Khalivius won’t stop with ‘Red Light’

Khalivius is used to traversing middle ground.

In high school, the musician said, he tended to occupy that space between divergent groups, never entirely at home in any particular social circle. And in creating, he’s become increasingly torn between writing and recording raps – a form that served as his earliest introduction to music – and staking out new ground as an R&B singer, which has become more of a focus over the last year. 

“I feel like I’m a chameleon,” said Khalivius, who will perform as part of Rip the Runway at TempleLive at the Columbus Athenaeum on Sunday, July 28. “I feel like I know how to speak and how to present myself based on whatever the room calls for. Walking in that middle, I definitely can sway whatever way feels best for me.”

Even in promotion, Khalivius can find it challenging to choose a lane. He said he understands the necessity of building a presence on social media, for instance, and for one recent campaign he released daily videos of himself performing the same dance routine to the slinky, summertime jam “Red Light,” pledging to keep it up until either one of the clips went viral or his new single dropped. But at the same time, he expressed a belief that a little bit of mystery can still go a long way.

“The curse of social media, to me, is that we learn too much about people and their personal lives,” Khalivius said. “I feel like everyone should just keep their personal lives to themselves. And if you want to entertain someone, entertain them and make it relatable, as people do. But we know too many things about strangers online. … I put my life on wax, in the music. So, listen to the music. It tells you a lot.”

This is particularly true of the forthcoming album Khalivius is currently prepping, which he said takes a more direct approach than his previous release, Love Over Life, from 2022, an album he described as more of a showcase for his developing voice as a singer. Even new single “Red Light,” released earlier this summer, keeps listeners at a distance – “All these sides to me I just can’t show you,” he sings – one in a series of emotional walls that he said come tumbling down on The Khalivius Addiction, due out in late August.

“On this next album, I’m really trying to tell the story of who I am,” the musician said. “I’m 28 and I’m still growing and learning things about life. … And I think now it’s just about embracing vulnerability and putting that emotion into the music.”

Khalivius first started writing songs as a means of working through the culture shock he experienced when at age 10 the family moved from New Brunswick, New Jersey, and a neighborhood he described as the kind “most privileged people haven’t seen,” to a comparatively rural home in Raleigh, North Carolina. At the time, Khalivius wrote exclusively raps, inspired by the verses his hip-hop-loving older brother scribbled in a spiral notebook. “And I still listen to more rap than I do R&B,” said Khalivius, whose earliest rhymes were informed by the likes of Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z. “I love how rappers tell their stories. … I connect to them somehow, and I’ve lived part of the lives they talk about. I understand those stories and where they come from.”

The Khalivius Addiction also introduces a bit more light, with the musician describing Love Over Life as darker and more aggressive, the bulk of its songs arriving as he emerged from the tailspin of early 20s depression. “It was right after college, and I didn’t feel too good about myself, and I didn’t know what I was going to do,” he said. “And now I’m more excited and just proud of where I am. … I love music. It’s very much a passion to me. And everything from making the beat to writing the lyrics to recording and mixing and releasing the song, it’s all therapeutic for me. And once the song is out, and those feelings are finally out of me, I feel free.”