Oaken Community Series: Kai

We had a chat with KAI, a Bali based entrepreneur and DJ who's been expanding thriving his business at a young age. Living in Bali for his whole adolescent years, Kai has explored and witnessed the industry of hopitality and its changes over the years. He now runs a bar & record shop, Peels Bali and a service apartment, T Lofts & Co Living.

From Kai's Story we reflect on the importance of relying on self-instrospection and having a confidence to go beyond our comfort zone. Running a business is an art of balancing idelism and reality, being bold and being humble, applying what we already know and taking in a new knowledge along the way.

Being young and fairly new to running a company, how do you manage concerns / fear of failing?For me starting a company or a business at an early age is very challenging, especially adjusting to a target market to an older audience that already has their own stigma but as we the young generations need to keep up with them but still doing it in our way. fear of failing? For me failing is just another experience and lessons that need to be learned for the next thing ahead, so never take failing as fear but take it as a lesson to improve!

What encouraged you to take the risk of developing your own business and how did you manage to tackle challenges in developing a project when you first jumped into it?Lots of inspiration and references from my close friends and people that have the same visions with me, and of course all the insights that I took from my friends, partners or experts, never be too proud to share your obstacles with your colleagues.

What do you want Peels Records & Bar to bring to the Pererenan neighborhood?Community and a bridge from the tourists/expats to the locals, no man can live by their own, support is the fundamental thing in peoples existence. To support anyone from anywhere - our aim is to create a movement that fully supports people’s life in every way.

More than a bar, it is also a record shop. What is your favorite record to play as a DJ or listen to at Peels? What’s a good cocktail you’d recommend while listening to those tunes?As in genre I love to play & mix House (Detroit, Chicago and proto house, but for listening I love to listen to my jazz collections while sipping our Mezcal Series on the menu.

Having just returned from Japan, how was the Rainbow Disco Club Festival? (mentions the nature location, morning / day experience, if possible relate it to a scent certain scent / far afield)RDC has been my favorite festival of all time in asia, super friendly, you can get all the experiences from camping, OG food stalls, Kids friendly playground, amazing line ups and music and of course the scenic venue that makes it even more beautiful - located on the mountain side of japan, super good weather that makes you not wanna stop dancing and eating haha! and of course all the friendly people who came to the festival, the good vibes, and the respect to environments, you barely can even see any trash around.

Fair to say some parts of you and your work are inspired by Japanese influences, recommendations of things to do while visiting the country? Who / what is your favorite designer / musician / artist / brand / etc. that influences you?I get a lot of inspiration every time I go to Japan from the architecture, music scene, F&B/music bars and also fashion. My favorite designer is "Shiro Kuramata" , a very famous figure in the design & architecture circle at the time including Yokoo tadanori, Isozaki Arata and Tadao Ando. For music, my inspiration is my closest family collective in Japan called Timothy Really I love how they keep it very casual and their relationship is like family to each other. I love countless Japanese local brands haha! The thing is I love how passionate Japanese brand makers are to create and maintain their brands.

Seeing how T Lofts & Peels Records are designed, visuals and scents play huge parts in creating the vibe / ambience of the spaces. Are visuals and scents important for you personally? What’s your ideal morning routine like? (ambience, sound, scent)Of course it is important for me that visuals and scents need to be aligned. My ideal morning routine is waking up early go to the beach, walk the dogs, surf and listen to my morning selection of records while i prepare for work, i really love the smell of the beach in the morning salty waters, breezy wind, balearic and new age sound in the morning and a traditional incense smell fresh from the roads along across your neighborhood.