Baba Stiltz and Okay Kaya became a duo: The songs don’t end

At the last second, Kaya Wilkins and Baba Stiltz change meeting place. They have been completed in the studio, which is located in the Globe area in Stockholm, earlier than planned and now want to be seen inside Södermalm instead.

They work efficiently, you understand quickly. Especially when they work together. The week until Friday when we see them they have been in the studio every day and now the new EP is finished.

– This has been my only job since I was a child, says Baba Stiltz. So you have learned how to do it.

The same goes for Kaya Wilkins, who goes by the artist name Okay Kaya. Just like Swedish Baba Stiltz, the Norwegian-American artist is self-taught in guitar, and has made music solo for ten years. The joint EP « Blurb » came in January this year. So now they are already finished with the sequel.

I ask if it has been so easy just because they are used to musicians, or if there is anything with the combination of both of them that facilitates the work.

– Often when working with others, there is a lot you have to communicate. But we have been able to skip it and just sit down and write and sing, says Kaya Wilkins.

– Since we were first seen, it has felt very family -friendly, says Baba Stiltz. There are not so many layers to get through.

We have similar opinions musically. Like it should be fun. There should be humor

Kaya and Baba share the experience of what she calls « culturally spit ». They both have one parent from the United States and one from Scandinavia, and have grown up in both continents. A couple of years ago they were combined by a common acquaintance, saw at pitchers in Stockholm and found each other quickly.

– We have similar opinions musically, Baba continues. Like it should be fun. There should be humor.

An example of that is The song « Pickle » on « Blurb », which is about loving someone so much that you want to preserve it in a jar. Another is the song « Jimmy ».

– Kaya came with that song and just « This is about my Polar Jimmy ». When I write songs it can be quite fragmentary, but for Kaya it is more « The song is about Jimmy, this is what he said, this is what he did, » says Baba Stiltz.

– If you only have two to four minutes to communicate something, it can often pay off to paint a picture, says Kaya. Just say as it is. Something I like about music is that it is so floating, and then it can be good to contrast with it with clear texts.

– Making music is to create something out of nothing, she continues. Music is like a strange, magical tingless thing.

However, the sound at « Blurb » is Not particularly abstract and floating, but on the contrary directly and intimately. Babas and Kaya’s voices come very close to the listener, the bluesy guitar has a personal address. It is singer/songwriter-pop concentrated to total effectiveness that causes all other music to sound strained in comparison.

Especially the song « I Believe in Love » has a matter of course that makes it strange that it has not always existed. I ask how they have done to get to that unforeseen and undone, which strangely is so much more difficult than the crusted.

– You learn with age, I think, says Baba Stiltz. You get comfortable with the ungoded. It can be scary not to add anything to your voice, that it should be completely naked. If I sound like a crow, I may sound like a crow, it will be wrong then maybe we will keep that error. You do not have the same ego as when you were twenty.

Speaking to dare to expose Baba Stiltz tells that Kaya persuaded him to write a song in Swedish to the upcoming « Blurb 2 », which is the first time for him. They describe the new record as inspired by Scandinavia.

– Since we have both spent so much time away, on various tours, we have had time to think about this place on earth, says Baba.

He says that they have talked a lot about Scandinavian sink realism while working with the EP, how difficult it is to translate into English. Like Kjell Höglund’s « You get used to ».

– That simplicity was the target picture, says Baba. I appreciate writing texts in that way, about the glories of normality. A jerk and a cup of coffee.

Baba Stiltz and Okay Kaya seem to possess a rarely seen talent to create magical, tingless things out of everyday objects. As Kaya points out, they also work in a musical tradition where the production rate has always been high.

– Historically, singer/songwriters have written ten songs in one day, she says.

Baba agrees:

– The songs never end, unfortunately.

Read More texts by Saga Cavallin and About music