The New Miss Karun Now Called Miss Karen

                                                     Miss Karun  

She looks striking as she reclines on a couch at Westgate’s Artcaffe restaurant tapping away on her iPad. She is sporting the edgy 1980s look that made her and her music wildly popular a couple of years back. She is clad in a pair of printed jeans, a stylishly torn white T-shirt and a maroon ribbon neatly tied around her afro hair-do. Resting on the table is a spiked denim jacket.

“I wear whatever I’m comfortable in. I feel comfortable in this, so I’m good,” she breaks the ice as I joke about her flashy look when we settle down for the interview.

Karun is back with her first solo track, Photograph after her Camp Mulla break-away. The single was released officially early last week making her a darling of radio presenters with her new hit song receiving massive airplay as the otherwise likable star criss-crossed media houses fielding interviews.

Photograph, a well-crafted electro beat song is somewhat controversial as it is pegged on a supposed break-up believed to be a hit back on the singer’s unexpected departure from the young urban group whose break up, coming after huge overnight success, was treated with shock.

“My days are now busy. I wake up and go to the studio. Before I know it, I am called for an interview before remembering that I have to study for exams. ‘Karun you have an interview at Homeboyz at 6am’ and I go ‘S**t I have exams!’ It’s that crazy,” the singing beauty explains, playfully shrugging her shoulders in mid-sentences.

The single is off her debut self-titled album, Karun, which is scheduled for release in August, roughly one month before she flies off to the United States to begin her freshman year at California Institute of the Arts where she will be undertaking a course in Music Management.

“I now have a production team, Boss and Chief, working on my music career. It is led by Jaaz. It is like a mini-recording label. It is the team’s first experiment. They will be promoting the album. They are responsible for my publicity so I am not worried about how the album will be promoted after I fly out for studies overseas,” says the mellow voiced star celebrated for her Party Don’t Stop lead vocals.

The album features songs produced by Jaaz with her involvement in the production as well. Some tracks feature collabos with her and appearances with members of her former group, Camp Mulla.

As Karun describes, the album has two sides; The sun and the moon, which she has tattooed in both her wrists. The album would depict her calm side on one side and her wild side on the flip side, unveiling a whole new Karun many people knew nothing about.

On her Camp Mulla break-away

“There is no bad blood between me and the members of my team. I don’t even know if we’ve broken up because we hang out like all the time and I practically live in Taio Tripper’s backyard. He is Jaaz’s neighbour,” she says, clearing the air on rumours that her departure was occasioned by differences between her and her former team members Taio Tripper, Shappa-Man, K’Cous and the group’s manager Mykie Toni.

“I have really wanted to do my own thing for a while now. It was just time to go solo,” she remarks.

But just how could she jump ship at a time when Camp Mulla was enjoying massive success hugely pegged on the unique singing characters of its group members with her as a key member and lead vocalist, the only girl in the award-winning group?

Did her departure slow the group down? Did it mess up the rumoured signing up with Sony Music, an international recording label?  

 “There was never a deal (with Sony). What could they have provided that we were not getting already? Nobody dared give an answer to that question. It never was,” she states.

So who is Karun? Some sections of the media have always branded her as rather shy while others say she has a wild alter ego.

“I’m rather shy around people that I’m not familiar with. When I’m around my friends, I let loose,” she notes.

It is this side of Karun that many don’t get to see. She gets along with just about anyone and is seemingly free in anyone’s company — even a nosy journalist trying to get some dirt off her past!

 “I am in a relationship. I am taken,” she says. “I don’t know how it will be (leaving her boyfriend in Kenya) because I don’t believe in long-distance relations. Do you?” she poses inquisitively.