BEDROOM TO BIG STAGE: A CONVERSATION WITH KEVIAN KRAEMER
2000s babies all grew up with one thing in common. No matter where you lived or what your parents did, when you wanted to listen to music, that music was KidzBop. But there came a time to graduate from the censored versions to the real pop hits. Asbury-based artist Kevian Kraemer feels the same way about his own music. After a year in the music industry, he’s finally ready to graduate — from KidzBop to fully-fledged artistry and release the songs that feel real to him. The first song to waive in this new era? His latest single, “Fly”.
By Stella Feinstein
Kraemer is not a stranger to internet fame. He rose through media platforms like Instagram and TikTok slowly but has garnered 283,500 followers across the two apps. With teasers for this song reaching up to 55,000 views, many people were waiting for its release, but it came a bit later than expected. Despite that, its release time is not without reason — like the love interest of the song, many of the people that make up his fan base are leaving for college.
While he’s not headed to college like the girl quite yet, and he definitely doesn’t have a butterfly tattoo, he says he’s open to trying anything once.
“My mom always says this thing, she always goes ‘lucky, lucky, lucky, grateful, grateful, grateful’,” Kraemer said. “I kind of want to get something like that somewhere on my arm, just in a very little simple font. Even her handwriting would be cool.”
By Stella Feinstein
“Fly” is unlike Kraemer’s past releases in many ways, with lyrical content touching on tumultuous parental relationships, but what really makes it stand out is the orchestra that backs him in the second half of the song. Yes, orchestra. He and his producer, Los Angeles-based Aaron Blackmore, were working during a remote session when the idea materialized.
“I kinda took inspiration from Golden Hour, and Rex Orange County a little bit,” Kraemer noted. “I was like ‘Where do I want this to go?’ I want it to go there. We just got a couple of orchestra players, and it went crazy!”
By Stella Feinstein
The composition of the song was not the only part of it that came to Kevian naturally —the lyrics came within just a few days. However, those days were all the way back in September 2022.
“I sat on it for a while because I knew it was a good one and I just wanted to work on it,” Kraemer said. “I released Buddy in November, and that song felt a little shallow to me, so I took the whole year to write so much music stuff that I’d actually want to be putting out if I'm going to do this.”
He does actually want to do this, and he’s done trying to prove it to other people. He wants to do it for himself.
From the outside, people see the shows across the tri-state area, six-figure streaming numbers and promo from his Jeep (that’s pretty much become a part of his brand), but they don’t see the weekly lawyer calls, the stumbling and figuring things out on his own, or the struggles of trying to make a name for yourself while taking high school classes from seven to two.
By Stella Feinstein
Somehow, Kevian Kraemer makes it all work.
“There’s a lot to do. Photos wise, videos wise, shows wise, there’s a lot going on,” Kraemer stated. “‘Fly’ is part of a bigger project, but it’s gonna be a minute until there's a Kevian Kraemer Tour.”