Kayla Cariaga isn’t looking to be a world-famous pop star.
“I hope to get big enough as an indie artist to play venues and have people meet me afterward. I would feel like a celebrity if I had that devoted fanbase,” said the 19-year-old singer-songwriter.
Cariaga did not begin her music career as an indie artist. Most of her music catalog thus far is made up of pop songs. As a child, she was introduced to the genre by her family. Her uncle played music from The Beatles, Madonna and Whitney Houston during their car rides. At family gatherings, pop was the genre of choice for karaoke.
“As I got older and my music taste changed, I wanted an indie or alternative vibe,” she explained.
Many indie artists teeter between the two genres, and Cariaga believes she will do the same. She cites COIN, an indie pop band from Nashville, Tennessee, as musicians who have a sound she would like to emulate. Her upcoming music is influenced by songs that are guitar-driven like indie music and production-heavy, like pop music.
Cariaga is rebranding her sound with two new singles expected to release next year. She plans to release another EP as well. Most recently, she has finished writing a new song and is making a demo.
On top of making music, Cariaga is a sophomore in college and is majoring in studio composition. Over the past year, she has learned about digital audio, production software and how to compose music for full bands. “It did open more creativity for me…I want to use [this knowledge] when I’m in the studio to record my songs,” she said.
Her studies are valuable to her as a musician, but it was difficult to catch up during her first semester. Many of her classmates went to middle schools and high schools with a concentration in the arts. Some had studied music theory since they were children. Cariaga’s experience with music pedagogy did not compare to the years of training her classmates had.
“I didn’t know any of the theory behind whatever I was playing,” she said. Making music was a guessing game—what chords felt right? She used her taste and intuition to decide if something was good, but she could not explain why the music she made sounded the way it did.
Although she did not receive formal music training like her classmates, Cariaga jokingly cites her decision to be self-taught as her first act of rebellion. At 10 years old, she made one of the most pivotal decisions in her music career, when she chose to quit music lessons after a few sessions. She gave herself control over what she learned and how fast she would learn it.
Cariaga became her own teacher. Her textbook was YouTube.
“I’d say I’m independent,” she said with confidence. Learning how to play guitar on her own was gratifying. After following along with online videos, she memorized the shape of the chords. The unfamiliar positioning of her small hands and short fingers became second nature. Soon after, she used her knowledge of the chords to make music.
Cariaga enjoyed writing poetry and decided to teach herself about songwriting as well. The autodidact learned how to write music by studying the structure of pop songs with music from Bruno Mars and other pop artists she listened to.
At 12 years old, she pieced together the bones of songwriting. Most songs on the radio had a pattern to follow. Her early songwriting process was similar to filling in a template—verse, pre-chorus and chorus.
The subject matter for lyrics came to her naturally. “I found [writing lyrics] as a gateway to let out my emotions,” she said. The first song she ever wrote was about a crush. Cariaga says her lyrics have grown since then, and has written songs about personal events, other people, and scenarios she has not experienced. Love songs—and her crush, are in the past.
By the time she was 14, she began performing her original songs in front of others.
Her parents drove her to and from open mics at local cafes and recitals. “It was kind of like a job, but I was having fun,” she said. People in the audience would come up to her after the show and share a memory they associated with her music. Cariaga says this reaction from the crowd made her fall in love with performing.
“I want to perform, that’s a long-term goal. I want to keep sharing music, I want to keep writing music. All I know is that I want to do music in the long run. I don’t see myself working in a cubicle.”