LA-based Kid Hastings took over the A-Side Sessions on an episode filmed in July 2020. After the long wait, Kid Hastings is ready to prove to the A-Side audience that acoustic music doesn’t have to be boring.
http://https://youtu.be/R26yUY_68Oo
Natalie Gott
We’re back with another session in LA. We’ve got Kid Hastings who just performed a great set for us. You’ve been playing live lately. What has it felt like to get back into that scene again in LA?
Kid Hastings
It felt awesome. We did a show at my house last Friday. About 300 people came and it was very fun.
NG
How big is your house?
KH
Not big enough to fit 300 people but it was all outside. We got a big speaker setup and I was paranoid the whole time that the cops were gonna come. They didn’t come for the show but they came about an hour after the show because there was a big fight outside my house. I was not involved at all…
NG
Wow, so you gotta have a story to tell for that one then. You also have a story to tell for the first song you played, “Off Guard.” What’s that about?
KH
So I wrote in the same week I was broken up with and hit by a car. It left me, you know, a little confused… a little off guard and got a whole song out of it. The whole song is just about the absurdity of life and how things like that can kind of pile up on each other and about how you react to it. And I think that the way to react to it is kind of like water off of a turtle’s back. Let it wash over you.
NG
So, do you feel like you have a musical community?
KH
I think, yeah. I think it’s strong at USC. I have done a few shows in the past few months. Generally, the same people come out and I’m very, very thankful for those people. I think that you can build one of the strongest communities by having live shows that people can come back to and enjoy and bring their friends to then they can bring their friends to it. Then online, I had a kind of Tik Tok following — but it had nothing to do with music. It was just stupid shit that I do on Tik Tok.
NG
Like getting hit by a car?
KH
I actually put that video on Tik Tok to promote “Off Guard.” It [went] mini-viral, maybe twenty thousand views, then it was deleted and my account was banned. But then I got it back. That was the foolproof marketing strategy that didn’t work
NG
Going back to community, last night you played a friend’s show playing guitar. Is that something that happens often? Just mixing around with each other’s projects?
KH
Yeah. So that’s Will Davila and he played a show at the Viper Room. He needed a guitarist and I actually had never played guitar for another person before. So that was kind of crazy. I was like a solo and everything. But yeah, I mean I think it’s as long as you make yourself available to other musicians the favor is always repaid in some way. Which is really cool.
NG
Where do you feel your musical roots start?
KH
I think high school and probably earlier than that. High school and middle school, and choir, jazz, and [I] played jazz guitar and [did] jazz singing and that kind of thing. I did musicals too, which was a dark time I’d prefer not to look back on. I think that musicals kind of taught me how to be a performer. Then I think that jazz and choir taught me how to actually sing and play guitar. That’s kind of where it was built and then through just listening to a lot of mid-2010s indie-rock all the time. Also, the early bedroom-pop scene, like Omar Apollo. I was like “Yeah, this is sick, I could try this.”
NG
Do you feel like you carry those jazz influences at all?
I really tried to. I think that there are definitely [a lot of] songs that are pretty guitar-centered in one way and generally pretty much-drawing jazz arrangements and voicings that I learned through doing all that stuff. But I try to bring it out. I want to bring it out more. But I also want to bring it out in a way that’s appealing and not annoying, like a lot of jazz music comes across sometimes.
NG
I feel like we definitely saw it come out in your cover of “Valerie.” Of all covers, why do you choose that to cover?
KH
I’ve honestly been covering it — so I used to play at the farmer’s market in my town. They wouldn’t pay me but they would let me put my guitar case out and get tips and “Valerie” was always the one that people would tip me. So I was like, ‘okay, so it works, I guess.’ Then I just kept up with it and I played it. I had a band in high school and we played in bars and stuff. I played at those and then in college, I was like ‘we should play ‘Valerie’.’ Then it just became a sort of a staple of my live set. I generally close everything out with it. Everyone knows [it] and it’s really fun. Yeah, yeah. And then we can also do it in a fun rock way.
NG
So you’re from New Jersey originally. How does LA compare musically?
KH
Hot. Hotter.
NG
Haha, I mean musically.
KH
Yeah, musically, I mean, New Jersey is kind of — there are parts of New Jersey that are really cool for music. Like Montclaire which has a really cool rap and indie rock scene. Then like New Brunswick, which has a lot of emo rock. Those are really cool and I actually put shows on in high school featuring other New Jersey bands but also as a way to put a show on for me as a kind of slide in there. But it’s definitely very fragmented. Where I was from specifically there wasn’t really a music scene. Then coming here, it’s like everyone — I mean, especially where I’m at right now, like in school — everyone is a musician and they’re all coming from such different backgrounds. It’s kind of a big melting pot. But also, everyone kind of takes their influences then moves closer and closer to a more pop sound. Which I think is really cool because it creates new sounds a lot of the time. When some kid from North Carolina, who’s been doing church music and stuff comes to USC and LA and then has more of like a pop twist that is combined with it, which I think is really cool.
NG
So the song “Call Me Up” that you played sounded the most dynamic of your set. The falsetto in that was really something. What was it like during that song?
KH
That was good. I think that started on guitar, as most of my songs do, and that [one] is more of the jazzy ones with the voicings and kind of weirdly played because it goes minor to dominant and it feels a little bit weird. But it always settles back at home in a minor key. [The song] was about a very brief relationship that felt very substantial to me. It kind of went away and I was sad about it. Then I wrote a song as an outlet to be less sad about it.
All right, then to wrap things up here. What are you working on right now? What can we expect to see coming up?
KH
Well, from the time that it is right now I have a song coming out next week. So it’s July 23. It’ll be out but it’s called “Come Back Sweet.”
NG
Which you played for us today, that was a really nice sneak peek.
KH
Yeah, I did. Then just working on new stuff. I haven’t written something in a month or two because I’ve just been wrapping up older stuff. But just weird music videos and more songs coming down the pipeline. EP soon, maybe. Maybe, mostly singles because those are more fun to release. But yeah.
NG
Any shows that you’re looking forward to coming up?
KH
I am going to play a show. I’m gonna play a house show on the 24th of July which was probably in the past at this point.
NG
Probably.
KH
Yeah, that and then probably some more houses at my house which I will be posting about on my Instagram, @kidhastings. Follow me. Thanks.
NG
And follow Berkeley B-Side, while you’re at it.
So great talking with you. Thanks so much for playing today. Check back for more sessions in LA. We’ve got about three more I believe and then we’ll be back in Berkeley soon. Thanks so much!
Interview by Natalie Gott
Photos by Lyle Kahney
Transcription by Maya Banuelos