Meet Kevin Flournoy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kevin Flournoy.

Hi Kevin, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
When I was in grade school, my dad played the trombone in the Marine Corp Band. One weekend while living on base in Barstow CA he brought my older sister, my younger brother and I to the local music store and told us to pick an instrument we’d like to play. I selected the guitar and started taking lessons learning American Folk Music. Although I enjoyed playing the guitar, I was much more fascinated with playing the organ which was the instrument my sister had selected. After a couple of years, I switched to taking organ lessons and that’s where I began to understand how popular music was structured. I learned how to play pop music chords and bass parts at an early age which is something I would have missed out on if I had taken traditional classical piano lessons. It was at this age that I discovered my passion and ability for writing and arranging music.

In grade school, I started playing piano for the school’s musicals (Li’l Abner, The Wiz, Charlotte’s Web). This is where my love for musical theater started to blossom. Later I would spend about 10 years playing various music theatrical shows at the Lyceum Theatre in San Diego working as both pianist and music director.

I started taking classical piano lessons while attending Mira Mesa High School in San Diego. Learning how to play Hammond organ was great but the piano seemed to be the instrument that was more readily available whenever I was asked to perform. It was during these high school years that my dad bought for me my first Fender Rhodes Mark I Stage 73 Electric Piano with which I wrote music and lyrics for many of my original compositions.

I started studying jazz piano and music production while attending UCSD. Although my major was Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, I minored in Music Science and was a part of the Big Band Jazz Ensemble. I also formed my own pop and jazz band while studying at the college. Upon graduation, there appeared a major fork in the road where I had to decide between an offer to work full-time as an Electrical Engineer or pursue a major label contract offer to produce, write and record and my own music. I remember my mom telling me that if you’re going to pursue that music route, you should do that while you are still young. And so I chose to pursue my dream and passion and moved to Los Angeles.

Although I had moved to LA to focus mainly on my production and writing, I began to be asked by several celebrity bands and singers to travel the world performing on stage with them. This touring with various iconic artists took me around the world several times and enabled me to experience and appreciate the music of so many different cultures.

I continued to write and produce music projects when at home from the road and gained my first Billboard charting success with the reggae group Big Mountain then on Giant Records. Many other opportunities materialized after that for writing and producing other acts. My involvement in these various projects eventually earned me status as a Grammy voting member.

In recent years I have returned to devoting the majority of my time to producing and writing and have kept the world traveling and touring to a minimum. I’ve been recording mostly at world-class studios in Hollywood (United Recording, Capitol Studios, East West Studio, Westlake Recording Studio, and Sunset Sound Studio).

The most exciting development recently is the release of my music as a solo artist. My first release “Tell Me IF You Still Care” featuring Phil Perry and Shannon Pearson was just released and has been doing quite well. During the pandemic, I had recorded enough material for about three full-length records. Quite a bit of this material will be coming out next year.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road to success in this business has been everything but linear. At the beginning of this journey most of the struggles for myself, and most artists I know, centered around economics. Developing your voice as an artist, or in my case a producer takes an enormous amount of energy and time which for the most part is not something you are well compensated for. The struggle for me had always been managing the time spent making money supporting other artists and the time spent developing my own voice and presentation. I was thankful that the economic equation began to change over time as I started to be compensated properly both for my production and keyboard work.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a music producer, keyboardist and songwriter. When there is an artist ready to pursue recording a record of any genre I serve as the first point of contact to discuss their vision for getting a single, EP or full-length album recorded. Based on the allotted budget we will discuss how extensive the recording will be. In today’s world, although you can produce a song using just a computer, I specialize in recording techniques that go beyond that by adding organic elements to a song giving it a whole other dimension sonically. This includes hiring, arranging and recording all orchestral elements, rhythm section and vocalist.

Most projects I record are a hybrid of the computer-generated sound with the live organic instrumentation. My ability to produce efficiently across many genres both old and new sets my production techniques apart from others who mainly focus on one style or genre of music.

A recent proud moment this year was when I got my picture included on the Wall of Fame at the world-class studio on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood, United Recording Studio.

Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
When I was in grade school, my family would perform together as a band at various senior living homes. My mother was a gifted seamstress and designed all the color-coordinated outfits. I actually don’t remember how we sounded but I remember having fun playing music with my brothers and sisters. As a family, we were always putting on some type of show.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.KevinFlournoy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevin.flo
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/kevin.flournoy1
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kayflow5
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/KevinFlournoy100