Kali Uchis opens up about how she hid her pregnancy, new album 'Orquídeas,' creating music in both English and Spanish, explains how the album title relates to her pregnancy and her Colombian heritage, she's influenced by both American and Latin artists, working with Karol G, El Alfa and City Girls' JT and more!
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MusicTranscript
00:00 It's a spiritual language, it's not about English or Spanish, it's not about genre,
00:04 it's just really about expressing yourself as freely as you can.
00:08 Hi, my name is Kali Uchis and this is Billboard News.
00:11 Hey, I'm Lindsay Havens here for Billboard News and we are here with the Grammy Award
00:25 winning artist Kali Uchis.
00:27 [Music]
00:42 So we have two drops to talk about here. Congratulations.
00:45 Thank you.
00:46 So excited for you. How have you been keeping this a secret? What's been the hardest part of that?
00:50 I had to do some shows and I was on a times list so I had to do a red carpet. That was really hard.
00:55 And then when the time does come, what are you most excited for about being a mom?
00:59 I don't know. There's so much to be excited for honestly so it's hard to say just one thing.
01:04 You won't know until it happens.
01:05 Yeah, exactly.
01:06 Your fourth album, Orquideas, is now out. Congratulations.
01:09 It's all about the theme of the orchid that inspired this.
01:12 How did you sort of land on that and why was that flower the proper embodiment?
01:16 Yeah, I feel like the flower for me, it always symbolized timelessness, femininity, luxury.
01:23 It has an eerie, mystical quality about it as well.
01:27 And it's also the national flower of Colombia so for me it all tied in.
01:31 And then I didn't find out that I was pregnant until later in my rollout but actually it's also the flower of fertility.
01:39 So it actually all came together perfectly.
01:42 Universe knew before you did.
01:43 Yeah, absolutely.
01:44 How do you honor your Colombian heritage? Of course it's on all of your projects but on this one especially considering that this gets the flower.
01:52 I think just making sure that I always explore as much as I can as an artist.
01:57 I never try to be predictable. I never try to do something I've already done.
02:00 I always just expand either on things that I have done that feel authentic to me or just never limit myself creatively.
02:08 So I think playing more with different styles of music that influenced me growing up was definitely one way.
02:14 [Music]
02:22 Tell me about the range of things you did listen to growing up.
02:25 What's the best example of how all over the board you are?
02:28 You know, Latin music has such a range.
02:31 And there's so much different culture across the entire board of our music.
02:37 And then also being bicultural, having all the other influences that I had growing up in VA as well.
02:42 All of that definitely became a huge melting pot for me and influenced not only me as an artist but me as a person.
02:49 We get that duality as fans. You know, you switch so far between each album.
02:53 Spanish language, English language. What's the strategy or inspiration behind doing that?
02:58 There was never a strategy behind it. It's more so just I grew up very much like Spanish, bilingual.
03:04 I went to school in Colombia. I finished my education in the United States.
03:09 I had that experience of really living in both countries and having a childhood in both countries.
03:14 I learned to read and write Spanish before English.
03:17 So for me, it's always just been part of my writing process.
03:20 [Music]
03:25 So if you had to describe how this album is different from your previous three, is there a way that you would say that?
03:32 I would say throughout the album, it has the most energy than any album ever before.
03:38 I'm not a new artist anymore. I'm looking more at my discography as a whole.
03:42 It's just something that I always wanted.
03:44 I want an album that's dedicated to more higher energy or dance music because I don't have that.
03:50 My next album that I've also been working on right now that's also going to come out this year, later in the year, is all down-tempo music.
03:57 So being able to have the contrast, I feel like there's so much within me that needs to be expressed.
04:02 And I never want to confine myself to anything, so this was that for me.
04:08 This fifth album is now done, which is pretty amazing.
04:10 Yeah, the fifth album, a lot of the fifth album was recorded and written while being pregnant.
04:16 Post Malone was telling me that once he became a dad, he started writing these lullabies.
04:20 Without even trying, that's just where his mind went naturally.
04:23 I'm excited for some down-tempo, but I'm loving the high energy of this project as well.
04:27 Speaking of the balance of privacy, but also having to be on stage night after night, are there other artists that you look to who you really respect how they balance that?
04:35 Like maintaining their personal life, but also being in the public eye every day.
04:39 I think probably the artist I most look up to when it comes to that especially is definitely Sade.
04:45 It is such a fine line between trying to understand how much of ourselves are we really meant to share or do we really feel comfortable sharing.
04:53 At the end of the day, I've always really thought it was strange that there is such an expectation on artists to share their personal life.
05:02 When at the end of the day, we're just musicians, we're not political figures, we're not running for president, we just make music.
05:08 So for me, I try to just always remember that my music is the most important thing.
05:12 It's supposed to be in the forefront, my private life and my personal matters.
05:16 I really don't want that to be something that's consuming or overshadowing my work.
05:21 I think it's so important and you do an amazing job at it. It's not easy, I imagine.
05:25 In a statement to Billboard Español, you had said that one of the goals of this album is to redefine how we look at Latinas in music.
05:32 Absolutely.
05:33 Tell me a little bit more about that and the importance of that.
05:35 Being that I'm Latina and I'm in music, you kind of get categorized as a Latin artist even when not all of the music that I do is technically Latin music.
05:45 Exactly. So realizing that it's in a way, people view it as its own genre when really, like I was saying earlier, there's so many different genres that have to do with Latin music in the first place.
05:57 There's so much different types of music you can make.
05:59 Or in my case, where I don't only make music in Spanish, I also make a lot of music in English and a lot of different genres in English as well.
06:06 I think that in a way it can be a bit limiting because of that. So for me, definitely part of what I want to do and accomplish with my work is expand the way that people view all of the things that we're capable of doing.
06:28 I have a lot of artists who sing in Spanish that actually are English speakers primarily and they've come to me and they've been like, "Wow, you really make me want to make music in English too. I've always wanted to be able to make music in English with my label.
06:39 Doesn't want me to do that because, you know, whatever or this or that is what sells for me and la la la."
06:44 I think as an artist what's most important always and what should always be in the forefront of your creative process is just the thought of how I said, like, no limitations.
06:54 Just make and don't think about how it's going to be received. Don't think about how it's going to be sold. Don't think about that's supposed to be your label's job or whoever it is.
07:05 That's supposed to be their job to figure that out later. So I definitely feel like everyone should just be as free as possible in creating.
07:12 I imagine it's not fun to create something knowing it has to fit into a box before it's even finished, you know?
07:17 And I really do commend you on that. Like, what you're able to do with the work you have out, and I'm so excited to hear what's still coming, is it is always different.
07:24 And, you know, the times I've seen you live too, I feel like your show embodies all of that. Like, your collaborations speak to that as well. Like, your collaborators are never limited in one lane.
07:33 It makes it really fun. We never know what you're going to do. So I want to break down. We have some amazing collaborations on this album that I want to break down with you.
07:40 Obviously, we need to talk about the one that went top 10 on the Hot Latin Songs chart with Karol G, "Labios Mordidos."
07:46 It's your second collab with Karol. How did this come about? How did you know that you two wanted to get back in the studio together?
07:57 Well, actually, I showed this song to her so long ago. I wrote this song back in, I want to say, like, the beginning of 2021.
08:03 I showed it to her. She came to my house, and I played it for her, and I played her a couple songs that I was working on for "Odquillas."
08:09 And this was her favorite, like, her absolute favorite.
08:11 So it ended up coming full circle later. She really wanted me on that "Mañana Será Bonito," the part two, and that song that she had for that album in mind for me already.
08:20 So I had gone to the studio. I had recorded immediately when I went there, and I'm like, "So, 'Labios Mordidos,' what about that?"
08:26 It used to be called "Tattoo" at the time, so I was like, "Oh, what about that song?" Like, "Trip for Trip."
08:30 And she was like, "Okay, yeah, let's do it." So she's always been super supportive, and she's just like a big sis, you know?
08:36 She's been doing this for so long. I have so much respect for her work and her dedication to her work.
08:41 So you said it was originally called "Tattoos."
08:43 Yeah, "Tattoo."
08:44 And now it translates to "Bitten Lip," right?
08:46 "Labios Mordidos," uh-huh, "Bitten Lip."
08:47 Tell me about why that title is the right—I mean, this is a sexy song, so tell me about how you landed on that title.
08:52 Well, obviously, the hook is "Tattoo," so "Tattoo" is like the demo title. It's like the obvious version, but I don't really like to have titles that feel generic.
09:01 You know, there's a lot of other songs with them, so there's another part in the song which is technically like the pre-hook, and it says, "Labios Mordidos,"
09:09 and I was like, "Oh, that's a cute name," and it has a little ring to it in the song.
09:13 Every once in a while, I like to—if I don't want the song to have a generic title, then I'm gonna pick something a little bit more off that's in the song,
09:21 but you wouldn't really expect it to be called, so that's how that happened.
09:24 And as a fan, I always love when I'm listening and you hear—it's like when you're watching a movie and you hear the movie title somewhere in the line, you know?
09:31 You just kind of perk up. You feel like, "Oh, that's where it came from. Yeah, yeah, yeah."
09:34 I like that, too. Yeah, I've always liked titles that are like that, so I try to do that with my music.
09:38 And then the next one we need to talk about—this is like a high-energy single, "Muñequita."
09:43 So we have El Alfa and JT from City Girls. This was the lead single. How did you know that you wanted this to introduce the album?
09:50 The body of work in general for me is timeless, which is what I always strive to do. I strive to make timeless music.
10:01 But I'm very—when it comes to dropping singles, I look at things very seasonally.
10:06 So at the time, you know, we were about to be in summer, and I was like, "This is the song I want to drop for the summer."
10:11 Something fun and unpredictable because, you know, nobody would expect me and JT to work together.
10:17 No one would expect me and El Alfa to work together. And they definitely wouldn't expect them two to work together.
10:22 So for me, that makes music so much fun to make, just creating unpredictable collaborations and bringing people together from different cultures.
10:30 And pushing people to make music. And, you know, JT, she hadn't really done anything like that.
10:36 Writing for her, that was my first time really writing for another girl. I wrote the whole verse and everything.
10:41 And it was really an experience for both of us where we were kind of like, for the first time, you know, trying something new.
10:47 JT came to my house, and she cut it so smoothly. Such a natural with her Spanish. So it was a lot of fun.
10:53 Do you think you would ever do a project that's all collaborations? Like, how do you strike a balance between how many people?
10:59 You know, actually, my next one that's coming after this one has no collaborations.
11:04 Which is something that, remember I told you, like, I always want to do stuff that I've never done before?
11:08 From "Sense Isolation," which was my first album, I've always been very collaborative.
11:12 So this one, I really want it to be just me and stand on my own. And maybe one day I will do an all collaborative album.
11:18 But the headspace I'm in right now is definitely not collaborative.
11:21 That's exciting to look forward to as well.
11:23 Yeah, it's different.
11:24 I'm sure at one point you'll figure out a tour where that fits into your life.
11:28 If there was one hope for this album, what would that be for you?
11:30 Definitely just to inspire other Latin artists to play with different genres.
11:38 And inspire other artists in general, no matter their ethnicity or what language they speak, to just create from a free space.
11:46 And yeah, definitely change the way that people view Latinas in the industry and in music.
11:51 And we're very grateful.
11:52 Thank you.
11:53 And again, congratulations.
11:54 Thank you.
11:55 Two big drops.
11:56 We're very happy for you.
11:58 Thank you.
11:59 (upbeat music)
12:01 (whooshing)