Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alex Kehm. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alex, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I feel like I always kind of knew, deep down, that I wanted to do something creative. I just didn’t know what exactly. For a long time, I thought I’d be an author or an illustrator. When I was a kid, I wrote short stories and drew constantly. I used so much paper that my family literally started giving me stacks of it as gifts. I was known as the art kid in school, and I did a bunch of art classes and summer camps for drawing.

I started piano lessons when I was five because my mom wanted me to learn an instrument. I didn’t hate it, but once I got the basics, I didn’t like being told what to play. I didn’t want to learn Old MacDonald Had a Farm. I wanted to play songs I actually liked, like Beyoncé, so I stopped taking lessons for a while.

Then around 12, I picked up piano again, started learning guitar, and went through the same cycle. I liked learning, but I wanted to play what I wanted. That’s when I discovered EDM and started making my own tracks on my phone. I had a SoundCloud (that’s still up) called Horizon Tunes that I would upload my tracks on. They weren’t great, but I fell in love with producing. I thought maybe I’d be like Marshmello or David Guetta someday.

At 13, my parents bribed me to join the middle school soccer team by buying me a ukulele. I was obsessed with Grace VanderWaal at the time. I taught myself how to play and got really into it. I’d already been in my middle school and high school choir since I was about eight or nine, and stayed in it through sophomore year. I even made it into Rhode Island’s All-State Choir at 13 which was such an incredible experience. We performed a rendition of “The Long and Winding Road” by the Beatles!

During that time, I began to try and write my own songs and upload them on SoundCloud under my own name, “Alex Kehm.” I had no idea what I was doing, but I had a blast doing it and didn’t want to stop. My production and songwriting abilities continued to grow and I started uploading and releasing my tracks to Spotify when I was 14. Around 15, I got signed by Epidemic Sound, which was huge. I was working with such an amazing team of people that helped my music get heard all around the world.

People from all over started reaching out about my music. They told me it made them feel something or helped them through something significant in their lives. That hit me hard. It meant more than any paycheck ever could. That’s when it really clicked. I think I always knew on some level, but that was the moment I truly felt it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Alex Kehm, and I’m a queer, transgender artist. I make music that’s deeply personal and emotional because for me, it started as a way to cope with my emotions. I grew up in a small town that wasn’t very diverse, and I always felt like I didn’t belong. Ever since I was young, I knew that I was different from others, but I didn’t know why or how until I was older. It was a feeling that followed me everywhere I went. When I was around 12 years old, I discovered my queerness. I was one of the only visibly queer people where I lived. I ended up being outed by someone I had confided in, and I never really felt safe or understood. I didn’t realize how “weird” being gay was until I was bullied severely for it. Music became my outlet. It was the one place where I could be fully honest with myself and didn’t have to hold back or shrink myself.

At first, it was just something I did privately to feel like I had some kind of control or expression; I wasn’t thinking about turning it into a career. It was something I enjoyed doing in my pastime, and I wrote and sang as much as I could. I started sharing my songs and was surprised to see how much people connected with them. A lot of what I write about deals with my own emotions, heartbreak, and identity, and in a way, it’s like ripping out a piece of my journal and sharing it to a void. It’s terrifying, but also thrilling. I love it when I find a new song to listen to that perfectly encapsulates how I am feeling, and knowing that I have impacted people in that way with my music is such a surreal experience.

What may set me apart is that I don’t try to be a brand or fit into a perfect image. I don’t want to put on a performance and be someone I’m not. I already did that throughout middle school and high school and that was genuinely exhausting. I am far from perfect. I want my imperfections to be expressed through how I put myself out there and within my art. The industry feels overly polished or strategic and I want my music to be a space where people can feel something honest and raw, even if it’s messy.

I’m most proud of the community that is continuosly being formed as more queer and BIPOC artists take the wheel. I am very proud and honored by the connections that I’ve made as well and the amazing creatives I’ve been able to work with that have inspired me to keep going. I care a lot about helping others, especially people who feel like they don’t have a voice. Being queer and trans in a very straight, male-dominated space is already challenging, but I want to do more than just “exist.” I want to create space for others, too. I want people to know that I’m here to create music that comes from a real place. I care about building connections, supporting other creatives, and making art that means something and despite the challenges, I feel very lucky that I can do that and am hoping that I can pave the way for more artists and make sure there aren’t as many challenges for them.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think a big thing that people outside the creative world don’t always understand is that getting signed to a record label, especially a major label, is not as magical as it’s made out to be. A lot of people think it’s the end goal, like once you get signed, you’ve “made it.” But honestly, it’s often the moment things start to get stressful.

This might be controversial, but I’m going to say it anyway. The music industry doesn’t care about talent. It’s about how many followers you have, how many TikTok views you can get, and whether you can go viral. It’s not about the art, especially nowadays.

When I first started releasing music, TikTok wasn’t a thing, so it was interesting being a part of that shift. I saw how the industry operated without TikTok, and now I’m seeing it not know how to operate without TikTok. Most people in the industry rely on TikTok as a critical part of your career as a musician. I don’t think should be the case. I’ve only had one viral moment on TikTok, but the conversion rate of likes and follows on there to my Spotify was little to none. The reason why I have as many streams as I do is because I focus on sync deals, meaning my songs can be used in various forms of media like TV shows.

People assume that if your music has millions of streams, then you’re probably rich. I have millions of streams, but I still live with my parents. I would still need a full time job to really support myself and move out. The numbers don’t translate into sustainable income. The industry uses numbers as an illusion, but the truth is, they barely mean anything.

With TikTok, many people have hundreds of thousands of followers. But again, that doesn’t mean anything. People follow and like remotely whatever, and most of the time forget about it; that’s why engagement is so important. I would much rather have only 500 followers, but receive an average of 475 likes and comments on my post by those who follow me, than 100,000 followers and maybe only around 1,000 people interact with what I post. The amount of followers you have doesn’t actually mean anything. Maybe you can get a record deal, but if you’re unable to sustain a following, get viral moments, or drop fortunes on promotional content, they will drop you.

A lot of artists get pressured into signing contracts that limit what they can say about their experiences. If you speak out, you risk losing everything. That’s why I’ve chosen to stay as independent as possible, I know I’d be miserable if I lost that independence. The industry treats music like fast fashion now. Everything is rushed. Artists are expected to constantly pump out content to keep up with algorithms and trends. There’s no time to sit with a song and feel it. Everything sounds clean, but not necessarily “real.”

If there’s any insight I can give to someone outside, it’s that the creative path is not about glamor. It’s about holding onto your truth in a system that’s constantly trying to shape you into something more profitable. I don’t want to chase trends. I want to make something that lasts, even if it’s not what the industry is looking for right now.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I think my biggest goal is to see how far I can take my music. I want to keep pushing myself to explore new sounds and not limit what I make to just one genre or category. I’d love to create something that feels truly new, something that hasn’t been done before. I know that’s a goal a lot of artists have, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

I want to use music to express parts of myself that I can’t always explain in words. I want to make art that feels personal and real, but also allows me to evolve and grow creatively. I also want to experiment with different production styles. Analog production is something that I want to learn about and pursue. I’d love to collaborate with other artists in different ways. I think it would be awesome to be an assistant producer or songwriter on someone else’s project.

I want to build a community as well. I want to make things that matter, and I want to do it with people who care about the art just as much as I do. I want to inspire and keep being inspired.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://alexkehm.com
• Instagram: a1exkehm
• Youtube: Alex Kehm
• Soundcloud: Alex Kehm
• Other: TikTok: alex.kehm
  SoundBetter: Alex Kehm
  Spotify: Alex Kehm
  Apple Music: Alex Kehm

Image Credits

Second Photo taken by Cam Marvelle