Atlanta-based Kajaryia is crafting an intimate soul world all her own
For BandLab Opportunities, the indie artist speaks on taking her time and the beauty of letting go.
Growing up, music wasn't something Kajaryia had to go looking for. It was always just there. "I kind of grew up in a musician-based family," the Atlanta-based artist explains. "I had a lot of relatives that do music, from my grandparents to my cousins to my brother, just musically influenced family members."
For a lot of artists, that kind of upbringing adds fuel to their creative fire. But for Kajaryia, it was almost too much to process all at once. While she started taking her craft seriously around a decade ago, she didn't share her first release until 2024; a gap that might look like hesitation from the outside, but was something more deliberate under the surface. "I wanted my music to kind of mean something or be relatable when I decided to drop," she says. "I took the time that I needed to work on my voice and who I wanted to be as an artist."
The listening diet that shaped her reflects that same kind of devotion, and shows up in her own music. Alongside whatever filled her home, she points to artists like Jimi Hendrix, Sade, and Erykah Badu as her biggest influences. "I love anything [with] instruments, and I try to aim for those types of beats," she explains. Ask her to put a name to her sound, and she'll resist the easy answer. "A more bass alternative, R&B, neo-soulish," she offers, before pulling back. "I try not to put a genre on myself. It's kind of based on what people may feel or take in."
Her 2024 debut REAL GOOD REAL SOON leaned into those alternative instincts, with influences ranging from indie rock to bedroom pop. Her last album, The Sunshine Project, pulled in a different direction, lighter and more R&B and soul-leaning; something Kajaryia says was an intentional pivot. “I tried to switch it up, give people a different range or a different look at what I could do."
Songs like the horn-driven “SEARCHING” find the singer feeling unheard and taken for granted, while “Can We Try” sees her weighing the costs of giving second chances; each capturing the balance between emotion and restraint. "I tend to go through frank situations, and that's where my writing process stems from," she says. "Different situations I might go through in life, different things I might endure." Across The Sunshine Project , that deep introspection sits at the forefront; a nod to the perfectionism that delayed her first release.
But, knowing when to stop tinkering and share her projects with the world wouldn’t have moved as quickly without digital platforms like BandLab, which Kajaryia discovered a few years ago. "There was nothing on this planet like BandLab," she says. "I found [it] and fell in love. I was working in that system almost every single day until I knew the ins and outs." Beyond the production tools, the platform has been part of how she's started bridging the gap between making music in private and sharing it in public. Earlier this year, Kajaryia says she attended BandLab’s Atlanta pop-up event, where she connected with other artists. In a city with as deep a musical history as Atlanta, Kajaryia is taking full advantage of opportunities like it. "It's pretty active," she says of her live presence. "I try to do anything like open mics or things of that nature to just share my music."
A new single, "Catch a Fade," is set to drop before the summer; a track she'd originally intended for The Sunshine Project before deciding it deserved space of its own. "I felt like something was missing about it," she explains. "So I kind of dropped it from the album and wanted to release it as a single." Another album, she says, is already in motion before the year is out.
For an artist who spent years waiting until she was sure, Kajaryia’s creative growth speaks to a whole new kind of readiness. "I'm always in the thinking process of things," she says, "what I could make new, what could be next. Just doing everything outside of my horizon.”