KAWEHI

SUBSCRIBERS: 161,000

VIDEO VIEWS: 13 MILLION

Kawehi is not primarily a YouTube musician, but calls herself a “one woman band” who uses many different web sites, including YouTube, Vimeo, Soundcloud, Bandcamp and Kawehi.com to release her videos and music. Her YouTube stats are less stratospheric than those of the real high-flyers, but she’s nonetheless enjoying an impressive independent internet-fuelled music career.

Kawehi made a name for herself by performing all the musical parts of her videos live through looping. It’s an impressive feat, but what helped her stand out and flagged as Vimeo Staff Picks were the moving images she and husband Paul Wight created. For example, in the video of her song she sings and beatboxes each musical part with different versions of her head in cardboard boxes. It is fascinating to watch and an apt illustration of what’s she’s doing. Many of Kawehi’s videos are closer in style to traditional music videos, and some are arty in a way few YouTube videos are. Because of this, and perhaps also because she’s a