We recently connected with Kesley Bou and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kesley, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
On July 31st, 2016 I thought all my dreams were coming true. I walked down the aisle and promised my life to a man that I believed truly loved me. I believed he wanted to not only do life with me, but truly LIVE and create a dream life with me. I was so in love. I thought that if he ever died I would die from heartbreak. I was 100% in. Over the span of 5 years I realized that what I perceived to be “a dream come true” was actually the opposite. My dream became my nightmare. In the Summer of 2021 I was on my own. I wrote a lot during this time, and collected a group of songs that stretched over the span of 3 years. My most meaningful project to date, Bad Dream, drops on April 5th.
Kesley, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Kesley (not Kelsey) Bou (pronounced boo) I know… everything is so complicated! Let me simplify it. I grew up in St. Pete, FL where I started playing piano, guitar and singing in my family’s 3 bedroom home just one mile from the Gulf of Mexico. I was extremely shy as a child. I didn’t want ANYONE looking at me. This made playing sports very difficult, school presentations and school performances VERY difficult. I would have panic attacks in the bathroom as an elementary kid before piano recitals, and wondered with amazement how other kids were getting on stage just fine.
Now I get up on stage in front of 250 plus screaming crowds and feel at home. Weird. I definitely still freak out a little, but it’s not paralyzing anymore. How did I overcome this fear of being in front of people? Why didn’t I chose a different path? I have no idea. I think it has to do with art. I think it has to do with the anxiety curing action of raising my voice, and telling my story. I think it has to do with the way music hits my skin, and passes through my body like a healing ceremony. I think it has to do with the fact that no matter how hard you try to run from your purpose, you just can’t.
I now live in Nashville, TN. I love it! It’s the first place since my childhood and since my divorce that feels like mine. I’ve explored so many different versions of myself in the last few years. From the beachy indie-pop vibes of “Gulf Blvd” and “Broken Island” to my alternative-pop EP “Orange Juice” and now my new singer-songwriter, dark-pop album “Bad Dream,” I have found that all these versions of myself are important and make up who I am.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I built my audience on social media mainly in 2019-2020. I was very focused on being an “influencer”. I hustled like crazy. I was always taking photos, filming videos and sharing my life online. I started on TikTok in 2019 doing music trends and relatable comedy skits. With the help of a group of TikTok influencers I started growing on the platform very quickly. We would all post each other in our videos and I learned that collaboration is key. One day during the pandemic I thought it would be funny to create a skit with the concept: “when everything reminds you of a TikTok song” I referenced a handful of really popular TikTok songs and the comedy aspect was so goofy. I knew it was dumb, but I was bored and thought it would be fun to make. Keywords… dumb, bored, fun = success. That TikTok got over 1M views that day, and after a few weeks it had 39.9M views. It took my account to 1.2M followers and sold me on the influencer path.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
My whole life was online. My “reality” was online. My marriage was online. I had created a TikTok character that was feeling less and less like the real me. When my marriage wasn’t working anymore it was a very dark time, and it became impossible to create light hearted social media content. I had my laptop and camera stollen from me out of the passenger seat of my friends car, and when I got home I decided that it was a sign that I needed to “pivot” in my career. I turned to music. I met one of my best friends to this day and we started writing every week. I had been writing since I was 17 years old, but this was different. I built a catalogue of songs, and my numbers online opened the door to some really awesome relationships in the music industry that I am forever grateful for. I was able to dive into songwriting. I completely lost and then found myself in the process. What is interesting here is that I had success on TikTok, but it didn’t erase the challenges I was facing in my personal life. No amount of online success was going to save my marriage or fix my life. Letting it go was far more beneficial for me than holding on.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kesleybou/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC84sl1vnXlOZxTdDLH192pw
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1690ovmlc1XdbZHMEC2R6l?si=uaP30WD2SVCzNJCITyz-9A
Image Credits
Johnnie Izquierdo