Get To Know Kiwicha

Photos by Andrea van den Boogaard

Camila Montoya and Alessia Kato meet Amplified at Tai Nam Market to discuss grocery essentials, Chicago inspirations, and collaborating as partners in Kiwicha.

Camila: Camila Montoya

Alessia: Alessia Kato

Amplified: Where can we start? Alessia and Camila, do you feel like you have Tai Nam essentials? And if you do, what are they?

Alessia: Yeah, definitely. One is definitely daikon radish. 

Camila: Enoki mushrooms… Furikake…

Alessia: Furikake, curry…

Camila: Kewpie mayonnaise..

Alessia: Mayo… Trying to think what else…

Camila: Nori, too…

Alessia: Nori, yeah.

Camila: Okra.

Alessia: Okra, yeah. Green onion, too. Gotta have that. Tofu, as well. (laughs)

Camila: (laughs) That’s a lot. Miso!

Alessia: Miso, yeah!

Amplified: That’s good! We have a shopping list. (laughs)

Amplified: Could you describe in three words what it’s like to collaborate musically with your partner?

Camila: Therapeutic, emotional, motivating.

Alessia: Inspiring, comfy, and beautiful.

Amplified: Last played song on your phone?

Camila: Mine’s by Foushée - Double Standard.

Alessia: Smooth by Orion Sun.

Camila: We’ve been listening to a lot of R&B lately.

Amplified: Together?

Camila: Yeah.

Amplified: Do you feel like when you’re cohabitating in the same spaces, that you like to listen to music together? Or headphones in, doing your own thing?

Camila: We like to listen to music together mainly.

Alessia: Yeah, we have a little bluetooth speaker, and pretty often we just have music going throughout the day. We make playlists together…

Camila: Yeah, whenever we’re together I feel like we listen to the same things. Because we have the same taste in music for the most part. 

Amplified: That must be nice.

Alessia: Yeah, and [Camila’s] a really good DJ, putting together songs and vibes and everything. It’s always really nice.

Amplified: Cool! I’ll keep an eye out for DJ gigs coming up. (laughs)

Camila: (laughing) I gotta have my first one! 

Alessia: (laughing) Yeah, she’s made me really good playlists over the years. It’s always really nice.

Amplified: Sweet. Like the playlist being its own love language.

Alessia: Definitely.

Camila: Yeah, same with her.

Amplified: Now I’m just curious, but do you feel like there are any kinds of songs that you gravitate towards when you’re making playlists for each other? 

Alessia: Yeah. For me I feel like for the playlists I’ve made for her, it’s kind of like a theme, like a feeling involved. And then everything branches out from there. Like sometimes if [Camila] went away to visit family in Miami or Peru, I would miss her and so it’s songs that stem from that. [To Camila] I don’t know if it’s the same for you?

Camila: Yeah, I feel like some of my playlists definitely are in a theme of what I’m feeling in that moment. Like more emotional songs if I’m feeling like that. Or if I’m feeling more up, then dancy stuff, like groovy-inspired... It’s a nice mix. I think sometimes, I still tend to mix two different types.

Amplified: I wanted to ask you about the origins of the name Kiwicha, and how you landed on it - If there were there any other names you were considering, and what the process was like to arrive there?

Camila: So in the time when we were starting to make music together, and we were actually talking about starting to have an official project - Because for a while it was just for fun - But then we started saying we should actually start a band. And then we were trying to think of a name… I had green hair at the time, and [Alessia] used to call me Kiwi sometimes as a nickname. And so I guess the word Kiwi was in my mind. And my family’s from Peru, and I grew up eating this cereal, kiwicha. The word “kiwicha” is in the indigenous language from the Peruvian Andes - It’s called Quechua, the language - And [kiwicha’s] basically an ancient superfood and plant. And I just thought, “Oh, kiwi!” It just had to do with the word. And [Alessia’s] half Japanese, and “cha” in Japanese is tea, so I was like “Oh! It’s like it’s Peruvian and Japanese.” It’s a mix, like wordplay. 

Alessia: Yeah, like between us there’s the wordplay, and also the actual meaning of the word from [Camila’s] side. So it all seemed to just fit together really nice. 

Camila: It’s really random. (laughs) It’s like a superfood ancient plant, but I was like okay! I like how it sounds, I like how it looks, too, spelled out in the language… It’s actually amaranth. 

Amplified: Cool. It has a flower too, right? The plant?

Camila: Yeah, it’s a purple-ish.

Alessia: Yeah, it’s really pretty. 

Amplified: Sweet! I didn’t know that either, about the combination of the words within the words. That’s awesome. 

Amplified: Alessia, I wanted to ask about the new Ghost Days album too. And what that creative process was like for you, and how you feel now that it’s released.

Alessia: Yeah, definitely. It’s been a really cool experience. It’s very DIY - And I just did everything, like the recording, the mixing, the mastering, the producing… And so it’s definitely a learning experience at the same time, trying to learn how to navigate through all that. But it’s been really cool. I kind of put that album together this past summer. And we were moving, so it was kind of a big change because it’s the only place that I’ve lived in Chicago, and it’s the first place we lived together when we moved here. So it felt like a big shifting change, and that just kind of made me start reflecting and thinking about a bunch of changes in my life. Like leaving Miami and coming to Chicago… and just a lot of stuff that I was holding onto. So it was kind of a personal reflection, and then the writing kind of just came through that. And it’s really cool, I released some cassette tapes for it, and that was all DIY too. I bought an old tape duplicator - it looks like it’s from the 80s or the 90s - on eBay, which made the process a lot easier. And then I just ordered tapes. My sister is a graphic designer, so she’s done pretty much the majority of the artwork I’ve used in my music, so she designed the artwork and everything. And then I recorded the tapes on there, and released that, and it’s been great! I feel like the music community here is so warm and embracing, and just it just feels really good. I feel like everyone’s so inspired by each other, and positive, and so nurturing. So it’s been really cool to hear what people think, and if they felt something from the songs. It’s been really positive and inspiring for me, definitely.

Amplified: And now that you’ve moved into your new place together, is there anything that you’re both feeling inspired by within your new home too? 

Alessia: Yes! There’s a lot.

Camila: Definitely. The first thing is the tranquility of it. We came from an apartment that was a really toxic living situation with the neighbors. We lived above the building janitor who was this really old guy that was just mean and really anal about everything… and would literally complain about our footsteps. So. You know. We became really paranoid and didn’t want to make any noise, so we always just felt so limited. We couldn’t even listen to music in the apartment because we were just worried that he would complain. He would complain about everything… And he just made us really scared… (laughs) So now that we don’t have that situation it’s nice to feel like we’re somewhere that’s so calm. Because you could hear everything in that apartment too, like the walls were so thin, the structure of the building was really old… You could hear when they would flush! (Laughs)

Amplified: No!

Camila: Things like that. 

Alessia: It was, like, a really strong flush. Like (loud whooshing sound)

Camila: So strong. It’s like a public bathroom toilet.

Amplified: No! I had one of those in my old apartment too. And it’s the lever too?

Camila: Yeah! And you hear every time that someone flushes! And we were in between, like on the second floor with someone here [below] and here [above]. So now we’re on the third floor, and it’s quiet, and there are trees… it’s just nice being somewhere quiet. And having that peace of mind, no crazy neighbors, and the neighborhood is nice. It’s really peaceful. We lived literally right next to the train before, too. So we used to hear the train, like, every five minutes. 

Alessia: It was a lot of constant noise and distractions and stuff. So the tranquility is… Sometimes we have moments where we’re like “It’s so quiet here!”

Camila: We can’t believe how quiet it is! Because for three years, we were living with that.

Amplified: Three years, damn. 

Camila: It’s a long time.

Alessia: We really liked that apartment, which is why we stayed there that long. And it was really close to the train. It was a nice neighborhood and everything, but yeah. After we moved and we look back on it now, we’re like “Whoah. We can’t believe we were experiencing that for that long and not making a change earlier.” But…

Amplified: It’s like you don’t realize what you’ve left until you’ve left it. 

Alessia: Yeah. It was like “okay, whoah.”

Amplified: Last question. Are there any Chicago artists that are inspiring you right now?

Alessia: Yeah! There’s so many. Tasha, Blake Davis…

Camila: Toni…

Alessia: Toni, yeah…

Both: (at the same time) Harvey Waters. (laughs)

Camila: Dearly Somber… Living Thing…

Alessia: Mia Joy… There’s so many.

Amplified: So y’all have a show coming up on September 17th. And we can stream your music on all of the platforms?

Alessia: Yeah. As far as we know it’s on everything. Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud… 

Amplified: Sweet! Is there anything we should look out for in the future that you want to direct people to?

Alessia: Yeah! We’re going to be releasing a single at some point. We’ve kind of been putting it off for a while now, but definitely in the near future we’re going to be releasing a single. So we’re pretty excited for that. 

Camila: Mhm. We’re working on recording the album now. 

Alessia: Yeah, that too.

Camila: Just taking some time to record and everything. Preparing for that.

 Amplified: Cool! That’s exciting to look forward to. Also… hearing the cicadas while talking to both of you feels very timely and right. (laughs)

Kiwicha is performing at Golden Dagger on 9/17/22 with Sonny Falls, Naked Brunch and Kiss the Tiger (ticket link). Their music, along with Swans Cry, Alessia’s newest album from solo project Ghost Days, is streaming on all platforms now.