Music for food

MANILA, Philippines - Kai Honasan loves making you feel uncomfortable. She says it is one of the best parts of being a performer. “Performing is when I actually have the most fun ‘cause I like talking to people,” Honasan explains. “Especially when they’re not pikon, when they’re super game naman. That sounds so mean on paper, but it’s just fun. It’s fun to play around with the audience, and that’s what I enjoy the most.”

The 25-year-old doesn’t seem mean, though. She is friendly and accommodating, her lovely face offering an easy smile within seconds of making your acquaintance. But she is right: she excels at making one feel uncomfortable. Not because she is rude in any way, but because she seems to behold everyone in a jarringly close-up lens. She notices little details about those around her — long eyelashes, the surprisingly soft material of a denim jacket — things that anyone else wouldn’t even bother commenting on. But for Honasan, anything and everything is fodder for her craft.

And she says so herself. “(My ideas come from) people I meet every day. I write about the most mundane things for practice. Like, I used to write about UP enrollment. I was just in a line for eight hours and I wrote a song called Life On A Line so it sounds like it’s about really deep things, but no. I don’t think anyone would want to hear that, though. That’s not on the album.”

The album to which Honasan refers is the newly released “In Your Face & Other Songs About Other Faces,” a seven-track wonder co-produced by local music demigod Buddy Zabala. (“I was scared probably 90 percent of the time I was recording,” she says about Zabala. “Now he’s like my one of my dads.”) She also co-wrote a track with Ebe Dancel — you might have heard of him — and collaborated with a few local acts to put it all together.

But it’s pretty clear that Honasan is the true star of her debut opus. Her breathy vocals coupled with her trusty ukulele are cheery and upbeat, giving life to her tongue-in-cheek songs about dissing douchey exes and finding the words to say to someone you like.

The album is replete with originals, too; she does not do covers. She says so without much fanfare or a single bit of hubris. She explains in the most matter-of-fact tone: “I didn’t know what fit my voice. I wanted to write songs that made me laugh. So that’s how I started out. Then suddenly I had feelings so I wrote songs about feelings. I just wanted to play fun songs and I wanted to share my stories in a way that was weird and funny.”

Maintaining that identity, one that is totally Kai Honasan, did come at a price. Honasan shares that her initial foray into the industry was tough. “I realized that if you’re a girl, you either have to be sexy, or just girly cute. And I wanted humor to be a big part of it. I wanted to be someone who isn’t afraid to be ugly, pretty, that kind of thing.”

Taking on a more serious tone, Honasan acknowledges that it was difficult to turn down attempts to rebrand her as something that she wasn’t, if only because it came with fame and recognition. “I’m glad I did (music) much later in life when I kind of knew myself more. Because if I didn’t I would probably just follow orders.”

“That’s why I wanted to do this independently,” she adds. “And that’s why it became suddenly so important to call it ‘In Your Face.’ Just because, you know, I’m not going to be this or that. I’m me.”

That isn’t to say that Honasan is influenced by no one. In fact, aside from citing Lily Allen, Ingrid Michaelson, and even early Katy Perry as women she looks up to, Honasan shares that she went so far as to seek out Sarah Bareilles during the American singer’s Singapore tour, and even went on to declare that she would be Bareilles’ opening act someday.

“(Bareilles) was like, ‘What’s your name?’ I said, ‘Kai Honasan.’ Then she was like, ‘Let’s see if I remember that.’”

A proclamation like that can either hint at greater things yet to come, or sound like a jinx that simply negates whatever it foresees. But Honasan doesn’t seem to put too much, or any, pressure on herself and her music; she is aware of her talent but not so deep into it that she takes herself too seriously. “I know my music won’t change the world, for sure. But if I’ve entertained you for three minutes, my job is done… I don’t think of myself any deeper than that or I don’t take myself too seriously. If I did, I probably wouldn’t sound the way I do so I don’t want to lose that.” Photos by JOSEPH PASCUAL