We recently connected with Jazz Kelley and have shared our conversation below.
Jazz, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
The first time I really recognized that I wanted to pursue my creative path was around the end of my sophomore year entering into my junior year of high school. I was playing basketball at the time and I was discovering I wasn’t passionate anymore and that bothered me. I struggled internally with knowing that and whether I should stay to finish strong or go ahead and quit. I battled with completing what I started or being miserable because Im forcing myself to do something I don’t enjoy and potentially effect my teammates because of that. Eventually, after a lot of thinking I decided to give up basketball which was crazy to some because it had been my dream to play professional basketball majority of my life. I called my coach and that was one of the scariest things I had done. I felt as if I was letting everyone down, but I knew in my heart it was the right decision for me. What I didn’t know is that would only be the beginning of more challenging conversations to lead me to my passion.
The next obstacle was me dropping my pre-med classes. I was going to school to be a dentist, because that was always encouraged in my household to go to school to be some doctor. I figured at a young age that was what I had to do in order to make my mom proud, but truth be told would that really have made her proud or would it have made her comfortable? Comfortable in some form of what she may have pictured in her mind the idea of what stability and success looked like for her only child. As I reflect I realize nothing would ever wholly make her feel comfortable in the stability of my future life because every part of life has risk and comes with highs and lows. So the reality is I learned at a young age the power of people pleasing and how it can change the trajectory of your life. Ultimately, this was the moment I knew for sure I wanted to pursue music. I was taking those classes and I absolutely HATED them. I was good at them, but it made me hate life. That was the breaking point for me junior year of high school and then I began to really travel down this journey of my life with drums.
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?
I honestly can’t say that getting into my industry was something that I had this perfect drawn out plan. It was more so I knew I wanted to do music towards the end of my high school career, but I didn’t really know what that looked like. So fortunately for me opportunity began to knock on my door and over time I began to get deeper in the industry working with companies and artist like J. Cole, Jermaine Dupree, Olay, Jack Daniel, Pepsi, Proctor & Gamble, NBA, WNBA, MLB, Walmart, Guitar Center, NAACP, and several others.
As time progressed I began to really want to get into fashion my own way. I noticed most musicians, especially drummers loved to stay fly. That made me curious and inspired. So I started customizing all of my own things and labeling it some kind of way with girl on drums tag. Over time it inspired me that girl on drums was a movement not just for me, but for women and girls across the globe. Girl on drums is a community built for women BY WOMEN. So many times in the past I have experienced things being created for women in good efforts by men thinking that they knew what we wanted and needed, when in reality its no way they can relate to us as women. That’s no shade to the men, because bay bay we love the fellas here at girl on drums. However, I wanted to create a safe environment for women and girls by women and girls if that makes sense. And so here we are impacting the world through drums one hit at a time. One of my driving forces that really pushes me is to encourage women and girls through style, music, and fashion that they can be all they dream of including, but not limited to a well paid musician and artist. That is one of the things I am most proud of because I chose to not listen to the masses when it came to pursuing my career in music entertainment and because I did it I know that others can too they just need that encouragement and that is what I am here for!
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
I wish I knew about Youtube earlier as a kid. YouTube is the OG of social media to me. It has lived the longest and it is the most sustainable as it pertains to the financial aspect. People love kids so I can only imagine what life would have been like if I would have began recording earlier, lol. But, my life happened perfectly so I’m not tripping.
Question not found
I built my audience heavy in 2020. I was already beginning to post more prior to that, but when the pandemic happened I got an opportunity to rest and reset. I began to invest in more in my equipment and cleaning house to see what was needed or what needed to be trashed. After a lot of intentionally and consistency things began to just grow organically. My advice to others building online is to BE YOU consistently. When you love what you do and you are consistent and being your authentic self people begin to navigate to you. Don’t get caught up in comparison because it will kill you literally. People follow you for YOU if they wanted to see and experience anything else they would go to that place to experience that.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.GirlOnDrums.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jazzkelley_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheJazzKelley
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/jazzkelley_
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2vGxL9uVqmt2o8j-T3X9Fg
- Other: Download Free Drumless Tracks: https://www.shedtracks.com/collections/drumless-tracks-free-downloads/products/gang_free_drumless_track
Image Credits
Andria Chapman & Mayweather Photography