Kenan Nadar and Calvin Htet, the creative minds behind Kode PinK, balance their day jobs as a pediatrician and IT specialist with their passion for music. Hailing from Central Florida and NorCal, this duo infuses their unique experiences into their dance pop sound. Their mantra, “no dream too big,” drives them and and they put that energy to latch onto, creating a symbiotic relationship between the art and the fans.
Their latest track, “How The Great Have Fallen,” featuring bnji, dives into the post-breakup turmoil with a satirical twist. Opening with the biting line, “I shoulda knew Cupid had to go and give ya someone new. Just thought that he’d have better aim,” the song sets a tone of sarcastic disappointment. The track’s mix of somber themes and lively instrumentation pulls together a complex subject with an easy listening experience – an interesting combination that simply works.
Spanning both width and depth, Kode PinK’s accomplishments are impressive. In just two years, they have garnered over 1,000,000 Spotify streams, earning recognition from SpaceYacht and Austin Kramer. Their collaborations highlight their versatility, including work with Justin Park on “All A Lie,” featuring Miss Philippines 2023, Arianna Kyla Padrid, and teaming up with Lauren Dyson on “Better Without You,” starring Vivian Dawson and Rebecca Benedict. These boys are far from their first release with “How The Great Have Fallen,” being a quintessential example of their gripping and engaging sound.
Kode PinK look the time to chat with us about heartbreak, storytelling, and more in this exclusive interview found below sharing so much more depth behind the music.
Kode Pink Interview
How does “How The Great Have Fallen” reflect your personal experiences with disillusionment and coping mechanisms post-breakup?
At some point in our lives, we’ve all felt heartbreak to some capacity and maybe harbored feelings of resentment. And because of that resentment, a little bit of us gets some satisfaction from karma doing its thing. So why not highlight that same concept in a comedic way for the sake of keeping the song’s mood lighthearted? We feel that innately, as humans, part of growing up is creating filters that prevent our childish impulses from coming out; aka “maturing.” We wanted to write a song that portrayed shedding those filters and giving in to those impulses because, well, it just darn right feels good sometimes. With that goal in mind, we created a happy-go-lucky song that accentuated its satirical meaning.
Thematically, the song delves into projection and defense mechanisms during breakup trauma cycles. How do you approach such deep themes in your music?
We draw a lot of our storytelling through empathy. We meet so many people on a daily basis, each with their own struggle or story. And we reflect those stories onto our own experiences to try and understand people’s perspectives as best as we can. This helps write through the eyes of whatever our imagination sees fit. It’s honestly therapeutic and helps us connect with people through our writing.
Can you elaborate on your decision to blend pop with electronic music for this track? How does this combination enhance the song’s narrative?
bnji: “Pop gives a great opportunity to really ground a concept with a personality; EDM has the power and dynamics to really make a song slap.”
Kode PinK: “We blend pop with electronic with all of our music. There’s something about the catchiness and storytelling of pop music that’s so sonically appealing, but after having listened to electronic music for so many years, pop productions never seem to give us enough of what we want. So we add a little oomph to everything to level up the energy of the music and it becomes that much more satisfying.”
Despite your busy careers as a pediatrician and IT specialist, how do you find time to nurture your passion for music?
Life has a way of keeping you busy with everything else but your passions. So when we discovered music production, it finally felt like the escape we’d always needed. We both literally leave our day jobs in the afternoon and go straight to work for the music career until we go to bed. And most times, it doesn’t feel like work at all. Sure, there are times that you have to do boring arbitrary tasks to maintain the project’s integrity, but that’s a price gladly paid to do something we love. We both feel so grateful to be able to pursue music to the capacity that we do and hope to inspire people to do the same.
Over the past two years, you’ve achieved success on Spotify and worked with notable artists. What has been the most rewarding aspect of these collaborations?
Making new friends. Every single collaboration we’ve done has ended up in a long-lasting friendship with people we love. We try to be as honest and as genuine as possible in the industry because we know how easy it is to feel taken for granted here. And through that, we feel like we’ve been able to become friends with such incredible people. It’s something we’ll never take for granted.
Your music videos often feature well-known personalities. How do you choose who to collaborate with for your visuals, and what do they bring to your projects?
We live in LA and are blessed to have an amazing circle of multi-talented friends. We typically think about what we want the role of the character to encompass, and then we try and find a friend or mutual who fits the bill. We’ve honestly been very lucky with everyone we’ve worked with. They’ve all blown us away with how talented they are and have all been an absolute blast to work with.
You’re set to appear on an episode of “Pensado’s Place.” Can you give us a sneak peek into what you’ll be discussing about the intersection of sound and medicine?
Kenan connected with Herb Trawick and Dave Pensado about four years ago when he sent them an email to intern for their studio so that he could learn to mix from the legends. When they found out he was a doctor, they asked if he would be interested in filming an episode on the utilization of sound in medicine for their YouTube show, “Pensado’s Place.” We obviously weren’t going to pass up this incredible opportunity, so Kenan set out to film interviews with multiple physicians across the hospital to discuss ultrasound and ECHO technologies. Unfortunately, this was during the pandemic so the film crew was not allowed in the hospital. We attempted filming the interviews ourselves with a small vlog camera and we felt that if we wanted to do the episode right, we’d have to wait until we could film in person again. We’re hoping to reconvene soon now that hospital restrictions have lessened. That being said, it was incredible to meet both Herb and Dave.
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