By: Jeremy Scott
In an industry currently flooded with mediocre talent, uninspired lyrics, and overused musical formulas, Bryan native Kailey Shaffer is breaking out into the music scene with a fresh sound, and phenomenal presence.
Kailey is a 2008 Bryan High School graduate. Like many bards of long ago, Kailey has travelled the country sharing her love of music while learning, progressing, and finding a voice that is truly her own.
In an interview with Kailey, she says she “always knew there was something inside of me, since I was a little kid, that I knew I was supposed to be in a big city somewhere, someday doing music or dance.”
Her journey began by attending 2 years at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music, but “I knew my goals were bigger and different than what the college could offer me.” Kailey wanted to write and play more contemporary music, so she auditioned for the Berklee College of Music and was accepted. She moved to New York City after college, but after living there for 3 years, and with the lack of the kinds of work she was hoping to do, Kailey finally left and headed to Los Angeles.
The change of scenery did Kailey good, and she wrote her recent single “Attached” 3 months after arriving in L.A. “Songwriting was always my creative outlet, my way of getting everything out of myself.” New York had burnt out her creative fire, but by moving out west her inspiration was reignited.
“Attached” is a song about “A relationship that is unhealthy for us, but we can’t walk away. It’s like the person has you on a string and is just dragging you along.”
After playing the song to one of her friends that worked for BMG Music, she was able to meet Producer Rob Kleiner who has worked with Sia, Brittany Spears, and David Guetta among others. After sending him some of her demo work, he agreed to help produce “Attached.”
“We have a very good working chemistry. I felt for the first time, he understood me as an artist, and how important violin was to my brand and my artistry.” After a couple of sessions, the song was recorded.
Kailey knew the song wasn’t complete, and after sending the song out to her peers for review, she met with another producer, Alfonso Lugo. It was Alfonso that helped Kailey to establish her brand – what she wanted to be, and how that translates to a consistent sound she could own. After this revelation, the song was revised to fit this image, and was finally ready to be released to the world. “Attached” is available on iTunes, Spotify, and the Apple Music Store.
With the popularity of YouTube, Spotify and Instagram, it’s much easier to be an Independent artist, and Kailey prefers being independent. “I have complete creative control of my projects, and I have the ability to keep building it the way I think it should be built.”
This also brings frustrations. Kailey says “I could literally just take a video of myself singing, put it on Instagram putting #songwriter, and now people think I’m a songwriter. Music is the only industry you can do that. I can’t take a picture of myself and put #lawyer and have people think I’m a lawyer.” Having a clear vision of her brand, and where she wants to go is helping to make her stand out as a true artist.
Kailey is also working on Sync Placement, which allows an artist’s music to be used for TV, film, advertisements, video games, etc. Using this sort of tactic could easily turn her into a sensation, as well as being a lucrative venture.
Kailey plans on releasing several songs over the next few months, and after that she is planning on performing live, and is hoping to be able to tour as the opening act for a big national tour. After hearing “Attached” she has the talent, and skill to make this happen.
Jeremy can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com