Longtime fans of yours have witnessed your evolution as a musician. And you’ve accomplished so many things — you’ve sold out stadium tours, were featured on the Shang Chi soundtrack, and have millions of streams under your belt. Looking back on your growth throughout your entire journey, what do you have to say about where you started and where you are now?
Keshi: There’s one ethos that has always kept me afloat or sailing in the right direction, and it really is this unabashed love for music. I was reminded of that really recently because I still deal with depression, and truly, the only thing that makes sense to me at the end of the day is making music. It brings me so much joy, and it makes me feel like I have control over my life and that I can make something. I can create something out of my mind, out of thin air, out of the instruments that I love. It’s like a metaphysical sort of fulfillment that I can’t really describe, and I just love it so much. And I have to remember that, and I have to remind myself of that, and especially when it gets into promo mode, and it gets into talking about numbers and metrics, which all feeds into this idea of needing to keep getting bigger. But when I go back into the studio and I start recording again, I don’t care about anything. I just want to make music; that’s all I love.
BuzzFeed: That’s what’s important — to just really focus on what actually matters, even when there’s a bunch of other things going on in your head.
Keshi: Yeah, and they’re good problems to have. But I can’t forget why I do this.
