Khalid Quesada

As a precocious child, raised on the pop antics of The Monkees and Kiss, Khalid Quesada decided at an early age that the one thing he wanted to do was make music. He started writing songs before he could even competently play an instrument, but eventually taught himself to play guitar a few months before his 14th birthday. Trading in a naïve love of Def Leppard and Michael Jackson for something with a little more substance and purity as rock bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam guided him into adolescence, he fell in love with the electric guitar and, by association, the distortion pedal. The friendships, most lasting into adulthood, formed at this time were partly based on a love of rock music, and ultimately helped shape the songwriter he soon became. Through high school, while alternately shifting between electric and acoustic guitar, he also began a love/hate relationship with poetry as a means of dealing with the boredoms of class and the trappings of cliques. Teenage life was just as wonderful and terrible as anyone else claims it was, but he used his way with words to put more into his lyrics than most of what he was hearing from his contemporaries. While he later admits that the majority of songs he was writing weren’t very good, he was determined to write the best songs he could without compromise. A strong focus on melody, his love of power pop titans like Weezer and the Pixies weighed heavily on how he crafted songs as he was exiting his teenage semi-rebellion years. Around the same time, he also fell in love with the work of Elliott Smith, especially in the obvious nods to The Beatles, and appreciated the simplicity of sometimes just crafting songs around an acoustic guitar, while not always being bound to it. While most of the songs written in his early years as a songwriter were designed to accommodate and even please other band members, his decision to write and perform largely as a solo artist opened doors into the craft he hadn’t considered. When he was only writing for himself, it was easier to be honest with himself about what he was trying to say and where it truly was the sound his heart was leading him to. Naturally, most songwriters share their emotions through their songs, but his work has leaned more towards presenting sometimes haunting, often beautiful melodies through a genuine talent for poetry and unabashed pop hooks. In recent years, he took a break from performing live to focus on composing an album of material from scratch, even with a catalogue of 200 plus songs at his disposal. While aiming to write 12-14, he ultimately ended up with 19. Two of the song from the album, which he is currently working on, Radio Silence and We Love In Stereo, were also lifted for an EP with 4 additional songs shifted from the album proper. The EP, entitled On The Verge Of Context, was self-released in physical form last year and recently had a digital release as well on iTunes, Amazon and Napster, among other digital music retailers. While not working on the album, The Beauty In Chaos, set to be released this fall, he has been performing live almost endlessly, mainly in Philadelphia, at venues such as World Café Live, Lickety Split, Connie’s Ric Rac, The M Room, Murph’s Bar, Triumph Brewery, among others. He will also be performing in Atlantic City this summer for the third annual Elephant Talk Indie Music Fest, a festival he has played for the past two years.