After being signed four years ago, Roc Nation’s budding singer-songwriter Bridget Kelly feels like now is her moment to reap the benefits from all her hard work. BK, who wants to share her own take on R&B with the world, first feared the genre due to a lack of confidence in herself as well as the ill-fitted comparisons, but now says she’s more comfortable within the space.
“At first, my biggest fear was that, since I am doing R&B music that it may not be received well,” BK told Singersroom. “There is a lacking of a lot of really good R&B music right now. But I think that artists like Miguel, the Weeknd, Frank Ocean, even Drake with his melodies and lyrics, have re-opened the door for R&B, and I feel more comfortable now being one of those females to come on the scene and make an impact. Some of the struggles, too, are just being compared to everybody else that’s ever done R&B. There’s a few R&B artists that I love and welcome the comparisons to, but I also wanna stand out, I don’t wanna be pigeon-holed in one arena, where people may or may not give me a chance.”
Along with her own personal impediments, Bridget also had to become knowledgeable with the politics of the music business, while working hard to show her label their investment has worth.
“I used to get frustrated, but I think that there are rules to every game, and you have to play by some of the rules, in order to succeed, in order to win,” says BK. “I’ve been really blessed to be with Roc Nation who has never put pressure on me to compromise as a person or as an artist.”
She continued: “For them it’s the same thing, it’s about getting a great, genuine, authentic and musically profound project. It’s as important to them as it is to me. I got frustrated in the beginning because of how much time it was taking. I’ve been signed for four years; I’ve put a lot of work into this project. Everybody else has a flow, so there’s always the impatience and the frustration… But I’m really grateful now that I took time to master my craft and to perfect it. I feel prepared. My single went on sale on iTunes on Tuesday [Oct. 2], so I feel prepared now for what’s to come.”
Point to an artist who hasn’t been frustrated in their career and we’ll call you a liar. As for Bridget, she has great support when she becomes despondent.
“I’ve had the same manager from the beginning, the same stylist, the same hairstylist, the same makeup artist, the same strong group of girlfriends from the very beginning who all support each other,” BK adds. “I think having people around me that, even in the moments where I didn’t believe in myself 100 percent, they always believed in me 100 percent, and I think there’s a lot to be said for having a strong foundation of friends and family sometimes that will believe in you more than you believe in yourself. That alone is enough to keep me going, cause I know I’m not just doing this for me, I’m doing this for them, too, cause their dreams are invested into mine. I definitely do it for my team; I do it for my family, to make my mother proud, to make my family proud.”
Follow Bridget on Twitter @theycallmeBK and stay tuned for our full chat with her and Singersroom’s Lea Brown.
Founder and Creator of Singersroom.com and IncredibleWork.com. Follow me on Instagram at @gary.gentles.
