Interviews: KVDE
1. Where did you get the idea for the band name?
So technically, it’s not really a band name, because I’m a solo artist. It’s just my name! I originally released music under my full name, Kade Trentham, and I did that for a few years before realizing that whenever I told people my artist name, they could never spell my last name. It was complicated and just wasn’t very easy to search.
So in 2019, I decided I wanted to simplify it. I wanted something really easy to remember and search. Just four letters that I could tell somebody and they could immediately look it up.
At first, I was just going to go with KADE, but then I thought it might be cool to replace the A with a V. That kind of thing was pretty popular at the time, so I went with KVDE, and I still think it looks cool.
It’s definitely easy to remember, but the funny thing is that now people have trouble figuring out how to pronounce it. So I kind of put myself right back into the same situation. But hey, at least it’s easy to remember and search.
2. Did you always want to have a solo project or did it just happen that way?
When I think back to the very beginning, no, I definitely didn’t intend on going the solo route. And by the beginning, I mean my very first band in high school. I started the band and actually did a lot of what I still do now. I wrote all the parts and all the songs, and once I found the guys I wanted in the band, I basically presented the songs to them for everyone to learn.
At the time, I fully intended on taking that band all the way to the top. I think we all do that when we start our first band. We’re like, “Yeah, this is gonna be the one. We’re gonna build a career out of this.” But eventually the band broke up, and obviously that didn’t happen.
The idea of becoming a solo artist didn’t really come until around 2016, about three years after that band had broken up. At that point, I fully intended on staying in the alt-pop/alt-R&B lane and doing solo music that way. I had a passion for that type of music and I liked the idea of doing it on my own.
But I’ve always had a love for metal. My first band was metalcore, so that heavier side of me never really went away. For a long time, though, I had this idea in my head that because I was a solo artist, I couldn’t really make music that sounded like a full band. I thought if I wanted that sound, I’d have to actually start another band, and I didn’t want to do that. I enjoyed being a solo artist and having that freedom.
Once I took my hiatus from music and eventually came back, I stopped worrying about those rules and decided I was just going to make whatever I wanted to make. I’m capable of making full-band music, and that’s the music I wanted to make. I love the sound and energy of a full band, but I also love the creative control that comes with being a solo artist. So I think this is where I’m going to stay for probably the entirety of my career.
3. Who are some artists you would like to collaborate with?
Honestly, I really like polarization when it comes to collaborations. Of course there are artists within the scene that I’d love to work with, but I think I’m even more intrigued by the idea of collaborating with artists who exist completely outside of my genre.
It’s funny, I actually texted my manager, Tyler Rich, a few weeks ago and said, “Just so you know… dream collab: Bazzi.” He’s probably not the first person you’d expect me to name, but I love his music and I’ve always thought he was incredibly talented. I think putting two artists together who seemingly shouldn’t make sense on paper can sometimes create something way more interesting than the obvious pairing.
Another artist I’d love to work with is Jake Hope. He’s a smaller independent pop/R&B artist I discovered back in 2019, and I’ve always thought his voice was incredible. I really connect with his writing style, too.
At this point in my career, I’m not necessarily interested in collaborating with the biggest artist possible just for the sake of their name or how big they are. I’m much more interested in working with people who genuinely inspire me. That could be an artist with one monthly listener or an artist with a hundred million. If I hear something in their music that excites me and makes me wonder what we could create together, that’s what matters to me.
4. Do you have plans to find band members for live performances in the future?
Well, I actually already have, and that’s always been the plan. I want to make music as a solo artist, but when it’s time to tour, I want to create a family on the road and do this with other people. The goal was never to just be alone all the time. Especially when you’re making music that sounds like a full band, you need that energy on stage to really make the songs come alive.
Right now, I’ve got my boy Chad Rexton on guitar, Kameron Hamer on bass, and my boy Gama Diaz on drums.
At this stage, though, I also understand that the live band has to be somewhat fluid. Someone might not be able to make a particular run, or certain shows might not make sense for everyone, so I’ve intentionally built it in a way where people can flow in and out when needed without everything falling apart.
Of course, I’d love to eventually find those permanent guys where we can all ride it out together and really build that chemistry over the years. That’s ultimately what I want. But I also understand that at the stage I’m at right now, that’s not always the easiest thing to do. For now, I’m just grateful to have great musicians and good people around me who can help bring this music to life.
5. Why did you want to play this genre?
Like I said, heavy music is where all of this started for me. I’ve loved metal for a very long time, but somewhere throughout my twenties, I kind of got away from it.
Eventually, I realized that if I wanted to be as authentic as possible and really express myself through music, I had to stop thinking about what I was “supposed” to make and go back to making whatever I genuinely wanted to make.
That’s not to say that the pop and R&B music I made before wasn’t authentic. I genuinely love all kinds of music, and I still love pop and R&B. Those influences are a part of me, too. But if I had to say where my heart truly lies, it’s with heavier music. There’s something about it that has always felt like home to me.
At the same time, my love for so many different kinds of music is exactly why I don’t want this project to live inside one genre. Some songs are going to be heavy. Others might barely be heavy at all. You’re going to hear pieces of pop, R&B, electronic music, metal, and whatever else I happen to be inspired by at the time and that’s completely by design.
That’s really the plan for KVDE moving forward: no box and no rules about what I’m allowed to make. I just want to create whatever feels exciting and honest to me in that moment and let the music become whatever it wants to become.
6. Who or what inspires you to write music?
Man, honestly, just living life. There’s no single trigger that makes me feel inspired to write music. I think songwriting is just the way I process life. My experiences, my reality, and the lens through which I see the world.
And it doesn’t necessarily have to be something I’ve personally gone through. Sometimes it could be something someone close to me is experiencing, a story somebody tells me, or even just an emotion or situation that I connect with enough to put myself inside of.
At some point, I realized that music is a gift I’ve been given, and it would be a shame not to use it. I get to take these experiences, mine or someone else’s, and turn them into something tangible. I can package those feelings into a song and send it out into the world, where hopefully it reaches somebody who needs it.
That’s probably the most inspiring part of writing for me.
7. Who are some of your favourite bands?
So I actually have two answers for this. I have my all-time favorites… the artists who have inspired me throughout my life and are basically timeless to me. They’re never going away, and they’ll probably always have some place in my circle of influence. Then I have my current favorites… the artists I’m really locked into and inspired by at this particular moment.
If I had to give you my five all-time favorites, I’d say Linkin Park, Whitesnake, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, and the Eagles. Obviously, that’s a pretty wide range of music, but I think that says a lot about where my own sound comes from. I’ve never really drawn inspiration from just one genre.
More recently, I’ve been really heavy on ERRA, Colorblind (shout out Travis and the boys), Queen, PRESIDENT, and SAVE US.
And this technically isn’t an artist I’ve been diving into as a whole, but I have to mention it because I genuinely cannot stop listening to “Atmosphere” by FISHER and Kita Alexander. That song has had me in a chokehold for a year haha.
8. When and where was your last gig?
My last gig was in Houston Texas on June 20th, which was the final night of a three-day run with Woe, Is Me and Jamie’s Elsewhere. We played Dallas, Austin, and Houston, and honestly, that entire weekend was pretty special to me.
That run was actually my first time performing live in about two and a half years, so just being back on a stage again meant a lot. There’s a feeling that comes with performing that you really can’t replicate anywhere else, and after being away from it for that long, I think I realized how much I had missed it.
To come back after two and a half years and get to share the stage with those guys made it even better. They treated us like family from the very beginning, and the entire experience was just incredible. It was one of those weekends that reminded me why I love doing this in the first place.
It’s definitely something I won’t forget, and it made me more ready than ever to get back on the road.
9. Have you ever suffered from stage fright? Any tips for beginners on how to beat that?
Oh yeah, most definitely. I probably had more nerves before that three-day run than I’ve ever had before a show, mainly because I hadn’t been on stage in two and a half years. That was the longest I’d gone without performing since the very first time I stepped on a stage.
I had honestly been stressing about it for weeks leading up to those shows. I remember walking out there the first night still carrying all of that nervousness with me. Our first song was “Image,” and I don’t think I fully relaxed until I made it through the first chorus. Once I got past that, I remember thinking, “Okay, I’m good. I can breathe. I still know how to do this.”
But I don’t even know if I’d call that stage fright, necessarily. I wasn’t afraid of getting on stage or being in front of people. That kind of fear probably disappeared over 15 years ago when I first started performing. Being on a stage actually feels pretty natural to me at this point.
What I was afraid of was whether I could still deliver.
Not only had it been two and a half years since I’d performed, but this was also my first time really performing this style of music as a vocalist. I was asking a lot more of my voice and needed to know that I could vocally carry myself through an entire set. There was definitely that little voice in the back of my head wondering, “Do I still have this in me?”
Thankfully, once I got through that first chorus, I had my answer.
10. What bands or artists have inspired you the most?
This really ties back to your earlier question about my favorite bands and artists. The five I mentioned as my all-time favorites (Linkin Park, Whitesnake, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, and the Eagles) are probably the five that have inspired me the most throughout my life.
What’s interesting is that they’ve all influenced me in completely different ways. Whether it’s songwriting, vocals, melodies, production, musicianship, performance, or just the way that I think about music as a whole, I’ve taken something different from each of them. They’re all timeless to me, and I think pieces of those influences will probably find their way into whatever I create for the rest of my career.
11. What are your plans to release more music?
Right now, I’m working on an EP for spooky season. I wouldn’t necessarily call it “Halloween music” in the novelty sense, but I want it to have a sound and an energy that immediately puts you into that headspace… that world, that atmosphere, that time of year. I want you to be able to feel it without me having to spell it out for you.
As soon as that EP is finished, though, I’m heading straight into album mode.
I had been releasing a new single every month for quite a while, up until May of this year, and I still want to maintain some of that consistency. But at the same time, I’m at a point where I really want to give myself the space to build something bigger. I want to take the time to fully dial in the concept, the direction, the brand, the world, the sound, and everything that surrounds this album.
I’m really inspired by what I’m starting to envision for it, and I don’t want to rush that just for the sake of constantly putting something out.
So after the EP, there will probably be a few more singles throughout the end of this year and into the beginning of next year, but my primary focus is going to be building this album and hopefully getting it out into the world sometime in 2027.
12. Anything else you'd like to add?
I think the biggest thing I’d add is just that I’m genuinely excited about where all of this is going. I spent a few years away from music, and coming back to it with a completely different perspective has made me appreciate every part of this so much more.
For the first time in a long time, I feel like I’m making exactly what I want to make without worrying about what box it fits into or what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m having fun creating again, I’m excited to get back on the road, and I feel like I’m only scratching the surface of what I want KVDE to become.
More than anything, I’m just grateful for everybody who has listened, shared a song, come to a show, or supported what I’m building. There’s a lot more coming, and I’m really excited for people to see where I take it next.
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