Interview: Kay Jay Keller
Infectiously personable and authentic in nature, Kay Jay Keller translates all of these traits into feelings within her music. With only one independent track released to date (and the second debuting TODAY), she has managed to capture the ears and hearts of many with her soothing melodies, sparkling personality, and genre-bending flair.
Kay Jay Keller
After seeing massive success with her debut single “Everything,” the singer-songwriter returns with her new track “I Choose You.” We were able to meet virtually with Kay Jay and were lucky enough to get an inside look at the new track.
Behind the scenes of the song, Kay Jay had quite the interesting creative process prior to producing the track.
“I heard the first lines of this song while I was dreaming. Like, while I was literally sleeping. And when I think back … to me it sounded like a break up song. It sounded like the end of a relationship … I brought it to my producer and I’m hearing this depressing end of a relationship song and he was like I think this could be an enduring song, I think it could be something different. So we just ran with this idea that maybe love isn’t always a fairytale. Maybe we tell the other side, where it is difficult, and we talk about the better or for worse part of the relationship, namely the worse.”
After dropping out of college and joining a rock band, Kay Jay is no newcomer in the music industry. However with the singer-songwriter now taking a different route and choosing herself and her music as a solo career, the authenticity is clearly visible within her words.
Following her dreams is a big goal for Kay Jay Keller. Sharing that her dream is to tour, she aspires to meet everyone, perform, and go everywhere. With a steady lineup of releases to come, Kay Jay is quickly growing a following on social media with her upbeat personality paired alongside her musical talent. However, for Kay Jay, the ultimate post COVID goal is touring.
“Seeing someone else sing my words to me in person -- I would die. That’s the goal for me. I’m not doing this for anyone else, I’m doing this for them.”
Inspired by her own life and situations she encounters, Kay Jay states that “this is completely me. I’m not writing from anyone else’s point of view right now. I’m simply bringing what I have to the table and offering it up.” Finding sparks of inspiration everywhere from her dreams to her day to day life, Kay Jay takes a literal approach to songwriting and lets her thoughts and emotions guide the process, “When things happen that way, the words just spill out. You don't have to think too hard, and that’s how I like to write.”
Writing since age six, Kay Jay’s songwriting experiences are extensive. Spending a lot of time in her room as a child, she spent her days identifying her emotions and taking them to paper.
“I didn’t know how to figure out what these feelings inside of me were at the moment, so I just began to put them down on paper.”
In early high school, after being forced to take a required choir course, Kay Jay began to come out of her shell and embrace her passions for singing and performing. At age eighteen, her dad was slowly passing from cancer. When she saw him become unrecognizable and lose sight of the life he expected to live, she realized that life is short, and “If life is going to be this short and I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, why am I doing these things? Why am I living for other people? I realized that I couldn't be at school anymore and at that moment I dropped out of school and began auditioning for bands. That was the moment I realized, I believe this is what I’m meant to do and nothing is going to stop me from here on out. And I haven’t quit since.”
For more on Kay Jay Keller, be sure to check out her Instagram page @kayjaykeller and stream her new single “I Choose You” on Spotify here.
