Oct. 9, 2025
Country Roads and Heartfelt Melodies: Kelain James' Journey in Music
Send us a text In this heartfelt episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we are joined by the talented country musician Kelain James. Born in England and raised in Florida, Kelain shares his inspiring journey through music, revealing how his passion for country music blossomed from an early age. He opens up about his experiences in foster care, the challenges he faced, and how these moments fueled his desire to create music that resonates with others. Kelain discusses his recent album, "W...
In this heartfelt episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we are joined by the talented country musician Kelain James. Born in England and raised in Florida, Kelain shares his inspiring journey through music, revealing how his passion for country music blossomed from an early age. He opens up about his experiences in foster care, the challenges he faced, and how these moments fueled his desire to create music that resonates with others. Kelain discusses his recent album, "Washing Down," which features raw, acoustic tracks that reflect his life experiences and emotional struggles. We dive into his creative process, the influences that shaped his sound, and his aspirations for the future, including a dream to perform in Nashville. Kelain's genuine passion for music and his commitment to supporting fellow independent artists shine through in this uplifting conversation. Tune in to discover how Kelain's music aims to inspire others to follow their dreams and find joy in their own journeys.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. if you believe you can, achieve.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that, teach, motivate, and inspire. Today we are joined by country musician Kellen James. Kellen is known for his passionate and heartfelt performances. He was born in England, so we're going to be talking to him about his career and everything that he's up to and gonna be up to. So, Kellen, thank you so much for joining me.
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> Kellen James>Thank you, Curtis. It's great to be here.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?
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> Kellen James>Yeah. So my name is Kellen James. I was born, in the uk, but I grew up in, the state of Florida when I was a child. And, I, I fell in love with country music while I was over there, from the likes of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and all that sort of stuff. Garth Brooks, George Strait, all the classics. and then when I was 12, I moved back to the UK and, spent a bit of time in foster care.
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> Kellen James>yeah, and started playing music when I was 15.
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> Kellen James>started playing, like, rock and pop sort of stuff.
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> Kellen James>But in the recent years, I, I realized that actually my, my vocals and my voice suits country more, and I, I much prefer country, the storytelling side of it and all that sort of stuff. I started writing my own music. And about 10 months ago, I decided that I'm going to release my first album. And I just wanted to release it and try and inspire other people who are struggling, in their lives and aren't. Aren't getting a lot of support, to follow their dreams and do what they want to do.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, well, I know you said that you started playing music when you was 15, so what, what got you wanting to start playing music?
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> Kellen James>So I've always loved music, like listening to it.
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> Kellen James>And I, When I was about 6 or 7, I watched the film, Walk the Line with Joaquin Phoenix, playing Johnny Catch. And, my foster care is on my birth, my 15th birthday. They knew I loved listening to music, so they bought me my first ever guitar.
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> Kellen James>And, ever since then, I've just not put it down.
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> Kellen James>I've. I've played music, venues for the last 10 years, mostly covers, so playing other people's songs. And I've made a bit of. A. Bit of a career out of it. and now I'm just deciding to focus a lot more on my own original music and try and build a career out of that as well and try and inspire people. And, yeah, it's, it's just music is just the most rewarding thing I've known.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So what brought you to the United States from the uk?
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> Kellen James>So, my parents, I was only four at the time. my parents decided that they wanted to go to take us out there for their anniversary, and we just ended up staying. And, unfortunately, my mom passed away a few years later, when I was about 10 or 11, and that, ah, that forced us to unfortunately have to come back to the uk. two of my brothers stayed out there because they got buried and joined the National Guard, and they're out in Orlando. So I, I, I, I head out quite often to, well, I say quite often. I try to do it once a year at least to, see friends out in St. Petersburg. I'm hoping next year to take my music out to Nashville, which is a big dream of mine.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay. Well, I know that you are known for your passionate, heartfelt performances, so explain to the listeners what make your performances so passionate and heartfelt.
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> Kellen James>I've always been told that, even the covers that I play, I pride myself on not playing a track, that sounds exactly like the original, because the way I say it is, if you want to hear, if you want to hear that song, put it on a jukebox or listen. I make songs my own, even when they're covers. And I've been told a lot of times that people can feel the emotion coming through my, coming through my voice in the way that I play, and that, that comes out a lot more in my original music. Because I write songs about my life, about my upbringing, my trauma, things that I've had to deal with in life.
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> Kellen James>and hopefully it was. Well, I've heard from a few people now that it speaks to them and they can resonate with my lyrics and my songs. So that, to me, is amazing just to know that people can listen to my music and feel something and hopefully get some, some joy out of it.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, who are some of your biggest musical influences? whether they are big or small, who influences you to do what you do?
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> Kellen James>So I'd say Johnny Cash is the biggest one. he, he introduced me to the country music. my foster sister is a big one for me as well. Cheryl Crowell. when I was a teenager, she used to go out, doing gigs and all this sort of stuff and shows, and I used to take my guitar to her shows and just sit in Front of the stage and just copy her. just play what she was playing. so, yeah, she's a, she's a massive influence to what I've done. the likes of George Strait, Kenny Chesney.
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> Kellen James>I, I also do it quite enjoy some of the more modern country music like Post Malone and Morgan Wallen. I know a lot of people are a little bit wary about are they country or not, But I think country's a great genre that people can come into and make their own. there are certain artists that I don't think should be kind of trying to be country because they're not going to name any names, but they're great at their genre but they sometimes come on to just try and make some money out of it, which I don't think is what it's about.
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> Kellen James>But, yeah.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, talk to the listeners about your, Your latest project. Do you have anything that you just released or, you know.
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> Kellen James>Yes.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>You know, tell the listeners about it and talk about what inspired it and tell them what they can expect when they listen to it.
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> Kellen James>Yeah, absolutely. So, March 5th this year I released my first ever album. It's So I said on January 1 that I'm going to write and record and release an album by March 5, which is a big feat for anyone to do really, knowing that I only had one song written, but I managed to write seven tracks. last September I wrote a song, called Riding Out a Hurricane. while I visited St.
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> Kellen James>Petersburg for my birthday in September and Hurricane, Helene hit. we ended up going out 12 hours a day helping out folks down at the beaches, getting their lives back together and all that sort of stuff. And I wrote that song for them. and that's on the album. The album's called Washing down and you can find it on Spotify, YouTube, all those sorts of streaming platforms. you can buy my vinyl on a website called Elastic Stage. and it was kind of a homage to my life and some of the things that I've dealt with. I, I wasn't sure whether I was going to release it first because I was like, nobody wants to. Nobody wants to hear about my problems and all this sort of stuff. But I did release it in the end and the amount of people who enjoyed it really built up my confidence and made me think actually, yeah, maybe, maybe there is something in this. it's an eight track album and it's all solo acoustic, so it's very raw. there's no like, production behind it. It was recorded in my mate's bedroom. but, yeah, it's. It's really close to my heart, that one. I'm currently writing and recording my second album, which will be a little bit more produced in the sense that there's going to be a backing band for most of the songs. there. There will still be a few tracks on the album that are just solo acoustic, just to try and keep to m my roots a little bit and not try and go too far from my original sound. But, yeah, I'm really excited about it and there's some really good tracks on there that I'm really excited for people to hear.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Are there any other upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to be aware of?
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> Kellen James>so I'm just trying to, navigate the social media side of things at the moment and trying to get my.
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> Kellen James>Get my music out there, get people to listen to it. I'm hoping to go on tour next year if I can release the album in time. hoping to get out. Out to Nashville if I can. I've applied to go on to Britain's Got Talent, which is a. I know you got America's Got Talent out there and the Voice. Ah, so you, you probably know what, what that's all about. and also the European Songwriters Award, show as well. So I'll be sending out a few nominations for, the Issa Awards and, and all that sort of stuff as well. So if you follow me on social media like Instagram and Tick Tock and Facebook, you'll be able to see all of the, all of the exciting upcoming things as they come along and just basically just coming on shows like yours, to tell my story to so that people can see the. See Me, and not just listen to the songs.
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> Kellen James>know that there is a story behind the songs. There is a. There is a person behind the songs. the worst thing I think I could ever do is, just write songs, release them and not be. Not have the fans and the people supporting me as part of that. but, yeah, everybody who supports me is. Is extremely important to me.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, so more people can start supporting you.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Throw out your contact info so people can keep up with everything that you're up to.
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> Kellen James>Absolutely, yeah. So you can follow me on social media like Instagram, Tick Tock, Facebook, all that sort of stuff. Ah, just type in the name Kellen James. you can also type that name into Google and you can find all of. All of my stuff.
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> Kellen James>it's spelled K E, L A I N. And then James is my surname. And yeah, send me a message, say hi. I'm still not big enough to be able to not reply to all my emails and messages. So, yeah, I'd really love to hear from you guys and see what you guys want next.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, we'll close this out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about, that you would like to touch on any final thoughts you have for the listeners.
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> Kellen James>No, just keep supporting, independent musicians.
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> Kellen James>the music industry is, is massive. And, there's a lot of, there's a lot of hidden musicians that you might never have heard of who are, just as big or just as good or sometimes even better than some of the ones that are touring the world and charging hundreds of dollars of pounds to go and see them in a stadium. go to your local bar, see live music, support live artists. yeah, pay $10 to go and to buy someone's T shirt. yeah, just keep supporting live music, keep supporting each other.
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> Kellen James>And, if you need support as well, don't be afraid to ask for it.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>And your music is on all streaming platforms, correct?
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> Kellen James>It is correct. So you can find it on Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube, Deer, all those, all those sorts of things. And you can also find it on Instagram and TikTok and Facebook if you make videos. And it gives you an option to put music behind your videos or your photos. You could just type my name in and you could choose one of my songs to be in the background of your own. Your own photos and videos, which I think is pretty cool.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>All right, ladies and gentlemen, there you go.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Kellon James. Please be sure to check out his latest album and support everything that he's up to. Follow Rate Review Share this episode to all the country music fans out there, follow us on your favorite podcast platform and to leave suggestions. And for more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, please visit www.craveball337.com. Thank you for listening and supporting the show. And Kellen, thank you for all that you do and thank you for joining me.
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> Kellen James>Thank you, Curtis. I really appreciate what you do. Thank you so much.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>For more information on the Living the Dream with curveball podcast, visit www.craveball337.com until, next time, keep living the dream.
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