We were lucky to catch up with Aaron Kelley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Aaron, thanks for joining us today. Do you have an agent or someone (or a team) that helps you secure opportunities and compensation for your creative work? How did you meet you, why did you decide to work with them, why do you think they decided to work with you?

I recently signed on to Arjun Grover’s Level 7 Management based in L.A. Arjun is an A&R person at Columbia Records and manages producers and writers as well. This is the culmination of years of trying to entrench myself in the L.A. major label music scene while remaining in Dallas, which is no easy task. However, my friend Nick Seeley, who grew up here in Dallas, has been in L.A. for something like 7 years now and is well established as a writer and producer for APG. APG is a publisher run by Mike Caren who is head of A&R at Atlantic Records. Nick and I have collaborated extensively for years on some big projects including Charlie Puth, Meghan Trainor, NBA YoungBoy, and others for Atlantic. Nick had to pass on a personal project for Ben Maddahi, who is SVP of A&R at Columbia and recommended me for the job. Ben and I got along great, and I am happy to say he was more than pleased with my work. From there, Ben would pass my name along to other A&R people at Columbia/Sony Music resulting in my getting more and more work along those lines. Eventually Ben called me and set up an into call with Arjun to see if we “vibed” and set me up for Arjun to manage me. We did, and he does! The whole point of me having a manager is that he markets me and my talents, takes care of my fee as well as credits, points, and publishing, if it’s available, to artists and producers in and outside of Columbia/Sony. This is exactly the next step that I had been waiting for and it appears that it is going to be very fruitful!

Aaron, 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?

For those who do not know me, I am a multi-instrumentalist, writer, and producer. I work with artists, publishers, record labels, jingle houses, etc. What has led me to my current situation working with major labels is that a lot of pop, hip-hop, and R&B sample existing music to be used in their beats and songs. It can be extremely difficult and expensive to negotiate the legal use of sampled music in order to release these new songs. That is where I come in. I am able to replay, and reproduce the original sample note for note and sound for sound so that the artist/producer/label can legally release the sample without having to pay an enormous fee to the original artist. This new versions of the sample becomes a cover of the original. The writers and publishers of the OG recording still retain their rights to that, but this is essentially a brand new recording.

I also write and produce original songs, samples, and melodies that are used by beat producers and for those I am a writer/publisher and am eligible for royalties should my material be used and released. Having access to major label A&R is critical for me in this.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think one of the most important and most difficult things to do as a creative is to stay relevant. The reason I think this is difficult is because as listeners people tend to like what they know and are not always into new and different sounds. As we get older we tend to latch onto the genre and sound of the times we grew up. When trends shift, it can be jarring and a lot of people will stop looking for new music because they do not relate to the up and coming sound. As a creative, it becomes problematic if you are trying to break through and get your music used in commercials, by artists and publishers, or even just self releasing if your sound is not necessarily current. Of course, if you are intentionally nostalgia or retro oriented then it becomes a matter of how well you captured that vibe while putting a new spin on it.

In my career, I’ve found that staying relevant has been incredibly important. Since my goals are to work with artists, labels, publishers, and such that are getting commercial air play and placements on big records, I need to be in tune with the current sound. Not only that, but it is even more advantageous to anticipate the next sound. Those are the people that have the greatest successes. That means checking out new music regularly and being able to identify what makes it good or popular. What sounds are being used in the arrangement/production? How was it mixed? What trends can you identify in the vocal phrasing or lyric content? For me it isn’t even as much a question of do I like it. Instead, can I understand what it is about the new music that makes it popular, and can I do that or better so that I can get that kind of work? This also becomes a weeding out process. Not everyone does like, or appreciate at least, the latest trends in music. For some it is not something they can choose to work with, and that is absolutely fine. Their art is their art. Expectations have to be adjusted in that case as to what kind of work that person is able to do and do well. Unfortunately, in the arts we are dealing with subjective material yet have to be objective at times in order to make a living at it.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

My biggest and best resources have been my peers. I do try to surround myself with people who are at the top of their game and have the same drive to succeed that I do. It so important to have people I respect whom I can bounce ideas off of and know that I am going to get completely honest and constructive criticism from. These are the same people who show me their work and ask the same. We do not always agree, but we always respect, and consider the responses carefully. I love hearing the work people are doing at a high level and seeing what makes them so good at what they do. It pushes me to higher levels as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.aaronkelley.com
• Instagram: @aksongworks
• Facebook: @aksongworks