By Sarina Bhutani
With over a billion streams on Spotify, over one million followers on Instagram, and an already sold-out worldwide tour on the horizon, Keshi has all of the traits of a star. However because the 27-year-old settles right into a late-night Zoom name, dressed casually in a pink hoodie and complementary blue Yankees cap, he appears extra just like the boy subsequent door than music’s subsequent large factor. Even getting ready to a breakthrough, his demeanor is assured but in some way light, very similar to his viral music.
Earlier than he was Keshi, he was Casey Luong, a son born to 2 Vietnamese immigrants in a suburb of Houston, Texas. That’s why, along with his debut album Gabriel (out at the moment, March 25), Keshi resides his personal American dream. Recorded between Los Angeles and Houston over seven months, the 12-track document is what he describes as his “life’s biggest achievement.”
Keith OshiroAlthough he grew up listening to All Time Low and By no means Shout By no means, the musical options of the ladies on whom he had crushes, it was a mixture of puberty, his grandfather’s outdated guitar, and a Pandora station that stirred his musical awakening. This manifested as a “borderline obsession” with John Mayer, he tells MTV Information. “It was a music of his referred to as ‘Cease This Prepare’ that actually lit a fireplace in me as a songwriter. That’s once I knew I needed to make songs of my very own.”
After years of instructing himself guitar through YouTube tutorials and “writing songs for nobody to listen to,” the College of Texas at Austin grad turned to SoundCloud in 2017 as a primary try at a music profession. “At the moment, I really needed to stop music for a bit of bit as a result of I could not determine precisely what I used to be doing with it,” he reveals. By that point, he was additionally working as an oncology nurse in his hometown of Houston. “However then, I opened that SoundCloud account as an experiment to see if I may appeal to a stranger’s consideration and have them stick round. Then perhaps it might be one thing price doing.” Because of a mixture of divine timing and newbie’s instinct, Casey remodeled into Keshi. He launched his ghostly debut single “If You’re Not the One for Me Who Is,” and a brand new alt-R&B star was born.
His musical moniker initially derived from a childhood nickname given to him by his fiance’s dad and mom, and he put it ahead with a view to retain a sure diploma of anonymity, one thing he believes is “a weirdly liberating factor that’s actually important to creating your greatest work.” Even then, Keshi understood that with on-line reputation comes inevitable strain and invasion of privateness — each issues he knew he wanted to keep away from with a view to defend his psychological well being. “I’ve all the time valued this distance between me and the digital world as a result of I do know not all of it’s actual,” he says. “Keshi is a line that I intentionally drew within the sand. If you happen to let everybody by the door, then what do you may have left that’s really yours?”
That’s why Keshi spent his early years letting his music converse for itself, racking up hundreds of thousands of streams within the course of. Pared-back, lo-fi hits like “Magnolia” and “Over U” snowballed into even larger successes with heartbreak anthems resembling “2 Quickly” and “Like I Want U.” It was a time frame he describes as “actually daunting.” Although the modifications had been gradual, they had been nonetheless clearly felt. Not solely was Keshi unable to take care of a level of anonymity, however he additionally knew his days as a nurse had been numbered.
After months of flying backwards and forwards from New York, for ultimately fruitful label talks with Island Information, and what he calls “the worst day of [his] nursing profession,” Keshi felt it was time to loop in his dad and mom about his rising digital footprint. “[The original conversation] wasn’t even about leaving nursing, it was solely about going part-time. However my dad acquired set off and he took it as me not appreciating the alternatives that I had been given being born within the U.S.” As a first-generation American, the thought of disregarding his dad and mom’ sacrifice plagued him.
However after months of radio silence was “tough conversations,” Keshi articulated that he wasn’t really losing his privilege. He was harnessing it. “The purpose of my grandparents immigrating to America is in order that I may shoot for the fucking stars, proper? I actually suppose that’s what I’m doing,” he says.
Creating Gabriel was a problem for Keshi, who began the method feeling “dry and uninspired,” as if he’d “by no means have the ability to write once more.” It took bringing in an outdoor collaborator, producing accomplice Elie Rizk, to kickstart his creativity and produce him again to life. As he and Rizk labored collectively on sonics and manufacturing in L.A., a lot of the album’s writing befell in Houston, the place Keshi may write alone in his residence studio. “I didn’t wish to stress over writing as a result of it’s the half that takes me probably the most time. So, if we had been ever stumped, I might say, Hey, don’t be concerned about it. Do not stress over it. I will take this residence,” he recollects. The album experiments significantly with sound and style, however its lyrics stay persistently Keshi.
Sonically, Gabriel launches with an act of revolt in “Get It,” which he can solely describe as a “actually disgusting, simply heinously loud beat that goes loopy.” Although he by no means envisioned himself creating such a high-energy, hip-hop-inspired monitor — in distinction along with his usually delicate output — Keshi needed Gabriel to remind listeners of his huge capabilities as an artist. “There’s a connotation with my music that revolves round being heartbroken or in a somber mind-set,” he admits. “However I don’t wish to be typecast into that. I don’t need individuals to suppose that I’m solely capable of make one type of music.”
Earlier than any album particulars had been even launched, Keshi teased his pleasure about mid-tempos “Angostura” and “Hell/Heaven.” The previous, titled after the favored Trinidadian rum model, is “a really, very candy and straightforward pay attention” that serves as a tasty entry level for brand spanking new followers. “Hell/Heaven,” in the meantime, finds worth in its complexity. Keshi passionately narrates the monitor, detailing every manufacturing approach with utmost precision. He describes the whole lot from using “gentle guitalele and plucked tremolo” to “the glitch a part of the deep vocals that comes out and in,” making it abundantly clear why he views this music with such delight. “There are such a lot of totally different moments on this music that my head latches onto as a result of it’s one thing that my ear hasn’t heard earlier than,” he says. “It won’t be everybody’s favourite, however it’s considered one of mine.”
Fatherhood, or the thought of it, is a typical theme on Gabriel, which is kind of actually represented on “Père,” a spoken-word interlude carried out completely in French (a language generally spoken in Vietnam resulting from France’s former colonial rule over the nation.) At Gabriel’s midpoint, “Père” options Keshi’s father chatting with his 18-year-old self, a younger man who simply left his residence nation in the hunt for a greater life. “I wish to inform myself don’t fear,” he says on the monitor. “At some point I’ll have an attractive household and an clever son.” Upon transcribing the recording, Keshi was moved to tears. “It’s fairly particular to me,” he shares with a smile.
One other music impressed by paternal instincts is Gabriel’s title monitor. Although Keshi possesses no explicit non secular affiliation, he’s all the time been drawn to the identify, referring to the album as “Gabriel” earlier than the music existed. Biblically, Gabriel is considered one of seven archangels, and in response to the New Testomony, it was he who introduced to Mary that she would carry the son of God. As one of many final tracks written for the album, “Gabriel” describes what Keshi “imagines parenthood may be like” and “what it’s like to observe [his] dad and mom develop outdated.” Upon turning 27 final November, he realized he’s entered into “this bizarre a part of [his] life the place having children is not such a far-gone idea.” With fun, he clarifies: “I imply, not like tomorrow.”
Keith OshiroWhen requested about thematics, Keshi shares that Gabriel has no actual pink thread, apart from the truth that “every music is immensely private to [him].” As somebody who spent a lot of his profession making an attempt to remain in relative anonymity, Gabriel is a uncooked and revealing portrait of the person behind the artist.
Regardless of the immense hype surrounding his debut, Keshi nonetheless doesn’t know why persons are drawn to his music. “All of the artists that I really like have some form of ‘it issue,’ however I am unable to actually inform you what that’s for me,” he admits. “All I do know is that I attempt to do one of the best that I can.” However placing the nerves and expectations apart, he manages to remain optimistic, feeling assured within the artwork he’s created and believing he’s completed justice to the artists who’ve come earlier than him. “I would like Gabriel to be to my followers what John Mayer’s Continuum is for me,” he says. “A document that loops endlessly.”
