We caught up with the brilliant and insightful KindredS0ULz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

KindredS0ULz, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

One of the most meaningful projects I worked on was my very first song! The reason is, when I made it, I had no intent of ever making another one!

Back in late 2021, I wanted to become a VTuber and wanted to make all my own assets myself. This included making a model, overlays, alert animations, and music. I worked for a few months on all these things, and one of the projects I had the most fun with was making my song!

Shortly before I debuted, I showed my song on my friend Mielitta’s Twitch stream, as she gave me an opportunity to showcase it. I didn’t think much of my song particularly. I was proud of the fact that I made it, and that I managed to make a full song within the limitations of MuseScore, a free sheet music software. But I wasn’t expecting the response that she and her chat gave me to my song. Everyone really liked it! More and more, chatters timed in telling me that the song was magical, like it sounded like something out of a video game or anime, that it was incredibly beautiful and they couldn’t believe it was my first ever song!

I was honestly ecstatic that it was so well-received! I was hoping that people would like it, but the praise that I got was above and beyond what I could’ve imagined! I didn’t have any formal musical education aside from knowing how to read sheet music when I was in middle school. I didn’t know how to play any instruments. But yet I was capable of creating a song that moved people and evoked emotions and visuals of magical wonder. This was something that made me so deeply happy. It made me especially happy that my dear friend Miel was also a big fan of the song, as she’s a dear friend and artist whose skill I deeply admire!

In the midst of all this, I had received a message from someone. It was an indie game developer named JB, who told me that he loved my music, and would love to commission me to compose the score for a game he was working on!! I was honestly flabbergasted! I made one song for my silly little streaming aspirations, and not only did everyone really like it, but an actual indie game developer wanted me of all people to write music for their game! As someone who’s played games all his life and loved them so deeply, this was too amazing of an opportunity to pass up on. I didn’t intend to make anymore music at first, but here was a chance to perhaps begin a creative career, doing something far more fun than a conventional job!

I accepted JB’s offer, and took the leap into a creative world I wasn’t totally confident about, but now understood I had an affinity and talent for. I wanted to make sure I got enough experience to score JB’s game well when the time came, so I soon after began writing a song for Miel out of appreciation for her support. Then I wrote songs for more friends, and more friends, until one day I realized that I had finally discovered my passion.

I chose the name Kindred well before making any music. I chose it because I’ve always really enjoyed getting to know people, getting to bond and connect with others. But as I became a music producer so abruptly, I also quickly realized that this was the passion I was waiting to discover all my life. Writing music for others is such an incredible honor. Being able to tell people’s stories and bring parts of their soul to life in the form of sound allows me to connect and bond with others on a level that can be even more fulfilling that words. I’m so happy to have found my passion and purpose in life.

Over 100 songs and dozens of clients later, it’s been a joy to get to know so many incredible people and to have made a positive impact on others with music. I truly believe that at the end of the day, music is love and it unites us all.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I’m KindredS0ULz, a Music Producer and VTuber! I started by making a lil song for my own streams, but then soon after realizing that making music is my passion! I make original custom background music for streamers primarily at the moment, but I plan to expand and begin providing music for video games and other media. In a lot of ways, what I do is similar to translation. I do my best to turn others’ ideas and emotions into sound. Most people don’t know how to speak the language of music and don’t know the terms involved. I myself didn’t know them very well either when I first began, however I’ve been teaching myself as much as I can to make sure that I’m able to provide the best service and music possible for my clients. I also believe that this is what sets me apart from others; my determination to create the music for others that they’ve always wanted and hoped for. I will learn and make any genre, and make as many revisions as it takes to make sure that my clients are as satisfied with their music as can be. I chose the name Kindred because I love to connect with people, and I see music as a wonderful means by which I’m able to do so. I take pride in prioritizing the client’s wants and hopes first, and am incredibly grateful to be able to provide them with the music they deserve.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

In my opinion, the best thing that society can do to best support artists, creatives, and a thriving creative ecosystem is understanding that art in all forms is a luxury that deserves to be respected and appreciated, as well as that artists of all forms deserve to be paid fairly for the luxury goods they provide.

Art by nature is the expressions of human thought and emotion, culminated from life experiences. Every piece of art has a story to tell, and every story has inherent value. This is why I believe that AI will never be able to replace real artists. AI can only regurgitate what it’s been trained on. It will never have the emotion and life experience to make something that is inherently art. I hope for society as a whole to be able to recognize this soon as well.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Aside from loving to connect with people and tell their stories through music, it also drives me to know I have friends and listeners who love what I do, are inspired by it and positively impacted overall. I intrinsically enjoy what I do so so much, but I’ll be honest and say that it’s such a joy to see so many people enjoy what I’ve made. It’s not even in a fame kinda way. I just really enjoy knowing that I made something that made others happy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kindreds0ulz.carrd.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kindreds0ulz/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/KindredS0ULz
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kindreds0ulz
• Other: Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/artist/3pouyHNjo8chuvlssgX82C?si=8mn9hpQTRTmFEj7KzRz1Yw VGen (Commissions) – https://vgen.co/KindredS0ULz

Image Credits
@BoosMacabre @madstheblank @Toraphiee @V_E_L_L @sophi3sdaydr3am @PandoraBun @FIYUNAE @Rosebell_ART @_lilnoot