When you step into Kilo Kish’s world, nothing is surface-level. Her work, which has been described as conceptual, genre-fluid, and immersive, doesn’t merely ask to be listened to; it insists on being experienced. Her latest EP Negotiations is no exception. A self-contained universe of glitch, grace, and grey-toned introspection, Negotiations expands on the office-worker persona Kish first explored nearly a decade ago in Reflections in Real Time, only this time with the exhaustion of experience behind it.

“It always starts with a question,” Kish tells me, her words soft but strong. “I try to stay in a kind of spiritual place. Journaling, walking, spending time alone. Then I wait for the project to show itself.”

This inward gaze becomes the foundation of Negotiations, a six-track EP that doesn’t just look at burnout, but lives inside it. Through icy synths and a soundscape that straddles retro-electronica and modern fatigue, Kish dissects the compromises artists, and workers more broadly, are forced to make in a culture obsessed with productivity.

“I was so tired and burnt out,” she says plainly. “And I started asking myself: should we be showing people another way?”

The result is a collection of songs that feel both familiar and uncanny, rooted in Kish’s distinctive conceptual approach but tuned to a newer frequency, one that mirrors the modern office’s sterile architecture. The visuals from this EP lean heavily into this world: fluorescent-lit cubicles, greyscale uniforms, and an emotional palette that ranges from frustration to glitchy dissociation.

“I wanted a space devoid of colour and wonder,” she explains. “The office felt right, it’s where we’re allowed to talk about burnout. But rarely in the arts.”

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Musically, Negotiations is spare but deliberate, all sharp edges, ambient textures, and processed vocals. Kish and longtime collaborator Ray Brady reached for vocoders, modular synths, and nods to Daft Punk and Kraftwerk to build what she calls a “machine-like” sound.

“I didn’t want it to be futuristic pop in the current sense,” she says. “I wanted a kind of retro-futurism. Cold and mechanical. But with emotion inside the machine.”

This isn’t a collection built for the algorithm. “Sometimes, I don’t care about accessibility,” she says. “I just want to make something for the sake of the idea.”

Still, songs like “r3program” and “negotiate” featuring Miguel, strike a balance between conceptual and listenable, full of processed textures but anchored in humanity. At its heart, Negotiations isn’t just about the systems we work within, it’s about the deals we make with ourselves to survive them.

“What are we willing to give for what we want?” Kish asks. “And is that exchange reciprocal?” These are the kinds of questions that can’t be answered with a clean hook or chorus, but they reverberate throughout the project’s lyrics, structure, and aesthetic choices. There’s also a deeper philosophical reworking happening beneath the surface.

“I’ve been trying to reprogram in grace,” Kish says, reflecting on her tendency toward perfectionism and self-critique. “To not always tie my identity to my output. Who am I outside of being an artist? That’s something I’m trying to explore more.”

When I ask Kish how she defines herself, musician, visual artist or director, she resists classification.

“Even ‘solo artist’ feels too small,” she says. “I just say I’m a creative person. I like making connections between mediums. I explore ideas, and that’s what I do.”

That approach has led her into installations, films, brand collaborations, and curatorial work. Most recently, she’s been co-curating a residency with Womxn In Windows at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, a multidisciplinary presentation of six short films that examine land, diaspora, and displacement.

There’s a striking parallel between Negotiations and Reflections in Real Time, released nearly a decade ago. Both projects feature office-bound characters and a meditative internal monologue. But Kish sees growth between the two, a shift from anxious overthinking to a clearer understanding of her autonomy.

“Back then, I didn’t trust myself to be expansive. Now I’m like, you are expansive,” she says. “There’s nothing to prove.”

When she’s not creating, Kish tends toward stillness. Gardening, yoga, journaling. Listening to podcasts like Where Should We Begin with Esther Perel or deep-diving into spiritual wellness books by Queen Afua.

“Even when I’m not working, I still want to learn,” she admits. “But I try to separate myself from the lens of ‘I need to make something from this.’”

In the end, Negotiations feels less like a product and more like a pause, a quiet but necessary intermission from the hustle. It doesn’t shout. It doesn’t demand. It suggests: what if we slowed down? What if we didn’t keep running ourselves into the ground for productivity’s sake? And what if, in the middle of all this noise, we remembered we’re more than what we produce?