Fresh off the release of his latest single ‘Hurricane’, Asian-American music artist Cayden Corbett is magnificently showcasing his artistic abilities. Merging elements of alternative R&B and pop, listeners are brought on a musical journey whilst captivating music enthusiasts far and in between.
We sat down with Cayden Corbett to discuss his music and much more. Here is what he had to say:
Thank you for sitting down and talking to FLEX. Can you tell us a bit about how you got into music?
I’ve been singing ever since I was a little kid and eventually found the love of being on stage and performing. There were always tiny hints growing up that I had a love for music, like getting in trouble from my elementary teachers for singing/humming too loud during class or singing and dancing on the bricks in my grandparents’ garden. I knew I wanted to be surrounded by music at a very young age.
Who would you say are your biggest musical influences?
My musical influences fluctuate from time to time, I’m a huge fan of a lot of different genres of music. Right now I’m a huge fan of Lucky Daye and Omar Apollo. I'm also heavily influenced by artists like Bruno Mars and Miguel but could also draw my influences from One Direction, Panic! At The Disco, Jeremy Zucker, and The Band Camino.
Congratulations on your brand-new song 'Hurricane' - what inspired this particular track?
Thank you so much! I originally drew inspiration from experiencing a really bad storm living here in Los Angeles in August of 2023. I just got back home from a writer's retreat with a couple of my music friends and I felt like I had one more track in me to write and it turned out to be “Hurricane”.
How do you channel personal experiences into your songwriting, and what do you hope listeners gain from connecting with your music?
My songwriting has always been heavily influenced by things that cause me to experience very deep feelings. Things like an overdue phone call with my parents, falling in love or a break up, or just feeling lonely and expressing my insecurities. I always try to write my music to be relatable so that my listeners can digest what I'm portraying and easily connect with me.
Each aspect of music – writing, recording, practising, and playing live – offers something different. Can you share a particularly meaningful moment from each?
Writing is so special and therapeutic to me. Trying to create meanings, word plays, double entendres, etc. has brought me joy in each song I've written because I get to pick my own brain and surprise myself in the things I can think of. And when I press record, I explore the different approaches in pitches and vocal runs. The timing of words or how emotional they can sound could turn the track into a completely different shade. Especially if I'm writing and recording with other musicians and writers, the synergy can be explosive and I get addicted to it! But as much as I love writing and recording, playing live in front of an audience is one of the biggest reasons I stay motivated to do music. Performing gives me such a euphoric experience and being sedulous about it makes me happy every time I'm on stage.
Is there a song in your repertoire that holds a particularly deep personal meaning for you? Can you share the story or inspiration behind it?
I feel like I have a lot of music in my catalog, and each track or album has been a reflection on what I was going through at that time. Every song I've written has a deep meaning to me but one of the ones I'm really connected to is a track I released in 2021 called “Letter” that’s co-written by my older brother and I. He’s the reason I not only started music, the reason I started loving to sing. “Letter” was supposed to be a deep metaphor to him, and all my family and friends who I left to pursue my music career in Los Angeles. An analogy of a “love letter”, meaning that no matter where I am in the world, I'll miss you and I'll write to you just to tell you that I'm okay.
What are your goals for the future with your music?
My goals for the road ahead is that I hope to find my audience and my fans and build with them what my music means to one another. To perform on big stages across the country would be a dream come true to me but really I just want to be connected with people who love my music just as much as I do.
What message or feeling do you hope listeners take away from your music?
I want my music to be something special to them, something they say is “their” song for the moment. When they hear me sing or listen to what i’m trying to say i hope they understand and relate to the vulnerability i try to write for everybody to enjoy.
To wrap things up, is there anything else you'd like to share with our readers?
I just wanted to say I'm just very grateful to be here answering your questions, thank you for giving me your time and I hope you enjoyed listening to my new song “Hurricane” as much as I do!
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