Today we’d like to introduce you to Kimi Kent.
Kimi, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
My musical journey started young for me. My grandmother was a singer, and despite not knowing her for long the desire to sing only grew for me from seeing pictures of her in evening gowns in clubs in the 40’s on stage and hearing the stories of her singing on the Bob Hope Show. It was magical to me at the time. I’d always felt very secluded growing up and didn’t have the best self-confidence, it had really been shot down young by some outside forces but around 7 years old I started writing lyrics nonstop and it quickly became my get away. I dreamed of stages where I had a different name and people noticed and cared for me instead of what and who I was then. Between my brother teaching me my first song on guitar around 10, along with my “adoptive” grandfather Elario Lozano who’s a radically talented classical and flamenco trained guitarist and vocalist, teaching me and telling me stories of his life spent on the road, I became entranced with expanding my guitar, writing and singing chops and making a life of it. Elario’s career really became something of a drive for me. He was the main attraction for 14 years on Bourbon Street at the Royal Sonesta Mystic Den, traveled to countries beyond his wildest dreams to play music and met incredible souls along the way. To me it sounded like a dream come to life. Around 15 I had created some demos in my brother’s apartment of my songs and Elario was kind enough to pass them along to a writer who’d written for the likes of Reba, and Diamond Rio. I tasted my most painful and burning rejection from this to date honestly. I was sat down at dinner at 15 and told my vocals were bad, my writing that of a child and my guitar skills elementary. I remember the shock of it. I cried on my car ride home as my lifes dreams seemed to be pulled from me. I didn’t write or sing for months. Around my 16th birthday though, my parents surprised me with my first guitar. A crescent moon pearl inlayed Luna. The moment I first strummed it my determination was reset. I was constantly writing, singing, and playing. I stumbled upon an opportunity to work with another Grammy Nominated artist in The Woodlands TX, after I spent weekends away studying with a vocal coach in North Texas. Skip forward 2 years at age 18, I walked into my parents office and told them the news I would be leaving school and not going back for my senior year or going on to college the year after. I had been studying under this artist for 2 years at this point and had no doubts I would spend my life as a singer songwriter. 6 months after leaving high school, I was asked to join an internship for with the same artist. I went on my first tour, learned to teach music, lived in a house with 8 other interns where we did nothing but eat, breathe, and live music nonstop for almost a year. I started my first EP. I then had the hard choice when I heard the record to follow this route that was being laid out to me to be something I am not. A Christian singer. Or to pack my bags, buy out my first record and take a leap of faith that the universe would give me what I needed. With the support of my family, I bought out the record and took a leap. During these crucial years, alongside trying to find my truth in music, my family was coming apart and going through a divorce of marriage and business, I wound up in abusive relationship after abusive relationship and music was my only solace. During my internship I had a luck meeting with Philip Aaron Creamer, a writer and singer, and front man of Dovetail and the band Creamer. Through luck, Philip understood the vision I had for my music. I wanted to be raw and open about my heartbreaks, life lessons, and mistakes. I wanted to share my life with the souls that cared to listen to my music. I wanted my music’s’ sound to be that of ease like the great songwriters I grew up listening too. I had to be as real with you and everyone that heard it, as I could possibly be. After months of traveling back and forth between Houston TX and Dallas TX, we created my first original EP “Wayward Child”. The record which is available online on Spotify, ITunes and more, became the silver lining to all the hard choices and uneasy moments I lived through growing up. The record was recorded at Modern Electric Studios in Dallas TX, and some of the grooviest gents in Texas took part on it. You can find those brilliant musicians now playing and singing in bands such as, The Texas Gentleman, Creamer, Medicine Man, Quaker City Night Hawks, Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats, Becky Middleton and many more. Since my record came out in 2014, I’ve played more than 150 shows and had so many righteous experiences. From festivals, to radio shows, recently opening for Better Then Ezra’s Kevin Griffin at House of Blues, playing in venues all around Texas and USA, receiving a Nomination for 2016 Readers Choice Award for Houston Press Music Awards, singing on the grooviest albums for- Scubadiver and Tyler Lucas, SXSW, and so many more. Music started as an escape to a dream world for me and somewhere along the road it seems reality started to mirror my dreams. As of now I’m either playing shows, or fine tuning new original music for my next EP/ and single release projects. Best part is, this gift that has allowed me to share my life and stories with incredible souls, explore new places, continue petting as many dogs as I possibly can, has only just really gotten started.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I am a singer songwriter. All of my music is pulled from moments of my life. The heart breaks, betrayals, pain, and abuse, but also love, stories from the road, moments of strength and times of unshakable determination. My music started as an escape, and turned into a radical desire to share my moments with anyone who would listen to find some common feeling and moments between us all.
The biggest thing I hope people take away from my songs is the freedom of being radically honest with yourself and others about your thoughts, feelings and life. There’s something so pure and raw about opening yourself to strangers and the people closest to you within a song. Through this journey of truth I kinda of stumbled upon the 70’s Southern Rock/ Singer Songwriter vibe my music has now.
How can artists connect with other artists?
It can be nerve wracking to try to create new connections with other creatives. My best piece of advice is be as open and truthful with yourself, the universe and the people you surround yourself with and the new connections will come your way. Allowing yourself to be radically open will bring the grooviest people into your circle.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
You can find my record online on ITunes, Spotify, Amazon, CD Baby, KimiKent.com, Facebook and more, as well as, in hard copy at all my shows! I play often in and around Houston, and would love to see your smiling groovy face at one of the shows! You can find my show schedule on my website & Facebook!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kimikent.com
- Email: kimikent@live.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimi_kent/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KimiKentMusicPage
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/kimikentmusic
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0n6QluHgxVczwHpdN3qm2N
Image Credit:
Will Von Bolton
Rachel Whittington
Who Took Your Photos
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