So much of how we move through and hope to impact the world is influenced by our environment and our outlook. Art and social justice have become outlets through which many Black artivists capture the times. Born and raised in rural Virginia, guitarist and recording artist Kovey Coles explores all sides of identity and social justice through his music. Now a Californian, and more specifically an Angeleno, Coles is excited to see how his upbringing and newfound home will continue to impact his musical style. His most recent single “Cameras” reminds us that visual art has become a source through which people produce and form perspectives.

Name: Kovey Coles

Age: 27

Race/Ethnicity/Any Identifications that Define/Describe You: A Black American, cishet male

Hometown: Grew up in rural Virginia, moved to LA in December + live in Hollywood Occupation: Guitarist/Recording artist

When did you start creating your art and why? I started playing guitar first in middle school just cause I thought they looked cool. I was also into visual art - drawing guitars and musical instruments. Throughout high school, I taught myself a few instruments and made mixtapes. I’ve really only gotten serious with music within the past two or three years.

When did you start your Instagram page and why? There was a point when I had to think of my page as not just a normal social feed but a music page. It happened towards when I moved out here, that was my approach - in general just being more intentional about what I’m putting out there. I’m always editing: consolidating and curating. Nowadays, you have to share and especially with being in LA - I had to change the way I was doing things.

I use it mostly to promote now and have something concentrated and curated. Most of my feed, at any time, is mostly social justice and then music and maybe personal stuff like hanging out with friends.

What topics or elements do you try to incorporate into your music? In the course of being a songwriter, I've tried different things, but I always find myself coming back to social issues, talking about real life issues. I know the uplifting, dance and workout but poppy studd serves a purpose, but it just doesn't resonate with me. I like to focus on experiences of being Black in America - experiences of living in America in this time. I’m dropping a song every two weeks which is more like a series than an album (like what Kanye used to do with Good Music Fridays). All of the songs are about different aspects of living in America right now so some themes are feminism, class, Black identity, history and culture and all the complications that come with all of this stuff.

What does your process look like/involve when it comes to creating pieces? I started as a musician so I make a lot of music all the time, produce instrumentals, beats and compositions. A lot of them, I just number - like since i've been here in L.A., I’ve made 50. And then, I go back and listen to them and see that this could have a cool hook over it. I do a lot of freestyling which is true gibberish or mumble singing rather than words. Oftentimes, I think of the lyrics as the last part, but some of the most intentional part that also takes the longest.

What’re your feelings about the recent murders at the hands of the police? The tough part of course is that my feelings about the incidents themselves haven’t really changed. Of course it’s outrage, despair, it’s hurt, but recently I've been changing my understanding around the context of it and society. As i'm getting older, I’m realizing that nobody really has our back unless we have our back. Just in becoming an adult, I guess we know that this has always happened, but in my mind I just assumed that people had things more figured out than this. Either way, we’re here now and we have top carry the torch the way our parents and ancestors did. The only thing that's really changed for me now is the reaction that people have to #BLM and the antagonism towards that - it’s upsetting. To see it outright, by grown ass adults...by people running our society...that's been more depressing to me during this moment in the movement. Foundational dismay hasn't changed but, I realize that having seen this movement happen very similarly 5 years ago, #BLM was just getting its footing.

People were trying to figure things out and seeing the change between then and now, at least on the surface level, via corporations, politicians and people in the media embracing it...it's made me reluctantly optimistic. I’m able to see now the potential for change and the shift in culture, you know? Inspires a little bit of hope for me. Their messaging, even if they are doing it for their own interest, is out there for kids to see and that's exciting.

What was life like for you growing up? I feel like I've only recently seen how kind of messed up these areas are and what we took as normal in these communities. So obviously a lot of confederate homage...we had Robert E. Lee day and a lot of stuff that wasn't even so explicit. That's the insidious part of modern racism is that it’s normalized in institutions which makes it hard to even recognize it as racism at first. People will say “you're just trying to take down all of our institutions” and it’s like all of them are tied to racism.

I left pretty quickly, went to school in New Jersey - Ivy League which was more diverse than my hometown ( approximately 70% white, 30% black). My first time meeting Asian-Americans or Jewish people or Latinx people was when I left my hometown and then I lived in New York for a bit. So it’s been a gradual move to broaden my perspective. Engaging with people in my hometown now, via social media, I can see the gap between their perspective and my perspective.

How do you hope to inspire change? I do feel like that is part of my life calling and the question for me is just how to do that. The tough part is there are a lot of paths. Corporate paths don’t speak to me, but I hope that, through my artistry, I tell the stories I want to tell in a way that brings people together. You can touch people with music...people will give you the time of day for a song that they wouldn't give you in conversation. I hope that by committing to this and trying to do this for real and gaining a larger and larger platform...I think that I can translate a lot of that into facilitating change...I hope that with my life experience being pretty unique I can use my platform to speak from what I know and for people who still don't have that platform like people in my family and from my hometown.

Favorite Food: French fries first, Thai food second

Favorite Genre of Music: I really try to listen to so many different styles, but i think jazz.

Favorite Artist/Band: N.E.R.D.

Favorite Color: Red

Favorite Inner/Outer Feature: Curiosity, it’s helped me in a lot of ways. It's the foundation of building a wider perspective on things and I’m proud of that. My teeth - because of my gaps. They’re me - I’m comfortable and cool with them.

Favorite Item that you incorporate into your daily looks, special looks, going out, around the house: I've been wearing my glasses with this chain attached to the ends since I've been inside - I think they're gonna come (back) into style.

Art & Activism 006 - @koveycoles