Check Out Donovan Keith’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Donovan Keith.

Hi Donovan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m Midwest born and raised and moved to Texas twelve years ago to pursue music. I was raised on older music growing up and mostly listened to oldies and classic rock stations, so inevitably when it came time for me to write and sing my own songs those influences played a major role. My music tends to be a mix of classic soul, early rock & roll, blues, and classic rock with a slightly modern twist. I come from a theater background in both high school and college.

I started my own improv and sketch comedy troupe and ran a public access TV show in my hometown for a few years. It was a ton of fun and I grew as a performer, but music had a much stronger emotional pull to me than acting did. With the advice of an old blues singing mentor, I saved up money and moved to Texas on a whim without knowing anyone and went to work despite having never been in a band, played an instrument, or learned to read music. My biggest strengths were my raw singing talent and tireless energy on stage. I spent the first several years developing those talents with a band I founded called Soul Track Mind.

We became relatively successful, but that was my learning project. With that group, I figured out how to write songs, make albums, tour with a band, and also how to make quite a few mistakes and learn from them. I disbanded that group in 2016 and have been performing under my own name since. It takes a long time in any art form to find your own unique voice and in those first years, I wasn’t able to really listen to myself or make the music I wanted without someone else’s influence. Now that I’m on my own I have less clutter and more focus. I feel like I’m finally scratching the surface of my artistic voice. My latest music and upcoming album are the first iterations of that clarity.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I was supposed to release the upcoming album back in March of 2020. I had a big event at SXSW planned, summer touring, etc. Covid brought all of that down and put my career in jeopardy with all of the uncertainty it brought. I stopped playing for several months, put the album on the back burner, and just tried to survive financially since my income went from steady to zero within a few weeks. I got depressed and gained a bunch of weight. During that time, I lost my Aunt and my Mom to Covid complications a month apart, and just a few weeks after that a longtime fan and supporter of my music took his own life. It was a difficult time to say the least but that kind of shock puts life in perspective. It lit a fire in me to make the most of the time I have because you never know when things will completely shut down, or health issues will come up. It’s so easy to take our daily life for granted. So I completely changed my diet, focused on nutrition, started working out, lost 20 lbs in 8 months, and it all drastically changed my overall outlook and sense of wellbeing. I had the drive again to start making a push to finish this album. I’ve released a few singles from the album already and the full album release is planned for April of 2022.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I take in pride in my stage performance and my vocal style because I feel those are what make me unique. I don’t sound like anyone else and that’s partly because I was heavily influenced by older music that had a wider variety of tone, melody, and style compared to a lot of impersonal modern mass-produced music. I’m not a classically trained vocalist and didn’t take any formal training until after I became a singer. My tone comes from singing along to and emulating singers who had amazing tone like Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder, Van Morrison, and Paul Simon. I don’t think I sound anything like them, but practicing along with them has helped me in sculpting my own vocal style. My stage performance has always been a workout. If I don’t dance, sweat, and jump around, then I don’t feel like I had a productive show so I aim to be consistent and give the same energy whether there are 2000 people in the audience or 20.

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
We’re always running out of time. It’s a lesson I continue to learn from and must consistently remind myself of. You can’t let yourself get distracted, but it happens. We all do it and when you notice yourself wasting time or opportunity try not to beat yourself up because it’s nearly impossible to avoid. There are media companies out there spending billions of dollars with the singular goal of keeping you distracted for their profit. Those are constant pitfalls to navigate through. There are gatekeepers, curators, and critics in every business that will tell you you’re not ready or not good enough. Those are distractions. You should remind yourself week to week, month to month, year to year, that you are running out of time to be the best version of yourself, and you’re running out of time to do the things you’ve always wanted to do. Time stops for no one and no one knows when their time will be up. That blunt perspective has helped motivate me through a lot of difficult times.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.donovankeithmusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/donovankeithmusic/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donovankeithmusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0JvU1Jh2d2Ibrb5BoQ_j-w
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/donovankeithmusic

Image Credits
Nicola Gell