Singer and songwriter Kali Uchis released some video clips recently, showing how she travels to Los Angeles, New York and Colombia, while recording new music.

    Uchis has spent her years building worlds of her own. First as the oft left-out youngest sibling in Colombia, then as an immigrant in Virginia, she routinely shut herself in her room to pen songs and make collages. “I never felt like I needed to belong anywhere,” she says. “The only thing that exists is what I’m making and what I want to exist in my mind.”

    That fierce individualism, of course, has led to a musical style all Uchis’ own, her shimmery blend of soul, doo-wop and ’90s West Coast hip-hop. She insists on creative control, writing and producing most of her tracks, cover art and music videos. Uchis made her debut with the 2012 mixtape “Drunken Babble,” which she produced herself in a month. After attracting notice from the likes of Snoop Dogg and A$AP Rocky, the 22-year-old released her first studio EP “Por Vida” in February.

    Uchis says “Por Vida” traces her growth into womanhood. While she sings about missing an ex in “Lottery,” she expresses a desire to stay single, free from “mind games, manipulations” in “Loner.”(SD-Agencie)