Bringing their unique brand of brotherly musical talents to the modern scene, The Keymakers hit HARD with over One Million Spotify Plays and counting. Read on to learn more about the men and the mission behind the music.
Thanks for your time today Keymakers, tell us about your latest single, REMEMBER. Where was it written and what was the process in the studio for this incredible song?
Rome: Thanks for the love, first off! Remember was one of those songs where the composition and melodies came before the writing. I remember one afternoon the main drop melody came to me and I recorded it on a voice note (I have thousands), and some night later that week I built a chord progression around it. One weekend we were making a trip to a studio, and even though I knew we wouldn’t have time to produce the song beforehand, I wanted to record the vocals so that we could work with it later, so I committed myself to write the song in the days leading up to it. I think I ended up writing it in our basement studio, and it only took one night to get a draft and the next to finalize it – it’s one of the more honest songs we’ve written to date, and is a reflection of some of the things going on in our minds at the time, so it flowed pretty quickly!
It’s no secret that the music biz is tough and not for the faint of heart. What’s the biggest problem you’ve had to overcome so far?
A lot of people see the lives of musicians as glamorous and bougie. And the way we all present ourselves on social media these days only adds to that perception. For us, the reality has been pretty different. To have a chance to succeed in this industry and to truly commit to your art, you have to give it everything – and that means sacrifice. Sacrificing seeing your friends and family, sacrificing sleep, sacrificing your mental health at times. It can be a rollercoaster, and it’s not always easy to stay on it. But don’t get us wrong, we wouldn’t trade it for anything – we choose to do this every day – and it is DEFINITELY easier doing it together than it would be alone.
What do you enjoy most about being musicians?
Red: The best thing for us about being musicians is being able to channel all of the ideas, sounds, moments in our heads into our work. Music in a lot of ways in a form of communication but instead of words, music talks through feeling. To us, that’s a really beautiful thing about it. The saying “find something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” applies perfectly to music and it’s something we’re lucky to be able to do everyday. Beyond that, it’s seeing the reactions from our fans. We do this because we want to impact others the way music has impacted us – so when we see that happening to individuals all over the world – it makes it all worth it.
If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
Red: I think that if there’s anything I would change about the industry as it stands it would be reimagining the concept of ‘genres’. One of the things my brother and I always try to do is take in all sorts of different influences to produce a final product. It seems at times people want to simplify things to say “I like this genre and not that genre” but think of all the dynamic music that they may miss out on by clumping music together into a genre. I know it could get messy to get rid of the whole system, but more and more these days music bleeds through the lines of ‘genre’ and we should start to think about rearranging how we look at it as a whole.
Is writing music therapeutic for you guys? And if so, how?
Rome: Absolutely. When I first started writing music, it was mostly about trying to create cool sounds – sounds I liked and sounds I thought people would like. Recently, we’ve been putting a lot more of ourselves into the music we create. It’s a way for us to express ourselves emotionally and release the tension of some of the things in our minds and hearts. In turn, we hope to evoke those types of feelings in others and create something that’s relatable – through both words and sounds.
Describe your sound in one sentence.
Melodic-heavy electronic vibes with genre-bending influences
Any dream gigs or stages you’ve always wanted to play?
We’ve definitely leaned all the way into the live music scene here in Boston since living here the past couple of years. We’d absolutely love to play at The Sinclair in Cambridge. It’s not the biggest stage, but we’ve seen some of our favorite shows ever there, would have such a fun time using their lighting set-up, and it’s a stone’s throw from where we live. Hopefully we’ll play there soon 🙂
Big shows on the horizon and how do we get tix?
Yep! We’re actually starting 2020 with a tour! We’ll be playing all over the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic with a few shows in Michigan! We’ll be stopping in NYC for two shows as well! All of our shows are up on SongKick with ticket links available online. We’d be so pumped to see you there! (https://www.songkick.com/artists/9268614-keymakers)
Please tell our readers how they can support you online and be part of The Keymakers movement?
Follow us on Instagram because we love connecting with fans! You’ll find music and personal updates as well as a whole lotta performance video. And give us a follow on Spotify or whatever music service you subscribe to so you can keep up to date with all of our releases (including the EP, Spectra, coming November 20th!)
IG: https://www.instagram.com/thekeymakers/
Follow Link: https://fanlink.to/TheKeymakers
End of Interview