Motown Musician Accelerator Connects Emerging Artists with Industry
The Motown Musician Accelerator accepts four young musicians a year to mentor and help launch their careers. Kaleb the Intern joined CultureShift to talk his experience.
Kaleb the Intern’s music “sounded like someone who knew something about music was behind it.” – Suai Kee, Motown Music Accelerator
“When I heard his tracks, I didn’t hear just four bar loops,” says Kee, a classically trained pianist and director of Motown Musician Accelerator. “It didn’t just sound like it was all buttons. It sounded like someone who knew something about music was behind it, and I turned out to be right.”
Click on the player above for the full interview with Kaleb the Intern and the Motown Music Accelerator. Hear his tracks below.
Kaleb is among the four, out hundreds of Detroit artist submissions, to take part in the 2019 cohort of the Motown Musician Accelerator mentorship program – the latest installment of Motown’s expanding legacy. Each week, CultureShift is highlighting one musician from the program.
Over the duration of 12 weeks, artists develop their career by creating a strategy, connecting and networking with record executives, and planning the next year of their career. Each mentee receives a $12,000 budget grant.
“What blew my mind was how small the music industry is. It’s all built off of relationships.” – Kaleb the Intern
A fellow classically trained pianist who studied under William John Newbrough in New York, before fusing R&B and hip-hop into his musical concoctions, Kaleb describes the Accelerator experience as “eye-opening.”
“I didn’t plan on going into [rooms with top label heads] this early in my career. What blew my mind was how small the music industry is. It’s all built off of relationships.”
Assemble Sound, the church-turned-recording studio in Corktown was instrumental in the value he holds for developing and nurturing relationships in and outside of the music industry.
“As producers we get everything, the good, the bad, the trauma,” Kaleb says. “There have been sessions where I’ve cried with artists and then laughed. The best thing about it is the relationships and the outcome. When the song is out, you remember those times spent in the studio. To me, that is the best thing about making music.”
FEATURED TRACKS
In a Seashell by JermisDope
“We had a bunch of fun making that in the basement of a house that a whole bunch of artists used to live in, in Woodbridge called the Stackhouse.” – Kaleb the Intern
Summer’s End by LexLander
“This was for a project that I worked on with my writing partner LexLander – we made it for his album. This is my favorite track on the album.” – Kaleb the Intern
What I’m After by Rambo the Singer
“This is the anthem I live by.” – Rambo the singer via Instragram
This story is a part of Detroit StoryMakers.
WDET’s Detroit StoryMakers initiative empowers local storytellers in bringing Detroit’s stories to life. Support for this initiative comes from The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Michigan Council of Arts and Cultural Affairs and through matching gifts from station donors.
