Kina Grannis discovered her love for songwriting at the age of 15 when she realized that she finally had a means of expressing herself. As a shy and reserved kid, she kept this part of her life fairly private until playing her first show at a coffee shop after graduating high school. Throughout her college years, she continued to write--holing herself away in the stairwells in her dorms at the University of Southern California (where she studied psychology and music)--and began playing small shows and open mics around the campus and Los Angeles.

In 2007, Kina submitted one of her songs to a contest--the winner of which would win a contract with a major label and have a music video aired during the Super Bowl. After entering the contest, she began posting both originals and cover videos on YouTube as a means of thanking (and reminding) the friends, family, and acquaintances that were voting for her daily. She quickly realized she had stumbled upon something much greater than a simple video hosting site, as her songs began amassing thousands of views from people around the world. A community formed around her music online--self-proclaimed "Kinerds," and because of their support, Kina went on to win the contest, along with a deal with Interscope Records.

Not long after signing with Interscope, Kina realized she and the label had different ideas for her music. Unwilling to sacrifice her creative freedom, and believing in the support of her newfound online fanbase, she decided to leave the label and pursue her music independently.

In 2010, Kina independently released her debut album "Stairwells," which charted on the Billboard 200 and lead to performances on Jimmy Kimmel Live and Ellen. Her sophomore album "Elements", produced by Matt Hales (Aqualung), was released in 2014 and debuted in the Top 50 on Billboard’s Top 200 (and Top 5 on its Folk Chart). For the better part of the five years surrounding these releases, Kina toured around the world, selling out shows across North America, Europe, and Asia.

In 2016, Kina released the Jakarta EP--2 songs that resulted from a harrowing experience in which she and her band were detained in Indonesia for 100 days, facing potential jail time due to a promoter's failure to secure proper work visas. In these songs she reflects upon missing home and loved ones and finding gratitude in the midst of difficult times.

Kina strives for honesty and intimacy in the songs she writes. She writes to document her life, to process her struggles and fears, to stay sane, to feel, and most importantly, to connect with people around the world. She's continuously in a dialogue with her community of supporters, and together they have developed what feels like an online family.

In 2017, Kina took that relationship one step further, creating one of the first fan-supported record labels through the creator-funding site Patreon. KG Records is currently supporting the release of Kina's next full length album, expected in summer 2018.