Original Music

The idea for “His Name Is Kodiak (He’s a Travel Cat Aye)” first popped into my head in 2022, but it didn’t really become a song until I talked to my dad about creating the musical part for it. My dad and I ended up recording it live together, and that live recording is the version that was released on Spotify.

It became the starting point—and really the catalyst—for me getting into music. The song did well enough that it gave me the confidence to start learning ukulele, and after I made the first song about my cat, I pretty much couldn’t stop making songs about my cat. It’s still Kodiak’s most popular song by far, and it has become something of an anthem or theme song for Kodiak The Travel Cat.

“The Travel Cat Anthem” came together really quickly after “His Name Is Kodiak.” Instead of being a song specifically about Kodi, this one is more of a travel cat song for anyone who adventures with their cat. Kodiak and I have spent years traveling together and have lived on the road full-time for more than three years, so the song grew out of that whole travel-cat life—the backpacks, trackers, harnesses, road trips, cities, and community that come with it. It’s meant to be a fun little anthem for the Travel Cat Fam and an encouragement for other cats and their humans to get out there and explore together.

“Long Live Kitty City” is about one of the biggest changes in Kodiak’s life. Before 2024, Kodi had a really hard time being around other cats. While we were living in a shared campground with other traveling cats, I came up with the idea for Kitty City—a large outdoor catio and a TikTok series built around making it happen. Each video was made long enough to qualify for TikTok’s Creator Program, and the series became a kind of experiment in letting watch time and engagement help fund the project itself. It worked: Kitty City got built (funded by TikTok watch time), Kodi became best friends with two of the other cats, and those friendships are still going strong. Since then, Kitty City has traveled around the country with us, and the song is a celebration of that whole project, the community around it, and how much Kodi grew through the experience.

“The Cat Who Crossed the Raging River” is about Kodiak’s first viral moment. When he was still less than a year old, Kodi crossed a small stream in Slovenia on a warm day, and the video unexpectedly took off—eventually reaching more than 19 million views and helping the account reach its first 100,000 followers. It became one of those early moments that changed the direction of my work and made me realize there was a real opportunity in creating with Kodiak. The song turns that little creek crossing into a much bigger legend, celebrating the video that helped set Kodiak and me on the path we’re still following today.

“Walking a Cat Is Not Like Walking a Dog” is a playful take on one of the biggest expectation shifts that comes with having an adventure cat. A cat may look perfectly natural in a harness and leash, but the experience usually isn’t much like walking a dog—cats wander, stop, explore, and often decide where you’re going next. The song is meant to be funny, but it’s also a little bit of travel-cat advice: if you want to adventure with a cat, it helps to understand that you’re often following their pace rather than asking them to follow yours.

“I Like to Find My Cat at Random Times of the Day to Say Hi” is the theme song for one of Kodiak and my biggest recurring video series. The series follows exactly what the title says: I go find Kodi at random times of the day, say hi, and see what he’s up to. Over time, those videos have grown into a major part of the account, reaching more than 100 million views on TikTok alone. Once I started making more original music, it felt inevitable that a series this recognizable needed its own song—so this became the theme for it.

“Kitty Waves” came from watching all the different moods Kodi moves through. He can be affectionate one minute, grumpy the next, full of zoomies, then completely crashed out—and that’s just part of who he is. The song is about learning not to take those shifts personally, but instead meeting him where he’s at and accepting the whole range of feelings that comes with being a cat. In my view, the song can also apply with regards to being human sometimes too...

“Cute Little Sounds” is about Kodiak’s surprisingly wide vocal range and all the different little noises he uses to communicate. Over time, I’ve learned that different meows, chirps, chortles, and other sounds can mean different things, which makes it pretty easy to tell what he wants or needs. The funny part is realizing that the communication goes both ways: after years of responding to those sounds, it starts to feel less like I trained him and more like he trained me. The song plays with that idea—the very effective little sounds cats figure out how to use on their humans.

“The Kodi-odi-odiak Song” is an upbeat rap-style companion to “His Name Is Kodiak.” It opens by calling back to some of the original song’s first lines, then takes the idea in a faster, more playful direction. I had come up with a beat I really liked and was having fun experimenting more with rapping, so it turned into another kind of Kodiak theme song—part introduction, part recap of the things he’s become known for, and part look at whatever might come next.

“Kitty Wisdom” is about the ways my relationship with Kodiak slowly changed my own life. There were times when I struggled to do basic things for myself, but I could still commit to taking Kodi outside every day—and that small promise became the beginning of much bigger changes. Over the years, I started noticing other things I could learn from him too: getting outside, resting when you need to, protecting your space, enjoying the moment, setting boundaries, and knowing when to be close or take time for yourself. The song turns those little lessons into advice that could come from a cat, but really applies just as much to people. It’s about how small changes, repeated over time, can quietly move a life somewhere better.