Charlene Kaye (born September 12, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and performer best known for her solo work under the name KAYE and as former lead vocalist for San Fermin. She featured as a guitarist for The SPACE Tour and Apocalyptour.
Early Life and Education[]
Charlene was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She grew up outside Phoenix, Arizona, also living for a time in Singapore, Hong Kong and Michigan during childhood. She began playing music at an early age, taking lessons in violin, piano, guitar, ukulele, saxophone and clarinet.
She attended the University of Michigan as an English major.
Work[]
In 2011, Charlene released the song "Dress and Tie", a duet with Darren Criss.
She released her second full-length album Animal Love in 2012. It reached #15 on the iTunes pop charts in the week of release and received praise from PopMatters and support from Glamour. VH1 called it "at once classic and contemporary, a mix of glam rock and classical music in just the right measures" and The New Yorker described it as "a richly orchestrated pop album".
In March 2011 and 2013, Charlene played at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas.
Charlene was involved in the Miracle Musical album Hawaii: Part II, the side project of Tally Hall member Joe Hawley, which released on December 12, 2012.
Charlene wrote and provided vocals for the eighth song in the album Hawaii: Part II. Charlene's likeness was also used in the Labyrinth music video released on December 14, 2014.
In April 2014, Charlene joined the collective San Fermin replacing the former vocalist Rae Cassidy. She toured behind the band's previously released record San Fermin and later, as a full member, recorded the band's following two records, Jackrabbit (2015) and Belong (2017). In April 2019, the band announced that, after five years, Charlene was leaving to pursue her solo career.
Her final performance was on April 26, 2019, at San Fermin's special concert to promote their new live record Live At The Fillmore (2019) and their documentary film No Promises.
While touring with San Fermin on their Jackrabbit tour, Charlene began a new solo project under the name KAYE. Her first release was a pair of promotional singles, "Honey" and "UUU", in July 2016. She released a five-track EP on September 29, 2016, titled Honey. This was followed by three non-album singles, "Parakeeter" (November 2016), "Cheshire Kitten" (July 2017) and "Bamboo" (September 2017). In April 2019, Charlene was focusing on writing and recording music as KAYE full-time.
StarKid Productions[]
Charlene featured as a guitarist for both The SPACE Tour and Apocalyptour.
Personal Life[]
Charlene is currently based in New York.