- That's actually probably one of my least favorite
TV performances I ever did. Yeah, for me I was just like,
"Oh, this is so awkward, I'm just walking around this rock, like what do I do?" (laughing) Hey, I'm Kali Uchis and I'm doing the
breakdown for Cosmopolitan. I don't normally like
watching my own work. No, I feel like it's like
that for most people. Like when you play back something, everyone's always like
"oh, my voice, you know?" ("After The Storm" by Kali Uchis plays) ♪ Yeah, do you ever wonder what he ♪ ♪ Might be going through on his own ♪ ♪ And the demons that
he's facing alone, ah ♪ Well, I did that with Nadia Lee. She came to my house a few times and we talked a lot
about all the references that we wanted to be inspired by. And working with her was really fun because we had a lot
of the same references and inspirations for,
and vision for the video. So it was really, really
easy to work with her. I feel like for me, that's definitely one of my favorite music videos too, yeah. There was definitely Diana Ross with the hat flowers in
the hair that I gave. And then Woman On Top,
this movie was Sama Hayek where like a sweat drop comes down and the flower grows. There was a bunch of movie references. The grocery store was fun. ("Moonlight" by Kali Uchis plays) ♪ Veo una muñeca cuando
miro en el espejo ♪ ♪ Kiss, kiss, looking dolly,
I think I may go out tonight ♪ ♪ I just wanna ride, get
high in the moonlight ♪ ♪ I just wanna get high with my lover ♪ Yeah, live TV is definitely
scarier than a concert because at a concert
it is you and your fans and there's just that energy
already that you can tap into so easily just from,
you know, your audience. You don't have to worry
as much about the cameras and everything, but for live
TV it's a little bit more awkward because everyone's
kind of just there, like looking at you. And some of them are fans and some of them are
people that just, you know, there trying to like check you out or see what you're about or whatever. So the energy is definitely different. Before I perform, we
usually play Mario Party. We just kind of like to
hang out and just all talk and it's just a normal environment. I know some people, they're
like, oh, we do a prayer and we do this, and we do that. It's like, I really respect that too, but I feel like it would psych
me out a little too much. Like I'm about to go to war or something, like doing this
prayer, like I'm about to go. It's like it makes it a
little too serious for me. So I like to just, you know,
it's just a normal day. Go out, do my thing, get off stage, take my makeup off, get
ready for bed, you know. ("Fue Mejor" by Kali Uchis plays) ♪ Someone could come love me ♪ ♪ If somebody know me ♪ ♪ Tú no me conoces (ghost, ghost) ♪ I've been so blessed to work with artists that are just cool down to
earth, people that I can connect with in real life that I would
hang out with in real life. So working with her in
the studio, you know, we wrote all her part together and it was really collaborative 'cause it was her first
time writing in Spanish and she's so hands-on with how she wants, she wants everything to be a certain way. So that was really fun. I've had some really tough
music videos, like long days, but that one we went
all through the night. That scene, that intro
scene, I was just so fried by that point because we had
smoked so much for a shot where we smoked together
and I was so tired. So I was like, I was literally passed out. When they shot me in that
scene, I was asleep for real. ("Telepatia" by Kali Uchis plays) ♪ Quién lo diría ♪ ♪ Que se podría hacer
el amor por telepatía ♪ ♪ La luna está llena, mi cama vacía ♪ ♪ Lo que yo te haría ♪ That's actually probably one of my least favorite TV
performances I ever did. Yeah, that was during the pandemic. It was like during the quarantine. So it was just a completely different experience than the usual. You know, we were in a studio, but it wasn't like the
studio with the audience. It was, it was almost more so just like filming like a music video. I feel like sometimes things come together the right way and sometimes they don't. I feel like that performance
just didn't come together the way that I thought it would. Like, I was just like,
"Oh this is so awkward, I'm just walking around this
rock, like what do I do?" I don't know, it was like a
awkward performance for me. ("Llama Llama Red Pajama"
by Kali Uchis plays) ♪ Llama llama, red pajama ♪ ♪ Reads a story with his mama ♪ ♪ Mama kisses baby's hair ♪ ♪ Mama llama goes downstairs ♪ The Llama Llama Red Pajama performance. (laughing) I had seen one person do
the Llama Llama Red Pajama thing before, but I
think it didn't register with me that this was the
interview where they do that on when they pulled out the book and they were like, oh, can
you do this thing for us? I was like, mm, I don't think so, because I really don't
like when people ask me to sing on cue, it feels a
little bit like a zoo animal type of thing, like sing like, you know, it just feels a little bit weird for me. I was also sick at the time, so I was feeling like a little
bit nervous about my vocals and like nervous about how it would go and everybody had a good
vibe at the interview. Like it was a very open, everybody was cool people,
we were all talking. I was like, okay, I'll do it. And then after I did it,
I was like, I don't know that I want you guys to put that out. I don't know, I think
you shouldn't put it out. They were like, no, it was so good. It was so good. I was like, you're just telling me this. You can get your clicks on me. You know, tanking and all that. People actually liked it. So I was really surprised. There was even someone saying like, oh, this is staged, she practiced. (laughs) You guys think this is staged. And I was like, oh wow. I felt so flattered. I was like, you really
think I practiced this? I really thought it was horrible. ("Telepatia" by Kali Uchis plays) The Telepatia music video. For me, it's always been really
important to play a active role in the creative of
everything that I do as an artist. 'Cause I'm a visual artist as well. So I think that if you have
a really strong idea of how you want things to look, then you should always utilize that. I was always writing music
since I was really little. Probably since I could
write, I was writing poetry and songs, just being naturally
a visual artist as well. Growing up I always felt that
I wanted to make music videos. I always felt that I
wanted to create music that I could combine with the visual arts and all the creative aspects of it. So for me it just always
went hand in hand. I like, you know, doodling and
painting and writing stories. I love to write screenplays. I would love to direct like a short series one day or like a film. I love directing in general,
so anything creative, I'm pretty much, I'm
pretty much all for it. ("Venus As A Boy" Cover
by Kali Uchis plays) ♪ His wicked sense of humour ♪ ♪ Suggests exciting sex ♪ It was my cover of Bjork's Venus As A Boy. I think Bjork is definitely inspiration music wise in the sense of
having such a unique tone and you know, following her own path and not being, not having
any type of box constrain her when it comes to creativity. I think she's a really inspiring artist. I would say that I definitely
really love this song and I had always really
wanted to cover this song, but I hate this performance. Well, that was like during,
when I was doing isolation and I was having some cystic acne, I had just started birth control and I was having cystic
acne, so I was like, oh, my skin looks so bad and I just didn't feel
comfortable with how I looked. And it's hard to do covers because you never feel
like you're gonna do as good as the original artist, obviously. So I was like, oh, I don't like how I did, but they just put it out anyway. So I was like, oh, well. ("I Wish You Roses" by Kali Uchis plays) ♪ I wish you love, I wish you well ♪ ♪ I wish you roses while
you can still smell them ♪ ♪ With pretty flowers ♪ Yeah, this was another one of the most difficult
videos I ever had to do. So we flew to Korea almost immediately. As soon as after we got there, we went into styling and went onto set. We were filming for like way
more hours than are legal to film in the United States. It was like we were on set for
so long, like I was so tired, but I really wanted to do it in Korea because that's where the
photographer lived, Gi-Seok. So he's super talented and I was really inspired by his work. We had been following each other and he does these flower studies, he calls them flower studies and as soon as I saw 'em, I was like, wow, this really reminds me, this goes so perfect hand in hand with my song. So I reached out to him
immediately like, hey, I really wanna do a music video inspired by your flower studies. At that time, I don't think
he had done any music videos, but he really, really wanted to do it. And so I was like, okay, let's do it. But we had to go to Korea to do it. So I was like, okay, all right, here I go. Yeah, we did full body paint and my hair. Oh my gosh. So I was getting that body
paint, like half asleep, like about to get on the
plane to go back home. It was so hard to get all that paint out, but just wearing like the
little, the little underwear and the little pasties and
being painted, it's like, you know, it's my first
time doing my little, little, my nudity. So I was like, oh, I'm so shy up here. (laughs) ("Labios Mordidos" by Kali
Uchis & KAROL G plays) ♪ Tremenda asesina con
un flow para matar ♪ ♪ Todo el mundo mira,
pero a ella le da igual ♪ ♪ KAROL y Kali Uchis ♪ ♪ La combi perfecta pa
olvidarse de ese mal ♪ ♪ Uh (oh-oh-oh-oh) ♪ ♪ La nena está encendí'a ♪ ♪ Se me pega como un tattoo ♪ So, well the song is all about, you know, celebrating Latinas, celebrating women and I think the video is definitely a
accurate representation of that. Yeah, it was just full of girls and everybody was just, you
know, feeling themselves. All the girls were
really fun to work with. I feel like it was
probably one of my funnest music videos that I ever shot. Just because all the
girls made me feel so safe and I feel so, you know, happy to just be doing it with just them. Karol, she's amazing to work with too. I think in general, just
to be able to work with somebody else who, you
know, we're both Colombian and we have that background
also of like knowing what it's like, you know, being
both being a female artist and Latina, I think that
we can just easily talk to each other about a lot of
things and get advice from her. And she could talk to
me, I could talk to her and it's just a comfortable, it's like I might not
see her all the time. I might not be close to her like that, but it's kind of like
when you, when I see her, I feel that I can speak openly with her and we have a mutual understanding. So it's really nice. Thank you for watching my
interview with Cosmopolitan. I'm Kali Uchis and don't forget to listen to my new album Orquídeas. (blows kiss) (upbeat music)
