KALLITECHNIS is considerate. “It’s not a long-distance call? I’m using my manager’s phone, and I don’t want him to get a crazy bill,” she wonders on a Thursday afternoon, just a few minutes after she successfully dials in.
That thoughtful nature is an automatic action for the Canadian singer/songwriter, who recently received a JUNO Awards nomination for Contemporary R&B/Soul Recording of the Year for “Gifted,” a song released in February 2021. She’s in the category with big names like The Weeknd. She doesn’t take this moment lightly. In fact, this recognition is an encouraging sign.
“I’m just super grateful. I feel like I got this new source of energy because I feel like I’m not just in my bubble as an independent artist — especially an R&B artist from Montreal,” she tells Rated R&B.
“I often feel like I’m existing in this really small space. So to be recognized by the Canadian music industry as an independent means a lot.”
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KALLITECHNIS is in a good place. She is about to move to Los Angeles to eke her way into new spaces that will catapult her music career to the next level. One of the easiest ways she has found to concentrate on firmly achieving this goal is to remain consistent with releases.
In October 2021, KALLITECHNIS released Because It Feels Good. The six-track set was her first project in more than two years, having put out Chromatic, another short EP, in early 2019.
Now, she’s back with a new project, It’s Not Personal. KALLITECHNIS attributes personal transformation to the uninterrupted flow of content.
“I feel like I’m very much in a butterfly phase in my inner growth, but also career-wise,” she affirms. “I’m the most confident I’ve been as a creator and songwriter. I’m not one to hoard music, so it feels like the right time to follow up and keep momentum.”
It’s Not Personal reflects where she is as a woman and creative. “I’m so excited that this project is me right now,” she says. “In a sense, it’s the most vulnerable I’ve ever been because it’s just my headspace right now: my insecurities, the internal battles, the external ones.”
The EP’s cover photograph, captured in a locker room, shows a toned KALLITECHNIS sitting on a stool in dark navy boxing attire and gloves. It represents the new fight she’s up against as she sheds her once passive persona and navigates more confidently to be heard as a woman in a male-dominated music industry.
“It’s just a lot of unlearning this idea that I have to be so nice and that I always have to ask permission and tiptoe. With this project, I’m realizing I need to be so much more assertive and commanding of my own presence and aware of it,” she explains.
In Rated R&B’s interview with KALLITECHNIS, she breaks down every song on It’s Not Personal.
“Open Letter”
“Open Letter” is just setting the tone on the frustration I sometimes feel, one factor in being a woman and artist is an independent artist. In a broader sense, as a creator, we don’t realize how much we have to depend on others.
Everything’s very much a team effort, and sometimes when you let your ego get the best of you, you want to act like the big tough person, or at least I do. Sometimes I want to act like the tough girl and be like, “I can do this without you. I don’t need as a woman to always depend on men.”
I also talk about not so much fighting against the gender dynamic in patriarchy but about not always leaning into other people’s opinions, standing up for myself, and being more affirmative.
“Closer To My Dreams” featuring Jaylien
It’s about being in this metamorphosis period. I’m about to embark on this new journey in LA and be closer to my dreams because that is how I feel whenever I’m in LA. It feels like my dreams are so accessible. Jaylien is a very talented singer, vocal producer [and] producer. I love his energy. We started that song at a distance. “Closer To My Dreams” is about leaving something behind and sacrificing to get closer to your dreams.
“Strangers In My Bed” featuring Beach Season
This song plays on this idea of possession often in any type of relationship — not necessarily ones that are heteronormative. But, in general, people feel a sense of entitlement to almost possess their partners.
“Strangers In My Bed” is a very descriptive example of an ex-partner being jealous of the strangers in my bed. I think a lot of people can relate to [it]. Beach Season is this production duo. They produced the song, and Sam [Avant], one of their members, is singing it with me.
“I’m Tired”
It’s a really beautiful interlude that Beach Season produced in addition to Matt Blank. We produced that here in Montreal after the songs were put together just to really tie in the way I’m feeling. This project, although it’s short, allows you to get into the journey that I’m currently going through.
Part of that journey is having moments where you’re exhausted. Being super self-reflective as a person, growing as an artist — and doing a lot of that growing publicly — is tough and not always cute (laughs). It’s not always fun to grow, but it’s obviously worth it in the long term. “I’M Tired” just captures that not-so-cute part of metamorphosis.
“Happy or Right”
“Happy or Right” is one of those dualities that guide our behavior for the better, for the worse. Sometimes when you’re arguing with somebody, you realize where you put your energy is super valuable. You have to invest accordingly, and sometimes it’s better to leave a situation happy than leaving it feeling like you came out of that argument right. “Happy or Right” is that question: “Do I want to be happy or do I want to be right?”
“I’m Not Crazy “
I’m not necessarily one to be called crazy all the time, but as a very hypersensitive person, I definitely know that my emotions get the best of me. Sometimes they don’t, but because people know I’m emotional, they’ll anticipate it. I think it’s easy for others to call you crazy when they’re trying to come out of a situation or an argument feeling like they’re right or trying to prove a point.
I think calling somebody crazy is super dismissive. I think that women who are misunderstood or women who are just trying to be placated are often called crazy, and it’s super harmful. I wanted to make a song about it because I relate to it. What I enjoy about this song is that the production captures the chaotic energy that you can have in one of these fights when you’re being called crazy.
“If He Rules the World”
The lesson from [this song] is something that I’m trying to overcome. I feel like I’ve been born and raised a people pleaser, and I don’t know if it’s because I’m a woman or because I’m Canadian, and we’re taught to be super polite all the time. “If He Rules the World” touches upon this conditioning that women, especially, undergo. We’re taught to be people-pleasers, serve and cater [to] everybody else before serving ourselves.
“If He Rules the World” is that question in the hook that I leave the listener with: “If he rules the world, when do I get mine, and how do I get mine tonight with no fight?” Even in creative spaces, I often feel that I collaborate with amazing people but, sometimes, creatively as a woman, I need to over-explain the reasoning behind certain decisions I want to make. Even though people who interact with me don’t necessarily process it, again, it’s not personal.
A lot of the inner workings of the patriarchy are super insidious, and sometimes we don’t even realize how we’re behaving. It’s super subconscious. For women, in order to get what they want in this world dominated by men, [they] have to overwork, and what does that leave? It leaves a pretty exhausted person that always has to overwork in certain situations. Again, “If he rules the world, how do I get mine? How do I thrive? How do I do what I need to do for myself? How do I get mine with no fight tonight?”
Stream KALLITECHNIS’ new EP It’s Not Personal below.
