Today we’d like to introduce you to Pauna Kiricheva.
Hi Pauna, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to introduce yourself.
I was born in the city of Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. When I was 11, I moved to Westfield, NJ, where I graduated high school. I will never forget we had to do our senior project the last year of school, you know, before taking off to college, and I chose to write three rap songs, whereas my partner researched the history of hip hop and rap. I then played those three songs for my classmates, and they were not feeling them at all. Most of my peers looked at me like I was crazy and naturally did not understand me, which only pushed me to try harder. When I first moved to America, I had to take ESL, which is English as a second language. I remember teachers raising their voices; thinking decibels were the lack of my understanding of them, and peers making fun of me for not being “smart.” At first, I used slam poetry to channel my emotions. The more rhymes I wrote, the more I was proving to all those people from back in the day that I could not only speak English but also make a masterpiece of it, for lack of better words! Music was always my outlet. I had so much anger and anxiety inside me; it was bound to come out one way or another.
My college experience could have been better. I saw music as a hobby, not something I could profit from. I briefly switched from Economics to Journalism, then to community college, where I was a semester away from getting my associate in paralegal studies before I dropped everything and moved to Chicago. I packed a car full of belongings which, sadly, represented everything I owned up to that point, and came here to make a person of myself. I met Mr. Angelo, who helped me produce my first hit, “Idioti,” and honestly, the rest is history. I have worked with many local artists in the Chicago scene. I am proud to say I found Soundmaster T from the South Side, who’s got his own thing going as a producer.
Since the release of my first debut album, “Risen,” which dropped in May this year, I have been focused on making high-quality music. My heart is set on quality over quantity, and I have been blessed to share the studio with someone like Slavic Livins, who is a true inspiration in engineering. I want to look at it this way; even if you don’t vibe with my music, you can’t deny its quality! I have struggled with the word rapper over the years. I can create all types of different tunes, not to mention I was raised with a lot of Bulgarian folklore and pop music, which to this day has a lot of bearing on my sound. I also feel labeling my album a rap album was a bit of a miss; it seems like, over the years, my sound keeps turning closer to a dance, euro pop vibe, but what do I know, as time flies, it also dawned on me how many times I fell victim to my lyrics. They say words are spells, which is why we call it spelling, all and behold, I started to question my message and what I was trying to push out, which is insane. When you realize how powerful words carry, you bear on a new responsibility, and your every move becomes more calculated. I wish to inspire more people one day, as I was inspired by countless artists who helped me through the most challenging moments in my life. Music is life, and music is endless. It touches the hearts of people worldwide regardless of what language they speak. It crosses continents and has no bounds. As a creator, I am only getting better with time, and I know deep to my core my time is coming soon.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Money has always been a struggle for independent artists. You are stuck between making your music at home and reducing the quality or going broke trying to sound radio ready. There was a point when I was working so hard to keep up with what I thought was my third job as an artist, or damn near realizing it was becoming a costly hobby. I got tired of the rap scene, the mediocre sound check, and other artists coming in and barely performing live, but because they brought 20 of their people, they were considered winners, etc. I got tired of the pay-to-perform; fake it til you make it. The shaky business side of marketing yourself and putting in countless hours to watch another female strip for the camera and grab all the attention online, which in no way am I judging for the record! We sell our morals for 15min of fame, and that troubles me. God, I never wanted to be famous. I never craved big stages with people lined up at the door; instead, I always imagined something more minor, an experience so unique and personal that it carries you through life. You know, it’s crazy because when Corona hit, it almost forced many artists to imagine their near future like that, and it got me excited. Now I am at the point where I refuse to perform or throw another mediocre show until I can honestly give people the vision I’ve been having for the past two and a half years. Oh boy, I can’t wait! But there has never been a low moment in my music career when I didn’t turn around and make a beautiful song. That makes us artists so resilient; no matter what life throws our way, we always manage to put it in a song and at least try to touch the hearts of others who can relate to our experience.
Doubt is also a big obstacle I’ve had to face. There comes a time in everyone’s career when things are going slower and not as big as we imagined. We begin to doubt the initial goal. Am I good enough? Will I finally find my loyal fan base? How much longer? I have to say the Devil will have you compare yourself to others. Still, everyone is unique in their way, and it’s that rugged individualistic mentality that has been drilled in our brains since we were little to think, I want more and more and more, and maybe there is a limited supply. We should never forget and believe that as much as talent is abundant, there is that much more opportunity. How we play our cards in this life speaks to the core of our characters. Nobody changed the world overnight, so why are we expecting it?
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I have been more melodic and straightforward with my music. If you pick any one song out of my album “Risen,” you will immediately see I do not sound like anyone else. My sound is it’s own; it’s not mainstream, and honestly, even to this day, I struggle to label it correctly. One day there will be a Pauna genre, sheesh, you never know, I make pretty witty choruses, and I create a masterpiece every time I set foot in the studio.
Please talk to us about happiness and what makes you happy.
Spending time with loved ones makes me happy because it fulfills me. Stepping into the booth with merely a practiced idea and then watching the process of that idea turn into a whole song makes my heart skip like nothing else. There is no other feeling like it; not even drugs can produce such a high. Petting our cat at home, our King JJ, makes me happy. Watching the complete trust and unconditional love stare into me through the eyes of such an innocent being is everything. If I ever feel down, I hold him in my arms, and he recharges me as I watch all my worries fade away.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.paunaofficial.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paunaofficial/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paunaofficial
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/paunaofficial
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9vrYSxLYgSAkgVjANlwzOA
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/pointheraw
Image Credits
@therealraeven (IG) Amanda McMIllan @dmasonphotography (IG) Daveyan Mason @julia.tony.st (IG) Julia Stoyanova
