This is the most common question I get from people who knew me before I started making music as Kavorto. A big part of the question, I think, is because I’ve done lots of singing and lots of writing in my life, so the assumption is that if I can write and sing my own songs, why is all my music instrumental?
It’s several reasons, actually.
- I don’t love writing songs, at all. I have, and I can, but I always find myself becoming too demanding and too literal as I’m editing my own writing. I definitely have to work hard against my natural inclination toward logic and order, as opposed to the wild creativity and license you have as an artist. I love it, it’s an awesome feeling actually, but I do have to work against my nature to let it out. And, not for nothing, the obvious: if you have to write good lyrics and sing them before the song can see the light of day, then that seriously inhibits the amount of music you can share with the world, for sure.
- Once you write a song, you’ve prescribed for the audience what to think about as they listen. I muuuuch prefer letting people run wild with their own stories that the music puts into them. All you’re usually gonna get out of me in terms of what inspired a particular song is the title, and even then, it’s usually vague enough that you won’t latch onto it. It’s all yours to imagine whatever it makes you imagine, go for it!
- Instrumental music is universal. If I come up with an amazing, super high-energy riff, then write even more amazing, even higher-energy lyrics — well, that’s a great thing. And then, at the same time, I immediately slam the door on the 4-5 billion people who make up the 80% of the world’s population that doesn’t speak English. Now, can you listen to music with lyrics in a language you don’t understand? Of course, and I certainly do plenty of it — but most people don’t. First of all, you can’t sing along, you have to do that mush-mouth thing where you’re just grasping at sounds here and there. Second, you don’t know what’s being said, which weirds some people out. I mean, what if this track I love is talking about how cool it is to kick dolphins or commit arson or railing against the smallpox vaccine?
Seriously though — while adding lyrics to music has been done for thousands of years, it’s the music itself that’s so deeply connected to humans and their brains, souls, spirits, or whatever it is that resonates so automatically with a driving beat or riff or hook. Whether it’s today or 10,000 years ago, it’s the music that makes people automatically start bobbing their heads, swaying their hips, tapping their feet or shaking their asses (don’t forget, Fuego Mode is out now!).
And that experience is native to all human beings, wherever they live, and I wanted everyone to have a shot at enjoying my music. At first, I really concentrated on heavy, energetic, training-montage kind of songs that just revved you up. Those could resonate with anyone, I thought. But then when I started making instrumental music of all kinds, I realized that this was the case with pretty much any universal music. I don’t know if it makes me an egotist, a humanist, a capitalist, or what, but the way I FEEL about it is — I just really love the idea of every human being in every nook and cranny of the planet being able to at least listen to what I make and be affected or not affected by it. I hate the idea that there’s an impediment to anyone listening or “understanding” anything I make. So I remove all barriers to that by not including lyrics.
And that, my friends, is why all my music is instrumental. Enjoy your day, night, weekend, whatever it is as you read this. — \m/ kavorto
