Check Out Keiji’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Keiji.

Keiji, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’m a 26-year-old music producer and artist living in Los Angeles. My interest in producing music started when I was in high school. I was a sophomore and was on an 8-hour bus ride to Los Angeles from the bay area and was searching for new artists to discover. At the time, Kanye West released “Yeezus” and it was receiving a lot of buzz, so I decided to dive into his discography. Starting with “The College Dropout” I was instantly taken aback. Something about his music spoke to me and I didn’t know it at the time, but listening to Kanye’s music during that bus ride inspired my whole career.

Before I knew it, I was a freshman at Cal Poly SLO as an agriculture business major. I was following in my father’s footsteps as he went to the same college with the same major 30 years prior. After a year of learning how the carrot market was, I learned two things. 1) I don’t even like carrots and 2) I still haven’t found my true calling. I was going through a true quarter-life crisis and the only things that made me sane were playing basketball and listening to Kanye. Unfortunately, I was cut from the high school varsity team so the NBA was definitely out of the question so I decided to dive into my other passion, music. By going through endless rabbit holes on YouTube, I discovered that Kanye’s music production is what made me fall in love with his music. I had to give producing a try.

After a ton of research, I set my eyes on a piece of hardware called the Maschine MKII which is a beat pad similar to what Kanye uses. So, as a broke college student, I decided to work as a camp counselor all summer to buy it. The day I walked into that Guitar Center was one of my proudest moments. Those long sweaty days of kids pulling on my hair and sneezing in my face had finally paid off! I went home and made my first beat and instantly fell in love. It brought me back to that 8-hour bus ride to Los Angeles and from that moment on I knew producing music was my calling. That next year I changed my major to theatre with a music minor to pursue my future in the arts. It’s been over six years since that revelation and I haven’t looked back since.

I then graduated from college in 2019 and moved back home with my parents in the bay area. While I was eager to start my career in the music industry, the pandemic hit. While that was a scary time for everyone, I was able to take that time to improve my skills as a music producer. During that time, I was fortunate enough to be mentored by Dreamville’s in-house producer Ron Gilmore Jr. who helped expedite my music knowledge and guide me in the right direction with my music career.

Although I didn’t know anybody in Los Angeles, it was naturally my next step to move there to further my music career. So, I took that leap of faith and after almost two years, I haven’t regretted it for a moment. My focus now is establishing a social media presence while also helping out my fellow music producer community by providing tutoring services and playing piano on other’s projects. Also, I spend the majority of my time creating 70’s inspired music. I act as a composer in some capacity as I collaborate with talented musicians to play their instruments over my chord progressions. I then sell these original songs to music producers who go on to remix them in their own beats.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s been a wild ride to get to the position I’m at now, but I’m so grateful for every bump in the road. Initially, I moved to Los Angeles with the intent to further my mentorship in person with Ron Gilmore Jr., but unfortunately, life happens, and that no longer became an option for us. While I felt stressed and frustrated at the time, it ultimately benefited me. I learned a valuable lesson that there are no free handouts, especially in the music industry and if I wanted to be successful I needed to be self-sufficient in this journey. That experience led me to start my own YouTube channel to which I gained over 1,000 subscribers in a few months as well as growing my social media channels to over 6,000 total followers on TikTok and Instagram.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
While I began making beats for rappers and singers, I have recently shifted my focus to creating original compositions or samples for other producers to remix into beats. The process is called sampling in which a music producer will take an existing piece of music and “sample” it into a beat.

Specifically, I create 70’s inspired soul and gospel compositions for producers to sample into beats they sell to artists. What differentiates me from other composers is that I am collaborating with trained musicians familiar with the 70’s sound I’m trying to replicate. Having live instruments instead of computer-emulated sounds makes a huge difference in the quality of my samples.

How do you think about luck?
Luck has played a very important role in my life. I am so fortunate that I have a loving support system who encourages me to pursue my dreams no matter how big they are. Having this support has allowed me to pursue a career in the music industry without any reservations and I feel very lucky to have the ability to go forward with it without any reservations.

Pricing:

• A pack of my compositions sell for $30 each.
• I tutor producers in music theory and piano starting at $30/hour twice a week through Zoom.
• I sell beats with varying licenses starting at $30.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://keijimusic.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keijibeats/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv3sz9-Bn0RZPhKiU94o0Sg
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@keiji_music