Camp Kona
Clive Davis Institute, New York
Genre
Indie Pop, R&B Pop
Role
Artist, Songwriter
Biography
The musical project of twenty year-old Ko Narter, Camp Kona is the product of adolescent choirs and fireside nights at summer camp.
As a self-proclaimed choir kid, Narter was in the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir for nine years, and she fell in love with the layered harmonies that can be found throughout the music she makes now. Combined with her warm vocals and an overwhelming lyrical sense of longing, Camp Kona is the sonic representation of a summer fling, one that pushes and pulls like the tide of the lake as campers skinny-dip in on the final night of camp.
Narter attributes her formative experiences to her time at camp: climbing trees, amateur talent shows, and falling in love for the first time. Her connection between love and nature is prominent in her lyrics.
As a biracial, Asian-American woman herself, Narter has recently found inspiration in artists like Rina Sawayama, Mitski, and Raveena. She strives to continue creating space for Asian and Asian-American stories in music without it becoming the defining factor of her music.
The Camp Kona sonic universe is raw and minimalistic, focused on her voice and driven by simplistic drum beats and soothing guitar. While camp based romances may have an expiration date, with Camp Kona summer camp is an everlasting state of mind, and not just an isolated two months in the woods.
(Written by Stephanie Rutcofsky)