Latest / The Scene Projects / Kenneith Perrin on Soul, R&B, and Touring the Post-COVID Music Scene

Transcript

Kenneith Perrin on Soul, R&B, and Touring the Post-COVID Music Scene · The Scene Projects

• 0:01
  Today's guest is Kenneth Perrin, lending pop, soul, dance, and gospel to lift spirits and
• 0:10
  move feet.
• 0:11
  From national tours to fan favorite singles like Mad Love and Never Had a Love, he brings
• 0:17
  heart, hope, and high energy performances.
• 0:21
  Stick around.
• 0:22
  This conversation starts now.
• 0:29
  This program is part of the Scene Projects podcast network.
• 0:34
  Scene Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
• 0:39
  from across the Midwest.
• 0:42
  Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
• 0:55
  Welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:58
  I'm your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is Kenneth Perrin.
• 1:01
  Welcome to the show, Kenneth.
• 1:02
  Hello.
• 1:03
  Glad to be here, Bubba.
• 1:04
  Appreciate the invite, man.
• 1:05
  Thank you.
• 1:06
  Hey.
• 1:06
  This is great.
• 1:07
  It, the show's nothing without other people coming on to talk to me, so I appreciate you
• 1:12
  accepting.
• 1:13
  Awesome.
• 1:14
  No.
• 1:14
  My pleasure, man.
• 1:15
  My pleasure.
• 1:16
  That's great.
• 1:17
  Well, before we get into all the stuff that you're, up to these days, I give you the floor
• 1:21
  here and, let you give us a little bit of the backstory.
• 1:25
  Yeah.
• 1:25
  Sure.
• 1:26
  So, my name is, Kenneth Perrin, inspirational pop soul singer, and been in music for more
• 1:34
  than a minute now.
• 1:35
  Started singing when I was just a little kid, performing professionally.
• 1:39
  And then as I got older, started kinda delving into writing my own songs.
• 1:44
  And ever since then, have just been trying to make it as an independent artist and kinda
• 1:50
  doing the best I can with the ever changing music industry.
• 1:53
  So
• 1:55
  Well and it's changed a lot since guys like us have come into the world.
• 2:00
  You know, for me, I I graduated 2004 and Okay.
• 2:05
  Music was I wasn't necessarily, like, trying to be a rock star, but it was something that I had
• 2:10
  done, you know, up to that point, and it was an interest that I had.
• 2:15
  But back in those days, as I'm sure you're aware, is it was, you know, well, you gotta get
• 2:19
  a record deal.
• 2:20
  So you gotta be in Nashville or you gotta be in LA, and somebody's gotta see you and and you
• 2:24
  gotta get found.
• 2:25
  Right.
• 2:26
  Then by the time 02/2008, 2009 rolled around, it was like, oh, yeah.
• 2:30
  That's all dead.
• 2:32
  And now now it's even more dead than it was then, but I feel like there's road maps for for
• 2:38
  how to succeed in the music business now.
• 2:40
  I've always been very fortunate in South Dakota to get paid pretty well to perform live.
• 2:46
  That is good.
• 2:47
  Done a lot of, like, pay to play.
• 2:49
  Right?
• 2:49
  But Sure.
• 2:50
  It's it's a weird industry to have to work and live in.
• 2:53
  That's for sure.
• 2:54
  And you just, I think you just completed an attendance at a songwriting conference.
• 3:00
  Right?
• 3:01
  Was that, like, recently?
• 3:02
  I did.
• 3:03
  Yeah.
• 3:03
  So we had the Wild West Songwriters Festival out in my hometown of Deadwood, South Dakota.
• 3:09
  And what's funny about that is all the time that I was living there, I never got invited.
• 3:14
  But as soon as I moved away and it was a five hour drive, all of a sudden, the invitation
• 3:19
  started coming in to to come back and play.
• 3:22
  Well, you know you know the old saying, a prophet is not honored in his own country.
• 3:27
  You know?
• 3:27
  So
• 3:28
  Or until he leaves there or something to that nature.
• 3:32
  Right?
• 3:32
  Exactly.
• 3:33
  But, yeah, what a great time, and I love supporting other songwriters.
• 3:37
  The only regrets from that weekend are that I don't get to be when you're playing in them,
• 3:42
  and I had two rounds each of the days and shows in the evenings that I didn't get to enjoy
• 3:48
  other people playing music as much as I would have liked to, but you you take the you take
• 3:54
  the good with the bad.
• 3:55
  I recorded all of my sets, and I played about every every original song that I have ever
• 4:02
  written or at least that I would show to people.
• 4:05
  So, I don't need to necessarily go back or I have to write a lot more music to feel like I
• 4:11
  need to go back next year.
• 4:12
  So maybe I can do more of this for them, and and I enjoy this a whole lot more.
• 4:18
  So I can tell you, man.
• 4:19
  Yeah.
• 4:20
  Yeah.
• 4:20
  Well and I know that you're playing, you know, obviously, in a lot different genre than I do.
• 4:25
  What are some of the challenges for a, you know, soul, you know, r and b singer as opposed
• 4:32
  to, like, a country rock band.
• 4:33
  I feel like it's pretty easy for us to get gigs.
• 4:35
  There's plenty of honky tongs Sure.
• 4:37
  To go play in for people drinking beer, but do you find it's a little harder in the genre of
• 4:42
  music that you play to kind of find shows to to stay busy?
• 4:46
  I think so to some extent.
• 4:48
  And I think the only reason why that is is because r and b has blended so much with hip
• 4:54
  hop.
• 4:55
  So when you say r and b, nowadays, people automatically think more or less hip hop for
• 5:01
  the most part.
• 5:01
  But I'm kinda more old school, so my stuff is kind of more the old school sound for the most
• 5:09
  part and the vocals too.
• 5:11
  So a lot of the modern kinda r and b stuff, I don't do as much.
• 5:16
  I just kinda stick more to the classics like Motown or, you know, songs that kinda have that
• 5:20
  feel to them.
• 5:21
  So it and since that is the case, normally, I just kinda say, you know, I'm kinda pop r and b
• 5:28
  because I I do do a lot of crossover stuff too.
• 5:31
  Because my goal is, you know, is to kind of pretty much go anywhere where you can entertain
• 5:35
  people.
• 5:36
  And if the music is good enough, they gravitate toward it.
• 5:39
  And it makes me feel like I've done my job.
• 5:41
  You know?
• 5:42
  So anything I can do to kinda throw some covers out there, mix it with the originals to kinda
• 5:47
  give them a good time, then, you know, I feel like that's that's kind of my mission, really,
• 5:52
  you know, to leave them uplifted, basically.
• 5:55
  Yeah.
• 5:55
  And it's the same thing in the country world.
• 5:57
  And I lot more of that now than I used to, but it's same thing when I was playing, you know,
• 6:03
  classic rock covers.
• 6:04
  You're kinda bringing them in a little bit and and them a little bit of where you came from
• 6:09
  with the covers, but with the ultimate intention of playing and performing your
• 6:13
  original music.
• 6:14
  Right.
• 6:15
  Now, obviously, you're gonna have a few more, you know, r and b clubs in in Georgia than we
• 6:21
  have in South Dakota.
• 6:23
  I can think of one jazz club off the top of my head in the whole state.
• 6:26
  Maybe there's a few more nowadays.
• 6:29
  But it it it kind of speaks to what you're saying as well is that because of, you know,
• 6:36
  the and hip hop doesn't necessarily accept r and b.
• 6:39
  Like, you're not getting a lot of traction in hip hop clubs
• 6:42
  Yeah.
• 6:42
  As an r and b artist because that's not exactly what they're looking for.
• 6:46
  So I gotta imagine that it it's tough to really survive just playing in a small area.
• 6:52
  Now I mentioned off the top that you've done some national tours.
• 6:56
  Is that mostly in the South, or have you kinda been all over the country?
• 7:00
  Well, I'm basically based in LA now, so that's kinda made a huge difference.
• 7:06
  Kinda exploring the West Coast as much as the East Coast.
• 7:10
  But national wise, I usually kinda try to do kinda best of both worlds.
• 7:15
  Start with the West, and then kinda gradually work my way over to the East.
• 7:19
  My best friend actually lives in Belfourish.
• 7:22
  I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly.
• 7:24
  Belfourish.
• 7:25
  Close enough, man.
• 7:26
  Yeah.
• 7:26
  So he's he's like, his name is Corey Bricker and influencer, Sheepshearer.
• 7:32
  And he's like, man, you know, you should come and do Sturgis because Sturgis is like the big
• 7:36
  Yes, sir.
• 7:37
  That you guys have every year.
• 7:38
  So that's kind of been a dream of mine to kinda do a tour where start West and then hit South
• 7:43
  Dakota and then end up back home on the East Coast, you know, to kinda complete it.
• 7:47
  So yeah.
• 7:48
  Well, you came to the right place.
• 7:50
  We spent ten days out at the Buffalo Chip Campground, and that is where they have the
• 7:56
  major concerts.
• 7:57
  Lainie Wilson is the big headliner they've already announced for next year.
• 8:01
  So, yeah, it's it's that first Friday in August.
• 8:04
  So as you're planning now, try to hit there, and then it goes for ten days.
• 8:09
  So lots of gigs.
• 8:10
  You could definitely get booked somewhere probably for two or three shows if you wanted
• 8:15
  to and experience it.
• 8:17
  I love that you have a friend in Belle Fourche.
• 8:19
  That's not too far from where I grew up and a lot of friends myself in that area.
• 8:24
  And Sturgis is a wild time.
• 8:26
  I mean, 500,000 plus bikers drop on the state every year.
• 8:32
  It pretty much, you know, doubles or adds a third to the population, right, of South
• 8:36
  Dakota.
• 8:37
  And it it's a pretty wild time, man, but it's full of music, and that's what I've always
• 8:43
  loved about it.
• 8:44
  I never had to go far to find a gig when I was living out on that side of the state.
• 8:49
  But now that I, you know, now that I live five hours on the other side of the state Sure.
• 8:53
  That, yeah, it's fun to go back and experience experience it.
• 8:57
  You know, I I have friends that own a campground there.
• 8:59
  Shout out to Kathmandu Campground.
• 9:01
  They actually do some music and might be interested in having you out there.
• 9:06
  So we're gonna get you a gig.
• 9:07
  If you wanna play Sturgis, we'll start planning that tour right now.
• 9:11
  That's my dream, man.
• 9:12
  That's my dream.
• 9:13
  Well, let's make some dreams come true then, brother.
• 9:15
  I love it.
• 9:16
  So Los Angeles now from Georgia, but living and working in Los Angeles now.
• 9:22
  What is the scene like there?
• 9:24
  I know I talked to a couple artists.
• 9:25
  Obviously, you guys had a much different relationship with COVID than we did out here in
• 9:30
  South Dakota.
• 9:32
  Yeah.
• 9:32
  Do you feel like the music scene is coming back now and starting to be the vibrant, scene that
• 9:39
  it once was?
• 9:40
  I think slowly slowly it it's making a comeback.
• 9:44
  I think some of the challenges that we still face are basically just kinda making sure that,
• 9:51
  especially when we have, like, large festivals and everything that we have the accommodations
• 9:55
  for people and then making sure that we have enough backup talent too.
• 9:59
  Because I noticed recently some acts have come through, but they've had to cancel either due
• 10:04
  to sickness or tour malfunctions with the equipment or there's always something.
• 10:10
  So I feel like if we could better equip ourselves to kinda just have a lot more art
• 10:16
  artist on hand for those situations, I think that it kinda helped the music scene continue
• 10:21
  to build like it has been.
• 10:23
  But, overall, I mean, I've I've noticed a lot of good turnout for different places.
• 10:27
  People seem to be enjoying the live scene a lot more as well, like they used to before COVID
• 10:33
  hit.
• 10:33
  So, yeah, there's hope.
• 10:35
  There's hope. Hope.
• 10:35
  Hope.
• 10:36
  So
• 10:37
  That's great to hear because I think as, you know, as a musician, as an entertainer, you
• 10:44
  know, Los Angeles is always going to hold a a spot for all of us.
• 10:48
  I actually spent a few months busking down on Venice Beach in my early twenties.
• 10:53
  Oh.
• 10:55
  Oh.
• 10:55
  Man, every every day going down with my guitar and just playing for the beach and bikinis, and
• 11:02
  it was it wasn't a bad life for a man that was 21, 22 years old.
• 11:07
  Totally.
• 11:07
  You know, unfortunately, we were down there because, I mean, we were we were traveling.
• 11:12
  We were pretty much homeless.
• 11:13
  Sure.
• 11:13
  So I needed to make, you know, 2 to $300 a day just to stay in a cheap motel on Lincoln
• 11:19
  Boulevard, right, or or on ocean.
• 11:21
  Right?
• 11:21
  Like, it it was a it was a trying time, but that was the first time in my life where I
• 11:26
  really felt like I I I had value.
• 11:29
  Right?
• 11:29
  Like, I found the value of my performance
• 11:32
  Yeah.
• 11:32
  In that space because I was making that 2 to $300 a day playing for tips.
• 11:37
  It was like, well, then this venue can afford to pay me a $100.
• 11:41
  You know?
• 11:41
  Do.
• 11:42
  Yeah.
• 11:42
  Show up with a guitar.
• 11:43
  And, I'm I'm very grateful for that time because I feel like a lot of people early on in
• 11:49
  their careers
• 11:50
  Yeah.
• 11:51
  They don't have that, and they don't feel like they're valuable.
• 11:54
  And and that's so much of what I'm trying to do now with my Midwest original music
• 11:59
  organization.
• 12:00
  And we're really trying to help young artists avoid the pitfalls that a lot of us had to
• 12:07
  because we lived in a in a time where the industry was totally changing.
• 12:11
  Right?
• 12:11
  Like Totally changing.
• 12:12
  Wasn't a thing.
• 12:14
  You know, YouTube was around, but streaming wasn't in in February, you know, '6 and 2007
• 12:20
  when I was playing, and we were all still trying to print CDs and Yay. Not
• 12:25
  Not just the whole time.
• 12:26
  Now now I just you know what?
• 12:27
  I said, screw it.
• 12:28
  I put my album out on my website.
• 12:31
  You can buy it right from there.
• 12:32
  I didn't even put it on Bandcamp.
• 12:34
  It's going out on the streaming, but I'm not gonna spend my time promoting these other
• 12:39
  businesses that aren't ever going to support me and what I want to do.
• 12:44
  And even if you make it, right, make it, you you're not making any money, and then they just
• 12:50
  kind of own you anyway.
• 12:51
  I I've never been after a record deal.
• 12:53
  I've been after connection with people, and and I feel like that's something you touched on
• 12:57
  with your, you know, with your performances and what you try to to get out of a show.
• 13:03
  What does a typical Kenneth Perrin show, look like?
• 13:07
  Are you performing with a full band or with tracks, or or what is it like?
• 13:12
  Yeah.
• 13:12
  I kinda usually, it is it's a variety.
• 13:16
  I do work as a solo act as well as with the full band.
• 13:20
  The solo act stuff usually comes, like, for, like, churches, weddings, you know, in a
• 13:27
  typical, like, you know, anywhere you can get a gig kinda thing, you use your talents.
• 13:31
  Right?
• 13:32
  But then the flip side of that is with the full band, which I really, really love.
• 13:37
  And, basically, I usually open up with a song that kinda grabs their attention, a high energy
• 13:42
  kinda like, you know, come on, get up off your feet.
• 13:45
  Let's go kinda deal.
• 13:47
  And then gradually take it down mid tone and then maybe a ballad or two, and then we end on
• 13:52
  something that's either another high energy or maybe mid tone or something that just kinda
• 13:57
  has, like, a good message.
• 13:58
  Like, lately, I've been doing stand by me by Benton King, kinda ending a lot of my shows
• 14:03
  with that particular song.
• 14:04
  And then there's a ballad that I've written called we can forgive, which talks about
• 14:08
  forgiveness and things.
• 14:09
  And so I try to kind of keep it, I talk a little bit.
• 14:14
  I don't talk too much, you know, because usually, you know, you always have, like, a
• 14:18
  thirty, forty five minute set.
• 14:19
  Can't so you can't do too much talking as much as you'd like to, but I just try to kinda get
• 14:24
  in, get out, and, you know, make sure that I feel like, you know, people are with me.
• 14:29
  I'm like, you guys having a good time?
• 14:31
  Are you okay?
• 14:31
  You know, just checking in, that kind of thing.
• 14:34
  So, and to me, that's the most important, man.
• 14:37
  I mean, like, you know, obviously, we can do music.
• 14:39
  We can sing in the shower.
• 14:40
  We can play in the shower.
• 14:42
  But when it comes to being out in the world and having an audience in front of you, I feel
• 14:48
  like, you know, that's our mission is to share what we've been given and been gifted with so
• 14:54
  that others can kinda take that and, you know, build from it, be fulfilled from it, or just
• 15:02
  maybe sometimes just kinda need, a picker upper or, you know, somebody's sad.
• 15:06
  You know, you play a good sad song, but you're feeling good while you're hearing it, and
• 15:10
  that's like medicine.
• 15:11
  You know what I mean?
• 15:12
  So I've learned over the years, never doubt what we're doing because you never know the
• 15:17
  kind of impact that you have with the gifts that you're using.
• 15:20
  So does that make sense?
• 15:22
  I mean, I I hope
• 15:23
  Yeah.
• 15:23
  Totally.
• 15:24
  Totally.
• 15:24
  It's, well, it reminds me of a time and maybe the first time because I was such a young man.
• 15:29
  And I had played in my dad's, you know, rock cover band growing up in high school, and it
• 15:34
  was always just in smoky bars back when you could smoke in bars.
• 15:37
  And Yeah.
• 15:38
  But I was down on Venice Beach, and I was, you know, just playing me, and I was doing a song
• 15:42
  by Pearl Jam called Black and a very powerful emotional song.
• 15:47
  And a a gal had, like I could kinda see her.
• 15:49
  I was always very aware of my surroundings.
• 15:52
  Right?
• 15:52
  And I was always trying to, like, gauge what I was going to play as people were coming, and
• 15:56
  this was a particular moment where there was really nobody around.
• 15:59
  And I was just kinda playing a song for me.
• 16:01
  And that's when that means a lot to me, especially when you're no couple thousand miles
• 16:05
  from home and and you're maybe a little down in the dumps.
• 16:09
  And the gal had rode by on her bike going one way and pulled off the beach trail and came and
• 16:15
  sat next to the bench right next to me and just bawled her eyes out.
• 16:19
  And, you know, I was just like, you know, alright.
• 16:23
  Like, are you okay?
• 16:23
  And, like, I'm I'm I'm sorry.
• 16:25
  And she's like, no.
• 16:26
  It's exactly what I needed, and your performance of it was so moving.
• 16:31
  And it was like, oh, wow.
• 16:33
  That's the power that we have.
• 16:35
  Right?
• 16:35
  And for those of us that are called to play music, because I do believe most of us that
• 16:40
  stick with it as long as we have can eat Right.
• 16:42
  And we're not at super stardom level.
• 16:45
  Right?
• 16:45
  I think there's some people that achieve super stardom that never really liked performing that
• 16:49
  much anyway.
• 16:50
  They just kinda do it.
• 16:51
  But then there's other people that do it on their entire lives and never achieve that that
• 16:56
  we are called, And there's a reason for that.
• 16:59
  And it may be to, like, you know, like you said, pick them up off of a bad day or to
• 17:03
  remind them of a beautiful moment.
• 17:05
  And Sure.
• 17:06
  That's why I like playing cover music as well is because it triggers memories with other
• 17:12
  people.
• 17:13
  And and your original music, may never do that without a lot of time and bringing that in.
• 17:18
  So while I love playing originals, I love being a songwriter.
• 17:22
  I also really love playing other people's music because I feel like that breeds a little bit
• 17:26
  more of that connection unless you have that super stardom and people have, you know,
• 17:31
  listened to your own song millions of times.
• 17:34
  Right?
• 17:34
  Yeah.
• 17:35
  I mean, you have to give people something to relate to.
• 17:37
  You know what I mean?
• 17:38
  So and cover songs are definitely the best way to do that, I think.
• 17:42
  You know?
• 17:42
  Definitely.
• 17:44
  Awesome.
• 17:44
  Well, Kaneeth, I know you're a busy man, and I am as well.
• 17:48
  I got your YouTube scrolling across the bottom, but tell all of our our listeners where they
• 17:53
  can find you and where they can find some more of your music.
• 17:56
  Yeah.
• 17:57
  So, basically, the best place is kennethparon.com.
• 18:01
  That's my website, and then all my socials are listed on the the EPK page there.
• 18:06
  And I'm also Instagram, my name, TikTok, name.
• 18:10
  Basically, k e n n e I t h, last name Perrin, p e r r I n.
• 18:16
  So
• 18:17
  Fantastic.
• 18:18
  Well, thanks for taking a a few minutes with me today.
• 18:21
  I appreciate that.
• 18:22
  I hope to catch up to you in Sturgis next summer.
• 18:26
  I got your phone number now, so we'll be talking.
• 18:28
  And, I'd love to get you a gig, man.
• 18:31
  That would be absolutely thrilling to to see my friend out there in the middle of South Dakota
• 18:36
  singing some r and b soul music.
• 18:38
  We don't get enough of it out here as I'm sure you can imagine.
• 18:42
  So any
• 18:44
  And likewise for you too.
• 18:45
  If you're ever in Augusta, especially for April during the masters or whatever, my folks work
• 18:50
  hospitality with them for a while.
• 18:52
  So if you need
• 18:53
  to take care your first family PGA tour event with my scene project sports network here in
• 18:59
  South Dakota.
• 19:00
  No way, dude.
• 19:01
  A few man, that would be unbelievable to be able to go and to check out the masters.
• 19:06
  So, that's a a fantastic offer that I'm definitely going to take you up on.
• 19:11
  Totally, man.
• 19:12
  Totally.
• 19:13
  Denise, thank you so much for being part of the scene.
• 19:16
  My pleasure, man.
• 19:17
  And thank you for having me, and I hope you have a a blessed day today, man.
• 19:20
  Thank you so much.
• 19:21
  Appreciate it.