Rising Stars: Meet Dave Kellner

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dave Kellner.

Hi Dave, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up in a small town in northern Minnesota, surrounded by music. My mom played violin and my dad kept a guitar in just about every room of the house. My older brother Sam started DJing at a young age. After he moved out I would sneak down to our basement and dig through his old CDs, against my parents’ wishes. This is when I began to fall in love with music.

In high school, I played guitar in a metal band with my friends. We changed our band name weekly and on would play shows in the upstairs of a coffee shop to an audience of teens and local seniors. We never got paid.

When I was 18, my brother Sam gifted me a Native Instruments Maschine controller for Christmas. I started producing music, learning the in and outs of sampling and programming drums. It felt so natural, like something I had been waiting for my whole life.

In 2016, I moved to St. Paul to attend McNally Smith College of Music. I met some of my best friends and ended up leaving with my AAS in Music production. I then went on to receive my BAS in music business from Concordia St. Paul. I am currently getting my MBA online from Berklee College of Music.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Learning the ins and outs of the music industry took longer than I’d like to admit. Things move slow and there are constant ups and downs. A song you make today might not come out until next year. You might land a placement on an album with one of your favorite artists, sign a contract and it ends up getting cut at the last minute. That’s just how things work. It goes to show that you really have to love making music in order to be successful.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
When I started making music, it was primarily sample-based. I kept running into issues where, for example. I would love the string section, but the percussion was off, or I’d find a great chord progression but the tempo was too fast. My end goal was to eventually learn how to make my own samples; to have complete control over the arrangement. So I took lessons in college, learned everything from music theory to sound design and now that’s what I do.

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I’m almost always open to work with new people. It’s good to have experience and make quality music, but even more important is just being a good person. It’s also easy to tell when people take things to seriously, or treat music as a commodity rather than something that should be appreciated.

Dave Kellner is the handle for all of my social media. Just slide in the DMs, send me a message.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dave.kellner
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/davekellner218
• Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/dave_kellner
• SoundCloud: https://m.soundcloud.com/davekellner
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5anLdlF8CWoZo0sfZDum3q 

Image Credits
Lauren Twite
Dave Kellner