by Kid Pistol and Noraa Ish are firing on all cylinders right now as their CD Karma hits the streets. Released on June 8th to much fanfare, Karma has the juice to take these guys up a notch. Make no mistake this is a hardworking, fast talking Oregon act that is not going to take no for an answer. Winners of the Disc Makers/American Rock Scene #MakeMusic contest, they have been busy capitalizing on every opportunity the win gave them.
Tonight will be the much anticipated CD release party as they storm into the Alberta Rose Theater loaded down with CD’s and merch and the fire to succeed.
Earlier this spring, Kid Pistol and Noraa Ish dropped the video Take It All Away for the album Karma. The video landed them on multiple hip-hop news sites, Facebook pages, and online news and radio stations. The video has a great story line and you can watch it below.
So who are these guys?
Kid Pistol was born in Redding, California. He had absolutely no musical involvement or aspirations until his 16th birthday, when his older brother bought him a copy of some entry-level music production software at a local retailer. Not being very popular in high-school and only having a few close friends, Kid had nothing but time on his side to start playing around with his new software, comparable to a new shiny car in his eyes. From that point, he always aspired to create unique, never-before-heard sounds with every composition, while staying true to a style that would demand peoples’ attention and have them unintentionally singing or humming his songs in their head all day.
Kid Pistol eventually started reaching out to local artists, entering online production contests and scouting for possible collaborations with promising artists via the internet: “I was just looking for any way to get my name in others mouths, online in forums, websites – anything would help, but nothing seemed to be working.” He would also endure a psychological and emotional journey that he never saw coming. “I’ve lived with no electricity, warming up water in a pan and taking baths outside, but the fact that me and dad were never super close killed me the most.” In 1996, Kid awoke in the night to his dad screaming, yelling and shaking violently while laying on a glass table. His mom held his father while calling 911, while Kid was being comforted by his older brother, not knowing what to do. Later, his father was diagnosed with epilepsy, a condition stemming from a previous surgery to remove a tumor lodged in the brain. This would only be the beginning of an onslaught of health problems that would affect Kid’s music and life from that point on. His father battled epilepsy, was later diagnosed with prostate cancer, but survived, and years later, he suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed and unable to speak. While alone in the ICU with his father, Kid promised his father that he would grab the reigns of success through his music career, and do it in dedication to him. Days later, his father suffered another, this time fatal, stroke. Within weeks, Kid moved to Portland, OR where he believed there was more opportunity for his music.
In 2005, he met Noraa Ish through MySpace. They worked on many small projects and, in 2011, would release their first collaborative album 21-Reprise. They soon found inspiration in a local ‘amateur’ videographer and pianist named Alan Logston. They instantly created an online hype and demand from creating the music video “Love, Fear & Loathing” from the album, which attained over 75,000 hits on YouTube and received positive reviews.
Now with the release of KARMA, it’ll be fun to see where they take this machine and just how far they can go with it. This just goes to show you that with a strong work ethic, a high speed connection and solid music, the sky’s the limit!
