Meet Koday Jackson | Music Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Koday Jackson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Koday, why did you pursue a creative career?
It’s funny that this question is brought up, before music I was more of an art kid for most of my life and even going into high school my sophomore year I was still doing art. My old dream job was wanting to be a storyboard artists for animation studios or to be an animator so I guess you can say I’ve always been the creative type. There was something really special with music that’s hard to explain why I got super into it, but I remember seeing friends or people that I knew starting to make bands and I thought it was the most coolest and fun thing ever and I already played the guitar up to this point so that drive for music was already there but I know I can unlock more of my potential as the years go on, plus when I initially started to get into 80’s and 90’s pop music my taste and my ear for music just went through the roof. But to keep it simple, I started pursing music purely for the love of it and I want to be able to share stories through the music itself for my fans or just people in general to enjoy. I do hope for the whole word to experience my music one day whenever that time may be.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Well, I’m a music composer and producer, although I want to start making songs with vocals in them very soon. I’ve been doing music professionally for around 5 years now but I didn’t really put my music on streaming services until last year as I really wanted to have decent production and not just put out a bunch not so good sounding music that no one is gonna listen to, my very first track I ever created was “interesting” to say the least… but hey every musician/artist starts off that way in their early years haha. I used to make “vaporwave music” which is an internet based genre of music where it’s supposed to sound like you’re in a fever dream and especially with older vaporwave stuff it was mostly sample based with chopping up 80’s smooth jazz or rnb, slowing it down, adding a crap ton of reverb and boom a new genre was born and people were pumping out albums like crazy. (there’s more to the genre than just that but I recommend doing your own research on it) This year I decided to move away from using samples as that’s what I’ve been doing for a while apart from the occasional cover song compositions because spotify isn’t the biggest fan when it comes to sample based music and a lot of really great tunes get taken down because of it but at the same time I completely understand that it’s the copyright of the original artists being protected, but also I know that I’m capable of making original music minus the factory work ethic of releasing an album every single week. (not even kidding) I plan on going into a multi-genre direction along with experimenting with 80’s and 90’s hair metal as I’ve been going back into my metal roots as of late. Was it easy to get where I’m at currently? Absolutely not, just like with anything in life nothing is ever gonna be easy but I think if you have the right people in your circle, then you can overcome anything that gets in your way no matter what. It took a lot of discipline, time and LOTS of promotion to be where I’m at with the internet fanbase I have on Spotify mainly, and it’s not a “over night success” thing as many people like to think especially with TikTok as it probably took many tries for one of your heroes to go viral. I was very fortunate for the “frutiger aero” community on TikTok to have discovered me through other pages in that same niche (it’s a 2000s aesthetic that most of Gen Z grew up with including myself and came back into popularity around 2023 thanks to TikTok no doubt) and ever since that happened along with the vaporwave community I’ve been growing a fanbase online and I’m friends with some of my heroes that I’ve looked up to and met some really great people because of it too. I’d say one thing I’ve learned so far as an music artist is that us musicians will eventually evolve and we’ll move onto other genres to expand and that it’s completely okay to go in a different direction than what you’re normally known for, don’t be afraid to step outside of that bubble, it’s been a bit of a struggle for me since whenever I release something that’s outside of my niche let’s say punk for example, my fans would not touch that new single at all but when I go back to my niche everyone all of a sudden jumps back on board. But I’m starting to notice recently that it’s been the opposite as a new cover composition I released not too long ago is doing fairly well so I’m really happy about that and I’m warming up the fans to the new direction I’m going in and I’m finally stepping out of my own bubble. Like I mentioned before, it took a lot of hard work and promoting to be where I’m at and you have to be dedicated with what you’re doing especially with music because if you’re doing it for any other reason whether it be for the money or the fame you’re doing music for the wrong reason and you’re better off doing something else to get money quicker and did you really love music that much if you’re only doing it to be famous and not for the art itself? Most famous music artists that you listen to didn’t do it for the money or fame, they started doing music because they had the passion and loved what they were making and I honestly think it’s very inspiring to hear about that from older artists and more upcoming artist should be following that principle. Speaking of old I feel like what sets me apart from other music artists is that I’m going back in time with my music meaning I’m making 80’s and 90’s music even though obviously nobody makes that kind of music anymore in this generation due to the times and huge expansion of genres apart from the people that I do know that have a old school sound, there’s something so nostalgic about it that I wanna conutine making music like that even if it’s “not following the trends”. I know that not everyone is gonna love what I make but all I’m gonna say is that you’re simply missing out on what everyone else is jamming to, but I still do wish for the whole world to experience my music as I previously stated earlier on and for people to know who I am outside of the internet and to hopefully tour the world one day. If you want to follow me on my music journey or just stay updated with new releases, be sure to check out my Instagram page @koday.jackson.official as I interact with fans and I’m more active on there, I have a new cover album that should be out this month or by july. My music is not only nostalgia sounding (at least for now due to the new direction I’m going in soon) but also fun and interesting to the ear, an expression of freedom and I feel like that’s something that should be known about my music and that it’s also a place to escape to whenever the real world is getting too noisy, kinda like a safe place for anyone to visit at anytime and I truly wish for my work to feel that way with my fans. One last thing I wanted to add is that I still find it hard to believe that people around different states and countries know who I am and that my music has impacted people in the way that it does whether it be old or new releases, I always love hearing my fans tell me about their personal experiences with albums or songs whether it got them through their graduation, maybe a tough patch in their life or simply just enjoying the music surrounded by friends smoking a joint (not exgratting about the last one, hearing that story was awesome!) it makes me extremely happy knowing that my music has impacted someone’s life in a positive way and I think any music artist would know that feeling I just described and know that it’s the best feeling in the world that we can have, and I’m really proud of that and I’m only gonna keep growing as an artist from here.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m gonna be very honest, where I live at there is not that much to do out here apart from looking at poppies or going to a friend’s place to hangout, you’ll probably get more interesting stuff going into LA or etc haha. Although I will say the only thing out here that’s actually fun is going to the boulevard as I love going and supporting our local record store “Voodoo Vinyl” there and shopping for some vinyls (do check them out their store is amazing!) and there’s bunch of other places within that one area to explore and its a great way of spending the day with friends or loved ones, but more than likely I’ll end up taking my friends to the beach as I love being by the ocean and tropical areas. I’m a sucker for some good fish and chips or clam chowder as those are both my favorite foods ever and I couldn’t recommend it enough to go to “York Shore House” in my opinion they have the best seafood my town has to offer or maybe I’m a little baised but oh well that’s just me.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I really want give a shout to my music mentor Mel Booker for taking me under his wing for the last 8 years of my life as I have learned so much from him and I’m extremely thankful I could have him as my mentor and for giving me the guitar skills that I have although I still want to learn so much more from him as the days go by. And of course I want to give a shoutout to my mom and dad, my family and friends as they’re always super supportive of my career and they’re always pushing me to become the very best that I can. And one last shoutout goes to my friends Olivia and Jayla as they’re my day ones and have supported me through thick and thin and I don’t think I could ever describe just how much I truly appreciate their support over the years and how much they’ve impacted my life with being my greatest friends and supporters, they’re practically family to me and that’s special.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/koday.jackson.official/

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-381325348-766641456

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kodayjackson

Other: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/Koday_Jackson?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAadkAQR9n1d-lwC2BWoK8jArof8XXKBldolCxaclufxyhm8ypdxLrr8DYhmrhA_aem_I6Zg28HfAfQS_PS0zl4tdg

Merch Store: https://winland-records.printful.me/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0mD6iOyKzWmklAJDc1GOVF?si=1CkKCVlPR8mGrGFFtCt-yA

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@koday_jackson?ug_source=op.auth&ug_term=Linktr.ee&utm_source=awyc6vc625ejxp86&utm_campaign=tt4d_profile_link&_r=1

Image Credits
Some images were professionally done by Brenna Morse, the rest are personal photos by yours truly