Kai kennedy schaffer
Kai Kennedy Schaffer (aka Goodyenta) is an LA-based musician, audio engineer, and image maker. Their work spans from hard-hitting indie rock, to ambient multi-dimensional soundscapes paired with abstract darkroom imagery that challenge the photo-historical cannon. Led by investigations their ancestry, symbiosis between their sonic and visual practices eclipse genre, style and aesthetic. Their work has been heavily influenced by mentorships with industry changemakers such as Steve Albini, William Parker and John King.
audio engineer and multi-media artist
They graduated from Bennington College with a B.A in Experimental Music and Audio Technology, as well as a minor in Photography.
Kai is available for recording, mixing, mastering, music production services out of their studio space. They are also available for as installation of their multi-media work.
Recorded work
Wild (2025)
Engineering, Mixing, Mastering
from Groupies in the Age of Consent (2025)
Eyes Wide Shut - Engineering, Drums
Just Another Night - Programming
Pills - Bass
Harvey - Engineering, Drums
My friend joseph (2025)
Songwriting, production, guitar, bass, drums, engineering, mixing, mastering
And Other Disasters (2025)
Mixing, Mastering
Instar (2024)
Mixing, Mastering
The Skunk Hour (2024)
drums
And, Father (History of the Birth of Jesus Christ), is a four channel audio and up to seven channel video installation. And, Father emerged through working with archival kodachrome slides from my grandmother, paired with an electronic/ambient musical appropriation of 17th Century German composer Heinrich Schutz’s Historia der Geburt Jesu Christi. And, Father explores unattainable idols— whether it be Jesus, or the American Dream post-porgrom
And, father (2024)
Two-Channel mix
The ritual (2025)
The Ritual was a Transcendental performance piece inspired by ancient Talmudic wisdom, the work of Walter Benjamin, and the Torah portion of Kai’s hebrew birthday. Kai developed a ritual through their structured music, work in light abstraction, and neo free jazz improvisation to bring forth the wisdom of healed ancestors to raise the collective conscience.
Selected work (2022-2025)
Kai has primarily focused their still-image work on abstraction and self portraiture, centering their own family archive. Their research-based process aims to challenge the historical narrative of photographic object as the ultimate truth, and its sparse considerations of consent.
