Me.Kai Live in West Hollywood

Me.Kai is an indie, hyper-pop singer songwriter from Santa Barbara who’s show as both the drummer AND lead singer left me stunned. When she and her crew started setting up, they brought out a box drum, a ride, hi-hat, and a snare front and center of the stage. I thought, “There’s no way we’re getting the lead singer as percussion too, right?”, but sure enough we did. A percussionist as a lead singer isn’t unheard of, but it’s definitely rare. You have to be a multi-tasking genius to coordinate everything all at once without missing a beat but Me.Kai had it in spades. This was definitely something that my camera’s never seen before.

I’m an audience member first and a photographer second when I go to these shows, it’s what makes me so passionate about this job. Being a wallflower in these crowds gives the most genuine looks from these musical artists. I’m not a big fan of always being in front of an artist’s face during their entire set and it disrupts the show for everyone else behind the camera. Additionally, how else will you get photos like this? Catching her sing and drum from this perspective really makes you feel like you were there.

Me.Kai wasn’t shy in sharing the spotlight either, not that her band wouldn’t have made their presence be known otherwise. Andrew the pianist and Jake the guitarist were killing it with their performances and they both deserved some stylized hero shots.

I shot Andrew with the intent of grabbing an action shot while I took the opportunity to capture Jake with the spotlight behind him, giving dark shadows covering his face. So cool.

The last photo I have to showcase today is one that left the biggest impression on me. Me.Kai decided to momentarily leave her drum set and step right in-front of her band, directly under the spotlight in front of us. The clear separation between artist and audience faded into an intimate performance, where each word took hold of your ears with caring intent. I thanked the gods of lighting for this photo as I used a nearby camera stand for the foreground to add a little more depth to the photo.

Me.Kai’s music was absolutely captivating, it made it that much more fun to shoot for her. I talked to her after the performance, stuttering with my words, that she’d be all I would listen to on the way home that night with her words of thanks feeling so genuine. Her live rendition for “MISSMELIKEYOU” hasn’t left my head since, I can’t wait to see her perform again.

Written and photographed by Richardesque