From appearing in your favorite rappers instagram content and your favorite R&B singers music videos, throwing her own show, producing records, and over all creating her own lane – Sara Kawaii is making her mark on the music industry. Sara Kawaii is a 23 year old harpist, producer, and beatclub A&R, who currently resides in Los Angeles, California. The creative spoke more with RemixdMag about her musical journey and how she got started.
In a recent interview, Kawaii tells RemixdMag that her journey in the music industry began when she picked up the harp at 8 years old.
“I didn’t like it at first,” Sara explained. “I had a really scary Russian teacher but I just stuck with it for a while. I started doing orchestra and that’s when I really started to enjoy playing the harp. I liked playing with other people and I never liked playing alone so playing with other people was better for me. I just did that throughout high school and college.”
However, the classical music space wasn’t her end goal.
“Since I was in middle school I wanted to play with cool artists and not just do Orchestra all day,” she said. “I think that’s the same with a lot of other people who do classical music just because I think our generation is starting to realize how racist and white the classical music side is. They can be very judgmental and put you into a box so it’s hard to be an individual.”
In college, Sara got her opportunity to branch out as she began producing for hip hop, pop, and R&B artists, as well as creating covers of popular songs in those genres in collaboration with Sparky.
Her first big session was with R&B singer Umi and her first big cover video was in collaboration with Los Angeles artist Blxst.
“I love Blxst a lot,” she continued. “That was a crazy experience because I literally just dm’d him. I was like, ‘Yo do you want to do a video with Sparky?’ and he was like, ‘Bet,’ and then he pulled up to the shoot.”
Sara has gone on to appear in videos with 24kGoldn, Sabrina Claudio, Kehlani, Blxst, Shordie Shordie, Kalan.FrFr and more. She also has worked with numerous artists and producers as a studio musician and producer as well.
“I just love rap,” Sara told RemixdMag. “It’s cool bringing an instrument like the harp into rap music because the harp is so delicate and pretty and rap can be on the edge – just kinda…hard. Bringing those two together is really cool. Just to add femininity to rap because I feel like they don’t have enough of that.”
However, Sara’s success in bringing femininity into rap has not been without some struggle. The lack of femininity and women in music in general is a reality Sara says that she is faced with everyday.
“It’s hard being a woman in production just because we don’t get as much respect as our male counterparts … I’ll pull up to a session and I’ll play something that I made and they’re so shocked that it was made by a woman,” she said. “I don’t like that feeling and I mostly work with female artists at the moment just because we already are so misjudged in the industry that it’s better to work with women in solidarity.”
This struggle hasn’t stopped Sara from achieving at a high level or imagining a better future for female musicians.
“The main thing is that men have to be the ones who support women and bring them into new opportunities. I feel like it’s just not enough men who take women into consideration first. It’s always their homey or someone they know that’s a male. I feel like just making the space more comfortable for women will make women want to pursue those kinds of careers more.”
To keep up with Sara, you can follow her on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/idfksara/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@idfksarak
