STR SHOWCASE: ANDREW KELLY
By Xander
Andrew Kelly is quickly becoming one of our favorite artist, today we were able to talk about his latest release “KELLY”, his city, and his future plans.
Let’s start with the basic's, who is Andrew kelly and what does his music stand for?I am a 21 year old artist & I've been writing & recording music since I was 10 years old. My inspirations came from everywhere as a child and it just grew as I got older. I would say my music stands for something greater than me and greater than life. I believe in freedom of expression no matter how that expression seems to anybody else besides yourself. I believe we all have a mission on earth & I think I have found mine within my creative expressions.
Being From St. Louis, do you think that the music scene there has had an influence on your style or do you feel like you are one of the few really creating that culture there.St. Louis is a very rocky music scene. There is too much divide when it comes to me and the rest of the artists out here. I make music that doesn't really fit in to the theme here. Although the surroundings do help my creativity, the music itself here does not inspire me much but I can see the beauty in it and I can see why it is prominent here.
Andrew, you've been very consistent throughout the last year and a half. What has been the catalyst of that consistency?So once I started engineering all of my own music in December 2021, I began to really enjoy the process of making an entire song by myself. After working with an engineer for so long I kind of felt like my sense of independency Within my own music was getting cut shorter and shorter. So once I got the hang of mixing & mastering I started to get my creative freedom back. That is when I dropped 'Chum' and ever since then I have not lost the inspiration that I had gained when I started engineering my own music.
So lets get to this next project, What was the influence behind it and having it be executively produced by Stix?The influence behind it is really myself and my personal experiences as far as finding myself these past few years. I have learned a lot about myself within the past few years and I feel as if this project has embodied alot of what I have learned about myself so far. It is also influenced by the fact that I have put out 4 projects this year that I was not very confident in & I felt like I needed to put myself out there more. Me and Stix started working together a few months back and ever since then it has been history. We have talked about doing a joint project for quite some time now and we finally executed it. That's my brother and everyone will continue to hear a lot more music from both of us as a duo, he embodied everything that was mine and his vision within this project perfectly.
What is the sound that you are trying to achieve with "KELLY" and the overall theme if any?I think the overall sound that me and Stix were going for on 'KELLY' was a more direct and coordinated piece that is just extremely cohesive and makes sense to not only us but the people who will be listening to it. A more professional approach you could say. The theme would definitely be trauma, relatability, forgiveness, anger, sadness, anxiety, depression, etc. just emotions in general and how I myself channel them.
Finally, what do you think the next steps for Andrew Kelly are?Honestly, the next steps for me will be pushing this album until I can't anymore. This album means the absolute world to me and more. It feels like an actual piece of me, so I'm going to be spending lots of time executing getting this out into the world. After that, who knows! We shall see when the time comes
