{"id":25083,"date":"2024-02-21T09:00:47","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T17:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=25083"},"modified":"2024-02-16T12:02:58","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T20:02:58","slug":"listen-and-learn-camosun-student-keu-taps-into-unique-sound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2024\/02\/21\/listen-and-learn-camosun-student-keu-taps-into-unique-sound\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen and Learn<\/em>: Camosun student Keu taps into unique sound"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local musician and Camosun College student Keu dropped So This Is It<\/i>, a six-song mixtape, on January 31; I discovered him on the Camosun Spotify playlist. He\u2019s a student in Camosun\u2019s Music Creativity and Performance Foundations program, which takes place at the Victoria Conservatory of Music.<\/p>\n

Keu\u2019s music is chill and fits well into a study playlist or is satisfying to listen to on its own. The emotion can be heard through his lyrics; the way the vocals and music tracks are layered creates a deeper, palpable sensation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Growing up with parents that play music, Keu also played guitar and piano at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing music in some form for as long as I can remember,\u201d he says. \u201cI always like to say that I only play [guitar and piano] good enough to sing along to because [singing has] always been my main thing.\u201d (Keu also plays a bit of ukulele and played the drums for a while.)<\/p>\n

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Listen and Learn<\/em> is a music column appearing in every issue of Nexus<\/em> (photo by AJ Aiken\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite music always being apart of Keu\u2019s life, it wasn\u2019t until COVID hit that music became a serious focus. During restrictions, there was nothing to do, no excuse, so he started practicing more. Creating music was also therapeutic, a form of release. But music wasn\u2019t always the goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI graduated high school with the full intent of going to university for engineering or something like that,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then quickly, after graduating, I realized I didn\u2019t want to do that, I wanted to do music, and then proceeded to not really do anything to actually work towards that. But yeah, COVID was kind of a blessing for me in that way.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Writing music started in middle school, around eighth grade, when Keu began playing guitar. However, he says some of it he wouldn\u2019t necessarily release or even remember. He then released three singles in 2021, his fourth in 2022, and a fifth in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It\u2019s] always been a tough question for me,\u201d he says about what genre his music falls under. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of just whatever comes out comes out. I mean, \u2018alternative\u2019 is definitely the most common thing I hear. Maybe alternative rock or, alternative indie… Almost experimental in some ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keu\u2019s top three influences are Joe G, Alt-J, and Car Seat Headrests, which comes through in his music. His smooth, mellow vocals are similar to those artists. The layers of various instrumental tracks give his music a deep, rich, and unique sound. And while there are always difficulties when creating music, Keu says that it\u2019s a great feeling when things click when he\u2019s recording.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m able to just get into, like, a flow state, and it feels like my thoughts are able to translate into an actual sound that I can play back and listen to, and when that actually comes together, and the pieces start clicking, it\u2019s probably the best feeling of the whole process for me,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, getting stuck on a project can be frustrating, says Keu. He can come back to the same thing repeatedly and feel like he\u2019s not making any progress. When nothing really changes, he\u2019ll leave it and come back to it months or even years later; it will eventually either click or be abandoned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s different every time. It always stems from some kind of strong emotion,\u201d he says about his writing process. \u201cIt\u2019s not always like, I\u2019ll feel sad when I write a sad song, or feel angry for an angry song. It\u2019s like if I got a lot going on and need to get it out, then it\u2019ll kind of just happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local musician and Camosun College student Keu dropped So This Is It, a six-song mixtape, on January 31; I discovered him on the Camosun Spotify playlist. He\u2019s a student in Camosun\u2019s Music Creativity and Performance Foundations program, which takes place at the Victoria Conservatory of Music. Keu\u2019s music is chill and fits well into a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,306],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-february-21-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25084,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25083\/revisions\/25084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}