Q&A: Kai Caden of NEXTWORLD COLLECTIVE, Talks New Edition Platforming All Asian American Female Artists
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY IVONA HOMICIANU ☆
WHAT STARTED AS A PANDEMIC-ERA REFUGE HAS GROWN INTO ONE OF LOS ANGELES’ MOST INTENTIONAL PLATFORMS FOR EMERGING ARTISTS - NEXTWORLD COLLECTIVE was founded by a group of young music lovers searching for connection during a moment of isolation, and it quickly evolved into something much bigger. When founder and CEO Kai Caden realized that small, independent artists weren’t getting the recognition they deserved, what began as a Discord server turned into a living, breathing collective built to amplify overlooked voices.
This Sunday marks NEXTWORLD’s fifteenth event, continuing their commitment to community-driven programming with an all Asian American and female lineup. Performances from An Tran, Nicole Han, Hyejin, and Chiabiee will span genres from pop and indie to rap, creating a night that reflects the collective’s genre-fluid ethos and inclusive vision.
At the core of NEXTWORLD is a tight-knit community defined by loyalty and care across everyone involved in the process. Caden and their peers have built a true collective with the explicit purpose of spotlighting artists who deserve more attention.
The NEXTWORLD COLLECTIVE event takes place on February 8 at The Paramount in Los Angeles. Luna spoke with Caden about the origins of NEXTWORLD and what audiences can expect from this milestone night
LUNA: Could you explain the idea behind NEXTWORLD COLLECTIVE?
CADEN: NEXTWORLD COLLECTIVE is an artist platform prioritizing independent artists' journeys through the music industry. It's hard to meet other musicians and artists who are around the same level, and even to have experience in regard to performing. We try to provide an environment of community. You'll be able to meet more people in the scene in terms of artists, producers, songwriters, and the list goes on. Usually, we pick people who have finished an album or who have had a new thing. Whoever has music ready, we try to get them on board to do these shows. When we do these shows, it's also a very communal space, because the NEXTWORLD community always pops out for it. The artists also have their own fans, don't get me wrong, but I think a really powerful thing that we have is the community that surrounds it.
LUNA: When did you get the idea for the project?
CADEN: It wasn’t just me, it was five other people who started this Discord server back in 2021. At the time I was in high school, I didn't really have any aspirations to do concerts or anything. I just wanted a little server during the pandemic to talk to friends about music because that was very hard. Then it grew a little bit and I started to realize the amount of people who keep posting music. There's not a lot of people really getting the attention. Maybe some of them might have the numbers, but does that translate to a real audience pool?
Part of it is, I got really cool friends who aren't getting appreciated as much as you would assume they would be. I had the crazy idea just to say, “Hey, we have so many people here, let's do a concert.” From that to learning the concert process. I had no experience regarding anything production-wise. The only experience I had was that I was a musician myself. I play saxophone, I gig with a bunch of people, but it's truly different to be behind the scenes. I felt like every single day, I was worrying about something that no one else would understand. Except for me, because I'm the one that's curated this event. My friends also helped me too but no one knew how this stuff worked, so we were kind of just going through everything and going step by step in terms of finding a venue, finding the lineup, and making sure all communication is very transparent for each person.
If an artist needs a band, we provide that for them as well. It's a bunch of things and it was super overwhelming. Three years passed by, and now I believe this February event will be our 15th concert production. It may not be a lot in three years, but for us, especially when you're college you're doing so you're already doing so much. We're all college students. We don't have a crazy budget for these shows, but it's really just the love for the game to help people out. It blossomed into this really beautiful flower.
LUNA: That's really impressive to do 15 events in such a short time!
CADEN: We throw concerts but we also throw events where it's super chill. There are these boba shops that we collaborate with, and they have a little platform on the stage, and it's free. Anyone can come by. It’s a collaboration. You buy boba and you listen to music. It sounds pretty chill. No, people really come out. We had 120 people pull up for these boba shows. They also have the opportunity to talk to the artist so it's a very intimate setting.
LUNA: Was it difficult to get started and find venues?
CADEN: Starting out, venues are always hard to do. We would find venues that are not even meant to be venues. We pay the deposit there, but it's a lot cheaper compared to an actual music venue for the whole stage. We bring all of our own equipment and also decorations. Regular venues provide music stuff but we had to provide them ourselves because these are spaces aren't meant for music stuff.
We were in the process of having a show in two or three days. We sold 100 tickets already. Everything's already locked in. The lineup’s locked in. All of a sudden, the venue drops out because the landlord kicked them out of the property, so there's no venue. The two days pre-show was just straight tramming. The whole NEXTWORLD community was working hard, even the artists wanted to find a venue. We were all in pure space trying to find a space to pay for. A lot of people thought it was going to be canceled because who the heck would find a venue in two days? People struggle to find a venue in months. But I was able to find a venue. Did a visit, updated the Eventbrite, updated the ticket links, updated the Instagram page, and there's a venue upgrade. To get the word out there for people, the communication itself, was hard. You get the venue, maybe only 10 people would show up because they were the ones who understood the venue change. We were lucky to have everyone pull up.
LUNA: For the next event, could you tell us about the artists who will be present?
CADEN: An Tran is a Berklee College of Music student. Originally from Vietnam, she played saxophone for a lot of Vietnamese artists. She also makes her own music and she loves to perform. She does a lot of shows around the Berkeley area. She's going to have a killer lineup of alternative, R&B and soul.
Hyejin was in New York for a little bit. Every artist has their facets of different music, but I would say it's definitely leaning towards alternative R&B as well. Some songs of hers have jazz elements that are super great. I think she's going to be doing a more acoustic set this time around, she's going to be playing with a bass player, guitar backing track.
Chiabiee is a great artist as well. She does lean more towards the indie songwriter and R&B vibes. R&B seems to have the current track for news artists. I play saxophone for a lot of her gigs. She's always great to play, great to talk to as well. She's super charismatic and that energy is really provided on the stage for sure. You'll definitely have a good time with her.
The last artist is Nicole Han, a Korean artist. The best way to describe her vibes is that it gives girly pop. Olivia Rodrigo, singer-songwriter type songs. One song I really like from her is “we never tried” It’s killer in terms of the production and her voice. It's so sonically pleasing. Great songwriter as well, super talented. I’m happy to have all of them on this show.
LUNA: How do you come up with who will be part of the event?
CADEN: This is gonna sound really vague, but I truly believe it's all about instinct. Being able to picture it in your head. A lot of this show stuff comes from my visions of what I see is going to be a good fit. Sometimes you can envision it in your head. Sometimes that vision never really works out the way you plan. We were going to have a different lineup for this show. It’s a lot of brainstorming, thinking about what you really want to do with this when you find the lineup. You get a more established team, and you realize that you can play off to that theme. We're using the show as a charity as well to give back the proceeds to Asian American women organizations and creatives. The show has a killer lineup, but it's also going for a great cause as well.
LUNA: How does a NEXTWORLD event look like? How would you describe the vibes?
CADEN: If I had to picture myself walking into a NEXTWORLD show… First off, I’d be greeted by people who work in NEXTWORLD. People to make you feel welcomed. When you enter the venue, you're just going to see a lot of people who look familiar to you, but they're also strangers. Even though you might not know someone there, everyone is very open to talk to. Our audience also plays into that role. I wouldn't feel left out if I went to a nice little concert by myself and no one knew me. I still feel like I would meet a good group of people without feeling isolated. You go into the show, you do not know any of the artists, that doesn't really matter. If I had to go into the show without knowing any artists, I feel like I would be fine, because I've a community to surround myself with. Not only that, I would also find new music.
