Thirsty Topics
A weekly podcast dedicated to trending topics on social media, pop culture and entertainment.
Thirsty Topics
Bonus for 2/24/25: Thirsty Conversations S3 Ep10 Indie Pop Dreams, Live Music Magic, and Navigating the Music Industry: Kenny Elrod's Artistic Journey
Kenny Elrod shares his journey from a casual music creator during the pandemic to an aspiring indie pop star at Berklee College of Music. He emphasizes the importance of self-marketing, learning from experiences, and the joy that comes from live performances.
• Kenny’s evolution from bedroom recordings to serious music career
• The significance of music education in shaping his path
• The difference between studio recordings and live performances
• Engaging the audience and creating interactive experiences
• Finding inspiration from everyday life and fictional narratives
• Balancing academics, performances, and personal growth
• Important advice for aspiring musicians seeking to follow their passion
Hello, and thank you for listening to Thirsty Topics podcast! I'm Lawrence Elrod, and every week Meryl Klemow and I dive deep into the stories that matter, the conversations that shape our world."
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Hello everyone, welcome to this week's episode of Thirsty Conversations. Hello, hello. We have a great show for you today. We are here with the wonderful, very talented songwriter, producer, performer and writer, Kenny Elrod. Hello, Kenny, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you guys, so much for having me. I'm very, very excited.
Speaker 2:We are very excited that you're here. You've done a lot, you know, between your songs writing and producing your songs, being a student now doing performances. Tell everyone out there who may not know who you are. A little bit about yourself.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I am. My name is Kenny Elrod. I'm an indie pop writer, singer and producer from Illinois, a little bit away from Chicago, but for people who aren't familiar with cities in Illinois, I like to say Chicago, illinois. But yeah, I started releasing my music in 2020. During the pandemic, I had no real form of like entertainment during the pandemic besides making music, which I discovered, and at first I was not taking it seriously. But then I decided to put my first song out to the world for the heck of it, and it made me realize that I wanted a real career in music and ever since then, I've kind of been working towards that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the world responded. The world enjoyed it.
Speaker 3:The world did respond. The world enjoyed and the world literally changed my perspective on what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, which is insane yeah, well, it feels good to be good at something.
Speaker 1:You know what I?
Speaker 3:mean it. It does genuinely. If it were not for, like, I don't think I'm like necessarily bad at other things, but I just had no other passion for anything else. So if it weren't for taking this leap of faith into diving into the music industry, I don't know where I'd be right now, and now I'm actually going to school for music, so Awesome.
Speaker 1:So we, we interviewed you, gosh a year ago. Maybe, yeah, maybe even a couple. Yeah, I think. I don't know how many times I've seen you.
Speaker 2:a few times yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I've interviewed you at least once.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What have you been doing since? When we last spoke with you I think you were still in high school you just had maybe one or two big songs out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what's going on in your life since songs out, yeah, going on in your life since. So ever since then, I like between then and now, is when I like really finalized that I wanted to pursue music seriously. So, around my senior year of high school, I began like rushing to find a good school for this career, because I feel like majoring in music is one of those things where, like you really need to find a good school or else, like you don't really know where it's going to take you, and I wanted to be like confident in my school choice. So I decided to apply to Berklee College of Music, which is where I am thankfully now enrolled at, and I've just been studying there, for it's my second year right now, and I've been studying here for, yeah, like about a year and a half now and it's just been like the most amazing school experience I have literally ever had. Um, um, they like really really are preparing me for a future in music, which is exactly what I needed.
Speaker 1:And I just want to, I want to ask sorry, I keep interrupting Um, so with um, with school like what did surprise you with something that you've learned there, that you're like oh, they're teaching me this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the biggest thing that I've learned is how to market myself better since being here, because that was something that I didn't have much knowledge of before. All that I really had knowledge of was, like how to write songs and how to produce them. I was able to teach myself that, um, but as far as like how to really market myself as an artist, that is knowledge that I didn't really acquire before, and ever since being here, I've really gotten like more of an insight and more of an understanding of how important marketing yourself really is. I never would have really understood that before coming here. They have really, really helped out in that field.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like it's a hard concept. You're a very humble person. You're not like a boastful type look at me type person.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They think that that's something that has to be taught Because it's uncomfortable doing that Exactly the problem is.
Speaker 3:marketing yourself feels like boasting sometimes, because to be able to market yourself, you need to know that you're good. You're good enough to market yourself, which is like the problem, because I don't want to, you just have to learn how to do it right. Because I don't want to come off as like I'm good, like hire me, do these things with me. I don't want to come off like that. I just want to come off as somebody who's like approachable and you just want to work with because I'm approachable and I can also do things you know, yeah, well, yeah, I mean, you have to believe in yourself, because it's hard for other people to believe in you if you don't believe in yourself.
Speaker 2:So that's an important thing and there's nothing wrong with that at all. I'm kind of curious now that you transitioned into doing live performances as an artist, what do you feel is the major difference? You know, as far as when you're in the studio, you know you're doing your editing, you're getting everything perfect, versus doing live, where sometimes you know things don't go the way they're supposed to yeah, I mean, it's literally a night and day difference because, in the studio.
Speaker 3:when I'm well studio, I record stuff from my own bedroom. I consider that my studio, though, but there I'm like completely by myself. Nobody there to judge my not good vocal takes, nobody there to like judge really anything but myself. So I can do things over and over again and like make it as perfect as I want to sound it when I'm recording things from my room, but when it comes to live performances, it obviously just does not work like that. Like there are artists out there that perform with auto-tune as well.
Speaker 3:I have my own opinions about it. I don't, it's not for me. It's not for me. I don't want to be. It just feels less authentic to me. So I just like performing my vocals like straight through how it sounds and there's going to be mishaps, but honestly, I've. At first I was very insecure about it it, but I've kind of come to learn that like that is the whole point of live performances. Nobody wants to go to a live performance and hear the music exactly how it is in the studio recording, because then they would just be able to listen to that studio recording for free from home to listen to that studio recording for free from home. So I feel like doing live performances with those imperfections is what makes it perfect, you know.
Speaker 1:What I saw also in one of your live performances you taught the audience how to sing.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:What provoked you to do that, Like where'd you even get that idea?
Speaker 3:So I actually got the idea from the person who drums with me. His name is Easton. He likes to go by the jazz punk he. We were practicing the song, rehearsing the song, and in the studio recording. There is a point in the song. It's called Whenever You're Gone. By the way, in the studio recording there is in the chorus. There's like these vocals layered on top of each other and I create this chorus effect with my own voice, but only with myself.
Speaker 3:So Easton, at one of our rehearsals, was like how sick would it be to try to turn the audience into a choir during this section? And I was, like you're on to something. Like you're, you're on to something. So we he and honestly he came up with this idea a couple weeks before the performance which, like I, was pretty nervous about. I didn't know if there would be enough people there to like really go through with this. I didn't know if we had enough time to like really go through with this. I didn't know if we had enough time to like perfect it, but the turnout was literally. I couldn't ask for a better turnout. It was exactly what I imagined it to be.
Speaker 3:Rehearsing it was pretty like funny, because I would have to pretend that there was an audience in front of me singing a choir, so like I would rehearse it like that. So I was like I hope I'm not doing all this for nothing and it really really did turn out. So, honestly, shout out to easton for that idea, because it was just, oh, it was so much fun. I'm just, I'm so happy the audience engaged, like actually participated. Yeah, yeah, couldn't have done it without them.
Speaker 2:Shout out to that audience too yeah, your audience really does get into your music. Um, I remember when we came out to see you at so far and, um, there was actually a couple there I don't know if you remember or not that did not go to your school, but they follow your music and they're actual real fans and they came out to see you and I thought that was so cool that they did that. And you know it was so funny. And I know some people out there like, hmm, lawrence Elroy, kenny Elroy yeah, he's actually my son, that's okay, and it was so fun to see. And even when you did the performance at the cafe, how people got into it. They were singing your music. I mean singing word for word. What kind of motivation do you get when you're up on stage?
Speaker 3:You know, what kind of feelings do you get, especially when you see people literally just really getting into the music, getting into your performance yeah, I mean honestly, I think it's the energy of the audience that gives me that motivation, it gives me that hype, because even if the audience wasn't as energetic as I am, I'm gonna try to give that same performance energy no matter what. But like I can really honestly say it makes such a big difference when you have like a solid audience that does like to engage and does enjoy listening to music, that you can like tell just enjoys music in general. It makes a very big difference. I I get so much more confident up on that stage when there's people in the audience that are like hyping me up, no matter what. It just makes me feel really good. It gives me that like boost, you know.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry if you heard dogs running in through here screeching. That was you, didn't, oh good.
Speaker 3:I didn't, I didn't hear a thing.
Speaker 1:Hey, the wonders of you so now do you feel more, now that you have all these performances sort of under your belt, do you feel that you are like progressing more as a performer, or would you still call yourself like a writer or a musician or an artist? Where where would you rank?
Speaker 3:yeah. So I've actually been thinking a lot about that recently because at first I did not have intention really of performing my own music. I didn't know that was like a thing I could do. At first, honestly, I was just writing music, putting it out, thought that that was going to be like, and I was happy with that at first. I didn't know there was more outside of that at the time, but ever since, like being at this school is where I realized that like performing is such a big part of being an artist as well, and so now that I've like been performing more, I feel more well-rounded as an artist and like it just makes me really excited to like keep doing this.
Speaker 3:I I've had so much fun performing lately. It's kind of been consuming most of my time. Actually, I I need to get back into recording music and stuff, but lately performing has kind of been consuming everything because it is so much fun, like it. It genuinely just brings me, honestly, a lot more joy than recording stuff in the studio by myself. It is so, so much fun.
Speaker 1:Do you still get nervous?
Speaker 3:Like yes, definitely, I do still get nervous. I feel like those butterflies in my stomach right before getting on stage, but I'd say after, like my first song, that I perform on the stage. Once I get past one song, the rest is a breeze. I just get those good vibes, the good energy, and then I don't even, I don't even see myself as performing on stage in front of an audience. It gets to a point in which I am performing for my friends or my family. It's like I'm just putting on a show just for fun. I don't see it as like oh, you have this audience that's gonna judge how good of a performance you're putting on. I don't. I start to not see it like that anymore.
Speaker 2:I just start to see it as I have some friends here that are here to watch me perform and I'm Let me ask you a question regarding your music, when you do work on songs and I'm just curious, because everyone has their own style, their own motivation as far as what they do or what they see that motivates them to write their music, what motivates you to write your music and determining your songs and how you're going to put the songs together and, you know, lay the songs out- honestly, I get motivation and inspiration from multiple different outlets.
Speaker 3:it it's hard to pin it down to one specific thing because I find myself in the most random settings, sometimes getting motivation to write. Like I can't even think of an exact example. Like sometimes I'll just be walking down the street and I'll see like a random person with their partner walking their dog or something, and I'll like paint out an entire story in my head about these random people and just get inspiration to write. Or sometimes it'll be something that I'm going through that I feel personally that I would like to write about and I kind of turned writing songs into my outlet for just like letting out thoughts in my head. I kind of do get motivation and inspiration from like just life in general, just a little bit of everything you know. There's nothing like specific I can pin it down to.
Speaker 1:I'm happy you said that you get motivation from like people on the street, because I think to some of your songs I'm like Kenny has really gone through it and a broken.
Speaker 3:It makes me feel a little better that maybe it was like a little like no, yeah, yeah, some some of my songs definitely are like like personal, like I could say confidently my song so low, that's about my life, like that. That is stuff that definitely happened to me. But I do have songs out, like the most recent one I put out uh is called stove. That one was kind of just I was writing from the perspective of a fictional character. Honestly, like I do that sometimes because I'm only 19 years old, I haven't even experienced so much life yet, not enough to write about like things like deep, deep topics, you know. So sometimes I just have to create stories in my head, like fictional characters in my head and then write about their lives and yeah, I, it's so much fun doing that actually, because then the possibilities are like endless well, stove had me worried about you.
Speaker 3:I was like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, don't, don't you worry that one specifically, that that was just a made-up story like it, okay, good but it's still relatable. I still try to make it like relatable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah I mean it and it is relatable, and what I like about it is that I don't want to say vague enough, but it's. It's open for so much interpretation yeah, yeah, yeah that there's not really like a like I. I don't know the whole story, but like I need to in order to like apply it to my life or a past relationship or whatever. It's good, it's good, I'm glad that you said that that's.
Speaker 3:That's kind of exactly the vibe that I go for. I want I want my music to be universal, if that makes sense. Like I want people to relate to it. Even though, like it wasn't specifically written about them, I wanted to them to still be able to relate to it and find some type of connection to it.
Speaker 1:Well, success.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I really appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Hey, Kenny, I'm curious. You have a lot on your plate with going to school, still doing your music performing, and then all the other things that's going on in your life music performing and then all the other things that's going on in your life. What keeps you focused as far as being able to do your performances, do well in school and then even work on new music? What's your motivation to keep moving forward?
Speaker 3:my motivation. Creating a stable career out of my like art is my motivation to keep going. I am doing performances like crazy. I'm still writing music like crazy because I'm just thinking about that end goal and I am so motivated to, like make something out of this. It's really what pushes me to keep me going and, honestly, like you guys and all my friends around me, family and everything like, I want to make people proud as well.
Speaker 1:So yeah, you do. Thank you Now, with all these like live performances, have you had like a rock star moment that you were definitely like, oh, like that's how they think of me, or like you know what I mean? Have you had a rock star moment?
Speaker 3:I you know what, like I we've already talked about it, but I think, after turning the uh audience into a choir like how I did with that one show, that kind of even though it was like them performing that and not me it still kind of felt like a rock star moment because, like I, I wrote this song with no intention of ever doing something like this.
Speaker 3:But to be able to create something like that out of a song that I just wrote so long ago and then, like, turn this entire choir into, or turn this entire audience into a choir, like that it felt so cool. Like it genuinely like filled my heart in a way that I cannot explain. And then I got, um, I got such positive feedback about it afterwards too, like everybody was telling me that, like that was their favorite part of the show, it was so much fun. Like they genuinely just like loved doing that and I'm like, oh, that's so good to hear, like it's just so good to hear. I would say that was honestly like my rock star moment, that that really, really like solidified that. Like I want to do this forever.
Speaker 1:When they listened to you like that's the thing, like I've been to like a show and there's been like an opener, that's like hey, like they like start clapping.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:When else starts clapping with them Cause they're not into the band. Like this starts clapping with them because they're not into the band.
Speaker 3:Like this yeah, like that's horrible feeling, so like it could have went that direction. It could have went that direction. Yeah, that's that's honestly, that that was my biggest fear. To be honest, I I have seen openers before for concerts and people tend to just dislike openers because they just want to get to who they're actually there to see. But genuinely, like my biggest fear is to be in that position where nobody's bringing that energy. But I just got to remember to like keep, keep my head up there, no matter what.
Speaker 2:Like still bring that energy, even if they don't reciprocate it yes, that's huge hey, kenny, I was wondering, um, what type of artists would you like to collaborate with one day? Because, you know, I think that you're getting pretty close to that point where, um, you know, you, you may be thinking in your mind, hey, I would love to collaborate with this type of artist, with this type of genre. Um, because one of the things I like about Berklee is they force you to go out of your comfort zone, and that's what I really love about that school. So have you kind of thought about, you know, maybe getting out of your comfort zone, trying different types of music, or maybe even just collaborating with someone that you probably wouldn't think of collaborating with, let's say, a year or two ago?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a hard question. I can't exactly put names to people that I'd want to collaborate with, but before last year collaborating with somebody wasn't even something that crossed my mind at all. But now I'm at a point where I am so open to collaborating with people. As far as like doing different genres I don't know about that yet. I'm sure at some point I would like to like experiment with different genres, but honestly, like I would not have thought of myself as collaborating with anybody before last year or a couple of years ago. So now that I'm at this school where collaboration is such a common thing, it has really opened my mind to being, like, just more open to collaborating with other people. I definitely would.
Speaker 1:And you mentioned your drummer Easton.
Speaker 2:Do you?
Speaker 1:have other, like like band members that you repeatedly work with, or is it really? Yeah, oh, you do have a whole band.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I have a whole band. So I have Easton as the drummer, I have Haven playing keys, I have my friend Joe playing bass he goes by Stumbler as his artist name and then I have my friend Lila on guitar and they are just so, so good. I actually recently like solidified them as a band, I think, because last year when I started doing performances, I was still like in the air about who to perform with, who I like vibed with the best and who was willing to do this with me and was not like too busy to do it. And that was really hard because we're all here Study. We're still here to study, like doing performances is fun and everything, and like we do have to do it to like advance our career. But in retrospect, we're all here like studying still. So it's like hard to find people who match the vibe and have the time to do it, uh.
Speaker 3:So last year I people I was performing with was still like in the air. But this year I did one show with them, uh, in september at a different venue, and then after that show went really well and after that show they were like we want to keep playing with you and I'm like well, I want to keep playing with you guys. So then then, after that, we got the, we got the cap show and that went really really well. And now we're all like. We're all like yeah we're going to keep playing together Awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did see a video of you just with the guitarist and so and that made me think of other genres for you I was like, could I imagine you with a country singer? Like I was writing songs for you already, Like I was, I was dancing for you.
Speaker 3:So I mean, like honestly, I would be down to doing other genres like that, and so at some point I think, like right now, I want to build more of my discography is like my primary genre. But once I like get to that point where I'm very, very comfortable in this genre, I would like to like experiment a little bit more. At some point doing so, I definitely want to do more acoustic things too at some point too yeah, really good, it sounded really good thank you thank you.
Speaker 2:I know, kenny, that a lot of people are watching this, and you know there's some young performers out there that want to get in the music as well too, and you know you're not even anywhere near the peak of where you're going to be, but there's a lot of people that actually look up to you as far as what you're doing. They follow you, and you have a lot of followers, consistent followers, that also engage with you. What advice would you give someone that are looking at you and saying, hey, I want to do this, I want to make this a career. What steps should I take?
Speaker 3:Because I think you're at that point right now where you could probably give them some sound advice, especially being that you know they're probably near that same age group you're in. Honestly, it's very cliche, but I think the first thing I would tell them is just to get out of the mindset that it might not be possible, because you just got to tell yourself that it is possible and you are going to do it. Just tell yourself I can do this and then work towards it. You just got to work towards it. So, as far as like how to get really into it, I personally started with YouTube videos.
Speaker 3:You can teach yourself how to produce by just watching crazy amount of YouTube videos. You can teach yourself how to produce by just watching crazy amount of YouTube videos. You can teach yourself how to write by watching YouTube videos or just like anything online or honestly, just by listening to music that you enjoy, by listening to what you like to hear. You can reflect off of that and take inspiration from that and try to recreate things like that too, because it it's it's a hard learning curve, but once you get around that curve, it it becomes extremely fun, and then you could just like keep doing it and you just gotta keep doing it until you get to that point where you're like, yeah, this is it, you know yeah, love that advice, um.
Speaker 1:So I've seen like I've snooped on your TikTok, um, and so I was curious when we were talking about you marketing yourself, you always look so cool, oh so cute ideas, so intrusive. But no, you always look so cool Like you always have your, your glasses or jewelry or your sweaters. You always look so good, like how, how much like prep time goes into that, or are they like genuinely, like super authentic, like yeah, this is what I put on today, and then I just said you know it's, it's a, it's a little bit of both.
Speaker 3:I can't lie. So what I wear on stage, I would just casually wear out too. I, I want to say as authentic to myself on stage as I do off stage. Um, but I I actually am like pretty heavily into fashion. So when, when I am performing, I do like to step out of the box like a little bit, just because it's a big event for me. It doesn't happen every day, so I want to dress up like a little bit cooler than I would on a day to day basis for sure. So thought, thought definitely does go into what I'm wearing on stage ahead of time, for sure, gotcha.
Speaker 3:But it's still you, it's still me. It's still me. I want what I'm wearing to match the vibe of me as a person, if that makes sense, and I also have a weird thing for matching my clothes to the color of my hair. So I don't know if you could tell right now, but my hair is blue, dark blue, and I got this uh, this sweater from Urban Outfitters a couple days ago and it matches the hair like pretty thank you the same thing, so that you're gonna wear red for like three weeks yeah exactly, exactly
Speaker 2:it's a gen z thing, it's a it's, it's, it's a gen z thing yeah, speaking of fashion, uh, somebody I know actually did their first professional uh photo take for a, a major outfitter.
Speaker 3:Oh you're talking about, okay, gotcha, I was a little bit confused at first too. Yeah, it wasn't actually like through the company, but I work at an Urban Outfitters and so I got asked by. Her name is Natalie, I don't know exactly what her position is, but she asked me if I wanted to do a shoot for the Urban Outfitters Boston account, specifically a photo shoot, and I was like, honestly, yeah, I've never really done photography before, but like I'm willing to try it, and so we did it and she posted us on the Urban Outfitters Boston account. But then the Urban Outfitters official account, with like 8.2 million followers, saw that post and then reposted it onto their Instagram and I'm like that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:That's pretty cool yeah.
Speaker 1:Did they like how to model and like your angles, or were they like be you?
Speaker 3:it was a, it was a little bit of both. So, like I, I would just like test something out, and then she'd be like you look great, but try this, and then, like, do a little something different. Um, so yeah, yeah. No, it was really fun, though I've never really done modeling before, I don't really know if it's like my thing, like I would do it again, but it was cool to just like do it, like just say yes to it and then get posted on the Urban Outfitters like Instagram, like that. That's why, like, I feel like it's a good example of just saying yes to everything, like, like, maybe maybe not to everything, but I have kind of been in the mindset where, like lately, I've just been taking like every single opportunity I can get, like ever. So I think, yeah, I think that was like a really good example of like just say yes to it. You don't know what could happen.
Speaker 1:You know, like a really good example of like just say yes to it, you don't know what could happen, you know yes. And that's such a great lesson, because, yes, you, you, I don't know. And when you're younger, you tend to think that opportunities just come up all the time. So you have the luxury of saying no but at a certain point you have to say yes or else it's dry up. So it's great that you've just gotten into the habit of saying, yep, I'm going to try it. Yep, let's do it Maybe.
Speaker 1:I'll fail, it'll be fun.
Speaker 3:Exactly, exactly. Maybe it'll fail, maybe it'll be fun, that's the thing. But like you never know, so just just do it, you know yeah.
Speaker 2:Do you ever think that you would ever try something like that if they didn't approach you?
Speaker 3:If, can you ask that one more time? If?
Speaker 2:in other words, if they didn't approach you. If, can you ask that one more time? If, in other words, if they didn't ask you to do the photo shoot, would that something you think you would have tried on your own at some point? Or not really.
Speaker 3:I don't, I don't think so. Personally, I've never really thought about modeling, but like I think, just the fact that they asked me to do it, I was like I don't see, why not, you know?
Speaker 1:was like I don't see why not you know? So then I took it yeah, and you mentioned that you are into like fashion. Have you? Would you ever like design something like would you ever, you know, make your own pants line?
Speaker 3:I don't know what designers do, but you know what I mean I would do something along those lines or just nah uh, I mean actually, uh, my boyfriend, he goes to school like right around here and he actually makes stuff for me to perform in. So, uh, I don't know if this will come up on the screen, but like what I'm wearing in this picture, he kind kind of like he made that like by himself, and I kind of, if I want something made, I could kind of just go to him and be like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 2:No, for sure, Nice Now. Do you have any new projects that you're working on right now?
Speaker 3:So, yes, I don't have a time frame of like when they'll actually be released to the general public, but I definitely do have things that I'm like keeping in my back pocket, for now for sure how about any music videos? At some point I I don't have much to speak on it yet, but at some point for sure now, do you?
Speaker 1:I mean, I kind of joked about you being like Gen Z earlier, um, but do you feel like your? I guess the music industry that you're getting into is different than the music industry of 15 years ago or 10 years ago, and how do you think you have been? Able to maneuver that change.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so like 100%, it is completely different than it was, like even 15 years ago completely different. It was like even 15 years ago, completely different. Um, and I think the biggest factor in that has been social media.
Speaker 3:Specifically social media has kind of changed the music industry entirely, like completely, because the industry right now is honestly so dependent on social media, like making as much as it kind of sucks, but like making a good following on your social medias will kind of make or break a career in the music industry, whereas 15 or so years ago you could send demos to a label and they'd like what you, they like what they hear, and then they're like we sign you and we'll take care of it from here. They'll market you. But that's why, like, being at berkeley has been so, it's been so like important to learn how to market yourself, because that's what it's about now. Like you, you can't rely on that record label to find you from just one little demo and then they'll market you from there and take care of your career from there. You, you got to get yourself to that point, you got to work your way up there, and then you can talk to the labels once they see you on those social medias, you know.
Speaker 1:When I remember when you first had gotten big, that you like declined to sign with, to kind of go out on on your own, and again I'm like that's just so opposite of what I I would do? I think yeah yeah, but I mean again, I think that goes. That goes with you know, you knowing what the current industry is like, and me from a position of, well, you know, when I was young, when I was younger, you know, yeah no to do it.
Speaker 3:yeah. So like then, when I had my first single, like blow up on social media, I did not think I wanted to pursue music like I genuinely. That was at that point where I wanted to pursue music Like I genuinely. That was at that point where I was putting out music for the heck of it. I was just like, let's just like put this out. At first it was just for my friends and my peers at school to listen to, and my family of course, and that's like where I drew the line. And then, obviously, it picked up a little bit more.
Speaker 3:And so when these labels started to reach out and asking me to do these these big boy things, I'm like, I am 16 years old, I have no clue what you're even saying to me right now. Like I, I just didn't know. I didn't know, I didn't have the knowledge of like, is this a good deal? Is this a good deal? And that's that's also another reason why I'm at this school right now, because I want to be able to make good decisions for myself in the future. Um, cause, at the time I I did not know what they were asking out of me, what they wanted to do. I didn't know they wanted to like what they wanted to do. I didn't know they wanted to like take me as an artist. I was like I don't even like. I just didn't know that was the issue. So, yeah, but um, now I'm like starting to gain that knowledge of those good decisions to make. So if at some point that ever comes back, that like, then I'll, and it's a good feeling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm actually pretty curious. You know you've been in this journey now over three years. You know doing it seriously. I guess if you had to go back to when you first started, right before writing that first song, what would you tell yourself three years ago? That you did not know then, that you know now?
Speaker 3:I would just tell myself to be cautious, because there are some labels out there that see you as less of a human being and more of a transaction. So I would say, just like, be mindful of who you're speaking to and what they really want, if they actually have the right intentions of signing you. Because, again, like the point of a label is a business, it's a corporation. Their main goal is to make money, which isn't the problem. The problem comes where, like, they dehumanize people, artists, because they are like their transactions. They can make them money and that's all that they really care about. And I would just tell myself to stay the heck away from those people.
Speaker 1:Similarly, like have you noticed that with like people, like friendships or friends, like people are get weird and like just try to be your friend because you are successful?
Speaker 3:your friend because you are successful. Yeah, this is that's like a weird. It's kind of a weird topic because, like I don't like again, I don't want to come off as like somebody like I I I do know that I have a like general following and some streams. I don't want to like come off like as like oh, I I know that I do have all these followers and stuff. But there have been a couple times where I've like noticed some people say some weird things to me when trying to be friends with me, specifically at this school. Um, they would.
Speaker 3:If somebody approaches me and brings up like my following or my streams before introducing themselves as a person, I'm like okay, I see your intentions with like wanting to be friends with me, which is like weird because, like I'm open to being friends with everybody, like I genuinely I love people, I love making friends, it's like my favorite thing to do, but only if they have the right intentions of being friends with me, because I have been able to tell sometimes a couple times at the school that like people will want to be your friend because they think they can benefit off of being your friend. You know, like in a business setting. It's weird, but it's happened for sure.
Speaker 1:And don't like. You do not come across as like being an ego maniac or anything like it is, so it doesn't sound crazy or anything thank you, yeah no, you don't sound full of yourself like you. You, it's a genuine real talent you have, so it's like okay to say that in you yeah thank you now tell me how do you keep everything straight with your schedules?
Speaker 2:because man, working school, music performing, just saying all that, I get tired just thinking about. How do you keep everything straight and still be able to balance your life? And you know, obviously you know you're a college, so of course you got to have some time to yourself and enjoy your friends. So how do you keep balancing your life?
Speaker 3:I just try to make sure that, like I'm I'm happy at the end of the day. Like, as long as, like I'm doing all of these things and I'm really busy, but I'm still happy at the end of it, then that's all that I need. If I ever am like at a point where I'm doing so much and I'm burning myself out and I'm getting stressed out and stuff like that, then I'm like okay, I need to cut it down, we, we, we need to cut, cut all the busyness down a little bit for my own wellbeing, for my own mental health, um, and it has not gotten to that point yet. I genuinely I'm kind of the type of person that likes always having something to do, um, cause it just makes me feel like productive, I guess. Uh, and even even spending some time just with myself, like watching TV, that's still doing something, like it still makes me feel good because I'm doing it for myself, know, um.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I just think like, as long as I'm busy and not like stressed out and just happy, then I'm chilling yeah yeah now kind of going away from like the music aspect or like the career and just like college stuff, like you that moved like across the country of like states away out of your parents house and you've been able to, like, manage your schedule and you obviously, like, you're eating like you're not you have to lose like 30 pounds because you don't like. Do you have any advice for like someone who's thinking of making a huge move like that?
Speaker 3:yeah, it was very difficult at first because I have never done anything like this before, like I've never really been, I've never really been out of my house, away from my parents, away from all my friends before, in a setting like this. So to just move 1718 miles or not miles away, like hours away, and then, like I think, like almost 1000 miles away it was. It was scary at first and it's going to be. No matter what advice I give anybody doing the same thing, it's going to be. No matter what advice I give anybody doing the same thing, it's going to be scary, no matter what, it's still going to be scary.
Speaker 3:But, like, genuinely, as long as you like know what you're doing, you know what you're there for, you are going to be okay, like genuinely you're going to be okay. And I wish I could have told myself that at first, because I was pretty sad, pretty stressed out, felt pretty lonely at first because I didn't know anybody here. But you just got to give it time, let yourself, be comfortable by yourself and then go out into the world, meet new people, see new things. It will be OK. You're going to have, like it's going to be, a good time, no matter what.
Speaker 1:Awesome. I love that.
Speaker 2:Well, Kenny, this was an awesome interview.
Speaker 3:I appreciate you coming to the show. I had so much fun. You guys are so much fun to talk to. Thank you so much for having me again.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Now, of course, before you leave out of here, I do want you to tell people that's watching how they can not only stream your music to enjoy it and listen to it, but also follow you on your social media as well. As you know, maybe even there's some venues out there that may want to reach out to you to hire you to play music. Tell everybody how they can get a hold of you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so if you want to check out the social medias, both my TikTok and my Instagram, which are my primary social medias you can look me up at Kenny Elrod, which is Elrod is spelled the same way as Elrod TV Network. If you're here watching and if you want to stream any of my music, I on all streaming platforms, whatever you use, under the name kenny elrod and how do people reach out to you if they want to hire you?
Speaker 3:if they want to hire me, they can shoot me a dm on instagram. Uh, I think that's probably where I'm most active on is, honestly, that's where I've gotten a lot of business things actually outside. It's surprising, but email is kind of in this industry, email kind of doesn't really exist. Most things that I've been reached out to for have been through Instagram, so you could shoot me a DM and I will see it.
Speaker 2:Okay, I know you're calling me old because I still use email, but that's okay.
Speaker 3:And it's okay. It is okay, I still use email but that's okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's okay, it is okay. Well, everyone else, don't go too far. We're going to take a quick break and, kenny, thank you again for coming on the show. Thank you guys, thank you you too, everyone else, we'll be right back. Welcome back everyone.
Speaker 1:This was a fantastic interview, as always. Yes, I love his energy so much. Kenny is just such a like a bright, shining little star. I just he is the best. He's so happy he always like just brings such good energy.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, yes, and we really appreciate him spending some time. And, you know, we learned a little bit more about kenny, not only about his, his art, but also about kenny, the person, too, which people don't realize. You know, believe it or not, the people that you watch and listen to.
Speaker 1:They are people, too, he has. He is a genuine human being, yeah, and he's just so humble and great. So I I enjoy talking to him and I can't wait to see all that you know, he hasn't you know life has in store for him and the success that he'll he'll have, you know, in the years to come. So definitely, definitely. But if you are interested in getting a hold of us or perhaps being a guest on our show, please reach out to us on our social media. Elrod tv. We're on Instagram and also on Facebook.
Speaker 2:And I want to take this time to tell everyone thank you again for watching us and supporting us, and do us a favor and let other people know who we are and come watch us as well and, most importantly, always have those thirsty conversations. Thank you, enjoy your evening, everyone. Bye, bye, bye.
