Kai Straw

First year nomad. Photo dump. 📸

Summit, Mt. Timpanogos. 🗻

🥳! I won the Audience Award for Best Music Video at Dallas International Film Festival. Huge thanks to DIFF for the selection (), and huge thanks to the audience for the award. The theater was full, and to hear such a loud response to the video in-person was such an inspiring thing.

The video has earned two awards, and been honored by seven festivals so far. It’ll be screening at the New York Independent Film Festival and the deadCenter Film Festival in Oklahoma City next month.

My goal with this music video was to start telling stories beyond my songs – to write and direct instead of sing and compose – while maintaining the same level of vulnerability. There tends to be this attitude of, “What can we do in a weekend?”, when it comes to music videos, and I feel, with all art, the stakes should be high, and you should risk everything every time. Make the truest thing you can, as vulnerably as you can, and let the chips fall where they may.

To see such a bizarre idea on screen, and see it get the love it has gotten, reminds me of a longstanding ethos I’ve done my best to follow as an artist and human being. Even when the truth is ugly, or difficult, or strange – honesty is where beauty comes from. If your art tells the truth, it’ll be, to someone, a rising sun.

Massive thanks (and congratulations!) to the cast and crew: Serra Naiman (.naiman), Kyle McCarthy (), Spencer (), Mary Kuznetsova (.ontrary). Luke Cho (.aesthetic.collective). Nina Zepeda (.fx). VFX (). Zachary Sweet (). Tyler Manzo ().

Soli Deo Gloria. ☀️

Just dropped my new song, "All That I Hate in You Is Me".

It's about the moment you see the role you've played in your present darkness; when you stop pointing the finger, when you realize - 'I am ultimately responsible'. The title sounds like self-loathing, but seeing yourself or a difficult situation truthfully, even if it's ugly, is a dramatic first step toward freedom.

Streaming link in the comments!