From mellow tunes to more hip-hop influences, fans can expect to see a different side of keshi for his upcoming release ‘GABRIEL’.
keshi (whose real name is Casey Luong) is back with his first full length album 5 years after the release of his debut single ‘over u’.
The 27-year-old Vietnamese-American, who hails from Houston, Texas started out making music in his bedroom and uploading them onto SoundCloud. Some of his favourite artists include John Mayer, Radiohead and Frank Ocean.
After performing in a competition where he met many others producing music like him, he hit a fork in his music career whereby he felt like continuing with this particular style would not make his music stand out.
He later discovered Joji, In love with a ghost, Tomppabeats who used unconventional sounds in their music, now commonly known as Lo-Fi. Inspired by the music they make, keshi incorporated those elements into his own music, which turned out to be a hit.
Although most people would classify keshi’s music under lo-fi hip-hop, keshi prefers being more fluid and experimenting with different genres of music. He finds joy in trying new styles and pushing the boundaries of his music.
Speaking to us from his hotel room in Los Angeles, keshi expressed his excitement for people to listen to ‘GABRIEL’. The album, which has been in the making since last year, is set to be the epitome of keshi.
For this album, he collaborated with Baltimore producer and songwriter Elie Rizk (known for Bella Poarch’s “Build a Bitch”), which helped him to expand his own production reach.
Right now, keshi’s goal is to leave a mark with his music. In his words, he wishes to “create a record that will outlast me” and he is confident that ‘GABRIEL’ will do just that.
Fans might be wondering how the name ‘GABRIEL’ came about. ‘GABRIEL’ is actually one of keshi’s favourite names out there and he initially used it as a placeholder when deciding the actual name of the album. Subsequently, he realised that naming an album is not that different from naming a child and decided to go ahead with ‘GABRIEL’ as the name of the album.
Speaking to ZYRUP exclusively, keshi shared that he hopes that the album defines him as an artist. “I hope you can just give it to someone and be like, “This is keshi.”
For those discovering his music, he would recommend listening to ‘GET IT’, “not because it is the most representative song of the whole album” but rather it is a song that is hopefully “intriguing enough to them that they will continue to listen to the rest of the album”.
One tip when listening to the album – do not play it on shuffle. “I was adamant on listing the track order in a certain way so that you go on a sort of ups and downs throughout the whole album,” he shared with us.
Singaporean fans would be glad to know that keshi has plans for a tour in South East Asia, although nothing is confirmed yet. We sure hope he will hold a concert here soon!
Listen to ‘GABRIEL’ here.