Anthony Vasquez, a.k.a. Otis Kane, is the type of artist to find creative inspiration from nearly everywhere. As a kid growing up in Los Angeles, he took from his mother’s appreciation for classic R&B and Soul acts like The Temptations and Stevie Wonder alongside his father’s appreciation for modern mainstream pop. Leaning into being a vocalist at a young age, Kane would go to school as a vocal major for a year before dropping out and began learning various musical instruments from people around him.

Eventually, he was hired by music veteran Nellee Hooper who has worked with legendary artists from Bjork to No Doubt to travel around Europe and produce for him. Learning the business a bit more, he opened STRZ Enterprises recording studio with some friends. Music legends that strolled through the studio included Steven Tyler, Jonas Brothers, and Julia Michaels, to name a few.

Meanwhile, Kane began working on his solo work as well. The result became notable early singles like “Happy Days”(featured on Matthew Cherry’s Oscar-winning short and eventual series Hair Love) and “Don’t Try.” His soulful melodies and earnest yet hopeful songwriting raised his profile, thanks to his breakout project, Therapy. By the time 2021 came around, he dropped two well-received albums through Purple BLUE and November Love Notes.

This year, Kane has already hit the ground running with a wonderfully consistent flow of looses like “Pieces,” “Good Life,” and “Smile.” The tracks will be featured on an album with a release date that he calls a moving target as he puts together the final touches.

Speaking with BET.com, Kane talks about how much has changed for him since his last projects a few years ago, flowing with changes in the music industry and why he doesn’t fear AI.

BET.com: Your music is filled with so much love when I listen to tracks like “Perfect” and “Keeps Me Going.” Where do you draw your songwriting inspiration from?

Otis Kane: I draw my inspiration from my relationships. I have a lot of love in my life, just full stop. I have so much love in my life from my family. Just everybody around me is just so loving that that's what I write songs about. That's what I have to give to the world. I can regurgitate what I know, and that's what I know.

BET.com: What’s changed for you creatively and personally since Purple Blue and November Love Notes dropped in 2021?

Otis Kane: I gained a lot of trust in my instincts and in translating the good feelings that I feel because a lot of times I would try to draw a lot of my creative inspiration from intense things. Anything that happens, I was like, oh, wow, now I'm creative. But I realized that my life is just continually giving me inspiration and a lot of it is love and happiness.

A lot of it is joy, and many people don't create from that place. It’s not considered cool. I don't know. I felt that way at one point, but then I took the leap and made what I wanted to give to the world. So yeah, that's been just an amazing thing because it always comes back to me, so it, it just flows. I put it out and it just flows right back. So that's a great thing.

Professionally, it's given me the ability to live life the way I want and work on the things that I want to work on and my music. The life I lived before I was an artist was a lot more intense because I had to be here and be there and work with the artists, follow artists, try to get on records, hang out, and be around. And now that I'm doing my own thing, I can just live life on my own terms, which is beautiful.

BET.com: You dropped several singles this year so far, including “Smile” just recently alongside “Pieces,” “Kaleidoscope,” and “Good Life.” How do those tracks reflect your approach to your upcoming project?

Otis Kane: Those tracks are all in the same vein. I'm musically feeling like I'm a chameleon just as a producer. So, I blend a lot of influences. I am weaving together a story of infusing a lot of happiness and joy into it, but a lot of creativity and almost some psychedelic feelings when the interludes and intros for the album are all together. They're a journey that goes a step above Purple Blue. Creativity, at least how I'm thinking of it. Obviously, I want it to be received that way, but I'm thinking of it in a little more of abstract way than Purple Blue. Not the songs but the things that weave the songs together.

BET.com: When you look at yourself, what’s the state of the modern recording artists where the focus has leaned more toward branding than the traditional way of releasing music?

Otis Kane: I have been in the music industry long enough to see constant changes. And what I've noticed for myself at least, that if I spend time on my craft and myself, then all those things kind of fall into place a little bit easier. I'm not changing the way I operate creatively because it's really important for me to nurture my creative process, but I keep an eye on all the things outside of it and move with the tide. I feel like I've always said, I'm like water.

I just move with the tide and kind of roll with how it flows. But I keep my creative process solid, happy, comfortable and joyful. I don't make changes to that based on changes to the industry. We're just in a time where things are changing so often, and honestly, I love it. I love the technology side of music. I love when new things happen and change. These things are so exciting to me because I look at music as technology anyway. I don't look at it as just pure art. I get into my gear and I open it up and I'm like, oh, an engineer made this. This is beautiful. This is amazing. So I love changes. I embrace them. I have no, and nothing makes me go, oh, I missed the good old days. I love it.

BET.com: As a musician who spent years honing in on their craft, how do you feel about the rise of AI in the entertainment industry?

Otis Kane: You know what? Every new piece of technology brings a bit of fear but also a lot of opportunity. So, I've always found the opportunity in things that people are particularly scared of because I've never come at it from a place of, oh, this might take away my work. I'm like, how can I make this work for me? This can be amazing. This can be beautiful. This can be a hack to make things easier, to make things simpler, to make things flow. But that's not take away the fact that what I love to do brings me joy when I'm doing things that aren't AI. When I'm doing the work, it brings me joy, not because of getting money from it or et cetera. It's just the thing that I love to do, so that'll never change.

BET.com: What does success look like for you in the future?

Otis Kane: Well, first of all, I feel extremely successful right now. I feel so fortunate and so successful because I have built a way to be able to create music and be able to have some of the instruments that I've always wanted to have, the gear that I've always wanted to take, the trips that I've wanted to take and days off whenever I want. I've built that life. So that looks like success. I always want to build on that. So success in the future means continuing to put music out that brings joy to the world, and continuing to live a great life on a larger and larger and larger scale, and more and more and more people hearing and enjoying my music.