[FEATURE] VIPER PRESENTS: KAELIN ELLIS
Genre-defying, multi-Platinum musician Kaelin Ellis is set to drop his album ‘You Are Here, Start.’ later this year via Fool’s Gold Records. Get familiar with this VIPER interview…
What five words define your sound?
Eclectic, Nostalgic, Experimental, Presence and Obscure.
Tell me something unique about your creative process.
My creative process that’s unique to me is that whenever I discover sounds to use, I go through a process of listening to everything I like and blending those things into something feasible, like blending sounds and genres.
Which song of yours would you like people to hear first?
I would say for this upcoming project ‘Celebration’ is a great starting point. But I do have a record that comes out soon called ‘Ain’t You Mad’ and it almost describes the duality of my music so those are songs I would suggest first.
What inspired you to make that song?
I feel like ‘Ain’t You Mad’ is a record that allows me to gloat a bit. It’s like a mentality thing where you feel like after all the hard work you put in to get where you’re going, there will always be people who won’t want the best for you, but this allows me to celebrate those wins, no matter how big or small they be.
What’s the most vulnerable you’ve allowed yourself to be when writing/making music?
I think this album from a concept perspective is the most I’ve ever allowed myself to become vulnerable in the creation process. The same things that allowed me to figure out how to learn what I know about life into this music because majority of these works over three years ago.
What’s the best/worst experience you’ve had on stage?
The best experience I’ve ever had on stage was playing a show and in the middle of me playing there is a massive pit of people dancing. This had to be the Knockdown Center back in 2018 when I went on tour with Sango. The worst experience I had was the exact same year I played in Toronto and I was so exhausted from the travels that I ended up saying, “what’s good Montreal?” and the crowd booed me for like a solid three minutes until I told them this is my first time traveling and doing a tour. But I still wanna go back and redeem myself.
What is your favourite song to perform?
Probably right now would have to be between a remix I did for Baby Keem’s ‘Family Ties’ and another record I produced with The Kount called ‘Star’.
Which artist/song/album made you want to make music?
It has to be either between Diplo’s ‘Florida’, or Flying Lotus’ ‘Los Angeles’.
What’s the meaning behind your name?
My mama gave it to me, I’ve had it ever since.
If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing instead?
I’m a really big nerd and I love technology and I love using different things that aren’t common to get cool results. I love video animation and I love 3-D modelling. It’s been a while since I model 3-D movements and animations.
What’s success to you?
Success to me is more than just succeeding with my own desires, but helping people discover what their desires are and giving them the blueprint to fulfil what they need to fulfil.
What moment in your life/career forced you to change direction?
The pandemic. I had to move back in with my parents and it was the last thing I wanted, but I realised it was a blessing in disguise.
Where can people keep in touch with you?
People can tap in with me on all social media platforms, especially Twitch where I go live with my Discord community every single week Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays at 5 PM Eastern. I collaborate and create with some of the most talented people in the world.
