Daily Inspiration: Meet The Keymakers

Today we’d like to introduce you to The Keymakers . 

Hello The Keymakers, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Red: As brothers, we both grew up with a very close connection to music. Whether it was listening to our parents’ CDs while in the back seat of the car, singing and dancing around the house, or making our own songs up from scratch, we were always either absorbing music around us or creating it. As we got older, our individual experiences with music got a bit more formal. I sang in my school choir, played drums in a garage band, and took guitar lessons before ultimately settling on DJing and producing throughout high school and college. Rome played saxophone in a jazz band, wrote poetry, and taught himself piano/keyboard which led to him composing and releasing his own music. Our journeys merged again when I was a sophomore in college, and sent over some instrumentals to Rome to see if he had any ideas for lyrics. As that process developed, Rome released songs featuring me, and I released songs featuring Rome. About a year later, we thought ‘why not try working together on a project of our own’ – and The Keymakers was born. 

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Smooth isn’t the first word that comes to mind, no! I think it’s honestly impossible to work in the music industry or as an artist generally and have it go all smoothly for you. There’s always doubt, new challenges to overcome, and endless competition. 

Some of the struggles we’ve experienced are probably similar to a lot of what other artists go through. One is finding balance and the time to do everything we want to do. Up until this year, we both worked full-time jobs, so finding time to create music, handle everything on the business side social media side, and practice our craft as performers – it felt endlessly draining. We had our first tour in the beginning of 2020, which was going really well: we were learning how much we loved performing, honing our craft, and reaching audiences all across the east coast and Midwest – then Covid hit. 

Honestly, we consider ourselves fortunate to have had some successes, but we’re still not even close to reaching our goals as musicians. We want our music to reach more ears, we want to play bigger stages and make a bigger impact with our art – and we’re working hard every day to continue to try and find ways to do that. Having a good support system around us is key. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Rome: I would say the two things that set us apart from other acts in our space are also two of the things we’re most proud of. The first is our sound. Our parents are both avid music lovers, and we grew up listening to a lot of different types of music – anything from Jazz, R&B, Italian Pop, Funk, Old School House, Classical, Spanish, Folk – you name it, it was being played in our car. Because of that, we’ve always resisted pigeonholing ourselves into one “genre.” We make electronic music – often house music – but it’s infused with Pop, with R&B/Soul, with a bit of Jazz, and sprinkles of inspirations from all the genres. It can be hard to pinpoint us, which has its pros and cons, but that’s how we like it. 

Number two would be the way we perform. We’re something in between what you’d expect to see from a band and what you’d expect to see from a DJ. We mix live and often flow from song to song like a house set, but we utilize live vocals, live saxophone, sample pads, and drum pads, and live keyboard/synthesizer. We try to make our performance as dynamic and involved as possible, staying true to our unique sound and our specific talents as musicians, all while ensuring the audience can dance and get lost in our set. Any fans of The Keymakers will tell you their favorite thing about us is watching us play! 

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Red: Absolutely. I think one of the broader (and harder) lessons we learned was how fragile things in this life can be. It was a time that was beyond tough for so many, but we tried our best to recognize it as an opportunity to be grateful for the things we have, look out for each other, and cherish those around us. As far as music goes, we had a chance to really dive deeply into our craft. We were actually right in the middle of our first tour when the order came to stay home. So, while that was hard to cut short – it gave us the chance to post up in the studio and pour ourselves into our work. We used working from home as an invitation of sorts to move from the Boston area to LA. Once we arrived, we took the time to reflect and ask ourselves, “what do we want the next few years to look like?” We’ve been loving the ride so far and are thankful to have found some solace in such a sobering time around the world. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://wearethekeymakers.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekeymakers/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WeAreTheKeymakers/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4TSIjm1jF2yhZ2Zgy7dZMA?view_as=subscriber
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/thekeymakers