Kellis David
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Kellis David

Needles, California, United States

Needles, California, United States
Band Americana Folk

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"Kellis David takes it Day by Day"

There was an evening in the distant past - I don't remember exactly when - when I was at Twiggs' Wednesday night open mic and I met Kellis David. Kellis is not easily engaged by garden variety small talk. As I recall, songwriting was the topic of our first short hello during which we both had questions and comments about each other's songs. After that introduction, I learned that honest and direct dialog was good currency in my discussions with Kellis. It was refreshing.

For the past three to six months, Kellis has been diving into the art of recording. Releasing a CD has been one of his goals since the beginning of his road as a musician. He recently released his first EP, Pure Sugar, at Hot Java Cafe. I asked him if he would meet with me and tell me more about his record and recently I had the opportunity to ask him questions about his beginnings and the road he sees before him.

Kellis' lyrics are poignant and his delivery has a powerful effect - disquieting but undeniable. "Sometimes I write about pickles," he says. More often, though, he writes about heartbreak, which is a topic many of us can relate to. But these songs don't rely on the standard cliche lament. Rather, they elicit in the listener the depth of real emotion in heartbreak - a depth that typically makes it hard for us to "really" understand what it's like to be heartbroken. Kellis achieves this rare emotive power with his words, his guitar, and, most strikingly, his uncompromising voice.

In conversation, however, Kellis is resigned and jovial. "As long as I'm still alive," he tells me, "I haven't made any terrible decisions." We both laughed. "Yep, everything is a learning experience, Will." I enjoy his dry humor, and his sense of resignation seems wise.

"What have you learned?" I asked.

"Sometimes when you give poetry to women, it doesn't always work." Kellis had a dead pan expression, but I couldn't help but grin over my keyboard. His answer was direct and honest, catching me off guard.

I decided to move our discussion to another topic: his recent EP Pure Sugar. He's spent the past several months working toward this and he tells me that the majority of that time was spent assembling the right equipment and familiarizing himself with its capabilities. Once he had things situated, his next goal was to develop a final list of songs and write any that were missing. When it came to production, he decided to keep his recordings relatively simple. It turns out that he recorded himself live and finished most of the songs in a couple of takes.

"The best advice I got was to keep the CD like myself in a coffeeshop," he said.

"Did you do that?"

"For a few songs."

Kellis volunteers that his recordings were influenced by Nirvana, the Melvins, and Alice in Chains. This is a sharp contrast to the other influences expressed in his own words as "Howlin' Wolf, Howlin' Wolf, Howlin' Wolf, and the Grateful Dead." During the rest of our conversation I kept this eclectic list of musicians in the back of my head as we talked. They began to make sense - at least in the music of his that I knew.

The relationship between Alice in Chains and Kellis' most recent EP may appear at first to be incongruous, but he won't be donning leather pants or an electric guitar any time soon. "My ultimate goal is to get a quality whole-hearted, down-to-earth bluegrass band that has a lot of soul. That is my ultimate goal: a bluegrass band that has a lot of emotion." In the meantime, Kellis is finding that his EP is being well received. "It seems to be worth the $5 donation."

"Is there anything else you want to say?" I asked, finally.

"I'd like to thank everyone for supporting musicians."

Amen!

Kellis will be performing at Acoustic Alliance on Saturday, September 9 at Brick by Brick.

You can find Kellis David online at http://www.myspace.com/kellisdavidmc. His EP is only available for purchase at his shows.

Written by Will Edwards. - San Diego Troubador


"Song Review"

Artist: Kellis

Song: “When You Love Someone” (from the Doodles EP)

Heard By: Bill Wesley, South Park

Audio Clip
Play clip
Kellis: "When You Love Someone"
I thought it sounded a lot like Johnny Cash — sort of old-school country-western but with a better recording. His tone of voice had a touch of Leonard Cohen. The song had interesting lyrics. The lyrics were actually darker than the mood of the melody. It was totally about jealousy, but it didn’t really become apparent that it was about jealousy until the last few verses of the song. I felt it could have been a little more powerful if it was shorter because it was a simple song. The song had a very consistent, clear, focused, emotional message, and generally I feel that works better if it’s shorter.



- San Diego Reader


Discography

2006 Pure Sugar
2008 Doodles

Photos

Bio

I am a singer/songwriter from Needles, Ca. I cannot quit writing music. I have played in coffee shops in San Diego, Ca, and I love the vibe. I would like to tour and travel someday in the acoustic scene. The acoustic guitar is my instrument of choice, and it may always be.