Keite Young

"Things are going good!", says an excited Keite Young. This is the latest signing to Hidden Beach Recordings. And earlier in 2007 Keite Young released his much anticipated debut album The Rise & Fall of Keite Young. Keite Young says, "I think I'm about to plan to play more often live, and that always makes me happy. I am actually looking forward to playing festivals and such in the UK, and some parts of Europe, Japan and Africa. Performing is really the high light of my whole music experience"

"Yes", admits Keite Young. "Just the intimacy and he energy, the exchange between the crowd, the band, and myself. So, I just think it's that real kind of energy of what music does to us all, you know? We can all listen to the radio and your hearing like a second hand experience but when your right there in front of the audience, its just really intimate and that's what I enjoy most"

Hidden Beach Recordings signed Keite Young, and he also has the same manager as N'Dambi, Monica Young. He speaks about the collaboration song If We Were Alone and his own music. "It was like a labor of love. There are songs on there that are like ten years old now but then there are also songs on there that are maybe a bit more recent like two years old. I think it was a chore trying to round out an album, I've done so much material it kind of covers a vast musical spectrum, you know? You can't really put all of that on one body of work, so I think the biggest challened was to centralize the idea of what I wanted to say on this particular album"

"I try to be in line with the title even though the title didn't come until the album was put together but I try to reflect the ups and the downs. The emotional and mental roller coatser that we all go through from time to time, you know? Happiness, sadness, the everyday experienes of life through music, it's different for all of us but ultimately I think it's the same" He continues, "Once the record is released hopefully I'll be running around with my head cut off. I'm touring really heavily and playing, and just trying to make one stand at a time, if I can. I'll really be busy; I'm actually starting to record the second album and/or actually just putting material together for it. I got so many songs but I think some things need to be fresh. So, I'm starting to record that now. Just staying busy, you know? Music is great!"

“N’Dambi was working with Steve Harvey on her own project, which is going to be released earlier next year and they’ve been working for a little while. We were re-connected through her manager, which is Monica Young. I came out to L.A to hang out and it developed into a working thing, there were some things that I wasn’t satisfied with as far as the direction of how my project was going. Steve Harvey, N’Dambi and I hooked up, and it was a very informal thing at first. We just started turning out songs” says Keite Young. He continues to share more about his connection with N’Dambi, “N’Dambi and I have known each other for a while now, and we just have a chemistry. On a writing level, and were really good friends. I really enjoy just singing out or hammering a song with her. I think with some people you have that with and some people you don’t. You have to work at it, but with us it was much more of a natural organic process and we complimented each other as well” I asked Keite Young if he’d ever consider doing an album with N’Dambi, he responses, “Yes but if the conditions and the time was right. I think with that experience it was just completely about timing. It was about everybody going in the same direction, at the same time, at that time. Since then we’ve all had our perspective, things that we’ve been committed to, it would just be a matter of timing”

Keite Youngs debut album is The Rise & Fall Of Keite Young. “I’ve always been blessed and extremely fortunate to have great people around me. My parents saw, not only talent but how committed I was in turning it into a lifestyle and a career. So, they supported me 300 percent, in every sense since College, you know? At a young age I found myself skipping class to be in the piano room, writing songs and singing. Shortly there after I went on tour with Kirk Franklin, I’ve always been fortunate to do music in some shape or form, as of yet. To tell you the truth if music was to disappear of the face of the earth I’d have nothing to do”

Keite Young turns back to when he was growing up, and what music he was inspired by. “Well, growing up I listened to a lot of stuff. I listened to Sam Cooke, Al Green, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, to The Beatles, Led Zeplin, Eric Clapton, Cream and Jimmy Hendrix. Those people helped marry my sound, Curtis Mayfield; I can go on and on. Those people drew a road map for me in what I wanted to do and how I wanted to sound. To be honest there aren’t that many contemporary artists that I’d say inspire me. I guess Prince really inspired me, so you could put him in the contemporary. He’s been inspiring me since I was little. It’s hard because the last seven or eight years or so, the music itself for artists, or for me rather, has been a little disappointing. But I’m feeling really hopeful now because you have people like John Legend, who can express themselves through song writing and through playing instruments. I really feel hopeful because there is a new trend for artists, musicians, singer/songwriters, who express themselves in a much more organic way”

I mention about the wave of independent US soul artists, and if he thinks of himself as apart of the movement? Keite Young says, “I think it would be an honor to be mentioned as being apart of the revolution” I reminded him that he is starting on Hidden Beach Recordings! “(laughs) yeah. Hidden Beach is the kind of place where, ultimately it has to be about art and about being true to the artist. So, I am very fortunate to have that type of co-operation. In that perspective it’s very very rare, yeah. To answer your question, I’d be honoured to be apart of that movement in music. Hopefully, I’d love to work with all of those people. I think, as a matter of fact, the key is maintaining this little revolution, that we collaborate, we do work together consistently, we show up at each others performances and support one another because that’s really the only way we will bring a new innovated sound, kind of take back what we’ve lost, you know?”

Keite Young has been describe as mysterious and passionate, he explains himself for himself. “I tend to be extreme, I tend to be really laid back or really really edgy. I don’t like the middlebrow, I’m a very passionate person in everything I do and everything that I feel will be enlightened by that passion. I hate to say it, but I’m either really really sad or extremely happy. So, I think I’m just a very passionate person and it comes across in my music”

Though, he admitted earlier that he is a confident and natural performer, Keite Young also has a recording studio mind set too. “Oh yeah! I tend to do them all, for this next album, I want to be more experimental instrumentally but maybe do a couple of songs by myself completely, which I did on this album but I’m starting to pick up the drums, you know? I want to be better, that’s what I want to portray and what I want to give, for the next record”

At the time of this interview, Keite Young hadn’t thought of a title for his album yet, which is now The Rise & Fall Of Keite Young “You know, I’ve been thinking about it and I haven’t thought of a specific title. I’ll let it formulate itself but right now, I think it’s a little too early”

Phone Interview by Matthew Daniel

Soulisms 2008