Latest / The Scene Projects / KelsiLynn on Sobriety, Music Inspiration, and Pennsylvania's Local Scene

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KelsiLynn on Sobriety, Music Inspiration, and Pennsylvania's Local Scene · The Scene Projects

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  Today, we're joined by singer songwriter Kelsey Lynn.
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  We're diving into her creative process, the stories behind her music, and what's coming up
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  next.
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  Stick around.
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  You don't wanna miss this one.
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  This program is part of the Scene Projects podcast network.
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  Scene Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
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  from across the Midwest.
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  Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
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  Welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
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  I'm your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is Kelsey Lynn.
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  Welcome to the show.
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  Hi.
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  How are you?
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  Thank you for having me.
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  I'm super excited to be here.
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  Awesome.
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  Well, I'm super excited to have you.
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  Before we get too far into all the things that you're doing now, I like to just give you the
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  floor for a few minutes here and, have you tell us a little bit of your backstory.
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  Alright.
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  Well, I'm 28 years old.
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  I'm from Pennsylvania.
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  I've been working on my music for many years now.
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  The biggest start that I had with it, was when I first got sober.
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  I am three and a half years sober, from alcohol, and I'm super, super proud of it.
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  That is one of my basises for my music.
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  And throughout my sobriety journey, music really has helped me a lot to grow, and I've
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  put a lot of my writing and efforts into that, and that definitely has helped me as well.
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  Like I said, that is definitely one of my platforms.
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  I am a rock artist.
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  I have got some upcoming projects that are coming up that are a little different, not so
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  much rock, more of country ballads, but I am very versatile, and I'm very excited to talk
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  about my journey.
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  Awesome.
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  Congratulations to you, especially as musicians and gigging musicians.
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  It can be very hard to pull ourselves away from alcohol.
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  And it seems like a journey that a lot of us have been on.
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  I've done a lot of interviews and and a good majority of I feel like a good majority of the
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  ones that I've done now are with people that are, you know, recently finding sobriety or,
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  you know, at least finding that it doesn't serve them in their careers and in their life.
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  Right.
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  Right.
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  It's more and more lately that I hear more and more people are, you know, starting to become
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  sober and taking that change for themselves, and it's really inspiring.
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  It's incredible that people are doing that.
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  Yeah.
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  And I think it has a lot to do with our society is becoming healthier.
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  We're willing to address mental health a lot more than, you know, decades prior.
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  And, also, I think it's just, like, it's too damn expensive to be an addict anymore.
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  That's true.
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  That is definitely true.
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  Yeah.
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  Just, crazy.
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  So great.
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  Well, great to know you.
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  We don't have, obviously, us being a part of the Midwest Country Music Organization.
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  We have a lot of country artists on, and I know you have some country songs, but love to have
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  other rockers on.
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  I I've always considered myself more of a rock, you know, a rock artist, indie rock artist,
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  although I do kinda ride that line.
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  And just because of where rock music has gone heavier and heavier, someone like me who has
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  always had, like, a Grateful Dead Marshall Tucker kind of vibe or maybe, like, a Sublime
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  or, you know, I call, like, stoner music, right, that I grew up listening to.
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  A a lot of my music kinda has that vibe, but there's some of it that definitely tends that
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  other way.
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  And I feel like rock music just kind of, like, left me, and it also left songwriters for the
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  most part as it just became, heavier and and screamier.
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  Maybe that's changing now.
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  I think everything kinda goes in waves or in circles, however you want want to look at it.
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  But what, I guess, what inspires you to, you know, write rock music and to be part of that
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  world?
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  So the first song that I released that I just did a music video for actually over the summer,
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  That one's called six feet down.
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  It was based on my journey.
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  And at the time, I didn't know where I fit musically.
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  I always wanted to be a country artist, but I didn't want to set myself into something that I
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  couldn't be able to obtain or uphold throughout my music career.
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  And when I was writing that song, it was a lot of what was going on in my life in the moment,
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  and it wouldn't fit country.
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  It wouldn't fit a ballad.
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  It wouldn't fit anything to where I could get my message across the way that I needed it to
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  be because it is a little darker and a little heavier.
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  Oh, my god.
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  A little darker and a little heavier.
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  So with that being said, that's how I started getting into the rock genre with that because
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  it all the stuff that I've been writing about is, you know, things in society, things that
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  hasn't happened to me.
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  And a lot of that, I have to say that I did write a lot of my music out of struggles, so it
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  turned into one of those rock musics that that I had to make it because it doesn't make sense
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  to talk about those things when I was angry about it at the time, but now I'm happy about
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  it, if that makes sense.
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  Yeah.
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  Well and I feel like, you know, rock music tends to give us a little bit more freedom in
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  that capacity, especially with popular country music really just being about, like, you know,
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  chasing the girl in your pickup truck with a case of beer and you know?
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  I think that stigma is changing a little bit or or the genre is changing as more and more
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  songwriters come into it and and get sober.
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  And I guess what I'm really saying is, like, popular country music.
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  What you hear on the radio tends to be of a very certain form and and Right.
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  You know, a very narrow path that they stick in that songwriting.
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  I think that's changing.
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  I just spent, you know, some time at the Josie Music Awards in Nashville and and stayed around
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  for a while and getting to know, the town.
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  It was my first time in Nashville.
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  That I think there's a lot of different facets to it.
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  And Nashville is not just country music anymore either.
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  Right.
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  I was actually I was down at the Josie's too.
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  You actually interviewed me down there, And that was an incredible experience.
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  I was nominated this year for six categories for the Josie Awards, and I did end up winning
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  one of the songwriter achievements awards at the event the night prior, which was very, very
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  exciting, and I was honored to get that award.
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  So
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  Awesome.
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  Well, congratulations to you.
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  Yeah.
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  I interviewed, like, a 150 people that night.
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  Forgive me if I don't remember.
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  It's such a blur now.
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  And and that's why I was really adamant about, like, please, if you have a card with you or
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  something, sign my autograph book.
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  Right?
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  I was going through it the other day and kind of flipping through it, and I don't even know
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  how many names are in it, but it's pages.
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  It's probably 30 pages that all have for the most part, some people took liberties and
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  filled out the whole page with a big old autograph, which is fine, but, it was really
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  more of like a guest book.
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  Right?
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  So I could just keep track of, like, well, how many of these did we do?
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  I know it has to be over a 100, just from the size of the line, and we stood there for three
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  and a half hours just running, you know, one to two minute long interviews.
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  So just in what we had in time.
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  But it was so fun.
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  It was so nice to be surrounded by creative people and in all genres.
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  We're a member of the Midwest Country Music Organization, which I love dearly.
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  It's a very it's a much smaller group.
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  I think we're 300 members strong.
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  So we all know each other pretty well, but we're all kind of in the same boat.
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  We're upper Midwesterners.
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  I live in South Dakota.
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  A lot of our members, Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, you know, Nebraska, Iowa, in that
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  area.
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  So I think a lot of us kinda come from that same, that that same mold almost.
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  Right?
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  But what was cool about the Josie's is that it is a worldwide footprint.
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  And, you know, we met artists that were flying in from The UK and and people coming from all
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  over the country.
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  And it was just really awesome to sit there and to be able to absorb all of this and then have
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  a connection with so many people after the fact that we can go back and and now we can have
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  these conversations and actually get to know each other and and not just, you know, have
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  that one minute together and and c'est la vie.
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  Right.
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  And it's so incredible to be surrounded by so many independent talented artists that, like,
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  you kind of get to network in that own way as well as another independent artist, and it's
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  very empowering.
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  Perfect example, there was a girl that was standing behind me in line, and I was like, she
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  looks so familiar.
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  Why do I know who this is?
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  Come to find out, it's because somehow, someway, her TikTok flew onto my page, and
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  she's from Michigan.
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  And I'm like, oh my god.
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  I listen to your music.
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  That's crazy.
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  And she was like, no way.
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  And she's like, where are you from?
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  And that's how things, like, happen because it just one person to another to another, and it
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  just slowly, like, kind of implodes, which is amazing.
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  Now I didn't get to attend the the Saturday night or the Saturday convention, the JMA
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  convention and everything that they had that day.
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  Can you talk a little bit about that?
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  Was obviously a lot more, time for, connecting and talking with everyone and really having
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  conversations where the award show is just like a a whirlwind.
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  Right?
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  It's
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  it's, you know,
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  five, six hours of just nonstop activity, and it's really hard to to sit down and talk with,
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  you know, some of the fellow members and nominees.
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  Can you tell us a little bit about what, what Saturday was like for you?
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  So I wasn't there during the whole entire thing.
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  I was there a little bit in the evening, but it was a beautiful location where they had it.
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  And they had where you can talk to and network and, like, meet and greet with a couple
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  different marketing label companies pretty much.
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  And then we got to give, you know, the business cards and, like, our portfolios and kinda get a
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  little feedback from them and their different perspectives.
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  I had a long conversation actually with one of the marketing, people's wife.
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  We talked for a while, and, it is just so incredible to hear just different perspectives.
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  Like, she's married to someone that's in the industry, so she has a lot of knowledge, but
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  from her perspective and understanding how different people see things and their
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  involvement in the industry.
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  And then they also did the panel where that was very interesting.
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  There's different things that I was able to learn, and how social media impacts the music
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  industry nowadays.
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  It's like crazy.
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  And it used to be to where, you know, you just send a tape or a CD or something into all these
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  labels and stuff, and, you know, you wish for the best back in the day before all this social
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  media stuff came out.
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  And now it's a lot of social media based followings, and it's just crazy on how times
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  have changed, and it was really interesting hearing all of these amazing, incredible
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  artists who have been in the music industry talk about their experiences and their growths
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  and to be where I'm sitting where they were sitting years ago.
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  Like, it kinda gives you hope.
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  Like, okay.
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  Like, you know, I'm in the right spot right now.
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  I'm doing okay.
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  And it, like, kinda, you know, helps.
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  And being able to meet the other songwriters that were able to win one of the achievement
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  awards as well, that was also an incredible experience, and I had no idea that I was gonna
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  get on that stage.
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  I submitted three songs that all got nominated for the songwriters choice awards.
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  And the one that won was just a silly song I wrote and just submitted just to submit, and I
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  had no idea that that was gonna be the one to win.
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  And then it sure enough, it did.
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  And it was just an amazing experience and a lot of talented musicians that played as well.
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  Yeah.
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  I I'm good friends with Tyler and Megan Herwig, and they were there and got to see a lot of
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  their content coming out of it.
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  Brad Morgan, a fellow Midwest country music organization member, won one of the awards for
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  one of their songs.
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  And, you know, I was there as media, but I'm also a songwriter myself.
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  Right?
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  And I'm also a musician.
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  I just wasn't necessarily there in that capacity.
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  And because we kinda came down in the tour bus, I didn't necessarily have the flexibility to
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  move around a lot.
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  I mean, I was in Nashville for a week.
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  I didn't even make it to Music Row or or really to Midtown at all.
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  Right?
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  I got to do Broadway a couple of times and and be down in the zone.
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  But there's just so much to see in that town.
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  And for a small, you know, a small town kid like me, kid, I'm almost 40.
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  But
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  Hey.
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  You're only as old as you think
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  you are. Yeah.
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  are.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, I I felt 40 when I came home.
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  I'm not quite there yet, but two weeks on the road because I actually went straight from
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  Nashville, and I had some shows booked in Minneapolis.
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  So hung out a little longer in Nashville and then then took a plane to my truck in
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  Wisconsin, drove four hours of a show in Saint Paul on, that Friday.
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  And but it was, it was an eye opening experience.
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  And to see how hard these people are working, you know, not just all the independent artists
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  that were the Josies are working, but people in Nashville that are working on Broadway and
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  watching these guys go from, you know, guys and gals, you know, playing four hour straight
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  shows.
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  Like, I've played four hour shows, but it's usually, like, forty five and then a break and
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  another you know, and done it that way.
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  But to watch these musicians just give it their all on these long shows and then going straight
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  from that one to another gig across the street or at another bar, was like, this is a
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  different level of commitment that it takes.
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  And it really speaks to, you know, what it takes to make it in the music business now.
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  You have to be able and willing to outwork everyone if you really wanna make it now,
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  whether that's gigging on Broadway or whether that's working on your social media and
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  promoting and building a community around your art.
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  What is the scene like for you?
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  Are you still in Pennsylvania then?
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  I'm in Pennsylvania.
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  I'm Port Stonkings.
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  Like where you're at?
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  I'm sorry?
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  What's the scene like where where you're at?
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  Like, are you around, you know, the major metros?
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  And I know Pennsylvania is like Pittsburgh and Philly and then, like, a lot of country in
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  between there.
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  But, you know, do you have a thriving music culture where you're at?
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  So I'm the in the middle of nowhere.
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  Hey.
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  I feel you.
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  Forty five minutes from Allentown.
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  But for so for here, it's there's a lot of different diversity.
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  There's, you know, the college town venues when the bars, and then you have, well, a bar in the
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  middle of nowhere, you know, that, like, all the older people go to and still have the time
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  of their lives.
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  There's so many different bars around that have such good music performances, and there are a
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  lot of talented bands.
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  There's a bunch of different bands that have given me the opportunity over the years to
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  pretty much test the waters.
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  Couple years ago was the first time I was on, like, an actual stage, and it was Thanksgiving
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  eve, and it was in front of 400 and something people.
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  Only reason why I know that is because I stopped letting people in the door because they
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  were over the max.
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  But it was the most incredible opportunity ever, and I just went to go see them and
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  support them.
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  And next thing you know, I'm on the stage, and I was like, oh my god.
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  I'm here.
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  I gotta do this.
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  And after that happened, then I met another band, and the same thing happened, and same
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  thing happened.
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  And now it turned into all of these bands have given me the opportunity to share my music with
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  them and be able to be a part of it.
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  I'm not full time part of any of the bands whatsoever, but they all give me the
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  opportunity.
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  About, 15 of them give me the opportunity to do my music and sing with them when they're
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  around.
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  That's one thing that I'm in the process of trying to do is create my own bands and have my
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  own.
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  But, unfortunately, I live in the middle of nowhere, so all the bands have been already
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  established, and they're all super, super talented.
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  And like I said, it's all all diverse.
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  You got the rock bands.
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  You have cover bands.
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  You have the original bands.
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  You have country bands.
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  You kinda have a little bit of adult, but it's nothing like Nashville or New York or anything
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  like that.
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  No.
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  I feel I mean, I live in a town of a thousand people that's, you know, forty five minutes
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  from a Walmart.
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  Right?
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  Like, I Yeah.
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  It's That's me.
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  I feel the middle of nowhere.
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  And it can be hard for me.
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  I mean, what I've done over the past few years has really been to just expand my network of
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  players.
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  And then whenever I'm in this area or that area, I kinda have a a phone book that I go
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  through, and I build the band per show essentially or per, you know, small tour that
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  I'm doing and and have a a big network to pull from.
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  I don't think there's anything wrong with being, like, the surprise special guest with 15
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  different bands either and being able to have the opportunity to go up and share your music.
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  So does this put a lot of impetus for you then?
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  I know you say you're trying to put together your own band, but are you really focused now
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  on, like, growing that social media following, pushing singles out on on, you know, the
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  streaming platforms and and growing your fan base through your recorded music then and not
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  so much your live performances?
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  Yeah.
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  So right now, my biggest thing, like, I just released my website two two weeks ago, I
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  believe.
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  I just released it, and it hit 27 different countries.
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  So I'm very excited about that because you never know who's on it.
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  But my main thing right now is getting my social media in track because I'm understanding
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  now how important social media following is.
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  And, I do have a couple upcoming projects within the studio, so I am trying to push that
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  as much as I can and work on my music videos, creating a band and coming in a band.
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  That's just a bonus.
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  And having the opportunity to perform those, that that would just be a bonus.
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  But I do wanna start my platform, with the social media that I have been pushing, and it's
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  slowly getting somewhere.
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  But everything takes time, and I understand that.
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  Well, and now you're an award winning songwriter, and and I hope that's a a headline
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  on on your website, and people know that.
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  Having never won anything before we won the content creator of the year from the Midwest
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  Country Music Organization just this last April, did I ever think that it was important
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  in the music business?
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  But what it is, it's a little bit of that social proof.
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  Right?
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  Without a huge following, there's an award or there's something that says, you know, hey.
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  This this young lady is worth your time.
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  Right?
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  She's worth listening to and checking out this content.
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  So congratulations to you.
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  Go ahead and tell us where we can find that website and and find all your music at before I
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  let you go.
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  All my links in social media and music and everything is right on my website.
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  It's kelsilynnmusic.com, spelled kelsilynn,music.com, and you could find pretty
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  much anything you wanna know about me.
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  Well, Kelsey Lynn, thank you so much giving me a little bit of your time today, and thank you
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  for being part of the scene.
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  Well, thank you so much for having me.
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  I really appreciate it.