Today we’d like to introduce you to Jerrell Keels.
Hi Jerrell, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I have been around music most of my life. I was a member of my middle school and high school jazz bands, however, I was not a good musician. I graduated high school in 1999 and from 1999 -2004, I moonlighted as a local DJ playing small parties and wedding receptions.
In 2005, under a little peer pressure, I made my first beat. At that time, I didn’t follow through with the idea of being a music producer. Fast forward to 2010 and my journey into beatmaking and music production fully began.
I started with a cheap laptop from a local rent-a-center and a free copy of some beat-making software. Now thirteen years in, I have worked with a few local/independent artists, and have made music for content creators on social media.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been a very rough journey. The lack of a mentor and having to mostly self-educate myself was extremely hard.
Not to mention being an introvert wasn’t much help either. I would have to say the most difficult part was learning song structure and how to use the software. Once I learned that I was able to work on developing my sound.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am currently an independent/freelance music producer. I produce music for but not limited to artists, content creators, social media influencers, and anyone interested in working with me.
My services are but not limited to selling beats online, beat collaborations with other producers, beat mixing, and hopefully soon scoring for film/TV and adding the title of mix engineer to my resume.
I am proud of every beat that gets used by an artist, content creator, etc… What sets me apart from others is just me being myself. We all have our personalities and special gifts which people can not be and/or do because they are not us. I’m just simply me, a man who loves to make music.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I don’t have a favorite, but the one that comes to mind during this interview is when my grandparents bought me a Super Nintendo and my friend sold me The Mario Paint game.
The game was like a video game coloring book, but you could also make music with it. I would spend hours sometimes trying to make beats on it. There was no save feature on the game but It was just fun experimenting.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jkeelsonthebeat.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jkeelsonthebeat/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo4COqFtAiDi5OIwZqiW1Zw
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/jkeelsonthebeat
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jkeelsonthebeat
Image Credits
Sumo Sleek (Album: Project Orange)
