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Kylie (Me.Kai) Butler

Daily Inspiration: Meet Kylie (Me.Kai) Butler

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Kylie (Me.Kai) Butler.

Hi Kylie (Me.Kai), thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I actually started pursuing music while I was a student at UC Santa Barbara. I was a track athlete at the time, but eventually quit the team and had this realization that music was what I really wanted to be doing. I started going to open mics around Isla Vista, and that’s actually where I met my producer, Gold Man, who I still work with today. He was one of the first people who really encouraged me to sing, write, and take music more seriously. He even pushed me to go downtown and start busking on State Street.

So I did! I would take my guitar downtown and play for whoever happened to be walking by. It ended up being one of the best ways I could have learned how to perform. I slowly built up this huge repertoire because some of the unhoused people who hung out downtown would come back week after week and request new songs for me to learn, haha. I had no idea at the time that building that repertoire would eventually become such a huge part of my career.

After college, I worked as a bartender while doing music part-time. I loved music, but I genuinely didn’t know if making a living from it was a realistic option. I started out playing dive bars, restaurants, and pretty much anywhere that would let me play. Slowly, those gigs turned into nicer venues, wineries, weddings, private events, and corporate events. I kept building my repertoire, meeting people, and learning how to actually run music as a business.

Then COVID hit, and live music basically disappeared overnight. It was brutal. I went on unemployment, floundered for a while, and even went back to school briefly because I wasn’t sure what my next move was going to be.

Then something unexpected happened: when everything opened back up, there was this huge demand for live music. My business exploded. For the first time, I reached a point where I could support myself completely through music and finally leave bartending behind.

All the while, though, I was writing. Songwriting has always been the part of music that feels the most deeply personal to me. Every Monday, I drive down to LA to write and produce with Gold Man — the same person I met at one of my very first open mics in Isla Vista. He now produces my original project, Me.Kai, and plays guitar in my live band, which feels like a pretty incredible full-circle moment.

I’ve also been playing with my keyboardist and business partner in our party-band duo, Everything’s Fine, for about nine years now. When I look at where I started — playing open mics and busking on State Street, not knowing if music could ever actually be my career — versus where I am now, I feel incredibly lucky. I’ve been able to build a full-time career performing while continuing to grow Me.Kai as an artist and songwriter, and I get to do it surrounded by an insanely talented team of people I’ve known and made music with for years.

It definitely wasn’t a straight line, but I think that’s part of what makes the story special. A lot of the things I was doing just to get by or become a better performer early on ended up laying the foundation for the career I have now.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Definitely not a smooth road, haha. I think one of the hardest parts of choosing music as a career is that there really isn’t a roadmap. For a long time, I didn’t even know if it was possible to make a sustainable living doing this. I was bartending, playing whatever gigs I could get, writing songs, and basically trying to piece together a career as I went.

COVID was probably the biggest obvious setback. Live music disappeared overnight, which meant my entire source of income disappeared with it. I went on unemployment and honestly felt pretty lost for a while. I even went back to school briefly because I thought maybe I needed to find a more “realistic” path. Ironically, when live music came back, it came back like crazy, and that period ultimately helped push me into doing music full-time.

But even after reaching that point, there are still constant challenges. Being a full-time musician means you’re not just an artist — you’re also your own booking agent, marketing department, accountant, content creator, social media manager, sound engineer, and sometimes roadie. There isn’t really an “off” switch. I’ve had periods where I’m performing six or seven times a week while also driving to LA to write and produce my original music, rehearsing with my band, creating content, answering inquiries, and trying to have some semblance of a normal life.

Another challenge has been balancing the two sides of my career. Performing covers and events is what allowed me to build a sustainable business and become a full-time musician, and I’m incredibly grateful for it. At the same time, songwriting and Me.Kai are where I feel the most creatively fulfilled. Building an original artist project requires an enormous amount of time, money, energy, and belief in something without any guarantee that it’s going to work. Sometimes I’ll play a wedding or corporate event all weekend and then wake up Monday morning and drive to LA to work on my own music. It’s exhausting, but I also feel incredibly lucky that music is the thing I get to be exhausted by.

I think the biggest thing I’ve learned is that success in music rarely looks like one huge break. For me, it’s been hundreds of tiny steps — playing to five people, learning another song, taking the weird gig, meeting the right collaborator, getting better at the business side, releasing music that I’m proud of, and continuing to show up even during the periods where it feels like nothing is happening.

There have definitely been moments where I’ve questioned whether I was crazy for choosing this path, but every year I’ve been able to look back and realize I’m further along than I was the year before. That’s become my definition of progress.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My work has a few different branches, but they all come back to performing, songwriting, and connecting with people through music.

First, I’m a full-time working musician. I perform throughout Santa Barbara, LA, and beyond at weddings, private parties, corporate events, wineries, venues, and pretty much everything in between. Over the years I’ve built a repertoire of hundreds of songs across a ton of different genres, which has made me a really versatile performer. I can play an intimate ceremony with just my guitar and voice one day and be behind a drum kit singing lead vocals with a full band the next.

I also have a party-band duo called Everything’s Fine with my longtime bandmate and business partner. We’ve been playing together for about nine years and have built a repertoire of more than 400 songs. A huge part of what we do is reading a room and making the music feel specific to the people who are there rather than just showing up and playing the same set every night.

Then there’s Me.Kai, which is my original artist project and probably the most personal extension of who I am creatively. I make maximalist indie/electro-pop that I like to describe as “sad girl maximalist pop for crying in your bedroom and then going to the club.” I love the juxtaposition of really vulnerable, emotional songwriting with huge, colorful, sometimes chaotic production. Visually, I’ve been building this whole little Me.Kai universe around it — colorful, playful, feminine, weird, and a little otherworldly.

I’m probably most proud of the fact that I’ve figured out how to make music my actual life. There wasn’t one moment where somebody handed me a career. I built it gig by gig over years, while continuing to invest in my own music and develop myself as an artist. I’ve gotten to have some really exciting milestones with my original music, including an Insomniac/In/Rotation release and having my music synced on Netflix’s *All American*, but I’m equally proud that I’ve created a sustainable career that allows me to wake up every day and make music for a living.

I think what sets me apart is the combination of being an artist and being a working musician. I’ve played thousands of hours of live music at this point, and that has taught me things you really can’t learn anywhere else — how to connect with an audience, how to recover when something goes wrong, how to read a room, how to take requests, how to perform when you’re exhausted, and how to make people feel like they’re part of something.

At the same time, I’m still deeply obsessed with creating something that’s completely my own. I don’t just want to perform music — I want to build a world around it. I’m constantly writing, producing, experimenting with live arrangements, visuals, content, and figuring out how to make Me.Kai feel bigger, stranger, and more uniquely me.

I think those two sides actually make each other stronger. The working musician in me has given the artist in me the freedom to keep creating, and the artist in me keeps the working musician excited about why I started doing this in the first place.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I think the best networking I’ve ever done has happened when I wasn’t really trying to “network.” It’s come from consistently showing up, being genuinely interested in other people, doing good work, and staying in touch.

Some of the most important relationships in my career started really casually. I met my producer, Gold Man, at one of my first open mics in Isla Vista when I was still in college. He encouraged me to start busking and take music more seriously, and all these years later, we write and produce together every Monday and he plays guitar in my band. I don’t think either of us could have predicted that when we first met.

I’ve found that the music industry is actually a pretty small world, especially when you stay active in the same communities for years. One gig leads to another gig, another musician introduces you to someone, a person who saw you perform five years ago suddenly reaches out for an opportunity — it compounds. I’ve gotten so much more out of building genuine long-term relationships than walking into a room thinking, “Who here can help my career?”

My biggest advice would be to show up, be kind, be reliable, and be someone people actually want to work with. Talent obviously matters, but being prepared, responding to people, showing up on time, supporting other artists, and being easy to work with goes an incredibly long way.

I also think mentorship doesn’t necessarily have to mean finding one person who officially becomes your “mentor.” I’ve learned different things from so many people — producers, musicians, venue owners, other artists, clients, and friends. Sometimes someone can give you one piece of advice or introduce you to one idea that completely changes your trajectory.

And don’t be afraid to ask questions! Most of what I know about this industry came from being curious, asking people how they did things, trying it myself, messing it up, and trying again. You don’t have to have everything figured out before you start putting yourself in the room.

Pricing:

  • Pricing varies depending on the event, location, performance length, sound requirements, and whether you’re looking for solo, duo, or full-band music. I create custom quotes for each event and am always happy to chat through different options! For booking inquiries, please reach out through mekaimusic.com or @me.kai.music on Instagram.

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