SONGSTRESS, Kelsey Le Roux, has gone all out with her first single, Hypnotized. The Grade 12 St Mary’s DSG pupil lives with her family in Winston Park.
She started her musical journey when she was in Grade 8 in 2012 with the alto saxophone. Kelsey played musical instruments in primary school but never took it very seriously, but now she gets up at 5am to practice her saxophone.
She progressed rapidly and after two years, auditioned and was accepted as a member of the prestigious KZN Youth Wind Band. She is about to do her Royal School of Music Grade 8 saxophone exam. “Not many people go from zero to Grade 8 in four and a half years,” her mum Linda mentioned.
In 2013, she auditioned at a local music studio for vocals and singing. They loved her voice and she progressed rapidly with them.
Kelsey was a semi-finalist in a UK song-writing competition for her own song in 2014. The competition was open to songwriters worldwide.
Her mum submitted one of her original recordings to a website called Music XRay in 2014. “We received a reply asking to enter discussions about Kelsey as an artist, from a publishing company in the USA,” she said.
They happened, coincidentally, to be going to USA that December to visit family. They made arrangements for Kelsey to spend time at a record label called Vermont Pop in Burlington with producer, Jack Chicago, at Friday Pop Café Studios.
“She spent three full days working on recording, often from 8am to 10pm. She recorded three tracks in total,” said her mum.
When asked, how she juggles having friend, music, school and family, she said, “I moulded my social life and other things into my musical career, I am busy six days a week, I only get to sleep on Sundays,” she added.
She has rehearsals for the KZN Youth Wind Band on Saturdays at the Durban Music School, as well as performances around KZN.
Kelsey said her whole family is supportive, her dad is always asking when can she record her next performance and her little sister promotes her music on her social media pages.
She enjoys other things apart from singing, “I love Irish dancing and baking but I don’t cook, its not cool, I love watching films, it’s what I do to relax and also knitting and travelling,” she said.
“For her song Hypnotized, Chicago created the music before she arrived in the USA with her in mind. When she got there, he played it to her, then told her to sit down and write the lyrics. Two hours later she had done it, and they recorded the track,” said Linda.
Kelsey was 16 years old when she wrote and recorded Hypnotized.
The song was mixed by a well-known New York producer and engineer, Dave Clauss. Hypnotized was mastered by Tom Coyne, a Grammy Award-winning mastering engineer in New York. The video for Hypnotized was filmed and produced in Durban in December 2015 by Avi Mack.
Kelsey currently has vocal coaching with Tammy Saville, piano lessons with Dawn Selby, saxophone with Brett Alborough and sound production with Avi Mack.
She tried to cut down her schedule for matric but it didn’t work and she still maintains good grades, “I get Colours every term, last year I received Honours for music at the school.”
When asked about her plans after high school, she said, “I want to study towards a Bachelor in Music at UCT or overseas.”
Her music video is featured on VEVO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl3h8S7lHSU
Hypnotized is available on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/za/album/hypnotized-single/id1090286904.
