A consummate guitarist, singer and songwriter, Kellindo Parker aka Kellindo easily sounds like an artist you should already know. He recently released his new alt-rock single ‘Sugar’, a guitar riff-based song with a trap beat and a theme of the seduction of music. The song is his first single from his debut solo album, ‘Games’ which is set to be released on February 28. Picking up a guitar at an early age, Kellindo’s professional music career began when his uncle Maceo Parker, asked him to join him on a world tour, as his lead guitarist. Upon his return, he was hired to be the lead guitarist for Grammy-nominated artist Janelle Monáe in 2006. Their collaboration blossomed with Kellindo also became collaborator and co-arranger on ‘Many Moons’ from Monáe’s Grammy-nominated ‘Metropolis’ album. He also co-wrote ‘Mushrooms & Roses’, ‘Come Alive’ and ‘Dance or Die’ which featured on her ‘Archandroid’ album and co-wrote ‘Q.U.E.E.N’, ‘Sally Ride’, ‘Victory,’ and ‘We Were Rock and Roll’ from Monáe’s critically acclaimed album, ‘Electric Lady’. In addition, Kellindo co-wrote ‘Take a Byte’ and ‘Americans’ as well as co-arranged ‘Pynk’ on Monáe’s most recent album, ‘Dirty Computer’.
Having shared the stage opening & performing with artists such as Prince, Stevie Wonder, No Doubt, Earth Wind & Fire & Bruno Mars as well as appearing on US shows including The Grammys, Saturday Night Live, The Ellen Show, The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon & Late Night with David Letterman, the time is now for Kellindo to shine in his own right. In December 2018, Kellindo released his debut solo single, ‘When Flowers Could Dance’, which collected large listening figures across streaming platforms. A second single ‘Sugar’ released at the end of 2019 reaffirmed the strength of his song writing. After much anticipation, Kellindo is set to finally release his debut body of work later this month and as we found out, there could be a second album to quickly follow on. The Rockpit caught Kellindo hanging out in his New York apartment to discuss his musical influences, song writing & getting lost in Sydney.
Sean: Hey Kellindo, how are you doing?
KP: I’m well, thank you. How are you?
Sean: I’m great thank you. I really appreciate you rearranging your time to make this happen.
KP: It’s my pleasure and thanks for having me, man.
Sean: So how are things on your side of the world?
KP: It’s good. I just got back from London shooting a music video for ‘Sugar’, which is one of my new songs. So, I’m really excited about that… they are working their magic to make me look & sound extra pretty [laughs]
Sean: [laughs] Let’s talk about your debut album ‘Games’ and will be released on February 28th. I’ve been listening to this over the past few days and there is some really cool stuff on here. I suppose the nerve-racking thing for you is that having had such a long career, co-writing with other artists in the past, this is all very much you laid bare for all to see & hear. How does that feel?
KP: Very, very scary [laughs]. It is exciting but there are also those nerves & the adrenaline of thinking, “Wow, everyone is going to finally hear my diary for the last ten or so years” so that’s what this album represents.
Sean: You’ve recorded a really diverse collection of songs too – so many genres & sounds. The opening track ‘Television’ is a wonderful start to that album… it’s just a rippa rock track.
KP: Thank you. Yeah, that’s me first thing in the morning – loud guitars and all that sound.
Sean: The greatest alarm clock in the world is a loud rocking guitar…
KP: [laughs] …it really is.
Sean: But then it delivers the song ‘Trippin’, which is another fantastic track. We could talk about every single song such is the diversity of the album but there is a real flow to the order of the tracks I got sent – I hope I’ve received them in the correct order they will be on the album.
KP: Yeah, that will be the order. It’s kind of tells the story of some of the ‘Games’ I’ve been involved in over the years, whether it’s career, relationships or whatever. It’s kind of a subtle yet blunt way of telling them through fact & fiction about where my life has been & kind of ends up where it’s going.
Sean: So even though ‘Sugar’ is the video you’ve been working on, you do have another song scheduled for January which is ‘Stars’ featuring Taylor Bennett. But you also put out another track from the album back in 2018 which was ‘When Flowers Could Dance’ so there will have been three singles out there before the album. I noticed that there were big listener numbers for ‘When Flowers Could Dance’ across the streaming platforms which must be so rewarding to see.
KP: It did. I would have released something so much sooner if I’d known but I’m a Virgo, so I’m a bit of a perfectionist and I left it almost a year between that one & ‘Sugar’ and then it was like “Let’s just put everything out there now” so that’s where we are at.
Sean: It’s certainly one I’ll be grabbing for my collection because certainly later in the album there are some styles I would not normally listen to but because the album flows well, it works. That’s the beauty of music though – you hear styles & genres that maybe you wouldn’t normally listen to but they draw you in. You must have had so many influences to draw from over the years, especially coming from such a musical family but I can hear bit of Kravitz & Prince to name a couple and then you adding your own stamp on things.
KP: Yeah. I was also trying to be true to myself as well – just letting it out and unleashing the beast so-to-speak. I did have so many influences growing up but I try not to think too much about an individual artist, more about how I feel that day or what the song is about or what it represents and then “wham”… there you go.
Sean: You have worked with so many people over the years and I’m guessing you have always kept extremely busy, especially with the close working relationship you have had with Janelle Monáe so when did you find time to write these songs for you?
KP: That’s a great question. You know, they kind of wrote themselves for me in a way – Something happens in my life and then I wake up with a guitar riff in my head or a storyline and so I sit myself down and start to sing it into my phone or transcribe what I’m thinking and if they don’t make sense I try to match the rhyme with the sound of my voice to help explain the story. To be honest it’s something that’s been happening over the years and it’s probably why I have quite a bit of material now, enough to release two albums – Part one is going to be ‘Games’ and I won’t give away the title of part two just yet but it will be telling the story leading up to today. You brought up ‘Trippin’ and that’s an interesting song because that one is based on a true story but it’s a fictitious story about something that may or may not have happened [laughs]. You may notice the sirens at the end of the track [laughs] and we won’t go into it too much but the lyrics are very profound…
Sean: [laughs] I need to listen that a little bit closer…
KP: Yeah, you should [laughs]. I won’t give anymore away on that one.
Sean: Did the album take long to record?
KP: It was long as hell… in some cases it’s still going on [laughs]. In fact, I’ve just recorded some vocals & guitars for a song that’s already on the album. I thought I’d finished but when you start mixing the tracks you hear that some songs could do with a bit more background vocals – ‘Hallelujah’ for example felt that it could do with a bit more in the chorus so I added to it and now it sounds a bit more like a small choir.
Sean: Being a multi-instrumentalist what do you play on ‘Games’?
KP: I play everything except the violin and also some of the production work has been done by some incredibly talented producers. The songs ‘Games’, ‘Stars’ & ‘Gone’ were produced by this guy Brandon James, who is just incredible and is based out of Nashville – without him I wouldn’t have had the cinematic sound of ‘Games’.
Sean: Well, I’m looking forward to seeing how this album is received because I’ve really enjoyed it… and now I know there is a second album to follow I’ll be looking out for that one too. So, have you visited us down here in Australia much in the past?
KP: I have but not nearly as much as I would have liked. I did a couple of shows with Janelle Monáe at the Opera House in Sydney a few years back. I had so much fun walking around the city – I call it intentionally getting lost [laughs]. I walked all the way to the opera house and all the way back, which was about an hour walk. I would love to come back.
Sean: Maybe a tour to support the album? And don’t forget us in Perth [laughs]
KP: That would be cool. No, I won’t [laughs].
Sean: I brought up about influences just now because of the musical family you are from. I read that at the age of eight you picked up your first guitar but music was clearly in your blood from an early age with your father being a jazz trombonist and with two uncles (Maceo Parker, saxophonist & Melvin Parker, drummer) were playing with James Brown there must have been so much funk, soul, jazz & gospel must have blown your musical mind.
KP: And you can blame Ace Frehley from KISS & Jimi Hendrix for me picking up the guitar [laughs]. I first discovered KISS when I was a little kid… I mean, how can you not be amazed by that? All that fire & one guy bleeding out of his mouth, the theatrics & explosions, the make-up, hair & platform shoes. When I was about twelve or thirteen, I discovered Hendrix and just thought he was incredible but I’m just guitar driven in general. I also love classical music – I love the drama & energy but nothing beats rock. Bands like Rush build up that drama with their music… Muse is another band that has that too.
Sean: I’m still yet to see Muse live… they look & sound incredible.
KP: Me too, man. I’ve seen clips on YouTube and they just look unbelievable, you know? I did see them live in a way because we did the Grammy’s together a few years ago. I couldn’t wait to see them. I remember being told we were going on before them and thinking, “Yay, we get to go on and do our thing, then sit back and enjoy Muse”. But they changed the line-up and we had to go on the song immediately after Muse. I was like, “Are you serious right now?” [laughs] But it was still an amazing day & night and everyone enjoyed it so much.
Sean: Pressing you more on your influences, if you could have three personalities from the music world join you for dinner for a couple of hours for some deep conversations, they can be dead or alive; who would you invite to the table?
KP: Oh my gosh… Wow. I would say David Bowie, John Lennon and… the third one… that’s hard [laughs]. I mentioned David Bowie because I did have the pleasure of meeting him a long time ago and felt his energy. We had a good conversation and because of that I would have loved the opportunity to continue that conversation and tell him how much he has done for me as a writer & performer and for Janelle Monáe as well. I live down the street from where John Lennon lived and was shot – I live like only a few blocks away so I pass his building almost every day and he is another who inspired me as a writer. For my third, as much as I would like to say Jimi Hendrix I feel that conversation wouldn’t be as informative as the others so maybe I’ll pick Wes Montgomery the jazz guitarist. He was so amazing and I would just love to pick his brain about how he learnt to play the guitar like a piano player. There are times when I’m playing jazzy chords and I just smile at Janelle because I’m using my thumb in a tribute to Wes Montgomery – it gives me that soft beautiful sound of skin across the strings as opposed to a pick.
Sean: What a great table of four. What was the last album you listened to?
KP: Ah, just the other day I listened to the latest Black Keys album ‘Let’s Rock’. It’s a great album and just literally rocks!
Sean: Cool, I’ll have a listen. So finally, if you could be credited with writing any song ever written, what song would you pick?
KP: Oh gosh, there are so many… I wish I had co-written David Bowie’s ‘Moonage Daydream’ among many other songs but that one is a song I feel very close to. It’s arranged perfectly & it’s written perfectly – I especially like the Ziggy Stardust version, the live version the best. Whenever my band covers it, that’s the version we do.
Sean: A great song choice to finish on – who doesn’t like a bit of Bowie. Kellindo, we would like to wish you all our best wishes for the album and its success.
KP: Well, thank you Sean – bless your heart brother.
Sean: It’s been a real pleasure talking to you and hope we get to see you back over here in Australia real soon.
KP: Thank you so much. I hope so too.
