Lyrical Poetry, Blues Roots, and Rock ’n’ Roll: An Interview with Rising Blues Star Kelli Baker
Blues music, much like lyrical poetry, provides a profound outlet for emotional expression, offering fans a powerful and moving experience. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Kelli Baker, a raw and soulful blues singer who is currently captivating audiences on Spotify. She shared her inspirations and explained why she believes being a blues artist is her true calling. She described her musical style as, “ bluesy grit, ” and refers to herself, “ as rock girl at heart.” The Phoenix Arizona native said, “ Music has always been around, but it started in the church choir with my mother and my grandmother.” Now, she has been based in New York City for the past twelve years.
Kelli Baker shared the story of how the Kelli Baker Band came into formation and what style works well with their collaborative efforts. She said, “I booked a gig at The Bitter End in 2021. A friend of mine, Mike McCabe, suggested that I pull a band together. I tapped some great people who agreed to do it with me, three of whom stayed with me until the beginning of this year. I moved to Manhattan with my fiancé, who is also now my bass player. He introduced me to Noé Socha, which was a fortunate accident. PJ, (my bass player), had asked Noé to play on an all-star blues show, but the singer had to drop out at the last minute. I ended up filling in, and we were a great fit.”
When I asked her what her favorite song of hers is, she responded, “That’s a hard question—most of them come from a very personal place.” Of all the songs she has written and recorded, the song that Kelli reflects on having the most meaning is her first released single, ‘Red Winter.’ She noted, “It was the most personal and barring song I wrote that catapulted me out of years of writer’s block and inactivity.”
She also expressed, “I’m surprised I mentioned it to you because I don’t perform it often. It is a very personal song. When I used to write, I used to write with a filter on because I was worried about what people thought. So I would write in a safe way. It wasn’t until I stopped caring about what people think that things started to change. If you read the lyrics to it, I mean it’s got some bad words in it, but you can look it up on Google if you want and you’ll see what I’m talking about!”
She says, “ I’ll only perform it in certain settings; it’s not a family-friendly song. I took all the emotion of how I felt I was inaccurately perceived and put it openly out there. Every line in it is a true story, and the song itself follows a non-traditional form. The whole thing is an internal scream that I let loose.
Baker is very grateful for the connections the music industry in the Long Island area has led and created for her. She shares her story with heartfelt sentiment. As she says, “I feel extremely fortunate to have made the connections I have. When I first met Philip Jimenez, who did my earlier work, I was working with his wife on Long Island; she was one of my closest friends. We met completely unrelated to music. I had mentioned to him that I would like to record, and he said to let him know when I was ready. ‘Red Winter’ was the first. When I brought it to him, it was a tangle that he had to unravel and make a story with. I love what we did with it. I’ve grown exponentially as a writer, instrumentalist, vocalist, and businessperson since. Connecting with The Bitter End a few years later, and the community it brings, really took things to the next level.”
She also observed, “ Bleecker Street is just as it ever was, with movers and shakers becoming friends and collaborators. Everyone seems to know each other, and puzzle pieces just align.”
She described that, “For a long time, I was digging in emotion- but everything changed.” She also went on to say, “ Our newest song, ‘Silk Flowers’, was emotional. The next day, we wrote a song about gas stations (we spend a lot of time on the road)”, she joked.
Kelli acknowledges life’s interruptions and her ability to learn and grow from the challenges that arise to truly make a name for herself in the music industry. As she stated, “I started back when I was in Arizona and then I ended up taking some time off. I did a lot of different things. I was in a hard rock band, and then I did a singer-songwriter thing. I found a guitar player that I was working with. I did not know how to play guitar at the time, so I needed somebody to bring that to life. Eventually, I taught myself the guitar. Then I ended up just tangled up in work and life. It wasn’t until around 2018 that I had a real lightbulb moment: ‘What am I doing?’ because I didn’t want to say that I never really did it. I would be really mad at myself if I half-assed it! Coming into my writing and stuff, I had a couple of things that happened in my life around that time that just pushed me. Everything just kind of opened up and came spewing out of me.”
Baker has always had lifelong dreams to sing professionally in the music industry. When I asked her how long she has aspired to be a musician she said, “ Always, forever. Listening to my mom’s albums, driving around town in my dad’s truck, listening to Dire Straits. Learning about real soul for the first time. Getting my heart broken and listening to Tori Amos in a dark room.”
When the songstress writes her own music, she seeks to explore certain factors and elements deeply within her soul and her writing. As she responded, “I always prefer a song to have personal meaning and dynamics—it’s about the emotion that needs to be conveyed. I want the audience to feel the emotion and use it for what they need, too. It’s a transfer of energy. I aim to give people a real show and connection, so the more authentic I am, the better it translates.”
As a performer and professional musician, Baker is intentional and deeply engages with her audience. She aspires for her music to resonate with her fans. As she puts it, “It’s connection, connection. I don’t want people to come to a show and think, ‘Oh, that was great,’ and then forget about it the next day. I want them to connect and remember. I want to sit next to them and be a part of it with them (which I do, at most shows). I want them to listen to the music when the rain is pouring in their cars and they have to pull over. I want them to listen when they’re energized and feeling good. I want them to connect with the anger, the love, the joy—whatever it is. We need to feel things much more than we allow ourselves to do.”
Baker also enjoys the synergistic and interdependent connections that people can build with professionals in the music industry, as well as the relationships formed with fans through the power of lyrics. She meets musicians and fans from various walks of life, and these encounters help create new experiences and stories. As she stated, “There are people you really connect with. For example, we’re building real connections with people in Asheville, North Carolina. We’ve been there a few times this year, and now they’re like family. So, everybody in the music community and the fans who come to our shows are becoming really good friends and family. Everybody is different, but also the same.”
The budding artist finds the power of interpretation and connection to be extremely healing for her fans and a profound experience. As she observes, “That’s what it’s about. I have some songs that might seem to be about romantic relationships, but they’re actually about professional relationships instead. People interpret them in the way they need to.”
When asked about her influences, Kelli Baker said, “Madonna!!! I could say a bunch of stuff, but really it was Madonna!”
She also mentioned, “I really like Bonnie Raitt, Big Mama Thornton. I love grunge music too, so I like the darker energy to stuff. I like that we’re in the wheelhouse of the music that I do. When T Bone Burnett came out with the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou, a lot of that was original music and that was something that I hadn’t really been exposed to, but I fell in love with. I like darker kinds of stuff. I like the bluesy stuff, I like the rock stuff, and I like the darker energy to stuff.”
Platforms like MTV and VH1 have also significantly influenced and shaped Baker’s artistic style. She humorously notes, “I never say how old I am, so I don’t want to date myself (laughs). But, yeah, I definitely watched MTV and VH1 all the time—especially during ‘120 Minutes’ and the grunge era. I was growing up at that time and watching the bands that were prominent then. Soundgarden was one of my first concerts.”
Regarding her creative process, Baker explains, “It varies. A lot of times I’ll just use the Note App on my phone and write things as they come into my head. Or I’ll be driving and put the voice recorder on if something comes into my head and I’ll sing it and record it. I feel like it doesn’t just naturally come to me all the time. When I first was writing a long time ago I used to be a waitress or bartender and I would take receipt paper or paper from my server book and I would just write. So all my songs were written on there.
Kelli Baker has big dreams and continues to grow as an artist. She has more she wants to accomplish both as a solo artist and with The Kelli Baker Band. As she explained, “We have two shows tonight and are starting a Northeast tour tomorrow. We’re opening for Ally Venable in Huntington, NY, at Heckscher Park’s Chapin Rainbow Stage. Then we’ll head over to the Industry Arts Center down the street before traveling to Massachusetts and Maine. My goal is to be on the road as much as possible. I really enjoy meeting different people and experiencing new communities. I almost enjoy it more than being at home. I don’t mind sitting in a van for hours on end. I want to continue doing more of that, reaching more people, and hitting more festivals next year. I’m also eager to record new material as soon as possible.”
She further explains that there is a song for every emotion and situation, allowing people to find something that resonates with their feelings. The healing impact of music, she notes, lies in its ability to connect with listeners, even beyond the artist’s control once the music is released. As she puts it, “It just depends on what you’re listening to. There’s something for every emotion you have. You can always find a song that gives you what you’re looking for. For instance, if you’re angry and want to lay in the dark, there’s a song for that. There’s a song for everybody. That’s what’s beautiful about it. It’s a connection between the artist and the listener, whether the artist realizes it or not. Once you create something and put it out there, it’s kind of out of your hands.”
She further broke down her writing process by adding, “Actually, about a month ago, we were in Saint Louis and then Nebraska. My guitar player and I were discussing our plans and said, ‘Let’s write this song.’
I quickly scribbled down the lyrics so we wouldn’t forget them. I remember saying, ‘I need something to remember the lyrics.’ So, we grabbed some register tape from the bar and wrote the lyrics on that.”
Reflecting fondly on her early songwriting days, the musician candidly admits that her earlier work was typical of a novice songwriter. She shared her early songwriting memories by saying, “Sure, they existed, but they were terrible! (laughs) They’re not good! You don’t want to read those… It’s like a comedian reading their middle school journal aloud in front of an audience. It would be something like that—it just wasn’t good. I was always doing things like that. They were kind of hokey and whatever. I was always wanting to sing and perform, for as long as I can remember.”
As for her artistic style she said, “ I put it all out there, so that evolves. Bluesy grit, really- I’ve always been a rock girl at heart, so you’ll see that. My live performance style always changes, and gets pretty intense, depending on what I’m feeling at the moment.”
Kelli Baker was emotionally reflecting on her artistic style and the milestone of being signed with recording label, Bad Jeu Jeu Records (Its distribution is under Sony Music/The Orchard). When the big moments happen she says, “ I’m always thinking this is IT- is this IT? But, it’s always IT. I’m doing what I want to do now, what’s better than that? Different layers unfold. People have asked me what my goal is with it, and I just tell them “You’re looking at it.”
It was an honor to interview this rising star on behalf of Social The Lifestyle Magazine. If you’re a fan of blues, rock and roll, or just a music junkie, be sure to keep an ear out for her.
For more information on Singer, Kelli Baker:
Twitter/ X Profile : https://twitter.com/kellibakermusic
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/kellibakermusic
Apple Music: https://apple.co/3AHjr6k
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7HHek7pEyQrHKmHBaHumOv?si=5GZhCMGNQVOZGmOO0l7tRg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kellibakermusic/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellibakermusic/
Bands In Town: https://bnds.us/ecdnbq