Make way for Krisirie

Barbados’ music industry is dominated – if not defined by soca artists. However, there are many young and upcoming artists trying to diversify the industry and strip away the stereotypes. We are seeing more Bajans dabble in rap, R&B, pop, reggae, creating distinct and interesting music.

One of these extraordinary artists is 23-year-old Kristen “Krisirie” Walker.

Becoming Krisirie

The name Krisirie was created when she was in first form due to the fact that Kristen was always at the beach, always wearing red, yellow and green and listening to reggae music. The name stuck with her, later using it as her Twitter handle. And when people started to refer to her as Krisirie instead of Kristen Walker, she decided it might as well be her artist name.

She went from being the shy student singing ‘Bliss’ in the auditorium at The St. Michael School (SMS) to the songstress we know as Krisirie. This journey and transition came with owning her confidence and with experience. She says it’s like understanding what you are capable of on the other side of fear.

“It starts with the passion, drive and the love for it, but the confidence is something that I developed over time. Doing things that scared me and seeing myself survive on the other end.”
Krisirie

From passion to career

Though she has only been singing professionally for the last four years, music has never been something that Kristen second guessed.

Her first performance was around the age of 12 as a student of SMS. It was a moment like this that made Kristen aware that singing was something she liked and would continue doing. However, it wasn’t until fifth form at the age of 16 that she figured out this would be her career path.

“ There came a point where everyone was sending out applications for college and universities and all I knew was that I wanted to stick with my passion. Fortunately, my parents supported that but their thing was as long as you stay in school doing what you love. So I decided to go for it and audition for the BCC (Barbados Community College) music program.”
Krisirie

As she graduated with an associate degree in music, Kristen’s foundation in music started at BCC. She is very grateful that she did the program and credits it for teaching her about stage performance, music theory and the different aspects required to be a well-rounded musician and performer.

Her Musical Style

Because Kristen is influenced by a lot of different styles of music, she tends to incorporate that into her creative process. Her music is a blend of reggae and R&B and sometimes her tone is very jazzy. Though she doesn’t want to limit herself to one genre, if she had to describe her music, it would fall into the urban R&B or the pop-reggae category.

As you listen to her music you can hear the fusion of the different genres with each single she releases. From her debut track ‘Wind Blows’ to songs like ‘Stunna Forever’ and ‘For You’.

Her song ‘For You’ was a freestyle moment that turned into one of the most aesthetically pleasing videos that Kristen has created. Her team wanted to choose a short song to shoot a video so they picked ‘For You’.

Krisirie – For You

The point of the video was to keep it simple but effective and captivating to the eye with all the different colours. Kristen wanted something shot in studio that incorporated the Earth elements. The use of ocean projections, the props to represent greenery and the yellow background for the sun.

Kristen co-writes as well as writes her songs herself. She draws her inspiration from different scenarios and experiences.

“Sometimes I’m in the studio and the music alone inspires me to just write and capture that feeling in words, and the writing turns into experiences I’ve had, situations in my life, relationships. Even things that my people tell me regarding situations in their life, I can easily pull from and connect to and create from that as well. Sometimes it’s just something inside that you don’t know where it’s coming from but it’s a message that ultimately needs to be written on paper and sung out loud.”
Krisirie

Musical Inspirations

Kristen’s musical inspirations range from reggae artists like Buju Banton, Chronixx and Keznamdi to “the Queen of Jazz”, Ella Fitzgerald and John Mayer. For a good while, she use to listen to soft and pop rock which influenced some of her writing.

The conversational style of Drake’s writing also influences Kristen as that is something she wants to master. She is also inspired by Jhene’ Aiko’s writing style and finds her music really dope.

However, Kristen’s ultimate inspiration is Sade. She has been told by numerous people that she sounds or reminds them of the British Nigerian singer. However, it wasn’t until Willie Stewart, former drummer for Third World, told Kristen that she reminded him of Sade that she finally looked her up.

“I kind of just immerse myself into her music. She’s absolutely phenomenal, I love her. You know what I love about her, she’s also doesn’t box herself in and she creates great music. I study her songs and she doesn’t write like how they are rules in songwriting but her songs are still great.”
Krisirie

Motivation and Support

The thought of letting down herself is what keeps Kristen motivated to stay on this journey. She believes that this talent she was given is a gift, and looks at it as something that can be taken away. So, she plans to use it effectively for the greater good.

“I feel anytime you make it about you that’s when things get complicated, cloudy or tricky. It’s not about me, it’s about the people who are going to hear my music and the lives that may change for the better hopefully. And the people that I can impact worldwide and give back to. I kind of always attached the thought that this is for me to serve, yes I am doing music, but the music is just another way of being a messenger and having a task to carry out in life.”
Krisirie

Kristen is also blessed to have supportive parents and friends who are involved and want to see her excel in her music career. Though her team is very small she is grateful for the close-knit arrangement as that’s what gets the job done.

Growth as an artist

“I would say that I have grown tremendously and I think it’s more of a process of learning myself, learning myself through music, learning myself as the artist that I am and I think learning yourself equates to knowing what you want. And knowing what you want allows things to move forward authentically.”
Krisirie

In terms of her music, Kristen said she has gotten more comfortable in what she wants to say, who she wants to be and the type of music she wants to give to the world.

Performance wise, Kristen takes pride in the stage and being able to perform her music live. She has been fortunate to have been mentored and recruited by Arturo Tappin and his band for the past four years. With the band, she has toured all over the Caribbean, Canada and China and opened for big artists like Trey Songz and Third World.

“ Gaining that experience of working with other musicians, training and encountering different situations in the music business as I grow…There is no substitute for real life experience. I have been very blessed to have been mentored by various musicians, and given opportunities to grow as a performer”
Krisirie

This year marks four years since Kristen released her debut single ‘Wind Blows’ and her new single ‘Long Time Love’ will be her seventh single since then.

New Single

The inspiration for Kristen’s new single ‘Long Time Love’ started on an Instagram live. She was feeling down and wanted to change the atmosphere in the studio so she decided to go on Insta live to let people hear what she was doing. At that time she was in the studio with Barbadian musician Jaicko at SkyMovement studio and he started a little progression for the people that had tuned in.

“The people who tuned started to actually write lyrics on the beat and the feeling at the time was to feel good, so I remember one line, none of these lines are in the song but one line was, you make me feel like rainbows and sunshine and moonlight. I wanted to create how I ultimately wanted someone to make me feel and after a week it turned into you make me feel like you’re my long time love. The song is about knowing someone for a long time or meeting someone and immediately clicking and it makes you feel like you know them forever.”
Krisirie