Biography
Kaya Wilkins records under the name Okay Kaya, a Norwegian figure whose work spans singing, songwriting, modeling, and acting, with candid observations gaining extra resonance through sharp humor and husky vocals. The 2018 release Both and the 2020 Spellemann Award-winning Watch This Liquid Pour Itself examined topics such as mental illness, health care, and sexual fluidity through unreserved honesty. SAP, issued in 2022 as a concept album centered on consciousness, was tracked largely in solitude yet ultimately featured contributions from Nick Hakim, Taja Cheek of L'Rain, and Adam Green of the Moldy Peaches.
Wilkins was raised in Nesoddtangen, a settlement beyond Oslo, alongside a brother active in black metal groups and a mother whose record collection formed the basis of her musical grounding. Initially drawn more to dance studies than composition, she shifted direction in her late teens upon relocating to New York for modeling work. Her earliest material, composed on a guitar acquired at age 13, took the form of personal journal pieces that probed inner reflections via darkly witty words and spare acoustic lines.
Okay Kaya began issuing recordings in 2015 when Hot Charity put out the singles "Damn, Gravity" and "Clenched Teeth." In 2017 she joined Danish producer Vera and King Krule on the track "Slush Puppy" from The Ooz, while also making her screen debut in Joachim Trier's Thelma. The following year her debut album Both appeared on her own Heavy Body imprint, cut at her Brooklyn home studio and co-produced with Porches' Aaron Maine.
The response to Both prompted a 2019 signing with Jagjaguwar, marked by a velvety rendition of Cher's "Believe." For the second album, the 2020 release Watch This Liquid Pour Itself, Wilkins enlisted co-producers Jacob Portrait and John Caroll Kirby, earning Norway's Spellemann prize for best Indie/Alternative album. That August Jagjaguwar released the mixtape Surviving Is the New Living, co-produced with Nature Boy, which was succeeded by another mixtape, October 2021's The Incompatible Okay Kaya.
Wilkins subsequently relocated to Europe for museum performances and exhibitions, one of which featured music amplified from underwater sources. While isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic she developed Okay Kaya's third studio album, handling writing, performance, engineering, and production alone in borrowed spaces and drawing partial impetus from ketamine therapy sessions. Completion occurred after her return to New York, where additional contributions were tracked at Gaia Studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Nearly twenty guests participated, among them Nick Hakim, Deem Spencer, Adam Green, Taja Cheek, and fellow Norwegian Farao (Kari Jahnsen). The resulting SAP, framed by Wilkins through an abstract parallel between human and arboreal processes, emerged on Jagjaguwar in November 2022.
Wilkins was raised in Nesoddtangen, a settlement beyond Oslo, alongside a brother active in black metal groups and a mother whose record collection formed the basis of her musical grounding. Initially drawn more to dance studies than composition, she shifted direction in her late teens upon relocating to New York for modeling work. Her earliest material, composed on a guitar acquired at age 13, took the form of personal journal pieces that probed inner reflections via darkly witty words and spare acoustic lines.
Okay Kaya began issuing recordings in 2015 when Hot Charity put out the singles "Damn, Gravity" and "Clenched Teeth." In 2017 she joined Danish producer Vera and King Krule on the track "Slush Puppy" from The Ooz, while also making her screen debut in Joachim Trier's Thelma. The following year her debut album Both appeared on her own Heavy Body imprint, cut at her Brooklyn home studio and co-produced with Porches' Aaron Maine.
The response to Both prompted a 2019 signing with Jagjaguwar, marked by a velvety rendition of Cher's "Believe." For the second album, the 2020 release Watch This Liquid Pour Itself, Wilkins enlisted co-producers Jacob Portrait and John Caroll Kirby, earning Norway's Spellemann prize for best Indie/Alternative album. That August Jagjaguwar released the mixtape Surviving Is the New Living, co-produced with Nature Boy, which was succeeded by another mixtape, October 2021's The Incompatible Okay Kaya.
Wilkins subsequently relocated to Europe for museum performances and exhibitions, one of which featured music amplified from underwater sources. While isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic she developed Okay Kaya's third studio album, handling writing, performance, engineering, and production alone in borrowed spaces and drawing partial impetus from ketamine therapy sessions. Completion occurred after her return to New York, where additional contributions were tracked at Gaia Studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Nearly twenty guests participated, among them Nick Hakim, Deem Spencer, Adam Green, Taja Cheek, and fellow Norwegian Farao (Kari Jahnsen). The resulting SAP, framed by Wilkins through an abstract parallel between human and arboreal processes, emerged on Jagjaguwar in November 2022.
Albums
Singles
