it.

• First of all, I’d like to welcome you once again with us at Sistra Magazine, it’s always great to hear from you. How has your musical journey been going and how would you describe your new single for us?

Thank you for having me back. It’s always nice to chat with you and Sistra Magazine, it’s an honor. To be completely candid, the musical journey has been a lot of different things, but all positive. A lot of why I decided to start putting out music in 2021 was simply for cathartic purposes. At the time I was going through a lot and writing music was an outlet that allowed me to tell a story. I honestly had very few means to do so otherwise and my first Album ‘Before the Wind’ was just me simply writing about the last few years of my life. My friend Tomek agreed to record a song I wrote and 2 years later I had an album. I still owe him so much for working on that project. I had no idea what I was doing. I still don’t. But whether it be about an experience from my life, or a friend’s story, or something I read in the paper,  or something mundane, or a cheesy pop song, in each and every song I give a piece of myself to it, and as I learned more about writing and recording and stopped caring about being confined to one genre…it gave me this sense of freedom to say whatever I want to say, however I want to say it musically. Overall…the journey has been healing in a lot of ways, very surprising that it’s caught on the way it has, and very humbling for me personally. I’m glad when any person in any corner of the world finds their way to a Kama Tala song. To me, that’s a connection-and it brings me joy. It’s a connection I’ve been missing for several years honestly. Even though I’ll never meet that human being, it’s humbling and gratifying knowing someone 15k miles away is jamming to a song I wrote in a language they might not even speak. So to anyone out there who’s listened to any song of mine, I want to say sincerely, thank you. It means the world to me.

• So is this song gonna be released as a single or as part of an album?

Still deciding. Hahah…This is the final version of the song. But the song was written in late March/April and the original version is much different. My plan is to release multiple versions of this tune…so maybe an EP. With a demo version…the final Rock version, and an alternate version…but I’m still playing around with these ideas. We’ll see. 

• What made you choose to make this song in a more pop style rather than any other genre?

During March in Chicago you normally don’t get many days that are 75 degrees and perfect weather.  There was a weekend when I had no plans and it was perfect weather so I had time to sit down with my strat and try to write something. I started out playing this Jackson 5 style guitar chord progression that I fell in love with. When I played it I was like….I’m onto something. I recorded that immediately. Then I added the whistle. And Those two parts combined sounded cool together. The lyrics and vocal approach came pretty naturally, I wrote them very quickly and I just ran the verses and sang whatever came to my mind…that’s how I normally start writing songs…not by thinking, just go by feel. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. For ‘You Got Love From Me Now’ it worked. After I recorded the demo in those two days I thought what I had was pretty special. However….the version (s) I recorded are guitar based/more indie pop/ rock sounding. I thought about it for a couple days, and decided I’m going to take this another route. That’s when I called Zilchman. I sent him my demo and said, give this a listen and see if you think it has potential. I want to turn this into a Top 40 style Indie Pop Banger. At that point I turned the song over to him. 

Read Review – You Got Love From Me Now

After a month or so the song changed. We dropped the guitar riff, we dropped the bridge I wrote, we shortened the song by 1:30 seconds. We discussed other ideas as well so I re-recorded the Chorus over and over and over again and he stacked the vox 13 times in unison which gives it that wall of voice. He also used much more compression than on any of my other songs/vocals to give it that poppier sound. Zilchman also used some new Efx plugins to give the song an airy vibe that hasn’t been overused yet in the industry, but I don’t want to reveal all his tricks. Hahah Anyway, at the end of the day, the song changed…but with the help of Z, I accomplished what I set out to do. That being said…I still am very much considering putting out the original version as well which is a totally different feel, so stay tuned.

• Why is it, in your opinion, that every time a rock artist releases a song with a different genre they get a lot of backlash from some of their fans and critics?

Great question. My guess is because people like to hear what they expect from you. I get it…I’ve felt the same when a band changes styles or reaches in directions maybe they aren’t suited for…but that’s part of evolving as a musician. I don’t blame the architect who decides to adopt more modern ideas into their prints/designs or the artist who tries expanding beyond their normal palette, it’s fun, it’s part of what makes creating things exciting. In my opinion…I don’t give a shit. I made a decision during Kama Tala’s inception to follow two rules. 1. To pour my heart into every song, no matter the genre 2. Make music that I enjoy. At the end of the day If I follow these two rules, I’ve done the best I can as an artist and if people enjoy it, Awesome. If they don’t, there is lots of other great music out there. By following those two rules, I’ve done my job to the best of my ability both creatively, musically and as odd as it might sound spiritually as well which leaves me feeling satisfied as a musician. And if the music or a song resonates with others, that is an amazing perk.

• If you could explore more genres that you haven’t done before, what would you choose to do?

Any suggestions? Hahah I love Soul music, oldies but I’ve dabbled down that road. I’d love to sing with a gospel choir at some point. I kind of just go wherever the wind takes me and how I’m feeling when I am writing and sometimes it leads to one genre or another, but my roots are in Rock, Pop, Surf, Indie maybe a little Soul but this new tune is definitely Pop and I planned it that way with my Producer. 

• Tell me the meaning behind this song’s lyrics. I believe there’s some kind of story going on in the verses. 

Sure-but I’m going to keep it very short and vague because I like to leave things up to listener interpretation. It’s written about a couple of people. It’s a story about advice. It’s a story about gratitude. It’s a story about forgiveness. It’s a story about Love. All masked behind 2 minutes of whistling and modern pop music. That’s all I’m going to give you! Hahah

Read – Interview with Kama Tala in Rock Era Magazine

• Where do you find the inspiration to write such deep lyrics?

To be completely straight with you, these lyrics came out and were written very quickly. I wrote the verses in probably 10 minutes and the chorus in 5 minutes. Most of it was just what I sang on the first couple of takes without anything planned and I just stuck with it. It was what was in my mind at the time when I was ready to start thinking about writing lyrics. Now….this isn’t how it normally works. I spend a lot of time normally…hours and hours…for instance a song I wrote in 2021 called ‘The Wayside’…an Indie Pop tune about Hawthorne’s novel mixed with my own personal life…I probably spent 15 hours on those lyrics…every word has deep meaning in that song and was meticulously thought out…with historical references, hidden messages, cryptic stuff…but ‘You Got Love From Me Now’ was done in 15-20 minutes lyrically. It’s wild how it works when you are in the zone and just singing from the heart. I got lucky. 

• At the end of the day, I wish you nothing but the best and I hope this single makes it to the big pop charts as it really has all the elements and appeal that it needs to be a hit.

Thanks a lot-I’m just going to keep doing my thing and have several more tunes (not Top 40) already scheduled for release throughout the rest of the summer and fall! Many Thanks to you and everyone at Rock Era Magazine and Sistra Magazine. Ala Rasi. Cheers! 

• This concludes our interview with Kama. You can now listen to his new song ‘You Got Love From Me Now’ on all streaming platforms, and be sure to check out our previous reviews of his tracks and interviews with him here.