Thursday, Sep 8, 2022 • 20min
KVN at SXSW
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Songwriting. Producing. Performing. Motherhood.
These multi-talented, kickass women really are doing it all. Already incredible stand-alone artists in their own right, Dossey, Primo the Alien and Lady Heartwing have joined forces to create Austin’s newest indie-pop supergroup KVN (pronounced Kevin). KVN’s intergalactic sound was born out of the trio’s mutual love for late 90s R&B girl groups blended with a fascination for modern dance music.
They may call themselves “your mom’s favorite band”, but in a town where rock and blues reign supreme, KVN is disrupting the Austin music scene in the best way possible. It’s no wonder that everybody who comes across their high-energy, harmony-driven pop just can’t stop raving about it.
Join us in our latest episode of “The Mix” to learn more about their experiences as music producers, how they made a name for themselves both locally and internationally through branding and social media, and all about their heavenly first release, “High and Low”.
If you’re a fan of dreamy astral synths, gorgeous harmonies and smashing social expectations - this one’s for you.
The Mix is an industry innovation podcast powered by Musixmatch Pro.
The song "High & Low" was composed by KVN and recorded as an episode of the Mix Sessions by Matt Parmenter at Ice Cream Factory Studios In March 2022.
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Talking about
Speakers
(5)
Cari Quoyeser
Dossey
Primo The Alien
Show more
Transcript
Verified
Cari Quoyeser
00:10
Hello and welcome. You're listening to artists interviews on the Mix; a
Musixmatch
Pro podcast hosted by me, Cari Quoyeser
, the artist community manager here at Musixmatch
and fellow musician.Share
00:23
The song you're hearing behind me now is High And Low by KVN, recorded in studio at the Mixed Sessions at
South By Southwest
, while KVN is a relatively new pop group, it's composed of some pretty well-established artists from Austin
texas, including Lady Heartwing, Dossey and Primo the Alien.Share
00:45
I sat down with KVN during the festival and we got into it. These women are incredible. They shared their journeys as producers, mothers and friends, all with an uncompromised vision of who they are and what they want to do and I have to say they're the funniest guests I've ever spoken to. Please enjoy, KVN.
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KVN
01:49
[High & Low - KVN]
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01:50
Hey Cari!
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Cari Quoyeser
01:52
Can I ask really quickly, do you like being referred to as your solo artist names or as the names I know you by?
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Primo The Alien
01:59
I go artist, I don't like anyone knowing my real name.
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Cari Quoyeser
02:02
Okay.
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Primo The Alien
02:03
It's like a super hero sort of thing. You know?
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Cari Quoyeser
02:05
I could beep it, that would actually be great. Yeah.
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Dossey
02:06
Yeah.
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Lady Heartwing
02:06
You can just call me M. C. I'm not really going by anything.
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Dossey
02:15
You can call me Dossey, too.
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Cari Quoyeser
02:19
Okay, sweet, well thank you so much for being here today.
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02:21
Thanks for making a video with us.
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Dossey
02:23
Absolutely, yeah.
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Cari Quoyeser
02:24
How's your
South-By
going?Share
Dossey
02:26
Busy already?
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Lady Heartwing
02:27
Yeah
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Cari Quoyeser
02:29
It's your first one too because you only formed last year, right? As a super unit.
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Primo The Alien
02:34
I mean we had our first show in January.
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Cari Quoyeser
02:36
Yes.
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Primo The Alien
02:37
So, yeah, we just got going here.
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Cari Quoyeser
02:39
So, I actually got to hear "High & low" before you released it, because I was talking to M. C. last year about a project I was doing, and she just sent it over to me, and I'm like, "What the hell is this? This is incredible!"
Share
02:52
I don't know any other bands that are coming out with Pop, like, what you're doing in
Austin
right now, so that's that's awesome. And knowing that you've all been on the scene, doing your own thing for a long time, it just seems like, I don't know, it works just really, really well. Have you been friends for a while?Share
Lady Heartwing
03:07
I met Sarah in college, like, undergrad.
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Cari Quoyeser
03:09
OK.
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Lady Heartwing
03:11
And we sometimes would meet up and like, kind of play music together. But we didn't like do any, we didn't like, do a real collab of any kind. She had a band for a while that I had a band. And we reconnected like, how many years later, like, eight years later, started hanging out again, and then I think you you got connected to Primo at some point, and then Primo came to 1 to 1 of my shows.
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03:42
So basically, it was probably like, a year to two years after Sarah and I reconnected and became really good friends that I I think I met Primo. And then it kind of
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Primo The Alien
03:52
It just clicked, It just happened very organically and naturally and as all great loves do.
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Lady Heartwing
03:60
And I was always really like really impressed by what they did just as their own individual artists.
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04:07
So it's really exciting to play with them.
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Dossey
04:11
Likewise, that same story for me too
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Cari Quoyeser
04:13
One reason I was particularly interested in you guys for this project is because we've been looking on doing a segment in women producers. And I was actually just like looking for female producers. And when I reached out to M. C., she was talking to me about this program that she was doing.
Share
04:28
Can you talk a little bit about that?
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Lady Heartwing
04:29
Oh you mean traction? With
Jim Eno
?Share
04:32
No. Yeah. It's eight female and or non binary artists that he invites into his studio.
Share
04:41
And they basically co-produce a song with
Jim Eno
for another artist or another band over about three days.Share
04:52
And he basically, there's this statistic that's wild where I think it's worldwide or in the
US
less than 5% of working producers are female or nonbinary. It's it's a mainly meant like men have a stronghold. And that.Share
Primo The Alien
05:07
And I can attest to it.
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Lady Heartwing
05:07
Yeah. And he, yeah of course and he wanted to draw attention to that statistic and then also started kind of a movement gets for for those people to get a foothold in the industry.
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05:19
And I had already had some experience working with him and I was recording from my own personal project with him and he just sort of brought it up to me and I said that's a great idea because I haven't had a lot of experience producing in a studio.
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Cari Quoyeser
05:35
Yeah, so circling back to the causation of that statistic that you mentioned, I don't know if this was different for you guys, but for me personally, and I don't know if this is a Texas thing, but like growing up people are like, you're pretty go be pretty and sing, you know, and I just never considered that a job in music tech and music production specifically was even an option, like it just wasn't pitched to me and I feel like that's pretty common and that's the reason that this statistic is so shockingly low is that production, music production as a profession, it just wasn't pitched to women in our generation.
Share
06:12
And again, this is only like personal experience, but without that sort of encouragement for me personally, there comes like a higher fear of failure and so much of growing and learning is mentorship. So without other women doing this, it can be daunting, which is why programs like you're mentioning are so important and why projects like yours are so important.
Share
06:39
So on that note, do you, when you create songs do you try to do most of the production stuff yourself or how do you... how do you go about producing your music?
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Lady Heartwing
06:48
I think Primo can speak to that.
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Primo The Alien
06:50
We usually try to start with a really strong demo and make sure we solidify our synth parts and lead parts, and I think a lot about what we want to take precedence in the song in terms of instrumentation and things like that.
Share
07:04
And then with our last two singles, we took our demos and you know, sort of our ideas to a producer here in
Austin
who all of three of us have worked with individually as well, Taylor Webb who is just totally slept on in this town and is so talented and is the thing that I like about working with him is he's super respectful.Share
07:25
As Primo The Alien, I produced all my own music and my first ep was produced on my own. But for some reason in my mind, I think, you know, speaking on what we were talking about earlier about female producers, I didn't feel like I was an actual producer.
Share
07:38
And I remember the first time I met with Taylor for coffee to talk about him doing some production work with me. I kind of prefaced with, oh, but you know, I'm not like a real producer. And he stopped me and was like, "Why do you keep, I'm sorry, why do you keep saying that?"
Share
07:51
And I was like, "I don't know", and he was like, "You should stop saying that you are a producer, clearly you've been producing your music, so maybe stop saying that and thinking that." And I was like, "Oh, yeah!".
Share
08:05
And I think that's why we work so well with him, is that he, he recognizes, you know, our abilities doesn't limit them or squelch them or, you know, try to dampen them in any way, but just has brought, you know, those talents to the forefront of our songs.
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08:21
And so, it's been really great work with him. He's just, and and and honestly, for us, we're so busy with our own individual projects as well. It's helped us to be more productive in terms of we get him the big ideas and then kind of let him put the cherry on top.
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08:37
And so, but it's been really fun us getting in a room, the three of us and just coming up with ideas and, and little synth leads and I think one of our biggest strengths is our, you know, work with counter melodies and harmonies and, you know, building the core of the song and then coming up with really cool vocal stuff to, you know, enhance almost like an instrument and of itself.
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Cari Quoyeser
09:09
I was wondering, because you're a group of three leads essentially, how does that dictate how you write music together? Have you ever been in a band in which that's the case, or is this the first for all of you and how do you interact together and choose who gets to take, what part?
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Dossey
09:30
I'll take this one
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Primo The Alien
09:31
Take it away Dossey!
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Dossey
09:34
Well I think we're all lucky in that we've all been in other bands other than just our own projects. So we know, we've experienced the, you know, more than one decision maker in the project thing.
Share
09:48
And also we're lucky that we're not really young, we've had a lot of experience making music and I think all of us have pretty much from the beginning, just been hands in about like, hey, we're going to write this song, but we're going to do what's best for this song.
Share
10:09
So depending on, you know, I wrote the melody to this song, but man, I heard Primo singing it and it sounded so good and Primo should sing this song. Like there's almost zero ego in the song-making process.
Share
10:26
And so I think that's a really unique and unusual, but I think that we all have like believed in the power of the project coming together so much that we really made sure that like any sort of like ego or needing to be at the forefront all the time or whatever, even even needing to like play impressive things or quote-unquote "just hasn't been a part of it".
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10:50
It's just been like what serves the song the best.
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Cari Quoyeser
10:54
I find personally that the artist with the least amount of ego are the ones that are the most accomplished. Whereas typically when you see people that are, it's a big insecurity, like there's something they're trying to compensate for.
Share
11:06
So you can really see that like, oh, you're already masters of whatever you've been doing because you've been doing it for yourself for so long and in different bands. So I admire that. I really like what you're creating, so thank you so much for creating it and thank you for being here.
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Dossey
11:20
Thank you so much.
Share
11:21
We're having a blast. That's for sure. It's like our rule also, if this is ever not fun, we're not doing it right because we've all been in this serious,
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Primo The Alien
11:33
I thought you were saying we're not doing it because yes we are!
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Dossey
11:34
We're not doing, we're not no, we're going to course correct.
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Cari Quoyeser
11:40
Hey, songwriters, did you know that by transcribing and synching your lyrics on
Musixmatch
Pro, you're not only ensuring that your lyrics pop up on all major DSPs, like Spotify
and Instagram
, but you're also giving your fans a deeper way to understand and connect with your music. If you haven't already, get verified on Musixmatch
pro today and get synching. Musixmatch
Pro: one place for music creators.Share
12:09
I have to, I have to put in here because it's, it's been really healing for me to watch.
Share
12:15
Like growing up, it was pushed on me that you have to achieve a certain amount by a certain age as if you expire at like 28, you know, and here you are, you're like grown women who have a wonderful career, hot as hell, having kids.
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Primo The Alien
12:32
I was Born in 2006.
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Lady Heartwing
12:35
We keep joking that she's born in 2006, but continue, continue.
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Cari Quoyeser
12:40
I can't even do that math right now.
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Primo The Alien
12:51
I don't know, maybe old at this point. I don't know.
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Cari Quoyeser
12:51
It's just really cool for me to see people with families, you know, that are not sacrificing one for the other women that are having everything. This is what I want for women in the music industry and you're doing it. So, thank you because I want everyone to follow in this lead and know that music can be healthy.
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Primo The Alien
13:05
We'll be doing this when we're in diapers again.
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Dossey
13:09
We were literally texting about that.
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Lady Heartwing
13:11
I remember, I remember when Sarah came to us at one of our like writing sessions and told her that she was gonna have a baby and she kind of expressed a little bit of concern just she didn't want to hold the band back or something and I think Laura and I were kind of shut that down immediately, you know, we were like, we're gonna we're gonna celebrate with you, we're gonna make this work.
Share
13:32
That's not an option. You're not gonna hold us back, you know? And I think you only go forward, like, life is moving forward. So there's no such thing as like being held back, I think when it comes to art.
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Dossey
13:44
You choose your reality, you know, it's that's been something that I've learned in becoming a mother this year was like, just because I'm a mom doesn't change the fact that I, I have dreams and I have desires too. And it's even more important for her.
Share
14:01
And and honestly, these two, when we've had some shows, I've been like, man, I feel sad for leaving her at home and they've just encouraged me like, no, you need to do this to show her that she can do this. And that's really important. And so that's, I mean, and also I don't feel like it's that hard, like it's as hard as it is to be a mom and work.
Share
14:26
And so and that that hasn't changed. Like that hasn't changed at all. If anything, it's kind of just given me a huge respect for other mothers who work and or not other mothers in general, but like to be an artist is and also a mom is like a huge, hugely cool thing.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
14:44
Do you think a huge part of that too is the fact that like, you have the support network of other women who...
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Dossey
14:49
Absolutely...
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Cari Quoyeser
14:50
Because I don't know how that would be in any other scenario, But I'm so I'm honestly like emotional to see it. So yeah, I think we can wrap up here, but thank you for coming in. Thanks for being here, thank you so much.
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Dossey
15:07
Bye!
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Cari Quoyeser
15:07
Talking about with Jackie right before this was gatekeeping and she's like, oh no, we were talking about how the music industry used to be. So like, it was a very clear path and so people are freaked out with a new one. She was like the old path sucked. It was like, you could make it if you were like, easy to manipulate. You know, so...
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Lady Heartwing
15:27
And you had a strong manager that took you out that like booked all your tours.
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Dossey
15:31
Manipulated you into falling into the pattern that he had been successful with before.
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Lady Heartwing
15:36
And also falling into an unhealthy life pattern.
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Primo The Alien
15:39
I want to pick my own unhealthy life pattern.
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Lady Heartwing
15:43
I Have the right to watch, telling me I have the right to watch Vikings 500 hours a day.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
15:48
Oh my God!
Share
15:51
Thanks so much for tuning into
the Mix
, a Musixmatch Pro podcast that was KVN. Now, please enjoy the full performance of High And Low and look out for their session video, at themix.Musixmatch.com.
Share
16:05
Until next time.
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KVN
16:11
High & Low - KVN
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Cari Quoyeser
KVN
Primo The Alien
Dossey
Lady Heartwing