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

Kemble, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I think the moment it really clicked for me was when my parents took the whole family to go watch Color Me Bad. I was living in Jakarta, Indonesia at the time and so we didn’t get to experience much live pop/rock music so this was a treat! It was my first real concert and I believe I had been dabbling with guitar and pounding on some wash buckets at home for drums so music was already putting its grips in me. We went to the show and my buddy Jeff Coffman (insane videographer fyi) went front row-center and we’re mesmerized from the first note (keep in mind we were 11 or so I think). The band was insane. The drummer hit sooo hard and grooved for days, the bassist had soul like no other (Atleast my 11 year old feet thought so) but it’s really the guitar player that sold me. He kept to his spot on stage for most of the show just holding it down so solid buuuuut when he got called out for a solo is when it took off. The guitarist came front and center doing a David Lee Roth type jump, landing in the splits with the guitar behind his head playing every note possible. I thought to myself “I wanna do that”…. Maybe not the splits but the confident power of shredding your soul out infront of screaming fans, that seemed cool to me. So yeah, Color Me Bad sold me on being a musician… who would’ve though!?

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’ve been working in this industry for about 20 years now so the stories and bands etc that have got me here are like a Rite Aid receipt… it goes on for days so I’ll try to make it somewhat short. I grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia and started off as a drummer. While in high school had an all Indonesian (aside from myself) punk band called FlipOut that was pretty well off in the scene and landed us on Asian MTV and myself in some recording magazines etc. I dug my teeth into the grind of what real rehearsal and work was to get those “hours” in to be a professional. When I move to ATX in 2000, my sis had moved there 4 years before me and befriended bands I like from HighSchool. One of which was the Impossibles on Fueled by Ramen. They needed a drummer, I stepped in. That led me to the Rise which took me to Europe for the first time (touring there) landing us in London on my 21st bday. The tour was us, time in Malta, Snapcase… a hardcore kids dream and the reason I tuned my snare so tight!
Fast forward a couple years I find myself transitioned from drums to guitar and touring the world with my new band Juliette & the Licks featuring Juliette Lewis on vocals. That whole few years of grinding has a books worth of stories I’ll save for another time. Fast forward through engineering school, producing bands, mixing records to today…
The Licks are back at it, I’m the bassist in Chevelle, and the singer/gtr for AEGES.
Life is good and busy which every musician knows is key. I can’t complain.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I think they’re so dumb and I don’t understand the value in them.

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

This one seems obvious to me… if you like what the artist does, buy something from them. Spotify and all the streaming platforms has made music so accessible that the audience seems to think that it should be free therefore lessening it’s value and deriving so many great artists out of business and away from their true calling.

Contact Info:

• Website: kemblewalters.com
• Instagram: @Kemble_walters
• Facebook: Facebook.com/Kemble.walters
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kemblewalters
• Twitter: @Kembletwitt
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/aegesband
• Other: @aegesband Aegesband.com

Image Credits
@mycamerahaseyes