Interview of Kleo by Kara Zosha
Hello Kleo, it’s lovely to chat with you today! How are you doing?
I am doing excellent, excited about the new year, and getting a lot of meditation these days. It lifts the spirit!
Can you tell me a bit about yourself?
I would say that I am a sensitive soul that loves animals. A lightworker at heart and in my art. A romantic forever enchanted by music, stories, and dessert.
Your debut EP I Love This Movie was released in November; what has the response from fans and new listeners been like?
Super overwhelming in the best way. It felt like a part of myself was being revealed. I would never have imagined people writing to me from all over the world.
I love that the songs are out there now, living their best life. Songwriting is meaningful to me and the response has just underlined that and made me imagine bigger. I am braver in the creative process these days.
How long have you been writing music and when did you learn to play piano?
I started learning when I was about six years old. My grandfather was a concert pianist and a teacher of the old-school kind. He opened up the entire universe of classical music and fine arts to me. I grew up loving Chopin, Mozart, Debussy, and all the other greats thanks to him. I learned not only to play, but to listen and understand many kinds of music. If I could go back I would have played even more; now it creates the entire foundation under my songwriting.
“I believe that happiness is the backdrop of life and that love is present all the time – even in the dark – the question is can we see it?”
During the bright times in our life, it’s easy to be hopeful and love the life we live, but during the rougher dark times, we tend to forget how beautiful life is. How do you bring the light back into your life in those darker times?
I do transcendental meditation twice a day for two hours. It has changed my life and is one of its few constants.
I also make sure to care for and be around my loved ones. We are all witnessing each others’ existence here on earth (how groovy is that?!). Love connects us all and energy is more powerful when shared. That sounds so bumper sticker-like, but I have found it to be true. Apart from that my love for the little things in life such as trees, ice cream, movies, and cats also contribute a lot to a happy Kleo, I would say.
How long have you been working on this EP and what has that journey looked like?
It took me several years to complete a pool of songs from which I was really thrilled to choose from. Each one is a specific scene from my life. I had to experience loss, heartache, deep bliss through meditation, and being so in love I felt like my soul had escaped my physical form to join the clouds in a happy dance to write them.
Here comes another cliché. I now understand that creating anything – a song, an album, a day filled with experiences – is an adventure. You must go through the “Hero’s journey” and evolve to “arrive” again.
Do you have a favorite song on the record?
It changes. My first love was Broken Hallelujah, on cheerful days Beautiful Life, and I listen to Lucid to be reminded of who I am. Miss You is a soft spot for me as I am still reliving memories from the times when it was written, so they are all still very much alive within me.
What do you want people to take away from listening to I Love This Movie?
Let it be a mirror of their own beautiful lives. I genuinely hope they will feel that it is a gift to be here, even with the waves of perceived ups and downs.
You’ve mentioned “Movies have helped frame my worldview and scale up my emotions…” with that being said, what are your favorite films or have had the most impact on you?
What a challenge to name just one. Today I’ll mention how moved I was when I watched Wall-E for the first time. The existential identity questions are put into perspective so gracefully and then again it’s just a love story :’)
