We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Khadejhia Kassenbrock a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

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

I knew I wanted to be a professional musician after attending my first summer camp dedicated to female musicians! It was called Rockergrrrls and was offered by the local music school I took lessons at.

It was there that I finally felt comfortable enough to let myself shine. I’ve struggled with stage fright all of my life, and was also just really intimidated by usually being the only girl in the room when playing in a band setting!

At our final performance, I took a solo in pretty much every song, and was finally able to enjoy the adrenaline rush that comes with being on stage. I even got to sign a few autographs! The way I felt after the performance was unforgettable, and I knew I wanted more.

Khadejhia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a professional guitarist and bassist working in and around Los Angeles. My main genres are usually rock and pop, but I also like to play hip hop and funk.

I started playing guitar when I was eight and decided I wanted to become a professional musician when I was in high school. In 2014, after graduating, I moved to LA to attend Musician’s Institute.

I threw myself into music, practicing for 8 hours a day sometimes! I won a scholarship from Daisy Rock to attend and received the “Outstanding Student” award when I graduated.

Once I was out in the real world, I immediately started joining bands, going to jam nights, and trying to get to know people in the scene. I would scour the “musicians” section of Craigslist every day and say yes to just about every musical opportunity I could.

Now, I play multiple shows a week, get most gigs through word of mouth, am endorsed by GHS Strings, and am able to make a living doing what I love!

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

Raise artist wages! A lot of places want to hire a band as entertainment for a venue but are offering the same amount of pay we would have made in the 80s. And that amount went a lot further back then! It makes it SO hard for musicians to earn a complete living doing what they love. Many of us have to have 2 or 3 side hustles to stay afloat.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The Transcribe! app from Seventh String Software is #1 for me. I recommend it to everybody. Open an audio file with Transcribe! and you can slow it down, speed it up, pitch shift, loop sections, isolate frequencies, and way more. It’s amazing and I use it pretty much every day to learn songs and practice.

I also love watching YouTube content from other musicians like Cory Wong, Paul Davids, Samurai Guitarist, Terence Fisher, JUNO, and Melanie Faye. YouTube wasn’t around when I was first learning how to play, so I’m really grateful for it now!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.khadejhia.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/khadejhia

Image Credits
Don Marcelo David Tapias