Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kelsey Flanagan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kelsey, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
Going as far back as early grade school, I was always drawn to having a life with music. When I was young, the dream first took shape as wanting to be a singer in a band, but as time went on and I collected life experiences and skills, that dream shape shifted a few times to bring me to my current career as a studio producer and audio engineer, songwriter, vocal coach, and even managing a couple artists now too. I didn’t receive a formal education for any of the things I do, I actually skipped college all together to dive head first into working and laying the groundwork for the life I wanted. I was really eager throughout my years in school for them to end, so my life with music could really start.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
All the creative things I do professionally (music production, vocal coaching, song-writing), grew from different areas and timelines of my life, but have merged really nicely to allow me to be a multi-tool to my clients. By the time I was 18, I had written hundreds of songs, it was what I spent all my free time doing- my bedroom was (and still is) littered with many bulging notebooks and instruments. My hunger to improve my songwriting was the catalyst for a lot of the choices I made in my early career. A year before highschool ended I started 2 things: working at a music school giving lessons in the suburbs, and apprenticing with an established audio engineer at a studio in the city. I got the job at the music school because I was a student there at first, taking lessons from the owner. He knew my plans were to make music my full time life one way or another, and he offered me a job. I felt under qualified and nervous, it seemed like a big leap to go from a student to a teacher, but he really believed in me and I’m so grateful he did. I stayed there for 5 years (until covid happened, and I moved cities). In my 5 years, I taught hundreds of students- primarily kids and teens but a decent amount of adults too, my confidence and skills as a musician were at an all time high, my songwriting was improving. The best part about teaching was without a doubt getting to see how music grows in everybody, what people do with their new-found knowledge and skills. Working there exposed me for the first time to people who were like me. This job was extra special because it allowed me to make money and be independent, while doing music! That was huge for me. I was also technically an independent contractor there, so I had the opportunity to spend my early adult life figuring out what it’s like to be your own business. This job is where I got my initial experience as a vocal coach as well- simply from self-research, having good mentors, and the trust of my students. The first 2 years I worked at the music school, I was in tandem apprenticing a couple different audio-engineers. My first intention with getting into studio work was truthfully to just learn enough to be able to record and produce myself great, to be self-sufficient. By this point in my life, I had been in a couple non-serious bands, and was now pursuing being a solo-artist. I was playing gigs just me and a guitar, but wanted to have the access and knowledge to lush recordings without a band. At that time, it was just an added bonus to the studio work that I might be good enough one day to have a couple clients or whatever. However, a couple things happened in these first 2 years that disrupted these goals. Despite the amount of hours I was putting into learning the ins of this studio, and despite how wonderful my mentors were and the opportunities I was being offered, the smaller I felt. There was a language and a lingo I couldn’t speak, it was 99% older males with decades of music industry experience, I wasn’t grasping the intricacies of professional audio engineering- I had gone from years of just a laptop, USB mic and garage band, to a full blown commercial recording studio will all the bells and whistles. 2 years felt like a big enough amount of time to realize this isnt working, and with my tail between my legs I let it just kind of fizzle out. That’s not where this story ends, though. I sustained teaching at the music school, writing music, and playing shows. Some years or so after my departure from studio life, I started writing and exploring music with a friend. This friend was an audio engineer & producer, as well as just about everything else. We spent a solid 2 years in his studio making music together, sometimes just the 2 of us, sometimes with our friends too. Having someone I was so creatively compatible with was really filling a musical void for me, as well as healing a lot of the insecurities I felt being in a studio. This was an environment I could try anything in.
Covid hits March 2020. Everything stops. Suddenly the pride I felt in being an independent contractor turns to stone cold fear. Not only do I have no income and no company paying out unemployment, but the music industry is changing fast. For the first time in my life, I have total doubt that I can have a full-time life in music and that I need a plan B, C, D. I started thinking of other careers I could have, it was creating a lot of darkness in my life. September 2020 I move from DFW to Austin, TX. I still have no job, no plan, there is still a lot of darkness. During the midst of figuring out what I’m going to do with my life, I was forced to reflect on a lot. I had finally admitted to myself my discomfort with performing. Performing was the worst part about music for me, and It took being isolated for months for me to finally process that. My most fulfilling experiences in music, the ones I was mourning, was my time in the studio, and teaching. Trying to find a recession-proof career, anything except music, felt like a death. I got a few random part time jobs in Austin to pay rent, it was directionless. My instruments were collecting dust, for almost a year I was fully thinking this was just the way life was going to be from now on. A close friend I met in the music scene in DFW comes to Austin for a job co-writing for another artist, and crashes at my place. She must have really seen the way I was off, because she tells me at my place later on that she gave my contact to the studio owner and put in a good word for me. A few emails later, I have an interview at Orb Recording Studios, they bring me on as an intern. I felt really lucky, something about this felt really serendipitous and electric, it was the first bit of hope I felt in a while and I was really eager to make it work. All of the experiences I had collected in studios over the years, good and bad, I was applying and adding to this one, and to my surprise I was excelling. All the things I felt insecure about in my first brush with commercial studios were not holding me back anymore. My perspective had also changed too- with no desire to perform anymore but a hunger to write, teach, record and produce, I felt really aligned with my life’s purpose. After several months of interning, assistant engineering, and building trust with the studio’s staff & clientele, I got promoted to staff, where I have been working professionally and building my clientele for the past several years. This is where all these skills merge into what I offer my clients. With a traditional audio-engineer, you come into the studio with a ready-to-go song & your band, the engineer sets up all the mics and gear and hits record. With me, I get to offer a more well-rounded experience in the pre-production world. If an artist or band wants guidance on song structure, lyrics, composition, phrasing, etc we can have a writing session and get the song in shape. If a vocalist wants to improve their technique before they immortalize their voice in a recording, we can have voice lessons before the session. Or even if someone just wants a traditional experience where they come in and I just hit record, we can do that too. I am a very use-me-how-you-need-me producer, I love to get as involved in the songs as artists will have me, but it’s also important to know that not everyone wants that. One of the boundaries in what I do is respecting people’s creative property, knowing how to read a room, having clear communion on roles, understanding the artist and the value of their music and how you can honor that as an outsider working on it. I get a majority of my new clients as referrals from my current clients, I am relieved to say that I do this full-time. No more weird side jobs. A vast majority of my clients take me on to their project very fully- allowing me to have a hand in writing and production, I also get invited to sing background vocals and harmonies on a lot of the music I produce as well, which I am so grateful for all that trust. Since starting this chapter at Orb a few years ago, I have earned 3 credits in the top 40 charts, one of which was a song i co-write that went #4 in the UK. While I am really proud and humbled by those kinds of credits, what I am most proud of is very similar to the pride I found in teaching music as a teenger- being a part of the musical journey in somebody else, and the human connection music can create between strangers.
Lastly, my career in artist management formed really organically, first with a band I was developing and producing alongside the owner of Orb, and secondly with an artist I was writing with and producing. I found myself wanting to see them and their songs through, past when they’re done at the studio. I really believe in them as artists and want them to do well, so I started de facto managing them until some conversations happened that evolved it to a formal position. Like everything else I do, I am learning it as a go and relying on a combination of good mentors, my intuition, and hands-on experience to master the position. So far so good!
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
I think the biggest thing a non-creative would struggle to understand about my job is the instability of it all. Not everyone is built to have a job where your income is directly from the hands of your clients, the hustle it is to get enough clients to make that income liveable, the weird hours you work. When you’re an independent contractor in the creative space, there’s that awkward phase in your career where you have to do jobs for free or cheap just to fill out your portfolio. A lot of people will look at that and think “get a real job” but you have to understand that for this to become a “real job” one day, you have to hustle and be consistent even when it’s costing you. I know for me and a lot of creatives, having a job that stimulates you in your creative field is non-negotiable. For the year during the pandemic when I was considering what my plan B was going to be, It sincerely felt like I was sacrificing myself. Music is directly related to my wellbeing, if everything blows up and I’m bound to start over, I would do it again, and again, and again. Instead of judging the creative in your life, try to understand where they’re coming from and ask how you can support them, offering alternative career paths is not the favor you think it is
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
A lesson I had to unlearn is that you need to come loaded with a bunch of prerequisites before you can be taken seriously, fit in with your peers, or call yourself a professional. I was always told sentiments along the lines of you need to read music flawlessly and have a degree before you can call yourself a professional musician or charge for your work. Hearing this your whole life, it can really become a part of your inner voice and mess with your self worth. Well, I can’t tell you the last time I read sheet music, I basically left high school at 16 to work and never looked back at school, AND I have a very fruitful career in music, all can be true.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelseyflan/
- Other: https://www.orbrecordingstudios.com/
Image Credits
Caitlin King took the headshot