Friday night, at last, has come and the agonizing week is over. Of course, your group of friends has schemed together throughout the long days deciding what they will do with their freedom. The answer to their escape is Kieran Hellum, a nineteen-year-old artist from Honolulu. If Dominic Fike, Cigarettes After Sex, Z-Boys, and Mazzy Star all had a baby it would be Kieran Hellum. When the music hits your ears, you will feel emotional honesty. Each of his songs will come to you at the moment you need it most. Drawing crowds wherever he goes, whether it's an empty swimming pool to a free house show, Kieran is bringing back the importance of local shows. It is only a matter of time before he is selling out crowds in every city.
If you have ever seen the movie Drumline, Nick Cannon makes being in a school band look badass and almost legendary. This was not the case for Kieran and playing the trombone in the school band pushed him further from music. Fortunately, a Swedish-founded online audio distribution platform called Soundcloud found its way to him. The long rabbit hole of Soundcloud allows listeners and artists to find anyone from Chance the Rapper to a small local band in Salt Lake City. Kieran took up residency in these rabbit holes and was inspired to pick up the ukulele and guitar. However, Dominic Fike's mesmerizing performance of his EP, Don't Forget About Me, Demos sealed the deal. Since then, Kieran has adopted an indie/surf rock sound with gentle vocals and versatile production. I asked Kieran what his writing process was and he said, " My creative process nine times out of ten starts with a riff or a word that I think is dope." He went on to say, " For example one of my older tracks titled, Paper Walls, became a song because I thought those words sounded cool and I had written them down in my notes app because I wanted to create something around that theme." This unorthodox process started for him while leaving for college. Thinking of home and his childhood sparked the inspiration to find something worth sharing.
Living out his childhood dreams, Kieran is back in Hawaii playing shows, meeting new people, and recording music. Most recently being inspired by Brockhampton member, Bearface, he decided to cover Electric Feel by MGMT. Kieran stripped down the song and gave a hell of a tribute to such a classic song. With summer around the corner and Friday night looming, you can bet Kieran will be playing a show. His fans can look forward to new music and potentially a surf rock collab album with Jonah Mossman. This might be your sign to move to Hawaii because it's the place to be this summer.