We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kent Roddy II a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kent thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I’m Kent, DJ K2 in this realm, and have been playing music for about 25+ years (drums for all, DJing publically for about 2.5 years now. Before that I played drums in a bunch of different bands, toured, yada yada yada. When I was a kid my big brother would take me for rides in his modded Saab 9 5 turbo and just blast 90s techno, Chicago House, Trance and would show me clips of Gabber clubs in Utrecht and Techno clubs in Berlin and Detroit, and especially live clips of 90s NYC at Limelight, Tunnel…you get the picture..

Long story short, in the 25 years of drumming and DJing around the country and internationally (even opening for Earth, Wind, and Fire and Lionel Richie in Baltimore in August of 2023) I’ve grown a bit disillusioned with some aspects of the scene here and in other places. Lots of image-forward attitude and “influencer-style” and not much focus on really, really good music. I’ve been searching for YEARS for a home for this vision and finally met Bibi Singh, the owner of Pilsener Haus in Hoboken, NJ. She is a gem of a human and has commited her space and her energy to partner with me to realize my dream and vision. I set on this venture thinking to myself “I really don’t want to do this alone at all, it’s not about me, it’s about the music, and it’s about the community and connections that we build with this that is most important to me.”

SO my vision is really simple. Create a safe and inclusive space for people to come check their egos, their problems, their hang-ups at the door. There is really no better feeling than the first time you heard your favorite track. With the partners we have at Pilsener Haus, the right DJs and performers, we can have some really good fun and maybe have an impact on someone’s life. Every one remembers the first time they heard their favorite track. It would be an honor to be able to provide that feeling to club-goers and music lovers in the area and beyond.

Kent , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Born in 1985 in Baltimore, MD into a blended home with an older half-brother (12 year difference) and older half-sister (7 year difference) and parents that highly valued music as a form of self-expression (even though they themselves were not musically inclined), I successfully avoided many of the cheesy commercial children’s music that so often seems to be foisted on to kids, even today. My father, Kent Sr., had an extensive CD and vinyl collection of classical and jazz music, 80’s Electronic and New Wave (especially Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode), and classic rock (Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix). My mother, Donna, would play Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Madonna, Chic, The Pointer Sisters, and any and all Motown. My half-sister, Shannon, was into George Michael, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and most of all the Beastie Boys. Derek, my half-brother, was my channel to the Underground Music scene, specifically Techno, Hardstyle, Breakbeat, and Gabber, The combination of these influences in my own home plus my grandfather’s (Sherman) insistence in taking me to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and having PBS’ “Great Performances” on TV constantly really just had my brain swimming in melodies, harmonies, and beats from Day One. From the day that consciousness finally hit my brain (around 3), I remember sitting in front of my grandfather’s piano banging out sounds (like any young child does). However, the more exposure I gained from my grandfather’s programming and my home life, the more these piano sessions became more frequent. With this increased frequency, came more deliberate compositions of random notes. More about mood than melody.

Fast-forwarding a few years to 12 year old me, playing violin and trumpet for the school orchestra and jazz bands, becoming increasingly bored with sight reading and feeling very uninspired by playing just the notes on paper, I asked my parents for a drum kit. I taught myself drums from scratch. I would put on the albums that I was nuts about (Rage Against the Machine, early Blink-182, Led Zeppelin, Thursday, Bob Marley) and just play along and put my own style and spin on the original recorded tracks. At this time, I had also joined the St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church’s youth group to hang more with my local school friends, many of whom were also musically inclined. Through the youth group, my friends and I had a place to learn and practice our various punk rock instruments and eventually put on local shows. This was especially crucial as home life had been a little choppy during this time.

Mom and Dad were yelling and fighting. Sis and Bro were out of the house. I found myself witnessing very adult situations and needed some place to go to process and express myself. Music became a sanctuary. A holy space. A safe space. Infinite parallel universes. All that music I had been shown and heard when I was younger became relevant again. Playlists became burned CDs of a smattering of favorites from halcyon days gone by, followed by new angsty punk, balanced with folk, reggae, and jazz. My first “mixes.” I continued on playing drums in all of my Youth Group friends’ bands. We played at other churches, festivals, opened for Good Charlotte, recorded a couple albums, and one day even played a small side stage at Warped Tour. Living the tweenage dream!

Family life continued to be a struggle, but my sanctuary remained. The foundation strong and set. Beams made of jazz and classical holding up the vaulted ceilings. Clear visions of sunshine and brigher days through the House windows. Insulated by Soul and Motown. Fortified with Rock and Punk and cutting-edge Techno. As Björk once canonically mused, “seek solace sanctuary.”

Fast-forward to 2020, the wild days of COVID, Charlotte, North Carolina. So much of my adult life had been spent establishing, building, and nurturing relationships with others, mostly in person. Suddenly, that channel of my life had been drastically altered and I found myself revisiting how I managed tough times previously. Music. Only this time, I had all the music I wanted/needed/could ever desire in the palm of my hand. Through a fellow music friend, I found a free version of a mixing app called Djay. I jumped right in. Spending hours upon hours digital “crate digging” for the tracks I used to hear in my brother’s Saab, all in harmony with the whistle of the turbo. Then subsequently creating my own Limelight and Tunnel sets via the mixing app.

Then a revelation.

This is “my thing.” This is what I’m here to do. Mixing all these different genres of music turned into a personal aural diary. This medium the perfect form of self-expression for me. Painting? I have the hands of a seal. Guitar? “Anyway, here’s Wonderwall.”

But mixing music as a DJ? The stream of consciousness approach to lassoing up all my emotions and feelings I was PLUS being able to tap back into my love of drumming provided an opportunity to communicate and express myself through my live mixes at a substantially deeper level than many I had heard or experienced previously.

After a while, I started wanting to share my sessions with my close friends and family. Then I signed up for Twitch to watch and interact with my favorite DJ’s livestreams. Then I decided to stream my own mixes. Eventually, I decided I wanted to take a chance and submit myself to clubs in Bushwick and Manhattan. May 2022 I got my first live club gig in Bushwick, Brooklyn at Jupiter Disco. It was from 10a-4a, just me, DJ K~Roddy (first stage name), playing my favorite tracks to a live crowd in a highly reputable club. That 6 hour set I played? All mixed on that free version of Djay app on my phone.

Since then, I’ve played shows up and down the East Coast in clubs large and small. I’ve traveled to Toronto and Montreal and played to fellow Daft Punk fans. And in August 2023, I opened for Earth, Wind, and Fire and Lionel Richie with a 2 hour live set. Even to this day, I go back to that free app and just let loose on the tracks that have made me DJ K2. That is my differentiator. You don’t need the best equipment or the biggest crowds. If there’s something you believe in your heart of hearts you’re here on Earth to do, you will find any way to do it. As long as you’re creating and growing, you’re living. Keep going.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Since I was a kid, I’ve always loved sharing the things I loved the most with people. “Show and Tell” day was my favorite. I’d bring my favorite stuffed animal, a plush Pink Panther doll, or I’d wear my favorite hockey jersey and tell the class something about the player whose name was embroidered across the back of my shoulders. Even today, I take visiting friends and family to all my favorite delis and pizza places that I’ve been trying and going to over the last 10 years and even some that are still around from my childhood trips to “The City.” So naturally, I share my mixes and tracks with everyone as well.

With past endeavors, my music was created by a group of us in a band, so if the other members liked or did not like the sound or what I was doing back on the drum kit, I’d know before the “finished” product. With mixing and production, it’s just me. What I didn’t anticipate in the early days was my desire for validation and feedback from my close circle. I am so passionate about this music and what I’m able to create I needed to know if it sounded ANY good to anyone else. A lot of the time, I would send my mixes to family and friends and not receive anything back. It affected me greatly at the beginning, as it was still COVID pandemic and it felt like my only outlet and way to connect with people. I did not like how I felt when I operated this way.

Then I had a realization.

The validation and feedback wasn’t really what was most important. I cannot expect my circle to spend 2 hours of their day (or any part of their day) listening to my mixes and then expecting feedback from them. I didn’t want to absolutely suck ass at something I loved doing. It’s selfish, yet natural to want to it.

What was and still very much IS most important, is that my loved ones welcome my sending of my music. Just the ability to share what I love doing is enough. And if they listen to it, hell yeah! And if they like it, hell yeah! And if they want to tell me how they received it, HELL YEAH! And if they do none of those things, that’s totally okay. The creation of art and music (or any passion) should never hinge on what other people think of the final product. It’s about the creative process. If I could give any advice whatsoever, it’s to just keep creating. That’s where the magic lies.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse (1922). It is inspired by and is heavily reliant on the historical teachings of Siddhartha Gautama’s life. It’s shaped how I move through life and interact with others.

Anything Keith Haring. His approach that “art is for everyone” helps guide what avenues I take in how I share mine. Also, Haring’s ability to be unapologetically himself is an inspiration for us all.

Other notable influences for how I approach my passion:

Björk: Live at the Royal Opera House (2002)
Daft Punk: Live at the Mayan (1997)
Eris Drew: Dekmental Festival 2022

Contact Info:

• Website: https://on.soundcloud.com/K9y63
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/k2.tunes?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

Image Credits
@twoximages (Beneath photographer)