[Kinky Premiere] Brad Kemp showcases storytelling, versatility on new LP
By: Zach “Goose” Gase
Over the past few years, Chicago-based producer and multi-instrumentalistBrad Kemp has built strong relationships with an eclectic and diverse group of musicians. Having produced for artists such as Vagabond Maurice, Glitter Moneyyy, and Chore Boy, he’s been sort of a musical chameleon, switching up his sound to match the vibes of his collaborators. But with his forthcoming LP, Letters, he is ready to showcase his talents front-and-center.
For Letters, Kemp’s first non-instrumental solo record, the producer enlisted a vocalist for each track and prompted them to write a song in the form of a letter – real or fictional. The final product is 11 storytelling songs, with features from Eshé, CantBuyDeem, Vagabond Maurice, Elly Tier (of White Ppl), Tomcat Trumpet, and more.
On the eve of Letters’ release, Kemp, along with his longtime collaborator Chore Boy, has released a video for their song “Day One.” The visual sticks to the theme of the other videos Kemp has released from the project, where the artist writes out the song’s lyrics, as if writing a letter. Chore Boy said he wrote the song from the perspective of a struggling musician writing a letter to his fiancée on the first day of his first tour.
Watch the video to “Day One” from Brad Kemp and Chore Boy, premiered by Kinky Elevator Music, followed by a Q&A.
Kinky Elevator Music: This is the second album you’ve put out since the stay-at-home order was put in place. How has the quarantine and COVID-19 pandemic affected the way you not only make your music but how you release and promote it?
Brad Kemp: The irony is that both Letters and Listen in Headphones were pretty much finished before the stay-at-home order was issued and I had started prepping the rollout for both back in January. In terms of promoting, Listen in Headphones was a perfect project to have locked and loaded before COVID-19 hit the U.S. It’s an album meant to be enjoyed alone and through headphones so the promo basically wrote itself given the context we’re now living in.
In terms of making music, my full-time job is running the studio out of my place so things haven’t really changed, other than the fact that I’m not having clients over to record. I’ve been working with many artists remotely (shout-out to Vagabond Maurice, TomCat Trumpet) by running sessions through Zoom and having them record audio from their home and then send it over to me for mixing.
KEM: Can you explain a little bit what the visual element of the Letters album will consist of?
BK: For sure! I’m really excited about this one because each track on Letters is a collaboration with a different artist where they wrote a story, fictional or not, of letters or letter-writing. As a result each of the songs ended up feeling really personal, so I wanted the music videos to match. I asked each artist to film themselves hand-writing their lyrics, and I then edited the videos to sync with the song. It creates a kind of “closed captioning” effect that I think is really powerful.
KEM: For the album, you prompted each vocalist to write a storytelling song in the form of a letter, did any of the artists have trouble with that concept? Were there any artists who surprised you with their storytelling chops?
BK: I know it definitely surprised some folks. I had a handful of people start working on tracks and ultimately not finish them, I’m guessing because of the specificity of the prompt. A couple of the artists told me it was a challenge compared to their usual style of lyric writing. But from the effortlessly positive flow of Eshé to the incredibly personal and emotional performance from CantBuyDeem, I was honestly blown away by everyone’s performance.
KEM: What made you come up with such a specific concept for this project?
BK: I started my career as a composer for musical theatre so I love storytelling in music. This is my first non-instrumental solo album so I knew I wanted to create something conceptual with the featured artists. The ask to “write a letter to someone, real or fictional” felt like a frame that would be broad enough for the artists to have fun and put their own spin on things, yet narrow enough for the tracks to hang together as a cohesive concept album.
KEM: Can you break down your end of the songwriting process for this album? Did you know what artist you wanted for specific beats? Did you have ideas for specific stories while making these beats?
BK: I had worked with each of the 11 artists before so I was familiar with each of their styles, and I tried to match beats to their sound. The really enjoyable part was making something that felt like it would fit each artist, while still remaining authentic to my production style. For each of them I pitched a specific story/character but told the artist to go in whatever direction they wanted once they heard the beat. Last piece of the puzzle was adding instrumentalists (TomCat Trumpet, Lil Sharp, Nathan Graham) on a few of the tracks to enhance the emotion.
KEM: Is there any general theme musically for this album?
BK: Not really, although I do feel like each track has my stamp of production style on it: intricate samples, ambient arpeggiators and big modern hip-hop drums.
KEM: I feel like your personality and range is more on display on this project than some of your previous work. You touch on a bunch of different styles and work with different types of artists. Was that sort of a goal you had in mind while making this album?
BK: Yes, definitely! I’ve done a lot of music directing for improv with The Second City which definitely helped me develop an extensive grasp of musical genres. Once I started working as a producer, that training helped me break down various types of music on the radio and dial in my production to match. I’m so lucky to get to work with such a wide variety of very talented artists and I wanted to enable them to show off a bit, and they came to play!
KEM: You often will work with a single artist for a project (or most of a project), what was it like collaborating with so many artists at once?
BK: It was really fun and required a lot of organization. There are 16 artists involved so I had several spreadsheets to keep myself organized throughout the process. When I started this project I promised myself that I wouldn’t put a hard deadline on the completion since it had so many moving pieces. Usually I love having a due date, but since it was my own album I wanted to let it take however long it needed. I think the end result was totally worth it.
KEM: Anything else people should know about Letters?
BK: It drops TOMORROW (June 5th) on all streaming platforms (Spotify, Apple Music) and the full visual album premieres that night via my YouTube page at 7 PM CST.
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Photos by Eric Oren