Today we’d like to introduce you to Kane Kelly.
Hi Kane, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My passion for producing music goes back to when I first started playing guitar in High School. I had a jam box tape recorder and a portable tape recorder that I would use to record music. This was way before computers were used for recording. I had a cheap drum machine that I would plug into the recorder, and I would layer a guitar chord progression on top. I would then play that stereo mix back into the other recorder and add a detuned guitar to simulate a bass. After a couple of passes, had an a layered track that I could either solo over or ad lib lyric ideas. The final result was a complete mess, but the process of discovering how to do something with experimentation when you are young stays with you as it sets a pattern of exploration and experimentation that is essential in staying creative.
Over time, I was able to get a hold of a 4-track, then 8 track recorders for recording and creating demos until computer-based DAWs took over the recording industry.
Over the years, I had opportunities to record in bigger studios, play in bands, get signed and be dropped from record labels.
All that hands-on experience was irreplaceable, but we live in a world where the industry is getting overrun with AI and technologies that potentially detract rather than augment human talent and creativity. I am hoping that we can reverse this Pandora’s box of AI slop and put that genie back in the bottle, with regard to artistic creativity, so that the human artists can maintain the freedom to create.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There are countless struggles in the music business. The ‘business’ has placed numerous barriers for young and developing artists, allowing only a select few to sit at the table. I was speaking with a restaurant owner about how he can’t have acoustic musicians play at his restaurant because he is attacked by performing rights organizations that demand small businesses pay yearly fees for live music. This works great for big artists, who have many people covering their music; they see some payout. However, for the small, emerging musician who wants to play some covers and maybe feature a couple of originals, the business side of things stifles independent artists. It is an industry built on greed, where the rich are fighting over taking pennies from babes. That alone makes the road rough, rocky, and discouraging for even the most determined artists and musicians. That is just to play live, the recording industry is a demonic pit of bad record deals, copyright laws that are overstepping by giving an artist protection for their life of the artist, plus 70 years. I believe that stifles opportunities for the next generations of artists to create. It’s a weird mentality that allows non-creatives to ‘own’ creative works through inheritance, which is too overly broad. I have been taking an Agentic AI certificate offered by The John Hopkins Whiting College of Engineering, and AI has many fascinating possibilities, but it also raises several concerns. The Genie may be out of the bottle with regard to AI, but I hope that society manages to develop it with care in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My specialty is my willingness to learn and my unusual lack of fear in trying. I’ll pick up any musical instrument and give it a try. The first attempts may be rough, but I’ll practice over and over until I get the results I need. I value education and learning, and I won’t quit despite the setback. Having been diagnosed with a rare condition called an “Acoustic Neuroma”, the symptoms can be quite debilitating and sometimes overwhelming, but I never let that tear me down. I keep my mind sharp by constantly learning new things and setting new goals, whether it be releasing new music or achieving a master’s degree. One of my favorite terms in legal studies is ‘duty of care,’ and the responsibility we have to fellow employers, employees, citizens, and society as a whole. As a member os the Acoustic Neuroma Association, I feel it is my duty to bring awareness to this condition and to help educate on how family, friends, employers, and coworkers can help with minimal effort. Setting goals, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly, keeps me focused. I greatly value education, and I believe that the greatest mistake in American discourse is how much education is consistently taken for granted. Whether it be pursuing a degree or learning a trade, the pathways to success are real-life applications of the words borrowed from a page.
What makes you happy?
My family makes me happy. I am so lucky to have the kind of support from my family, wife, and my kids. Everything I do is for them, and every goal that I achieve is credited to them.
What would really make me happy is if society would put down the partisan division, the hateful rhetoric, and labels that divide us, and embrace civil discourse again.
It would really make me happy if I could be an agent of change, which is why I sent a letter of intent to run as an independent candidate for Texas House District 115 in 2026. It will be quite a challenge just to get the 500 independent signatures to apply to be placed on the ballot, let alone get enough votes to win…but I think that the independent voice is tired of the partisan back and forth and how much it is ignored that both of the big political parties have one thing in common. They both consistently let down the American Worker. The American Worker is more diverse than ever, and the success of our future is not to fan the flames of division, but to find unity in the working hands that move this country forward.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.diestromms.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diestromms/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/diestromms
- LinkedIn: https://anausa.org
- Twitter: https://x.com/diestromms
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Dw8cbD83_f0KvIaNqWjFw
- Other: https://diestromms.bandcamp.com
