First things first I wanted to thank you for coming on and interviewing with Nefarious Supply! So to get the interview started tell us about yourself, who is Kami Osha and what experiences have influenced you as a creative individual?
No problem man thanks for having me. I’m Kami Osha, I’m from the Inland Empire, which is a mass of cities located between Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas. Im not so much into titles if I don’t absolutely have to pick them, just because I've had so many different ones. But my skill set consists of music writing, production, audio engineering, graphic design, photography and djing just to name a few. I'm influenced by so many different things but movies probably hold the most weight with me.
When I found your Instagram I was blown away!! The overall aesthetic of your photos and art is amazing, each item is unique but stays consistent to a theme that is a signature to you. So tell us more about your style?
Thank you i really appreciate that. I say this a lot on my twitter but I honestly get surprised that people actually like a good portion of the design stuff I put out. My style is basically what I like to describe as me failing to copy Bryan Rivera (responsible for a large part of Post Malone’s visual identity) and Henock “Hk” Sileshi’s (responsible for Brockhamptons visual identity) styles hahaha. I look up to both of them a lot and HK was one of the main factors that made me start designing. I’m often drawn to darker tones and textures that makes my mind feel like I can actually hold the designs through the screen, so that's mainly what I put my mind to creating. I enjoy small details, simplistic spacing and ideas that aren’t always super straightforward, yet still easier to digest.
When you go about creating art, or taking photography what is your overall goal?
My goal is usually just to try something I may not have already done. Just trying to dig deeper into my mind to beat myself. It typically takes a lot for me to like my own stuff, so most of my time goes to me trying to impress me. I’m pretty confident that if I like it, then more people than not will like it too.
As you get better at graphic design what are some skills that you’ve picked up along the way?
As far as technical skills, there's limitless amounts of stuff I could name, but all of them I feel like just depend on the situation at hand. If anything, the best skill I've probably picked up would be just becoming more comfortable with trying new things. Getting a scanner was the best thing that I ever did, because it allowed me to think outside of just using the internet. It made me start doing more things with my actual hands.
So you’ve designed covers for amazing artists like Maxx Owa, Mathaius Young , Deezo, Chase Aaron, how did you meet each of these artists and how did your creative process change from artist to artist?
I guess it would make the most sense to go in chronological order, since all of the stories sort of connect in one way or another. About 8 or 9 years ago I met Chase. He lived down the street from me and we made music together often. Chase and I are usually on the same page when it comes to visual elements, so it's never really a struggle to form an idea. We just connect and try to push each other to make the best product we can.Fast forward a couple years to 2014, Chase and I ended up living together in San Diego. One of the biggest shows I performed in was where I met Deezo. We spoke a few times here and there but I was only doing music back then so the convos were a lot different. After that, I didn’t see him for a couple years and I had moved back to the block i met Chase on. A couple years later, I ended up reconnecting with Deezo while i was djing the second part of the original event I met him at, (ironic lol) in like 2016 i think, but i still wasn’t designing yet.
He told me about an artist he knew in LA named Tre Capital, that he thought I should build a relationship with and dj for. It worked out and i dj’d for Tre for a couple of years and ended up designing later things for Deezo. Somewhere in between that Tre introduced me to Mathaius and we all just became really good friends before I think he even knew i designed. What started off as me just helping Mathaius put together an idea he had for his EP cover, ended in me working more in depth with him on it and ultimately coming up with an alternate cover that I liked so much i decided to put it out anyway. Maxx came somewhere between me meeting Tre and Mathaius. I was introduced to him by my friend Oktane (1/2 of Audio Push), and by then I was already full blown designing. He had expressed to me that he fucked with the way I did things, so he ended up being the first artist I was doing every design for without us ever really even openly coming to that conclusion. I typically only work long term with people im actual friends with, so none of these were really that hard to figure out. As far as the creative process, they all usually just trust my input and let me do my own thing, and if I veer too far off we realign. It's more so me just putting together the story of the individual, from my point of view.
One of my favorite covers has to be the one you did for Mathaius Young “Boy Meets World EP,” tell us more about about how you designed the cover?
That's actually my favorite one too haha. So basically Mathaius hit me through our group chat (001), which consisted of me, him, Tre Capital & Scotty Apex, telling me about this idea he had where he wanted to make himself into a doll, which was inspired by an old Sticky Fingaz album cover. He had gotten a doll from an antique store and set it up on his floor with a backdrop, taken a picture of his own face on his phone, then cropped it onto the doll. So he sent me that file, and I went in and did a lot of color corrections to his face to match the skin tone of the doll, then did some shading so the neckline would blend. I did a lot of different texturing and color shifting so it would all look cohesive and believable. Originally there were 4 different versions because he had multiple poses of the doll and shots of his face. The version he went with had a different texturing than the one I did, which I believe him or someone he knew had made, andhe really liked it, so I just made my own just for the fun of it. I ended up really liking mine, so I let him know I wanted to put it out after we put his out, which he was cool with it. I did the track list right after i worked on the alternate. For the track list, I had him write out the song titles in sharpie on an envelope, then he sent me a picture through text. I took away the background and used grunge brushes with a tablet to blend it onto the dolls show, kind’ve in a toy story fashion. The only differences from the one he put out and the one i put out are the texturing and I added the EP title to mine.
So let's talk music you're also a producer, tell us about your production, who and what has influenced your style?
With producing, I’m really big on hard hitting drums and unique bounces. I looked to Timbaland frequently in my younger years for those things. As of more recently the last couple years, my biggest influences have been Idlekid, Mathaius Young, OhgoshLeotus and Wondagurl. I’m also trying to get more into adding more layers and textures to balance out the drums, so I've been studying piano and electric guitar for awhile.
What can we expect from you in the near future?
I'm not super huge on speaking too deeply about things before im fully ready for them to be out, but im definitely working on a lot more visual elements, and even more sonically.
Any last words?
To anybody reading this, thanks for even caring. Don’t let your current situation dictate
destination.
● KØ
Big shout out to Kami Osha for coming on and interviewing with Nefarious Supply. if you enjoyed this interview and want to see more of his work you can find him on Instagram and you can also check out his website to get a deeper look into his portfolio.
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