San Diego Reader

Kellis: Guitar (acoustic), Guitar (electric), Vocals

Genre: Alternative, Bluegrass & Roots, Rock

Sound description: Rockin' bluegrass.

RIYL: Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Woody Guthrie, Tears for Fears, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the Lemonheads, Blind Melon

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Related Links

• Kellis website

• As I Hear It · Jan. 21, 2009

Audio clips

Synoposis

Influences: Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Woody Guthrie, Kurt Cobain, Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals, Enya, the Fat Boys, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Aerosmith, Tears for Fears, the Cure, the Clash, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, the Lemonheads, Blind Melon, the Crash Test Dummies, the Screaming Trees

Background:

Singer-songwriter Kellis grew up in Needles, California, during the ‘80s and ‘90s, where the movie La Bamba hit him as hard as it hit the big screen. “All the Indian kids in the back of the bus sang it, when the bus driver put it on the radio...I always wanted to be a rock star, ever since I first saw an MTV video by Dire Straits called ‘Money for Nothing.’”

Kellis - a semifinalist in the 2008 San Diego Magazine Song Competition – self-released his first EP, Doodles. “I write lyrics with a folk twist and perform at open mikes. I’m a poet that remains below the great and ‘wreckognizes’ everything above. I have to bring it like this: I love broken hearts ‘cause, as the saying goes, if it ain’t broken, why bother fixin’ it.”

Discography