Meet Ben Kelly

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

Ben, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

I think in order to succeed in music you have to be resilient, since the experience of being a musician is filled with setbacks. Every song you release has the potential to do well, but it also has the potential to not resonate with your audience. I have frequently had songs that I’ve released that have not been as popular with my audience as I expected, just as I have had songs that have done unexpectedly well. Because of that, and through trial and error, I have learned the importance of rolling with the punches, taking what I can learn from my experience, and moving on to the next song. Since I spend so much time writing, recording, and mixing my songs it can be easy to get overly attached to them, so I’ve found it helpful to focus on the fact that even if a song doesn’t resonate with my audience, maybe my next song will! In that way I’ve learned to keep my head down and keep working, regardless of the results.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am a small underground R&B/Soul singer and producer based in New York City. Though I grew up singing in various choirs and a cappella groups in high school and college, I didn’t really start writing and performing my own original music until the beginning of 2023. The thing I think is most special about my music is that it is 100% organic and 100% independent – I have no team of writers, promoters, videographers, instrumentalists, you name it. Every song that I release, and every piece of content that I put up on social media came from me – something that I feel is increasingly rare in today’s world where AI-generated content is everywhere. So if you’re looking for authentic music created by a real artist, I’m your guy! I release music about once a month, so I have a steady stream of new art coming out.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I feel like, in addition to resilience, discipline has been very important. Making music and promoting it can be a real grind, and in order to stay consistent you have to be disciplined. On the other side of the coin, creativity has been key as well, as if you focus too heavily on being disciplined your content and music can become formulaic and robotic. It’s definitely a difficult balance that I myself have struggled with! I think so long as I feel like I’m making progress every day, I’m happy. Finding the joy in my art has been super important, and really the thing that keeps me going. Promotion and mixing can sometimes really get me down and make me want to quit music, but I always find joy in writing it – I love the feeling of coming up with a new song and being excited about it, and that’s the feeling that I always come back to whenever I feel like giving up. So discipline, creativity, and being able to find the joy in your work.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I’m always looking for other artists to collaborate with, and I’m trying to be better about getting those collab songs out sooner (I can take a long time to mix songs – writing comes easily to me. I’m working on it!) I definitely want to prioritize collaborating with other artists in New York City, since we can do it in person, and with artists making R&B and Soul music so we can appeal to one another’s audiences and grow together. If you want to collaborate with me, shoot me a DM on Instagram! That’s where I’m most active. My handle is @benkellysound. I’m also down to collaborate with any influencers or brands who want to work together to grow one another’s reach – same with videographers and content creators in general.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Ben Kelly

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Resilience
Portraits of Resilience

Sometimes just seeing resilience can change out mindset and unlock our own resilience. That’s our

Productivity
Perspectives on Staying Creative

We’re beyond fortunate to have built a community of some of the most creative artists,

Confidence
Kicking Imposter Syndrome to the Curb

This is the year to kick the pesky imposter syndrome to the curb and move