Set Your Sight…And Your Ears…On SYTË
SYTË is love. They love music. They love humanity. They love the avant-garde, the bold, the creation of it all, and the perfectly-timed surprises the universe loves to deliver. And of course, they love each other. Pleaser knows you’ll absolutely adore getting to know this musical couple that deserves a seat in every rotation.
PHOTOS BY OLIVE JOLLEY
Pop duo SYTË (pronounced SOO-teh), the project of Nita Kaja and Drin Tashi, is derived from a love story that could’ve been a Wattpad fanfic. The couple’s opposite energies feed a witty dynamic that electrifies SYTË’s music. Nearly any song in their discography can be interchanged between club lights and summer car rides. Infectious, glittering instrumentals paired with divine vocals turn introspective themes into sexy and catchy choruses.
Kosovan roots cement SYTË. The name translates to “eyes” in Albanian. It’s a sweet notation of their relationship; they go together like a pair of eyes. The name also implies that the beauty of SYTË lies in the eyes of the beholder, since eyes are the window to the soul. English speakers tend to mispronounce the name as “sight”, but Kaja and Tashi aren’t sweating it, since the intended metaphors still relatively deliver.
SYTË's origins story also began on the other half of the world. Kaja, originally from Queens, spent summers visiting Tashi’s home country of Kosovo. It was in the summer of 2016 that an invisible ribbon wound the two to each other. Their meet-cute memory replays in their minds to the soundtrack of Rihanna’s ANTI and Drake’s Views.
Kaja retells the first night they met cinematically. She remembers feeling like the star of a coming-of-age romance film. One of Tashi’s former bands was putting on a show she drifted into. The band performed a cover of “Someday” by the Strokes– Kaja’s musical icons at the time. Naturally, the pair got to chatting, and a chemistry both personal and musical ignited.
Nita Kaja: I was in my junior year of high school. Just got off of accutane. Just got off of getting heartbroken left and right by 2-week long situationships. It was going to be a hot girl summer…but I immediately met Drin. It felt like fate.
Drin Tashi: I was a musician over there [in Kosovo], in a couple of bands. My dad was a musician so I grew up around a lot of instruments. When we met, I heard her sing and thought, ‘That’s beautiful, we should do something together.’
As Kaja returned home to wrap up her senior year, the couple produced their first EP from an ocean apart. Distance didn’t dampen their passion for creation or each other. Shortly after graduating high school, Kaja uprooted to Kosovo. The duo spent the next few years indulging in experimentation in the scene that inspired their combined musical journey. They set SYTË on a sound they illustrate as:
NK: Bejeweled.
DT: Dreamy.
NK: Not afraid to get ugly.
In Kosovo, SYTË chipped away on a few more EP’s and clusters of singles. The community they began to build reassured the pair that they were brewing something special. Reflecting on the perfectly-timed experiences they were blessed with in Kosovo, SYTË’s eagerness to flip the table couldn’t be contained. By that point, they were certainly well-equipped to reset it.
NK: We’re in a vacuum of two dumb b*tches being like ‘exactly’, ‘exactly’ to each other all the time. It's so fun I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
New York City danced in the back of their minds, and by 2022, the opportunity was knocking too loud to ignore. For an unexpected last hurrah, they scored a slot in the lineup of Dua Lipa’s festival in Pristina, Kosovo: Sunny Hill. Performing for 15,000 festival goers, the triumphant set felt like a proper send off.
DT: [Sunny Hill,] that was a really big push for us to move to New York, we had talked about it for a long time and that was the perfect time…
NK: ...Perfect Timing! [Playing Sunny Hill] was a bite of carrot that kept dangling in front of me, and I really liked the taste of that carrot, so I knew we had to keep going.
DT: It was a step up, 100%. It’s like BC/AD for us.
NK: We transitioned from a four piece band...we’re fully a duo now. Drin’s on drums now...he was originally a drummer. He used to be playing like three different synths and the guitar, and I was like okay….we got to audit that…it’s really hard to transport this stuff.
New York City’s electric and ambitious influence jumps out on SYTË’s latest EP, Perfect Timing. Released on July 18th, the EP includes four tracks that prove to be their most confident work yet. Tashi’s artful production transports listeners directly into relatable scenarios or intense emotions embellished by Kaja’s mesmeric vocals.
NK: “Fall In Love” is a deconstructed, nonlinear telling of the way we met. “Stay With Me” explores my performance of femininity, having to perform to be loved in a relationship. It’s not necessarily in this [relationship with Drin], but I pull from like, 10 years ago. “Hate Me Back” is pulling from that same time– like I’m toxic we need to talk about it. “Not About You” is the realization that no matter what circumstances I’m in, a good place is not going to take me out of myself. That was really cathartic to put out on a track.
Kaja and Tashi’s shared affinity for daring juxtapositions and building tension adorns Perfect Timing, both audibly and visually. For SYTË, their personal lives pour into their profession; there are no boundaries. It would be hard to draw separation anyways, as their studio is in fact in their bedroom. Perhaps, this just may be the secret force swirling together their creative harmony.
NK: [When we make music] we try to not listen to any music or references, to try and keep it as SYTE as possible. This is where I come in, and I might say, ‘I want a yellow beat’... this is how I describe music…or I’ll describe a fond memory and want the song to feel like it.
DT: It’s like giving a prompt to chat GPT.
NK: Literally DrinPT.
DT: For me, when it comes to writing something new, starting the production of the song, we start talking about ideas and I have to rest with it for a week or so. I don't touch anything. Once I start making it, it comes easily. Sometimes the time comes and we make a song in one day because we’ve been thinking on it for weeks. For you, I think you write a lot.
NK: I write all the time. If I wake up with an idea in a cold sweat, I’m not going to let myself forget it…And I firmly believe in the collective consciousness. Either you’re a good vessel or closed off, and I try to be as open as possible.
SYTË hopes that Perfect Timing puts out a good spell to keep the universe’s energy on their side. In their vision, this would take shape in connecting with more listeners who relate to their songs. Specifically, listeners who want to let those feelings flow and join the party. Two’s company, but three’s a crowd!
On the horizon, SYTË’s cooking up a few live shows– their favorite kind of party. Notably, they have an upcoming collaboration with Indie Hourzz supporting Zeke Blue. The performance, taking place at Nublu in NYC on July 22, will be Perfect Timing’s stage debut. SYTË’s almost always kicking their feet at the thought of a concert.
NK: Some days I am Queen Chopped…like luteal phase, the Mayor of Chopsville. And if you have to perform on one of those days…on those days I would rather be producing.
DT: When we’re making the music we’re always excited talking, ‘Oh my god how are we going to get to perform this?’
NK: Like open mic right now. Actually that’s a good idea. We should do that sometime.
