We recently connected with Kelsey Kahla and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kelsey thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

Since the beginning of our lives, it seemed pretty pre-determined that Ashley and I were meant to be in a creative professional path. Both of our parents are music-obsessed, there was never not music being played at either of our houses which influenced us deeply. From deep soul cuts to Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” album, we heard every genre of music between the both of us.

This lead to being heavily involved in musical theatre for me, I graduated from high school at Idyllwild Arts Academy with a “major” in musical theatre, Ashley was always going to concerts, learning to play guitar and the piano, so we both just knew the corporate world was not our thing. Until we grew up and realized that we needed money to survive.

Ashley graduated college with her degree in Accounting, I got mine in Radio Broadcasting, and we ended up living far away from each other for 10+ years. Ashley ended up in the accounting world and rose up to managerial levels, I worked in the construction field, but both of us just knew if there was some way we could use our immense knowledge and pure love of music, we could lead the creative life we dreamed about as kids together.

So when the pandemic hit, I was laid off and needed an outlet to express all the musical thoughts running around in my brain, Ashley was quick to join me and we started a podcast. Mostly for ourselves, it was a way to connect in a time where we were physically forced apart, but both of us realized GRRRL Music was going to be a different kind of “hobby”.

So while we intuitively always knew we wanted to pursue the creative path professionally, it was hard to get there. We dreamed of owning our own record label, a concert venue, artist management — you name it. If it was music-related, we were there. We both are with GRRRL Music full-time now, a dream that really came true a month ago when Ashley left her full-time accounting job to make our dream a reality and it’s been going better than our wildest childhood dreams could imagine!

Kelsey, 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?

GRRRL Music is a music media company that works within social media to promote and support small up & coming artists from all genres, all backgrounds. Our Instagram is our biggest platform right now, we do everything from curating playlists, spotlight features on artists we love, and interviews! As we’ve evolved, we now have created a consulting side for musicians where we offer artist development and PR packages to newcomers in the industry to help teach them how to be an artist in the social media world. We help them create EPK’s, press releases, teach them how to advocate for themselves on the PR side and really be a supportive hub for questions.

We also have our podcast, “Bops & Bangers”, which dives into the music we are obsessed with, someone once called it “raw fangirl energy”, and it’s the best way to describe it. We also are currently working on building up the San Diego music scene by working with Live Nation to help them promote shows around the city!

There’s also a ton of upcoming things this year for GRRRL Music which we can’t fully discuss yet, but we’ll be offering some really exciting programs in the future for educational purposes!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

We’re ALWAYS working to champion smaller up & coming artists, without mentorship, guidance or even general support, artists are having to do everything themselves nowadays — marketing, PR, producing, engineering, social media, it’s never ending! So our mission to drive our creative journey is protecting and not letting the industry destroy their chances of living their musical dreams. Too many times have we seen such potential in musicians only to hear the worst industry stories of being taken advantage of, and that just doesn’t sit right for us at all. We’re working to create safe spaces for everyone to talk about the music they love, to help artists find supportive communities and teach!

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Pay them!

Seriously, paying them a livable wage, giving them financial support to create art is so important for a society to give its artists. The “starving artist” should never be a thing, we support big companies all day every day, but when it comes to art, we take it for granted without thinking.

Spotify is notoriously awful with their pay scale for streaming, and in order to have a thriving creative ecosystem in music, we HAVE to change this. Musicians will stop their creative pursuits if they can’t afford their rent, food, basic human needs. Imagine a world without music because some of the biggest streaming platforms in the world refuse to give the artists what they are due.

And as unpretty as that answer is, it’s the truth that the only way to support artists and creatives is monetary, because there are individual people in the world who will pay tons of money to see their favorite artist live, buy their merch, dedicate time to helping, but the burden can’t completely fall on the individual. There needs to be a radical change to these big streaming platforms, venues and more!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.grrrlmusic.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grrrlmusic/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTC3cVgYaLWbOnASMUDxhtA
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@grrrlmusic https://open.spotify.com/user/grrrlmusic?si=9w448gkNS3e67cmQVCLzKw&nd=1

Image Credits
Mack Focus Photography Amina Touray Photography (photo with Ashley on ground surrounded by records)