Name: Kat Duma
Nationality: Serbian-Canadian
Occupation: Composer, producer, songwriter, sound artist
Current release: Kat Duma's Real Life is out now.
Recommendations: Tramps! A great documentary made by my friend Kevin Hegge; Rebe - solo pasiones… I love her songs.

If you enjoyed this Kat Duma interview and would like to stay up to date with her music, visit her on Instagram, Facebook, twitter, and Soundcloud.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

I started playing music around the age of 5. I was first taught classical violin by my grandfather, then guitar, then moved to voice opera lessons.

I honestly don’t remember a time before playing music so I can’t be sure what initially drew me to it.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

I wish I could hear something and watch it play out visually in my head but I don’t think my brain works that way. I just feel it in my body. It either feels right or wrong, and I say that super subjectively.

That's often how I’ll start producing - listening through sounds or samples until something just clicks.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

Every time I think I’ve found my personal voice, I uncover something new and it totally changes my perspective. So I think it’s a life long process filled with breakthroughs (and setbacks).

I feel like my musical interests are constantly in flux, which can get a bit frustrating when I’m trying to focus on one specific thing. But it means there’s always something to be excited about.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

I try not to ascribe to any sense of identity. I wouldn’t want a label I assign myself to influence my preferences or perspective.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

These are constantly evolving but at the moment I’m really drawn to the space between what we say and what we mean, or what we think and what we really want.

I think the grey areas between logic and instinct are really interesting to explore.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

I think both are important and wherever you fall on the spectrum can be valuable to society. But I’m not sure I would put them on opposite ends since I think a great song requires both.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

Honestly, I think failure is a really important tool. Not getting what you want teaches you a lot more than getting it.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

Lately - I wake up at 7 AM, make a coffee, answer emails … I’ll try and get a yoga practice in.

With the album release coming up I’m not playing music as much as I’d like to, but normally I’d start that earlier in the day. By 8pm my thinking brain is usually turned off.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

My song “System” is an example of my favourite creative process: I remember the minutes before and after recording it, but the actual process, it’s like I blacked out and then the song was written.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

I’ll usually start making music alone. I really need to sit with things to see if I connect with them before allowing others into the process. When I decide I’m happy with the direction, then I’ll invite other artists to influence the track.

I like to encourage any and all ideas, no restrictions. After that, I’ll take the song back and edit everything down.

I find that this way, the results can be totally surprising while still feeling true to me.  

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

I think music is a way for us to understand each other. It connects us in a way that we all benefit from.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

I’m listening to music all the time, every day. So it has probably affected me in ways I can’t fully understand.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?

I think uncontroversially, music is science. But science can also be art and really it’s all one and the same.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

In my work, I try to zoom in on certain mundane things and explore the nuances within them, and the less tangible things that exist just outside of them. I think that’s what the album title Real Life is all about.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

No, I like a little mystery.