Thank you so much for doing the interview with us Kelsey.  You started your journey into music at 8. Please tell us about that, How was it growing up so young into music? 

Growing up, music has always been significant in my life. There was always some sort of music playing and that’s what made me feel at ease. From a young age (even before starting my music journey), I was always so interested in how every element of music would come together to create a song that can stick with you for life. Having that interest at a young age definitely helped me in my later years when it started to become a hobby and now my career. When I started at 8 years old, I was learning the piano and trying to sing in my spare time and used to put the two together to try and write music. I moved onto classical singing lessons (which is polar opposite to what I do now haha) and later on moved onto the guitar. All of these things combined helped me start my passion for music and I am blessed that I had the opportunity to learn the theory behind it as this has helped me massively.

Your a talented singer/songwriter, which track are you proud of most and why? 

Thank you so much. The main track I am proud of is Define Me. This song means a lot to me personally as I wanted to write a song that helped younger people going bullying as this is something I have experienced first hand. When writing this song with the incredible Danny McMahon I was very emotional and very nervous about how this song would translate and didn’t want it to end up in the hands of the wrong people. Looking back on the bravery about openly talking about it is something I will never regret and will always be proud of. From that release I have had a number of people say to me how much they can relate to this song and how it has helped them. As a songwriter, that is a massive box ticked. Watching my own music climb the charts for the first time, especially with a song that was so close to my heart meant so much and then I realised everything was leading to this moment. Looking back on when I thought I had no support and a year later having so much support was nothing less than overwhelming. 

During lockdown you have been quite active over social media with live performances. How have you found lockdown and doing the shows? 

By complete fluke, Lockdown has come at the perfect time for my journey as an artist. Using my social platform as much as I have has really helped me progress and gained a bigger following and support system. Doing the live shows have been a lot of fun and the only way that I can perform to an audience. Sadly, I can’t go out and play shows but from this experience I feel well equipped going out and performing as I feel during this time my confidence has increased massively and I have been able to understand what songs my audience will gravitate to. 

You have worked with Danny McMahon a bit. Is there anyone else out there that you would love to work with?

Danny is a pleasure to work with and knowing each other for how long we have has been so helpful. Over lockdown I have been working with some incredible people such as: Liv Austen, Austin Burke and Abigail Neilson. I have been looking around at the amount of talent on social media and I am loving it. A few people I have seen circulating around my feed are Megan Louise and Megan Rose, Jake Morrell. All three I feel are so talented and would love to work with them someday whether this be in a gig environment or a co-write. 

There is alot of new interesting music out there at the moment.  Who have you been listening to?

At the moment, my playlist is full of many different artists who I look up to. We have some of my usual artists such as: Kacey Musgraves, Kelsea Ballerini, Maren Morris and Cassadee Pope but I have been listening to more music by male artists than usual and I feel they are putting out some incredible music. I love Sam Hunt’s relatively new album ‘Southside’, the production and songwriting is amazing but I’ve also been listening to more from Chris Young, Russell Dickerson, Billy Currington and Seaforth. All of these artists are on repeat for so many reasons and would highly recommend all artists.

Your latest EP Not Scared anymore is out now. Please tell us about that. How did you come to write the tracks? 

Not Scared Anymore is all about the growth I have experienced from my debut EP which was very emotional. I wanted to show that nothing can hold me back from living my life how I want to and no one can hold me back from achieving my dreams. I want to use my platform to show others that have been bullied that they can grow from the experience as long as they stay true to themselves. When writing these tracks, to show the development, I wanted to write more upbeat music and change the sound and vibe of my music. Two of these tracks were a co-write with Danny McMahon (Hold Tight Sit Still and Not Scared Anymore) as he just understands everything I want to represent and what I am trying to achieve. I wrote Out of Our Minds a while back and was the first song we recorded for the EP. Magnetic, which was released as the single, was written two days before we needed to record the final song. I played this to Danny and Andrea at Puzzle Maker Studios and that was it so luckily I wrote that song when I did. Watching this record get to number 1 was genuinely unbelievable!

So once lockdown is over, what does the future hold for you Kelsey? 

I hope to get back in the studio to record more music as I love having something that I’ve worked so hard on out in the open. Over lockdown I have been writing a lot so I would love to have used the time wisely and have a great end result. I’m also so excited to play shows again, I have missed it so much and feel like I’m a baby and my rattle has been taken away. I am booking shows for next year so it is looking hopeful to come back with a bang next year.