If you don’t already know her, you should. Kaleena Zanders’ power ballad “Stronger Than I’ve Ever Been” is shaking us to the core!

Featured in Toyota’s inspiring “Good Odds” commercial series (which aired during both the Olympics and the Super Bowl), “Stronger” reaches into a primal place with powerful rolling vocals evocative of Jill Scott and Chaka Khan. This is no accident. ” Well when I was growing up… it was like Jazz, and Jill Scott and the Neo-Soul movement…Chaka Khan is [also] a huge vocal influence of mine. Huge, huge. I always try to add some elements of her when I’m singing those powerful lines” says Kaleena.

Interestingly, she doesn’t see this soulful place as her home, preferring to focus her talents primarily on poppy House with her recent features in Breathe Carolina & Dropgun’s “Rhythm Is A Dancer” and “SNBRN – California”. House “is kind of like my whole base really… And that’s where I’ve made myself, I suppose.” With 8.2 million streams on Youtube, Kaleena shows no sign of slowing down and we couldn’t be more impressed by her positive message and evocative sound. Follow Kaleena on her Facebook and check out her interview with Popdust below.

Popdust: Do you produce all of your tracks?

Kaleena: I work in collaboration with a lot of DJs. My production usually comes from – like I sit there with them, and I work out the track, I produce it around my vocals. A lot of times the DJ’s, they’ll… I’ll instruct them as to what to do, as far as the baseline, or with the guitar, you know, whatever is in the song.

P: Cool! And can you play a number of instruments? What can you play?

K: Yeah, I can play a little bit of everything – piano, drums, guitar. I studied music a while ago. And now I’ve just acquired a little bit of everything. I’m not a virtuoso, but I can definitely write a song and sort of plunk out my own things. I’ve worked with Logic a little bit, so I’m able to record little lines and manipulate it from there.

P: I’ve started to go back and listen to some of your previous things, and I’ll tell ya, it’s so House. Are you into house?

K: Yeah, that’s kind of like my whole base really. I mean I started off in a band a while ago, but I guess when I really started to take some opportunities is when I started doing dance music. So that’s really like my home, that’s where all my friends are. And all my family and DJ friends and stuff. And that’s where I’ve made myself, I suppose.

P: Yeah, and I have to say, all the tracks are really well done…[but] House is so different and more adapted. So what did you listen to in terms of music? What were some big influences?

K: Well when I was growing up, my mom played a lot of Prince. So he was really eclectic, as you know… I developed a very eclectic vocabulary from that. And she played a lot of rock in roll gospel, RJ Crouch. As I became older – oddly enough – it became things like Korn. Like, random… even Insane Clown Posse. Even further it was like Jazz, and Jill Scott and the Neo-Soul movement. So that developed a lot of my actual voice, instead of just listening to music and rocking out.

So people used to be like – I had a music teacher once who was like, “Yo, you need to stop sounding like Jill Scott“. And I was like, ” I can’t!”. It was one of those things, I would imitate her every single day. It was kind of to the point where it was so annoying. And Chaka Khan is a huge vocal influence of mine. Huge, huge. I always try to add some elements of her when I’m singing those powerful lines. Especially for House vocals. I feel like if she were me, or if she was here in this time, she probably would do a lot of House stuff. And also, you know, the classic old-school Whitney Houston. And Rachelle Ferelle. Do you know who Rachelle Ferelle is?

Press

P: I don’t, no…

K: Okay, she has like a four octave range and yeah, I try to imitate her a lot.

D: It’s like, that mixture of R&B and Gospel and Soul…It’s a really nice blend. With soul you have that really powerful, gut-wrenching thing that House music has. Just to talk a little bit more about the video that you just released, “Stronger than I’ve Ever Been”, what was the story behind that song?

K: Well, in addition to listening to a bunch of music, I also played a ton of sports. Since I was little I played basketball, volleyball. And then at the end of like 4th grade was rugby. And literally I tried to visualize that feeling of being knocked over by girls with no pads. And then you have to get right back up and start running.

I remember I head butted a girl, and we totally blacked out for a second. And then we got back up and started running again, you know? It’s literally a sports feeling, and that taught me a lot about having to restart all the time. And you have to be unafraid of losing. You have to just keep going. So I feel like sports has taught me a lot about disappointment, and also winning.

P: This theme of getting up again is so powerful. And the video with the visual images, that’s what really moved me. Could you talk a little bit about that and how the video came together?

K: The video came together after a director reached out to me who was directing a few other things, like Maggie Gyllenhaal. And he’d heard a song after I’d posted it and he said, “Oh My God, I’d love to shoot a music video for this song”. He was very passionate about it. I was like, great! I mean, when someone reaches out to you it’s amazing. So we brainstormed for a while, and first I wanted to touch on homeless teens, homeless gay teens is what I wanted to talk about first. You know, people disown their children and then they’re out on the streets.

But then I decided to relate it to myself even more, and dig a little bit deeper and make it about coming out. Because it was a struggle for me to come out when I was in high school. I was like, why don’t I just go ahead and tell this story? And it was nerve wracking the whole time, I was in this state of emotion. I was crying and freaking out. I was like, what will my Mom think? It was a crazy process. So I felt like it was important to keep pushing through and tell the story. And I also wanted it to be relatable to teens. Because when I was a teen, that’s how I felt.

P: Anybody who needs to talk to their parents about coming out… I think they go through that fear. Especially if you come out when you’re younger…

K: Yeah, it is real. It’s really real. And even though it was my mom that found out first, she wasn’t the one that took it that well. My Dad was actually the one that took it really well. He was very supportive. But I thought we should flip it around a bit – it doesn’t have to be exactly my story. But it hits home on every single level. I was just like, aright let me do this. And to be honest it was therapeutic. I mean, I’m out, but I don’t tell every single person [I meet]. But it was helpful for me to be able to start the conversation with people who didn’t know. So I’m thankful that I didn’t get too scared and had the guts to push forward with this message.

P: I think it’s a wonderful message. There are a lot of things in life where you’re scared to share certain things, and I think that’s very relatable. One of the things I wanted to ask is, has the community reached out to you?…I see you’ve gotten quite a bit of press with the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl commercials. It’s getting success.

K: It’s interesting. The Pride, the Dyke March for LA, they reached out to me. They want me to sing the song in June, so I’m going to do that. And just people online have been talking about it, saying “I’m gay, and this is really great, I’m crying”. Those types of things. I don’t know who all has seen it? I’d like to push it further out into the community. I just put it out, I didn’t push any agenda, I just wanted people to see it. It has been getting a good reception, overall.

P: I think that’s one of the things that is strong…It’s really artistic. And I know that wasn’t even the goal, which makes it even better – it’s just honest.

K: Yeah, I just wanted to tell a story. And I know I had the Toyota commercial, and I know that it got exposure from that. But I was actually nervous because the Friday before the Super Bowl, I had no idea what the visual looked like for the commercial. So then they came out with this beautiful commercial. And I had already invested the time, and emotion and money to do [my own] video. And then they came out with this beautiful story about Lauren Woolstencraft.

And I was like, Oh my god! I was a little bit panicky because I wanted to make sure that my video lives up to the same feeling. I was just in my head about it. But it turned out fine. Everyone was like,” No, you’ve still got to put out your song! So you can see the video! This song has many messages it can tell”. People were very encouraging. So it’s probably one of the best things I ever did.

P: That’s wonderful. That’s really something to be proud of. Now I have to ask you some questions about touring! Where can someone see you live?

K: … With all that has happened, I just got a manager in a way. And he’s going to help me out. We’re getting together a body of songs, all Kaleena songs, and then we’re going to shop it out and try to get on some bills and tours. The good thing is that I played at Coachella last year, and I will be playing at Coachella this year, both weekends in April. The good thing is that I’ve had this experience in the past two years just going to festivals and performing, and kind of building this community of friends. And so, I think it will be nice to plug myself into that as my own project.

P: Absolutely. Ya know? this is the single. Have plans for an album?

K: It will probably be an EP first. Album, not yet. I don’t even know… what am I going to say? But definitely an EP, something I can tour around and have people from all these different places get to know who I am. I’d love to share that…I am going to be dropping a single in between Coachella, somewhere between April 15th and 20th. I don’t want to say the same yet, but be on the lookout for that”

Kaleena paints a powerful message in “Stronger” through her beautiful imagery and resounding vocals. And with more dance House tracks on the horizon, Kaleena is keeping us popping! We simply can-not-wait to hear more!

Follow Kaleena on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Susanne Andresen is a PopDust contributor, a runner, and a lover of Shiba Inu memes. She is happiest when hiking with friends and eating burritos.

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