King Isis is creating the soundtrack to a limitless movement. Born-and-raised in the cultural hub of Oakland, CA, King Isis brings the life back to music with their raw, honest, and gritty sounds. A musical shapeshifter, Isis emerges with a refreshing fusion of sound ranging from rock to RnB to jazz and blues. Much of their music-making centers on the exploration of identity and existence, creating and finding selves, worlds, and realities. With each song and show, Isis strips down their walls to leave you with a piece of themself. King Isis takes you on a journey of healing and becoming, sweeping through pain, growth, and transformation in their music. With vulnerable lyrics, haunting vocals, mesmerizing melodies, and an expansive musical ability, Isis enters the scene ready to make their permanent mark.
Taught on her great-great-grandmother Omega King’s piano, music has been rooted in King Isis’ blood for generations. Isis began musical training at the age of four by the encouragement of her mother, enrolling Isis in piano lessons and music programs for most of youth. Stifled by stringent classical training, Isis began to explore the world of jazz and blues, inspiring a desire to expand her musical world and teach herself the guitar at the age of 16. King Isis’ music nods to the improvisational and experimental nature of her musical training, creating a sound that defies the traditional. Through each song, Isis tracks the journey of becoming from the personal to the public, traveling through a culmination of apathy, angst, acceptance, and actualization.
King Isis finds power and freedom in sound and is a firm believer in creativity as the fuel to the revolution. As reflected by their BA in American Studies concentrating in Race and Music from Barnard College, Isis’s work focuses on imagining sounds and spaces of liberation for those who exist outside of the confines of dominant society, making music in a black radical feminist tradition. Isis hopes to disrupt, destruct, and unify through their sounds.
King Isis believes in the healing power of music and hopes to continue to bring those who feel outcasted and isolated into the safe space of their sounds. With the release of their upcoming EP, CONTRA, traversing through the process of denial, acceptance, and becoming, Isis embarks on the beginning of their musical journey.
