Kazakh R&B Artist Discusses His Debut Album and Finding His Own Voice

Since he was 5 years old, Sayat Nokerban, has always had big dreams of making it in the music industry. At only 17 years of age, some would consider Nokerban a veteran in the music industry. The Plano, Texas-based teen, who emigrated from Kazakhstan with his mother and older brother, has spent the last 12 years of his life, almost as long as he has lived in the United States, dedicated to finding his voice.

Sure, he’s thought of the possibility of embarking on another career—especially since having just graduated high school this year—and even suffers from the occasional self-doubt just like everyone else. But with the independent release of his debut album on July 19, Can’t Get Over You, making noise, Nokerban keeps his head up and resolves to just keep pushing forward. “It was something I've been doing for such a long time that I feel like if I were to take it out of my life, I would definitely regret it,” he says.

Nokerban recently sat down with Edgu Bilig and discussed his life-long journey, both as a musician and as an immigrant, and the meaning of his new album in terms his own self-discovery.

How do you define yourself? What makes Sayat, Sayat?

Well, in general, I would say that Sayat Nokerban is a starving artist, somebody who's searching for success and just trying to find the right opportunities to be able to succeed. So, it's always just a constant game and uphill battle. It's just constantly having pressure on me to do well at a young age. That's pretty much what my whole motivation revolves around.

How did you end up connecting through music and expanding on it?

Well, the whole entertainment industry, the whole, like, artists, in general thing came about 12 years ago when I started doing Russian choirs. There's this one choir called ul’bka, which means smile, I became a part of when I was 5 years old. And I would sing with them for a long time. And then once I got to about 10 years old, I started busting the streets, where I would sing at different venues, different areas, just trying to get my name out there, seeing if people like my voice or not. … That's when a person from a management company came over. And they're like, “Hey, I really like your voice. And I was wondering if we could get you on tracks or doing artist development for you, start working on who you are as a singer.” And that was pretty much my first step into it. And I would constantly do a bunch of shows, just trying to get my name out there. Going to studios since I was about 12 years old, I was just constantly recording and writing songs.

What is the biggest obstacle you face as an emerging artist?

I'd say mostly just not having the backing as most artists do have because in general, plenty of major artists get their start from having a big, big amount of money that they can push themselves with, or a lot of online fame that they can somehow progress towards. But for me, it was kind of starting from pretty much nothing. I didn't have too many people able to push me towards the scene and get me into the industry. So, it was kind of just like a figure-out-for-yourself situation and see where it takes you.

How has your family supported you along this journey?

I knew that my mom has been my biggest support system, because no matter how poor we are, no matter no matter what type of roof we're living under, no matter how much food we have on the table, she’s always found ways to take my brother [and me] to activities and find out what we were good at. So even if she didn't have too much money for a particular month, she would find a way to take my brother to gymnastics class, take me to gymnastics class, somehow find a way to take me to that choir and go sing and see if I could do that. She started taking me to piano lessons. Even though she was breaking the bank to somehow find ways for us to engage in our activities, she was still pushing us towards those discovering what we were good at. And I think that's what started off my journey.

How does your mother’s self-sacrifice for your success affect your perspective of where you see yourself musically in the future?

As far as music is concerned, I feel we just have to talk about this societally. In general, if you come from a middle-class family, and you end up going to college taking a similar route as your parents did, you'll probably end up in the same tax bracket as you as you grew up on. But for me, because I came from a tax bracket so low, so incredibly low, not a lot of money, if I find a way through music, and I find a way to just sustain myself, sustain a family on music, then I know that it's so much better than anything. As long as I'm doing better than when I started at rock bottom, the only way I can go is up, right?

And in terms of music, how has your journey helped you find your voice?

I'm going to be constantly evolving and finding new ways to use my voice. I've gotten to a pretty comfortable spot where I do understand what I can do with my music. But I'm like people say, “Whenever you're comfortable, you're in the wrong position.” That's not right. Because you know, whenever you're comfortable, you become stagnant with what you do. Obviously, I'm going to keep pushing towards a better sound, whether it be reaching higher notes, lower notes, or finding different melodies and different rhythms. I'm just going keep pushing towards that goal.

For your debut album, Can’t Get Over You, you seem to emote confidence in your voice and music, to the point that layers upon layers of sound immerse the listener. What’s the very first thing that you attempted to build to achieve such a rare cohesion of sound?

Whenever I first attempt to build a song, it's definitely always the melody, because the beat will be playing in the background, I'll say, “Hey, could you loop this section for me really quick? Let me think of a melody.” And I'll start humming a melody here. I'll start saying random words that I think match the sort of flow of the beat. And that's how I started off. And then after that, you start learning from words, start writing. And that's how the song comes to be.

The album’s opening song, “Balance” seems to deal a lot with the raw emotions of breaking up, but it seems to be addressing something deeper? What is the core of the song’s theme?

Most of my songs are based on experience. And for the first time in my life, this last year, I started dating, started getting into relationships. And after that, I understood that—quote, unquote—“Balancing my life” with, I guess, my chaotic life of being an artist and being an actor, and doing all that stuff with school and balancing relationships. I understood that if I don't have full support from my partner, they're not going to understand the type of things I'm going through. They have to “balance for me,” which is a lyric from the song, and I said, “Hey, she has to balance for me” because obviously, I'll try my best, but there's nothing I can do if I'm constantly in the studio, constantly working on this, constant working on that. If I don't have time for you, you're going have to find some way to mold for me.

With lyrics like, “She's sleeping at night,” and you're “sipping drinks during the day,” the song seems to capture a sense of irony in this contradiction you presented and hints at your own culpability. Why was this important to lay out in the song?

Whenever I first came to writing the song, I understood I don't want to be like other artists where they're just constantly blaming somebody else for their problems. And, obviously, there's a fair share of blame within most of my songs that are right. Obviously, I'm also the one in the wrong here, because I shouldn't be forcing somebody to join something that they don't know the consequences that are going to happen as a result. Most of the girls I've ever talked to don't know how much time I'm going to be able to give them. But once they understand, it feels like I've led them on—that I let them believe that I'll be showing them more attention than that I would have.

What message do you want the listener to walk away with in terms of lessons learned?

What I want people to walk away with while listening to the song is that no matter what you do you always have to pick one or the other. You can't have both. You can try your best, but let’s put it like this: If I were to go and live my regular life and try to be like every other teenager my age and do everything they're doing, I wouldn't have any room for making music. So, it's kind of like a balance. It's I either choose this path that I constantly try to work hard at and push my music toward larger audiences, or I can just live a regular life and throw this away.

“Relations Open” seems to also carry on with idea of relationship in demise, but it differs in its calling into question the value of a relationship that lacks commitment. How does the song’s idea build off “Balance,” the album’s opening?

When I say, “Relations Open,” I was inspired by the idea that if I can't find a loving relationship, I’m asking myself if I will end up falling into the same mess that everybody else is doing. We won't work out as partners, so let's keep relations open. We’re still friends. But I'm not seeking anything else from you. Because I'll have that trust in me to do that.

It mostly alludes to a lack of trust and just not having the ability to speak my own mind. Everybody wants to be in control of everything. Whenever somebody is in a relationship, they want to make it as equal as possible. But most of the time somebody takes the dominant role. And with me, doing all the things I'm doing now, and working to progress myself, it really didn't help that somebody else was trying to be dominant over me and trying to force me to do things when I know for a fact that I could be doing something better, like making music.

Immediately following “Relations Open,” you take a similarly introspective approach with “Lust,” which took me by surprise because of the underlying message that creeps up as the song progresses. How did you want listeners to interpret the song?

As with most of my songs nowadays, I'm talking about having trust and trying to find a little bit of relationship and understanding. It’s just in today's age nobody's there to date, to marry. Nobody’s doing that anymore. And I feel like that's something for me—as just cultural values in general. Where I come from, Kazakhstan, when you meet somebody, you're trying your best to make them your wife or make them your husband. And I feel in today's age, nobody's aiming for that anymore. There's falling into lust, like the song says. For me, for most of my music, I'm trying to say, “Hey, I'm looking for the right person. And no matter what I do, I'm going to end up finding them.”

While a large part of the album deals with a sense of self-discovery during a breakup, the end of the album, with the song, “Waste This Feeling,” shifts in tone, music and lyrics.

It was for sure a turning point. Right before the track, I placed a skit that I did with some of my friends. And they're asking me, “Hey, you need to stop talking about that one girl.” And I was like, “Guys, I'm not talking about her anymore. Don't worry about it. I let go.” And as I said, “I let go,” that's when the next song begins. That means I'm letting go of those feelings. I'm, quote, unquote, “Wasting the feeling,” right? Because. obviously, I worked so hard to try to talk to that woman or try to create a relationship. But I understood it's a waste of my time. So, although these feelings are wasted, I'm going to somehow bounce back from it. And that's why the beat is so upbeat and happy. I knew that that would be the turning point of the album, where I have more happy music, more upbeat, more live, because it's also kind of rediscovering yourself whenever you're just completely sad and depressed, and nobody really likes that, right? But once you let go of those feelings and understand that there's nothing you can really do in that situation, you let go and you start feeling much better.

You see Netflix shows starring young Kazakhs like Ayazhan in Sweet Tooth, and America's Got Talent highlighting Kyrgyz dancers Oma Twins and Adem Show. It seems a lot of people, just like you, have big dreams of making it here in the US. What advice would you give to those aspiring to shoot their shot here in the US?

I know this is going to sound corny, and most people probably hear it very often. But persistence is the key. No matter what you do, if you're consistent with what you're doing, at some point, you will see results. For me at some point, whenever I stopped posting music, stop posting content, it was a very dark time for me because I was not motivated to do anything. But once I started getting back into it, persevering through what I could, and consistently posting and consistently making music, I understood there's a light at the end of this dark tunnel, and I'm going to somehow reach my goal.