How many people have been threatened with being taught a lesson in the shed?
Likely quite a few of us if we are being honest.
But how many of us have ever learned to rap in a shed?
It may sound like a tall tale, but that is exactly how Josh Kielley aka Kielley Koyote honed his skills.
“I practised and created like most Newfoundland musicians do, the only difference for me is I did it in my dad’s shed … right next to the grinder,’’ he said with a wry smile.
“I needed a place to work so out in the shed I would go and that is where I learned how to do this and got my career started,’’ he added.
From those meagre beginnings, of the cold days, the hot days and all days in between, life issues and all that goes with being a young 20-something seeking to get started in music, Kielley put in the work.
Perhaps you could say he even ground it out next to that grinder.
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That work and the work of his management company, got him an invitation to a prestigious event in Europe a few weeks back.
Kielley and four additional bands from Newfoundland and Labrador perform at the Live at Heart music and film festival in Orebo, Sweden, from Sept. 2-8 as part of the roster of 18 Canadian acts who participated.
For someone who’s been in the industry for just two years, the 23-year-old Kielley’s successes and the exposure from this conference, have helped elevate him to the point where he is now collaborating for his next EP with an international crew.
Initially, Kielley attended the Live at Heart conference in Orebro, Sweden seeking to play for an international audience.
What he accomplished was so much more. The conference resulted in him being tested and evaluated by some of Europe’s best music producers.
The sacrifice of scrimping and saving, applying for grants from Music NL and having kick ass sound technicians mashing music together for him, helped Kielley forge lasting relationships and connect with other musicians globally.
Jan Sparby, a professor of music at the University of Orebro, organized “The Blackbelt Songwriters Camp” during the conference.
Running in conjunction with the festival, artists were handpicked and separated into groups.
Kielley was one of three selected and he was paired with Elin Kran, a songwriter from Sweden, and Bruno Miguel, a producer from Portugal to write, record and produce a live performance in three days. If that wasn’t enough work, he also wrote features for two other projects.
But it’s Kielley’s trio — Elin and Bruno — at the concert that he is excited about.
The plan is to produce a musical collaboration across borders using technology to communicate those ideas.
With a new international group project on the way and a pile of unreleased tracks waiting to be mastered, Kielley has his fingers in a number of pies.
Since the release of his “Weak Days” EP, Kielley Koyote has opened for Juno nominated acts that includes Ghettosocks, Evil Ebeneezer and Jyay.
He has a music video on the way and is rallying resources to host a benefit show for a yet-to-be-named charity that will be announced.
“I have always listened to hip hop bands. I would have to say that Wu Tang Clan was my inspiration, them and Earl Sweatshirt,’’ Kielley said.
“I was playing folk music and had learned to play guitar before I turned to hip hop and rap.”
Kielley, like most people in life, has a personal story and it took him a while to get through those issues.
A broken relationship left him with anxiety issues that led to some depression and what he said was diagnosed as a form of PTSD. He sought help and got help for those mental health issues.
It was during that time he began to write poetry and write down his feelings and opinion in those and many other things he was experiencing in life and seeing everywhere he went.
“I would call those my weak days, which led to me writing songs for the EP which because of where I had been in my weak days, gave me the title,’’ he said.
He calls his style a bridge between modern rap and old-school rap that is introspective but at the same time projecting a positive message. He doesn’t believe in vulgarity in his beats and will always try to present a positive message for fans of his music and in the process, draw more fans into his base.
Having a strong team and a group of friends around him have helped to get his career to where it is today.
Nick Harte, a friend Kielley went to high school with and the synergy they have together, has served as inspiration, a spiritual guru and through cypher’s the pair do, allow them to build on a wide range of creative projects.
In addition, he has a group of people who have helped him on that road includes Ryan Peddle, Josh Roberts, Isaac Hansen and Jeremy Howell. They all helped him prepare for the show and made sure he did his homework before he arrived in Sweden by having a notebook full of songs to draw from once the creative process began.
“All three of us (Elin Kran and Bruno Miguel) had established material which helped us collaborate. Language was an issue at first, but it didn’t take long for us to start to gel and we produced three great tracks,’’ he said.
“The songs were well-received, and it generated a lot of interest from people at the conference. I was also able to collaborate with some other acts who needed someone to drop in a rap track here and there.”
Toss in his management with Wendy Morgan of Get Faced Entertainment, and his team is complete.
“Wendy did all the work at Orebo. She looked after all the business things and paperwork and I looked after the performance end of things,’’ he said.
“She did all the legwork — to get me invited to the festival — and enabled us to get to talk to the right people.”
In addition, he said over the past two years he has received what he calls ‘enormous support’ from MusicNL who he said have been instrumental in his success to date.
Kielley said that every artist requires support and wherever that comes from is appreciated.
If you are looking to see Kielley Koyote perform, there will be a number of opportunities on the horizon as MusicNL week is fast approaching and he could be on a stage somewhere in St. John’s dropping a beat or two and there will be a Live at Heart Newfoundland global music conference that is planned for Oct. 10 in Burin.
