How this genre-hopping KC musician is fighting back against digitized entertainment

A former college football star, Keelon Vann often found himself “running on fumes” as he chased his passion on the field — and on key.

“I’d be up playing guitar until 3 a.m., which is not a joke, and somehow make it to 5:30 a.m. workouts the next day,” said Vann, a quarterback at Piper High School before playing wide receiver for William Jewell College (and then audiences across Kansas City).

Now 25, the Kansas City native and 2024 Startup Crawl performer is focused on his music, living in the present — and ultimately getting signed to a record label.

Click here for tickets to Startland News’ Startup Crawl Friday at Power & Light, featuring music by Keelon Vann, The Highwater and Golden Groves.

“I’m in no rush,” Vann acknowledged. “Whatever happens, happens. If I fail, I fail… I’ll just trust the process with it and stay consistent.”

Such struggles are expected as an independent musician, he said.

“I think it’s hard to find a balance, but that’s a part of being an artist,” he said. “I don’t think any artist, any successful one for that matter, has lived or is living an easy life, you just gotta keep going if you love it enough.”

Click here to listen to music by Keelon Vann or here to follow him on Instagram.

Sound and style

Vann describes as a “genre hopper,” ranging from the blues and classic rock to funk and soul; If it feels good, Vann said, he’ll play it.

Keelon Vann

He moreso prefers artist comparisons, however. 

Prince, Jimi Hendrix, Lenny Kravitz, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and James Brown are his greatest inspirations. 

A listener can hear these influences bleed through in his music, too, Vann added. 

In the same way you can’t listen to Justin Timberlake without hearing a bit of Michael Jackson, he explained, you can’t listen to Keelon Vann and not hear his greatest influences.

“When you follow the breadcrumbs of people’s music, you can find where it came from,” he said, describing this phenomena as something truly beautiful.

Meaning and messaging

“If you know what you want out of your life, live that way,” Vann said, noting he does just that through the emotionally driven storytelling of his music.

“Slaves to the Money,” a soulful blues piece by Vann, describes the experiences of a victim to the system: 

“We work until the break of day. Tearing up our bodies as another corporation’s slave. Eight billion people in this world and not a single one is the same. Despite what the government and all the corporations claim.”

Vann prides himself on the truthfulness of his music, he said, feeling that “a lot of folks out there [aren’t] really doing that these days.” 

Going live Friday

Vann considers himself an advocate for live music. With the growing emergence of digitalized lyrics and recorded music, he said, he believes many independent artists are being snubbed out of gigs by DJs and other over-processed musicians who rely on pushing buttons for music. 

“My biggest thing that I want to do outside of the messages in my music is also just expose young people to live music because it’s almost like it’s a dying art these days,” Vann added.

He’s excited to bring the interactiveness and energy of live music to Friday’s Startup Crawl at PNC Plaza in the Power & Light District, he said, promising “there will be no buttons pushed.”