Hitchhike the Runway with Rock Duo KOLAJ

Sometimes you come across a group that is just so impossibly cool, you don’t know what to do with yourself. This is true when you listen to rock duo KOLAJ. Just when you think the top level of cool has been reached, a bonus round of even more cool drops and causes musical mind explosions.

Besides the fact that lead singer Teesa is quite literally a “collage” of ethnicities including Filipino, Polynesian, Japanese and Indian — she’s got cool style vibes and she can also truly shred on the guitar. And then just when you think she can’t possibly be any cooler, you find out that she has a soft spot for real instruments and you can almost not handle it anymore.

Their latest single called “Hitchhike” is a tune that will surely get trapped in your cerebral, whether it’s with the super lit guitar riff on the chorus or Teesa’s vocal melodies singing “I’m gonna hitchhike the runway.” Check out the tune below and peep our Q&A with Teesa below!

The guitar riff of “Hitchhike” is pretty epic, tell us about the creation process for this track.

Epic indeed 🙂 Mike was first playing around with guitar chords from a classic Divinyls’ song, then I asked him to twist the rhythms around. We made a quick arrangement and I wrote the melodies very off the cuff, and the words “hitchhike the runway” came out on the first babble track, so pretty much wrote the whole story from there. The guitar drop moments came from simply noodling on my guitar until I found something euphoric but whimsical feeling.

You’ve said that you feel like rock bands and rock music has gotten lost amongst the current trend/popularity of EDM, why do you think real guitar and instruments are important?

It’s really hard to be perfect with real instruments, and recording those little imperfections remind the listener that there’s an actual person creating this music for them. We are influenced by rock bands because they are the definition of sonic energy. At the end of the day we’re just musicians that are suckers for cool tones, so whether they come from amps and hand drums or plugins and synths, we like to find the balance.

What other rock bands do you love to see play live?

New and classic bands — Tame Impala, St. Lucia, Years & Years, Prince, Radiohead, Incubus, Little Dragon…those are just some that come to mind.

Are there any rock bands you haven’t seen play live that you would almost DIE to see? (not really, but you know what I mean)

I wish Rage Against the Machine would get back together, especially right now with this election lol. And of course Prince and the Revolution.

Describe what it would be like for us to see you guys play live!

It’s kind of like Alanis Morrisette hair flips with Shakira dancing. Mike has a standing live drum kit with his keyboards, so we call him the octopus. And then Cham (our guitarist) has a state of the art Midi guitar setup with endless guitar tones. I’d say overall our show is a uniquely good time lol

If you had to pick one rockstar (alive or dead) to hang with for a day, who would it be and why?

My security question has been “who in the world would you most like to meet?” and my answer is “Prince”, so I think about him almost daily. He’s just everything.

How do you feel about being a female who can shred on the guitar? What is your best memory of surprising someone with your talent/being able to play the guitar like that?

Senior year of high school I decided to reveal my guitar playing at the annual talent show and dressed as Jimi Hendrix and performed “Foxy Lady.” I ripped off my afro wig and let my long hair down when I played the guitar solo. Felt pretty good to be a girl that day.

What’s next for you? 

We’ve been in studio mode for a long time and will be releasing our first EP at the top of 2017. We will be planning a tour for after the release so look out for upcoming dates!

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