The Radar Screen Interview – Kaila Yu
September 15, 2003
by Alexander Washburn

The Kaila Yu interview was a month in the making. At the 2 Walls BBQ/creative meeting last month, it was Kaila’s CD that stood out. Why wouldn’t it? The cover with her beautiful Asian eyes peered out at you was an instant hit for four guys already a few beers in. “I was going for more of a body shot,” said the 22-year old singer/songwriter. “We had tried this whole Asian theme but it didn’t work.” This being the first Radar Screen interview, I forgot that a certain amount of research needed to be done. For instance, I erroneously said Kaila was influenced by Eminem. “I love Eminem. I’m a huge fan but he’s not an influence.” Kaila tells me that she’s seen ‘8 Mile’ twice. “And that’s a lot for me. I really don’t like seeing movies more than once. Except ‘Requiem for a Dream. I saw that ten times.” In case you were wondering, Kaila has seen ‘Pi’ but she was high at the time, and she’s fine with that.

“My favorite voices right now are M’Ya and Little Mo’. Little Mo’ gets the hottest beats.” Throughout our talk she drops names of people Radar Screen has kind of heard of: The Neptune’s. Timbaland. But for the life of me, I’m trying to figure out. Who the fuck is Little Mo’?

Losing the game of "today’s pop music," RS decides to head for more familiar grounds: the drinking habits of today’s youth. Denied again for Kaila is a teetotaler. “Drinking makes me violently ill,” Kaila tells me as she sips an iced tea. “I’ll have a little bit of wine but that’s about all I can handle.” Needless to say, the story of her 21st birthday wasn’t all that Radar Screen imagined in his head. Yes, she did spent her 21st in Vegas but Kaila only goes to Vegas for the buffets. “The buffet at the Paris is $19.95 and worth every penny.”

Nothing about Kaila appears to be what it actually is. Looking at her, you’d never think that she graduated from UCLA with an economics degree. She flirted with majoring in Biology with hopes of becoming a doctor because she “wanted to make money.” With her supermodel looks, Kaila would also seem that she wouldn’t leave the house unless she looked like she just stepped off the pages of Vogue. Kaila admits that she is not a “dress up” person. “After you’ve spent all day doing photo shoots, you just don’t want to do that in your free time.” Kaila’s tough words on the fashion industry don’t end there. After years of modeling, she’s proud to call herself: “Not a fashion model, period. It was fun when I was younger. But now that I’ve started doing music, I truly feel that modeling is stupid and boring. I can’t express my creative and emotional side in fashion. But I can in music.”

Kaila doesn’t want to be judged any further by what is seen on her website or even by what is heard on her debut record. With regards to her first record, which pins the J.Lo sound down to a tee, Kaila admits that lyrically her first record wasn’t emotionally deep. “My first record was about partying and meeting guys. My lyrics now will have more depth. If you allow yourself to be satisfied, you’ll just stay in one place.”

Kaila has taken full control of her music career. “It’s satisfying to know that my work resulted in you being here,” she says. Kaila describes for me her apartment the day she sent out “dozens” of her CD’s to various reviewers across the country: 2 Walls Webzine included. “You guys' turnaround time was about 2 months. I guess that’s good but I truly though I’d be hearing from people the next day.” To pass the time between contact with webzines and magazines, Kaila has been busy placing the clubs in LA like the SoHo, the Key Club and the Highlands. “I’m keeping busy and honing my live show.”

From our talk, it seems that in the future, Kaila wants to let more of that girl who started dancing at age 11 and has been playing the piano for 12 years shine through. She wants to temper down the Playmate thing and move to a place where she can let her obvious musical abilities shine through. You can’t help but thinking that Kaila reminds you of a young Tori Amos, whose first attempt at music was fronting a horrible punk band named Y Tori Can’t Read. Listening to that record, you couldn’t imagine that Amos would turn into one of the deepest musicians both lyrically and musically over the last ten years.

You get the same feeling about Kaila. What she’s producing now is merely an extension of age. That when she begins to trust her talents and truly gets a hold of her own direction, outside of the 10 or so producers working on her record, will her true self and talents rise to the top. For now, her music is fun dance music, which has some depth and emotion, but can go further. You’re happy with present-day Kaila but you’re more excited about her future...

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Liner notes: Next month, Radar Screen is still pretending to be a big-shot in LA.
Got a band in the LA area for Radar Screen to check out? Drop us a line at: radarscreen@2walls.com