ESSAY DRAFT: KESHI
GABRIEL ALBUM
Keshi, born as Casey Luong, is a singer/songwriter, instrumentalist and producer who includes lo-fi hip-hop beats and ‘ultra-chill R&B vocalising’ with the addition of his ‘feather-light falsetto, breezy acoustic guitar work and delicate and textural instruments’ in his music. This is his first album in which he has produced ballads and ‘slow jams’ which are shown to show his development and inspiration from John Mayer, Frank Ocean and Bryson Tiller, through the sound of R&B. From his inspirations, he has also taken away the aspect of being lyrical and honest, wanting to portray this through his music as well, being personal and powerful, yet doing this discreetly.
Keshi has evolved through his music, starting from the use of ‘bittersweet melodies, lamenting lyrics of lost love, and wobbly lo-fi hip-hop beats’, then to more acoustic guitar-based material, however he then started to get the sense that he was limiting himself through what he could do musically and turned away from the idea of avoiding certain genres that he felt like he couldn’t do. This realisation and Keshi being more open to other genres led to his album ‘GABRIEL’ portraying his most authentic self, being one who ‘values reinvention and fluidity’. The album ‘GABRIEL’ has been produced in a way that makes it personal to Keshi, including his father in one of the tracks in addition to the last song on the album being about his parents. Through this album, he has ‘introduced new layers of his persona and simultaneously, new layers of himself as Casey’, where he is described to be more candid and honest that he has ever been before.
The album starts with the song “Get It”, opening with French dialogue by his father, Eric Luong, that relates to themes of greed and materialism, translated in English as, “Gabriel, this could be all that you desire, don’t be afraid to want it all, there’s not enough time to…”. Keshi includes his producer tag of his fiancé saying “keshi” from a clip he filmed years prior, when she was saying, “Oh, are you guys talking about Casey?” in Japanese. It then leads into a heavy 808-bass with the BROCKHAMPTON inspired hook, where keshi ‘boasts about his growth numerically and all the unwanted company it brings now and then’. Keshi stated that he aimed to ‘shake it up with the first song, wanting to make a song with a bunch of live energy for the live shows’, also wanting to include a ‘sweet aspect to the song since it felt disingenuous without it’. He was prior known for having a gentle or romantic sound and he wanted to make a statement with his debut album that there are a variety of sounds that he wanted to try, which could explain why he chose to open the album with this kind of song.
SOURCES:
https://www.allmusic.com/album/gabriel-mw0003680088
https://genius.com/25261681 https://www.masterclass.com/articles/r-and-b-music-guide
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/keshi-debut-album-gabriel-interview
+I hope to include a bit of research on R&B music from books/articles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt_x9ifcWpM [keshi – GABRIEL (Documentary – Presented by Amazon Music)]
++ (from documentary): -“I think our goal was to just, like, hash out as many ideas as possible. Like it didn’t matter so much that the songs were finished. I just wanted different palettes to write over because I think what led to a lot of the stagnation in creativity for me was that, like, a lot of my music started sounding the same, so having someone else’s input to help guide my hand was like essential just stirring the pot a little bit” -“it’s the direction that I really wanted to go in when I first made keshi. Sounds darker, a little bit more distorted, the beats hit harder.” -about ANGEL: “I feel like this is the traditional singer-songwriter song that the record could use, whereas everything else is a little bit more experimental…so it fits in this like little biblical theme that’s going on” -“I’ve always enjoyed art form creators that are honest and I’ve strives to make work that lives up to those same expectations”-hoped to reach that with this album since he found it harder to do with his past projects (said he listened back to it and thought ‘that was terrible’) -“I think that’s why the production was so important to me cause like I didn’t want to go through a bunch of different producers and have a bunch of different sensibilities on it. Im glad it was just me and Elie working through the limits of what we like to make”