Abshxr Kahiye is a recent UWindsor grad with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work. Born in Toronto, but proud of his hometown of Windsor, his goal is to make his singing professional and take it to the highest he can take it. He’s an R&B soul who wants to stand out in Windsor. If you like The Weeknd, you will love him. With two new videos coming in March, check out his single “Bounce”.
How long have you been making your own music?
I’ve always been able to sing, but I got really serious about it when I was 22 – I just turned 25 today – and in the last 3 years I’ve gotten a lot better. I’ve gotten a lot more professional experience and I just think I’ve really got a lot to offer.
Who are your musical inspirations?
Ah man, I hate that question when i’m not ready for it cause I really have to sit down and jot things down. I’m an R&B fanatic. I love rhythm and blues. I’m a fan of vocalists in all genres, really. I love dancers, I love performers, I love artists with “it” factors – artists that aren’t just gifted or talented, but have a presence and can perform in a lot of different environments in different ways.
Are there any specific artists that inspire you?
Specifically, I grew up on a lot of Usher, a lot of Backstreet Boys, and Britney, and NSYNC. Pop and R&B, specifically I could name a lot of R&B artists, Usher, if you want to go today, The Weeknd was huge for me. The Weeknd is definitely my favourite artist, ever probably. Not because I love his music or because I caught onto him before he really blew up big, but because he’s from 3 hours away from me, he’s the same ethnicity as me, and when he really came up and tried to pursue his dream in singing it gave me a hope, like man I can do this too. He’s Canadian, he’s from Ontario, he’s from 20 minutes (from) where I was born. It gave me a lot of hope, you know I could do this too, so I definitely love The Weeknd.
When did you start performing?
Really performing, and really putting the terms of professional pressure on myself to perform adequately, I’ve been doing it now consistently for half a year, almost a year maybe. That’s when I’ve been really performing a lot of events and university events, night clubs – I’ve been really practising wherever I can open mic.
Tell me about your first performance.
I think my first legit performance might have been in 3rd grade. We had a team of my best friends, six of us. I was singing, two guys were rapping, two guys were beat boxing, one guy was like narrating, and we had our 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Anderson – bless her, she’s amazing – she let us perform in front of the class, gave us a solid 15 minutes. We kind of each had our own little roles. I didn’t even look at it as a performance; it was something fun that I enjoyed doing. It was kind of a moment we had and that’s the first one I can remember at such a young age that you look back at it now and it just kinda started to set the bars for things that are happening now.
How have you changed throughout your career?
I think as you grow older, not just as an artist but as a person, you find yourself more. Especially being a graduate now for the last two years, and being out of the university, just not being around so many students and people and just networks – the way I was before the last 2 years – I’ve always been in school; I’ve never not been in school. You learn that it’s more alone time, more me time. You figure yourself out and grow up a little more. It helps you as an artist, too, to know who you are and what you want to say, the content you want to speak of. I’ve been able to find myself, and I’m still growing.