Conversations with Kelcey Ayer

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelcey Ayer.

Hi Kelcey, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’m a Colombian-American artist who grew up in a surf town in Orange County called San Clemente. I never felt like I fit in there, with their obsession with the sun, the beach and all things surfing. It was never my thing. But my dad would play folk songs on guitar to my siblings and I as we woke up or went to sleep, so music became my thing. I played in an instrumental band in 8th grade when everyone was too shy to sing. Then I played drums in a hardcore band, not because I loved hardcore music, but I was the only decent drummer at my private Catholic high school (I was more into Korn and Deftones at the time). Then I met some guys at a neighboring high school and joined their band, which blossomed into a whirl-wind 20-year career, making six albums and touring the world in an indie rock band called Local Natives. I was a co-founder and one of the lead singer/songwriters. As a result of one of our first LA shows at Silverlake Lounge in 2008, I met the love of my life, and we’ve been married since 2012. After loving life in Los Feliz for a while, we bought our first house in Highland Park in 2019. We’ve fallen in love with the neighborhood, walking our Husky/Malamute named Tasha twice a day, and frequenting our favorite spots like Kumquat, Homestate, Hermosillo Bar, and Joy. My brother even bartends at the Blind Barber, and my other brother loves to drag me to Barcade so I can watch him beat his Duck Hunt high score, so we’ve gladly made our home here surrounded by family. We had our son in early 2023, and now are steeped and happy in full-on family life. I ended up leaving Local Natives in 2024 to pursue my own music fully, and last year I released my first solo EP’s, No Sleep and Hand Me Downs respectively. I’m about to head out on a US support tour with Jordana, and have started producing bands on my own. I produce and engineer all my own music at my home studio, and now I want to use my decades of knowledge making records to help guide other artists. It’s been going well so far, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’m so grateful for the years I spent in Local Natives before anything happened. From 2004-2009 we played under a different name and tried everything we could to get noticed. We played so many shows to no one. I remember one show with two other friend’s bands in a bar outside Detroit where the live room was separated from the bar. The bar had heating but the live room didn’t. It was January. I remember each band going in to play their set to just the sound person, freezing their asses off, then going back into the bar so the next band to take their turn. Even while it felt like we weren’t getting anywhere, we still were honing our craft and putting in hours on stage playing live. So when we got our first big break at SXSW in 2009 in Austin, we already felt really comfortable playing together, and it helped us a lot. Now that I’ve left that band, starting all over at almost 40 years old has definitely been challenging. Things like SXSW don’t exist anymore, and the only consistent thing in the music industry in the last 10 years is that it’s constantly changing. Now it seems social media is the only road to success, so navigating that has been a big struggle as an older Millennial. Still, I’m trying to keep my head down and focus on what I can control, and I’ve been thrilled with the music I’ve been releasing. With trying to finish an album of material I’m really hyped on, plus this upcoming tour, I’m feeling more optimistic.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m mostly known for my voice at this point, but besides singing, I write songs and am able to produce and engineer music. The song I’m most known from is probably one of Local Natives’ biggest singles called “Dark Days”. But in 2017 I started a side project called Jaws of Love, and that lead to one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written, called “Love Me Like I’m Gone”. It was on an album mostly made on piano, but this song had dueling acoustic guitars recorded to tape, largely influenced by Jose Gonzalez. My songwriting style consists of mostly sadder ballads or mid-tempo electronic-tinged indie rock songs. Lately though, now that I’ve gone off on my own, I’ve also allowed myself to write songs with more tempo. For the longest time I felt split between weirder, slower stuff for Jaws of Love, and bigger, faster stuff for Local Natives. Now that I’m releasing music solely under my own name, I’ve allowed those two sides to come together. I’ve also seen my lyrics become free-er to include my personality, infusing more humor or odder details into serious songs. I’d say my unique takes on songwriting, lyrics, production and genre-blending swirls into something that seems like it’s own thing.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I grew up in a surf town but hated the beach, so that was an interesting paradox to be in while you’re discovering yourself. Like I said, music was my lifeline. But besides that I always loved making people laugh and being kind of outrageous. I had a lot of energy, so my outlet became either playing music or acting like a moron, so to speak. I loved cooking as well, and I’m still very much in love with it today. When my mom used to tell me what she was making for dinner, I remember crying a lot because I thought it was bad or boring. To be fair, my mom was not a good cook, but she didn’t deserve that. Now that I’m a parent I think about that all the time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kelceyayer.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelceyayer
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kelceyayertime/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelceyayer/
• Twitter: https://x.com/kelceyayer
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kelceyayer2025
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@kelceyayer

Image Credits
(top row from left to right, then next row left to right)
1. Frequency Illusions
2. Joey Wasilewski
3. n/a
4. Will Oliver
5. Danny Reisch
6. Frequency Illusions

(main black and white photo before this secondary photo section was by Zachary Sorrels)