We were lucky to catch up with Kenzo Cole recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Kenzo thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
This question makes me think broadly about the inherent riskiness of life. No outcome is ever guaranteed to us, but yet we must try, we must take that leap, we must be true to and be led by our internal guides. I think that any day navigating the world as a Black queer person is a risk. Our existence is the total antithesis to everything we are socialized to love, desire, and create lives around. For the Black queer folks out there, embracing it all, loving how the love, and serving the looks… we all know that our safety is not guaranteed, that our spaces aren’t always safe and can potentially be infiltrated. Yet our spirits are too big, too bold, too vast to be box in and denied. We cannot exist without taking a risk, and 9 times out of 10, that authenticity is always worth it.
Kenzo, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Kenzo Cole and i’m a DMV native. My musical background is super interesting and hmm.. odd I may say. I actually come from a musical background but one that I do not always identify with. My father has been a choir director all my life, specifically interested and well-versed in classical, hymnal, church music. My father also tried to force me to join the choir and play piano for many years, to no avail. Our relationship is rather interesting so I never wanted to do anything he did… maybe I didn’t like his approach.
I strayed far away from this background only to turn around and have the strong desire and musical inclination bubbling inside of myself. In reflection I really missed out on hella years of training, but forget it- we ball!
I have always enjoyed creative writing, but i didn’t record my first songs until 2020… that was a whole ball game.
Today, I’m learning and growing so much as an artist, and a human. I feel that I’m now an artist with a real and honest viewpoint of the world that really needed in music. I think that we need sounds, stories, and experiences that are unique and told in methods that none of us would expect. I think we also need more nonbinary faces giving their all to their talent and making a mark on the world. Even if it’s in my own little pocket, I look forward to the opportunity to do just that. I think that songwriting is such a rare gift, and that songwriters truly make the world turn. I’m glad to be a carrier of this medium, and I know I have a duty to myself and the universe to see where it takes me- where it takes us.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
BRING BACK MUSIC EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS!!! We are literally sucking the creativity and skill out of our future generations. I have so many core memories connected to the bits of musical education that I received growing up, and our future artist deserve to have this experience.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
When it came to first creating music, I had to unlearn the internalized messages that I carried about my voice, my appearance, and my mannerisms. I had to unlearn that I’m not supposed to sing the way I have heard before- I’m supposed to sing the way that I sing. And write the way that I write, and perform the way that I- you get it. But i had to unlearn and relearn what authenticity meant to me, and rebuild my entire self-concept from there.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kenzocolemusic.dorik.io/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kenzocole_/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/KENZOCOLE_
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYb3cNm9YNBnCDTQBC4UkOA