00:00
Welcome to Kevin's English Room Podcast!
Hello!
And we have a very special guest here with us today,
Salma Lees!
Hi!
How are you doing?
Thanks so much for having me!
Yeah, so honored to have you here.
Oh, the honor's all mine.
So, for the people who do not know you,
could you give us a little introduction on what you do?
Yeah, for sure!
I'm a singer-songwriter.
I flew here from Los Angeles.
I have a song called "Mad at Disney."
You might possibly know it.
And I just released an EP called "Unsponsored Content."
Ta-da!
Yeah, there it is!
I've actually never seen it in the, in like the physical copy until today.
Oh, really?
This is very exciting for me.
Yeah, it's cool.
It's like, it's real.
Oh, wow.
Oh!
Yeah, but I'm here because I just did "Summer Sonic."
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Which was very fun.
When was that?
That was yesterday and the day before yesterday.
Okay.
We started in Osaka, and then we took the bullet train over...
Sick.
...Tokyo.
Uh-huh.
And it was the craziest thing I've ever done in my life.
Ah.
There were so many people.
Yeah.
I've been checking your stories for your Instagram several days, and I heard you were in Korea?
Yeah.
And then came to Osaka, and then here, right?
Yep.
Before Korea, where were you?
You were in LA or...?
Just in LA, yeah.
We did, we were actually in San Francisco for a bit because we played "Outside Lands,"
and that was my first festival.
It was very fun.
It's my childhood festival, so it was a really big moment for me.
I've been going since I was 14.
And then we had a few days off in Los Angeles, and then we flew to Korea.
Mm-hmm.
Wow.
Are you going anywhere after Japan here?
Yeah, we're going to Singapore.
Oh.
And then going back to LA?
Yeah.
And all.
Wow.
Must be.
East Asian tour.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, my first one.
It's been a dream come true.
Wow.
First time here in Japan or...?
Yeah.
Oh.
So cool.
I know you love sushi, right?
I do.
I have been eating nothing but sushi.
Yeah.
It's so good.
Did you taste like... went to some sushi restaurants?
Yes.
I had sushi last night.
I don't remember what it was called, but it was right across my hotel.
And then I had sushi at catering.
The catering was so good at the festival.
Oh, my goodness.
Yeah, there was sushi.
There was a lot of stuff.
There was vegan options and so many good things.
And then we had conveyor belt sushi as well.
That's really good.
I think we're going back tonight.
Really?
Yeah.
Oh, great.
That was really good.
If you have any recommendations for sushi places in the area, let me know.
If it's a conveyor belt sushi...
I saw that.
I saw your stories the other day.
And I was like, "Oh, I wanted to be the one to tell you that the conveyor belt sushi are the awesome ones."
So good.
Yeah.
Do you know which one?
There's like... I think there's like Sushiro, Kura Sushi...
It was Sushiro.
Kappa Sushi.
Sushiro?
Yeah.
Okay.
Oh, okay.
Then...
I believe it was that one.
I like Sushiro, personally.
There's these three options when it comes to those conveyor belt sushi.
Yeah.
Sushiro and then Kura Sushi.
03:00
Okay.
That's good, too.
It was definitely Sushiro.
Okay.
It was really good.
I personally recommend the Kura Sushi.
It's like you can put your dishes into a box.
Right.
And you can do the...
What's that?
A little game.
Oh, cool.
There's a game.
So like, you know these little plates that the sushi's are on?
So like, when you finish eating them, you're left with these plates, right?
You just stack them up, right?
Yeah.
So at the place where you said, which...
What's the name of that?
I guess Kura Sushi.
Kura Sushi.
That's the name of the restaurant.
The chain store.
You put the leftover plates in a machine.
Every time you put three plates...
Five.
Five plates, you get these little gacha-gachas.
Do you know what a gacha-gacha is?
No.
That's a Japanese one, I guess.
Gacha-gacha.
Japanese.
Like, you put coins in it.
I'm just gonna show you a picture.
This is so exciting.
Because we came across the problem of what to do with all the plates,
because they just kept stacking up.
It's like, "Oh, I'm making like a little plate tower here."
I mean, that's what all the Japanese people do.
Nice.
What they do is like, they have like a little competition of who can stack more towers.
Oh!
Right?
I would win that.
I...
My sushi stamina is so good, I can just keep on eating sushi.
Like, the limit does not exist.
Wow.
When you told me that you saw a content of hers...
Yeah, like competing.
Yeah, the competition.
Yeah, yeah.
That was with my old roommate and Bendik.
And I won.
But like, not even by a little bit, I won by so much.
I could have kept going.
I think I had like 40 or 50 pieces of sushi.
40 to 50?
That's a lot.
I could still do another roll or two.
Really?
I need to find someone that can beat me.
Yeah, we wanted to, you know, compete.
Yeah, we wanted to actually do like a little sushi recording.
Yeah.
We can...
Next time.
Yeah, next time.
Yeah, I mean, I'll be here for a week.
So if anyone wants to challenge me, let me know.
Sushi queen.
What's any plans of anything exciting happening after today?
Like, during your stay in Japan, are you planning to go somewhere or is it all...
Yes, so tonight actually, we might get tattoos.
Oh!
With your boyfriend?
Yeah, my whole band actually.
We were all gonna get...
He might chicken out.
He's like looking at me like, "I don't know if I'm gonna do it."
Wow!
My whole band, we were gonna get matching Mad at Disney tattoos.
Do you get tattoos?
Do you already have a tattoo somewhere or no?
No, it'll be my first one.
Wow!
I'm very excited.
Are you excited for that?
I'm a little nervous.
Yeah, I would too.
But I'm excited.
Have you decided which, you know, characters?
Yeah, I think I'm gonna get M and then the @ symbol
and then a D but in the Disney font.
So it stands for Mad at Disney.
That song kind of, you know, changed our lives and brought us here
and it's just very important to all of us.
So I think I'm gonna get it on my finger.
Wow!
Excited!
Yeah, about Mad at Disney.
06:01
That song, the Japanese TikTok, it was so viral in Japan as well.
Cool!
And how has that changed your career?
So much.
I mean, it brought me here.
I'm right here.
So that is, you know, so incredible to me and I'm so grateful for it.
That song, yeah, that changed my life in so many ways.
It made me start using TikTok for one.
I didn't really use it very much until that song.
I remember I saw a few people posting videos with the song
and I thought, "Oh, wow!
People are posting videos to my song.
Maybe I should post a video to my song."
And wasn't thinking much of it.
And then I did and then it went pretty viral
and I was like, "Wow, what is happening?"
I actually thought it was a joke at first
because it was like a million in a day
and I just never even, you know, thought that was possible.
I thought my phone was broken.
But it was not a joke, thankfully.
It was very, very cool.
Yeah, and I've been posting on TikTok since then
and have just gotten to connect with so many amazing people
from around the world, which has been so cool.
And I'm so grateful to finally be here
and get to meet them in person.
Yeah, it's been amazing.
If you were like, who was the one that you were like most wowed at?
Like, the people...
I'm sure like you got so many DMs of like,
"Let's collab together."
Or like, "Hi, listen to your music." and everything.
Like, out of all those people that...
Right, the comments and DMs.
Who was the one that was like,
"Wow, I can't believe it reached to this person."
That's a great question. I'm trying to think.
I mean, I've met so many awesome humans because of all of this.
I recently got to work with Demi Lovato, which was very cool.
Yeah, she's incredible.
And I actually wrote on to her with the songs on her album that just came out,
which was very, very cool.
That's like a dream cut as a songwriter.
That was a very big moment.
Who else? I'm trying to think.
Bella Porch was actually...
So she was one of the first people to use Mad at Disney in a video.
One of the first influencers.
And she's like part of the reason why it originally started getting traction on TikTok.
And I remember I was a really big fan of her and I still am.
But I remember seeing that and being like,
"Oh my gosh, this is so cool.
Like, I can't believe she used the song in a video."
And then that kind of was the catalyst for a lot more people using it.
And then I actually got to work with her
and write for her and work on "Build a Bitch" together.
And then another song on her EP that just came out.
So that was a really cool moment because it felt very full circle.
So yeah, it's been great being able to work on her artist project as well.
I didn't know that you were working on "Build a Bitch."
Oh, yeah, yeah. I co-wrote on that.
That's so cool.
Thank you.
Yeah, that was a cool one.
She's so sweet.
Yeah.
We were also one of the ones that were really impacted by TikTok.
09:03
Our first content was TikTok and that went viral
and that was the start of our whole career.
Comparing after TikTok and before you going viral on TikTok,
has that really changed the way you create music?
Like, is TikTok more in the picture of your music creation
or has it not affected you at all?
Ooh, that's a good question.
I definitely keep it in the back of my mind,
but usually after I write a song.
So in a session, we'll write a song
and then I'll think, "How can I market this on TikTok?"
Or like, "What cool way can I use this in a video on TikTok?"
And yeah, it usually doesn't influence the writing process as much.
I feel like the reason I love TikTok so much as a writer
is because it allows you to really focus on the lyrics
because they're typed out on every video,
which I think is so nice because I love writing lyrics.
That's like my favorite part of the songwriting process.
So I feel like that's kind of why for me TikTok is so exciting
because it allows fans to really read along and care about the lyrics.
But yeah.
How about you? Do you ever...
Like, does it kind of change how you create content?
So, I'm not a musician,
so I only make content just for TikTok.
Oh, gosh.
Just for YouTube.
So it's 100%...
Right, it's 100%...
Like, how viral will it be on TikTok?
How viral will it be on YouTube?
Yeah.
But you make music, right?
I actually do. I love music.
I want to listen to your music.
Oh, thank you.
But it's just, you know, still on the way.
So I have to, you know, learn things and record at my, you know, tiny room.
And I heard that you record your vocals in your rooms.
Yeah.
Is that true?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We have a little studio that we made ourselves in our apartment.
And we usually record vocals in the closet.
Just because it's nice and soundproofed.
Yeah, or like in the corner of the room.
Oh, are you still recording in your room?
Mm-hmm.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Just in our apartment.
Yeah, I like it better than being in a big, you know, fancy studio or anything.
Sometimes that happens, like if I'm in a session in a big studio,
we'll record like a demo vocal there.
But I really like to do the final vocals just in my room.
Wow.
Yeah, it feels more personal and I like to control everything and, you know, edit it.
Oh, just exit and...
Yeah, I don't usually mix it, but I'll like tune things and like comp and pick the best takes and everything.
I'm really picky about my voice.
Yeah, so I find it's easier to just do it myself
than give a producer a ton of notes on, you know, where to comp and what note is flat or sharp.
I want to just like handle it myself and I can be a perfectionist.
Love that.
Yeah, it's kind of fun too.
Which process do you like the most?
12:00
Like, do you like the recording part or do you like the thinking about the lyric part
or do you like the thinking about the melody and everything or which part do you enjoy?
Good question.
Probably, I think my favorite part, honestly, is even before all of that, just coming up with the concept.
I really love finding like a cool, clever title or just a topic, some type of way that I can flip something.
And once I find that, I'm like, "Oh, awesome. The song's gonna write itself very quickly."
And then I feel like, "Okay, like we have something awesome. Now I just need to not mess it up."
But yeah, once I like, those moments of, you know, like the light bulb goes off,
I'm like, "Oh, this will be a really cool song."
You know, I just like have that idea. That's probably my favorite part.
Oh, amazing.
But it's also the hardest part because it's not like something you can do just kind of on demand.
It has to like hit you, I guess.
That's true.
On which part do you start making music? Like the melody first or lyric first?
Usually, definitely topic first.
And then once I have the topic, I'll try and do the chorus lyrics.
Melody kind of comes with the lyrics for me.
Okay.
But I care more about the lyrics in the beginning for sure.
I feel like I'll tweak the melody later on in the process,
but the lyric to me is the most important part at the beginning.
Okay.
Yeah. And I usually like to start from scratch with chords and everything.
How about you?
Well, I basically start with chords.
Nice.
And I put beats on it, and I sing it like that.
Yeah.
Cool. Awesome.
Also, I love writing lyrics, so I always keep, you know, taking notes.
Oh, yeah. Me too. Yeah, you got the little notebook.
Yeah.
Definitely.
All right. Time flies so fast.
I've never done an episode that it feels this fast, but we have to wrap up.
Wow.
We'll move on to our second episode.
But you'll be joining us for the next episode too, right?
Yes, indeed. I can't wait.
Thank you. And thank you for the bracelet and the t-shirt.
Oh, yeah. You guys look so good.
It's so cute.
Wee.
Got the bracelet.
And I bought you a small little gift that you can bring home to LA.
That's so sweet.
I'll show that to you on the next episode.
Oh my goodness. I'm so excited.
All right. Thanks for listening, guys.
Bye-bye.
Hey, podcast listeners.
Before you end this show, I just, I forgot to announce during the show,
but the episode 2 of the interview with Salem and Elise,
you know what I was talking about, there's going to be another episode
right after the one you just heard.
Yeah. The second episode is going to be on Amazon Music.
Right. It's going to be exclusive on Amazon Music.
Just download Amazon Music and go to Kevin's English from Podcast.
So the show is called Kevin's English from Podcast Plus.
Yeah. So the episode 2 of that interview is going to be on Amazon Music.
So I just wanted to let you guys know because I don't want you guys freaking out.
Like, where's the second version of the interview?
15:01
It's not there. It's on Amazon Music.
So I just want to let you guys know that.
All right. Thank you. Bye-bye.