Hey everyone, welcome back to Student Stories.
I'm Jen, and we're thrilled to have with us today,
a student artist and musician, Kaden Asher. Welcome
Kaden. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely.
Please introduce yourself to our listeners. So
I'm Kaden Asher. I'm 22 years old. I'm an artist,
and I'm also a student here at Johnson County
Community College. And I've got one semester
left with the... Awesome college been a great
experience to learn and meet so many cool people
Awesome. Awesome. Thank you for being here with
us today We had a pretty great conversation actually
more than one offline before the show today And
you shared your backstory with us about how you
came to study here at JCCC Can you share that
with our listeners and our viewers on YouTube?
Yeah, so I originally graduated high school at
Blue Valley, from Blue Valley High, and after
that I went to Emporia State for two and a half
years where I studied business, entrepreneurship,
a little bit of business admin, and then ultimately
I just decided it wasn't as much for me, that's
not what I was calling me. I'd been making music
since I was a little kid. singing my whole life
and I thought I actually needed to like follow
my passion and what about what a better place
to do it as somewhere affordable and you know
somewhere close to home where I can really like
refine my skills and you know become a better
artist so yeah after Emporia State I came to
Johnson County Community College and I've been
here for the last year and a half And your major
is? Yeah, I'm getting my Associates in Liberal
Arts and also an Associates of Science. But then
I'm also getting the recording art certification.
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you for
being here We're really really excited to hear
some big news that you've got to share with us.
Please share with our friends I am in the middle
of a rebrand right now You're already getting
the second half of that. So it's Kaden. It's
Kaden Asher on all platforms Kaden X Asher on
Instagram Snapchat YouTube and you can find me
with that handle anywhere. I got a lot of I'm
really happy about this rebrand. Got a lot of
good music coming, a lot of new stuff I've been
working on really hard. And I'd say the influences
are more like dark pop -ish and a little bit
of hip -hop influences. But yeah, it's been a
really exciting process. And that's C -A -D -E
-N, Kaden A -S -H -E -R, correct? That's correct,
yeah. Okay, perfect, perfect. And once again,
Kaden X Asher on TikTok? Yeah, on all platforms.
On all platforms. Okay, so that would be TikTok,
Instagram. Everything, yeah. Perfect, perfect.
Okay, so tell us a little bit about the rebranding.
Tell us kind of how you initially packaged yourself,
what that looked like, what your new packaging
will look like, and why you made that shift.
Yeah, so I guess there's a lot that goes into
that. Question that's a loaded question. I'd
say First you kind of have to have you have to
ask yourself like who is the who is the person
you're trying to be? What are you trying to what
are you trying to represent? Who are you as a
brand and that can mean a lot of things like
your demographic the people that you're trying
to reach and The music that you're trying to
make who you're trying to speak to You know,
there's a lot that there's just a lot of questions
that go into it and I don't think you can really
answer that question like all that quickly I
think it's gonna take me a while to figure out
like some of the key elements that are gonna
go into my my brand but yeah right now I would
say like some things like I can incorporate in
my brand or like eye catching stuff or doing
things in a unique way like just doing anything
like out of the ordinary or using certain colors
or using like color schemes like black and white
to really emphasize like the moods and tones
you're trying to go for Man, I can't even go
into all of it right now, I don't think. And
I'm still trying to figure it out all on my own
too. Right, right. Which, that's huge. You know,
to do all of that on your own. We were actually
talking right before we went to air about the
difference between working with a band, which
is what I have been doing, and working on your
own, producing your own music. That's a lot to
juggle while you're also a student. Yeah. You
mentioned Kayden X Asher on all platforms. If
our folks, if our friends were to go listen to
you right now or take a peek at your socials
right now, what might they expect to hear? Right
now you can't really expect a lot. I'm waiting
till I think 2026, like January, to drop my first
debut single. So I'm giving myself a little bit
of extra time so I can get like social media
stuff ready and to like to start releasing as
soon as like the song drops and a little bit
of pre -hype and like post -hype. But yeah, it's
just like my first drop of what I got planned
for that. It's called better on my own It's a
single it's got like some pop vibes and like
some like like spacey kind of feels I'm excited
to share with the public and Yeah, I don't know
Whoa, sorry repeat the question real quick. No,
just if our listeners were to go Yeah, so right
now if they would hear something like old if
you want to rebranding to look a little different
now Yeah, so like right now honestly You it's
gonna be hard to find me online the the best
place to define you right now would be like live
until I release That's actually my next question.
Perfect. Keep please keep talking. Yeah, so I've
got I've got a show coming up this Saturday at
the Westport Bowery At seven I'll be live at
seven so I'll get I'll do I'll be doing a couple
I'll be doing a couple unreleased songs there
and a couple of release songs from my old brand
that I'm gonna be incorporating into my new brand
Where in December might our friends see you?
Because that would be September, I'm sorry, November
15th, correct? Yes. Okay, so we will go to air
after that. Okay. So I also have another show
coming up on December 4th. December 4th, okay.
I will not be performing, but I'm hosting a underground
rap battle. Fun! And I've got 16 artists that
I found that are all located in Kansas City.
They're gonna go head -to -head. It's like an
M &M kind of 8 -mile kind of event. Oh, wow.
Fabulous. And where will that be? Here in Kansas
City? Yes, it'll be at Skate Bar from 7 p .m.
10 p .m. December 4th. All right. $5 tickets
at the door. Perfect. Perfect. Okay. Wonderful.
Now is that information on your socials as well?
Yes. Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Okay. Again, Kayden
X Asher Friends. So how were you packaging and
distributing music before? Yeah. So the independent
music distributor that I use is called Distro
Kid. And it is it's for me. It's been a reliable
way for me to release my music over the last
four years that I've been making music For a
pretty good cost and like and quality too I get
a lot of features that come with it and get a
customized your drops and your releases to to
get onto like your your famous DSP is like Spotify
your distributing services like Spotify and Apple
music and Pandora and All the other ones and
then I'll release the SoundCloud myself, so I'll
manage my own SoundCloud and YouTube. But other
than that, I'll go through DistroKid and they'll
release everything. You even have an option to
upload your lyrics with them if you pay like
in a little extra fee. There's a bunch of little
fun features that you can use through their website.
But that's who I use to promote my music or like
to get it out there at least. And then the second
hand of that would be social media. This day
and age with artists social media is your biggest
friend You used to need a ton of money to blow
up or you used to need to have connections with
a label or be a part of a label But now if you're
if you're really good at social media You can
you can make it in whatever and you can you can
make it pretty easily. Yeah, you got a good sound
I was watching, I watch TikTok all the time,
which I know a lot of us do. There are always
live karaoke battles or live singing battles
or, you know, you versus me and then you vote,
you know, click this emoji to vote for Kayden
or this one to vote for Jane. And that's really
fun. And then there's also a group called, I
think they're called Jams in a Van and they're
music interns and they're specifically asking
you to submit. Your work and they'll play it
on tiktok and then they'll review it. Um, and
I have seen like to sign you or not Yeah, I have
seen some stuff like that where it's like, um
Rating under or unreleased music or it's like
yeah, pretty cool. It's pretty cool. Um, so Tell
us the name the name again of the company that
you're using to distribute. Yeah I like I've
used distro kid since I started distro kid. Yeah,
but there's a bunch of other ones like cd baby
and um Oh gosh, um I don't know district kids
district kids worked for me though United Masters
is another one, but I don't know. All of my friends
that are independent artists that I've talked
to most of the time use DistroKid. I feel like
that's pretty universal right now. Okay. And
so if you were to develop your own music and
want to use DistroKid, would you just reach out
to them and say, hey, I've got this music, I'd
like to hire you to help me promote it? Yeah.
So it's pretty self -explanatory once you get
on their platform. So you can just go to their
website, make an account and get set up. And
then you'll submit your music under whatever
name you want you'll submit like whatever fee
They're asking and there's a couple different
like packages like you can buy Depending on what
level of like artists you want how much music
you're gonna be releasing that kind of stuff
You're managing artists what not yeah, but if
you're just a managing your own like your own
self I think I buy the $40 a year package And
they'll like you can upload your music there.
They'll verify like your artwork your song Everything
else they'll even give you an option to master
it if you want Wow And then yeah, so they make
it really easy for artists to to release their
music and drop their music and get their music
out there So then do you have two copyrights
on the music then the actual words and then the
song itself or how does that work? Yes, I guess
that really depends on how the song was made
and how many people went into making the song
if you made the song a hundred percent you then
you would own a hundred percent of the rights
so kind of Yeah, that would go under like I guess
songwriter like if like yeah In the in like the
metadata of the song and you know you could have
a producer that might take a 20 % split You might
have an artist that'll take like another 20 %
split an engineer that'll take a 20 % split and
a writer that'll take it on here I see you know
so it just depends on how many people like went
and to make the song But if you're doing it all
on your own, then you're gonna take a home a
hundred percent and that's been you is that right?
Well for the most part I work with a lot of producers
in the area because you know you can get you
can get some cool sounds when you're working
with other people You know just not on your own
Especially producers. I'm more of an artist.
I like writing writing and making melodies and
singing and rapping, sometimes playing piano,
but for me, that's what I like to do. I like
the artistry side of it instead of the producing
and engineer. I'm currently in school for the
engineering side of it right now, and I'm self
-taught on the production side of things, but
I would say my biggest focus is definitely artistry.
On the topic of that artistry have you always
loved music? Did you grow up in a musical home
with your family? How did you come to fall in
love with music the way? Yeah, so I'd say my
family is very musical my mom's a or at least
artistic at least My mom's a designer and my
dad a grower when he was my age. She was also
in a band. He played guitar And I was in choir
since fifth grade. So I don't know music's always
just been a big part of my life and yeah, my
parents have pushed me to Pushed me to do the
best that I can in music my whole life and it's
been such a blessing You spoke a little bit of
this earlier, but I want to ask you again more
formally. Who would you say your musical influences
have been? Yeah, um Yeah, I'd say the top influences
would be like just the ones that come to mind
would be like Mac Miller juice world Even like
a I actually have a list too. We like to ask
our guests What's on their Spotify list like
if we were to steal your phone? What would it
look like? This is perfect actually I'll just
name some of the ones that you guys are probably
now court a childish Gambino Jack Harlow Nate
Sibb is a is a recent influence. I'd say he's
been going into my recent music killer boy little
skies Let's see Frank Ocean Charlie X. I really
like Charlie XCX Do you get the opportunity to
see live music as a consumer not so much as a
producer or a performer, but as just a fan? Yeah,
sometimes and that's actually it is a nice it
is nice to go to a show and not have to worry
about all the technical things, right? Yeah,
just to enjoy the music to listen to somebody
that you like Yeah, it was just to elaborate
on that question I was gonna say it's so much
of the time when you're listening to music as
an artist you're like analyzing it and not like
actually like Living in the music right, so it's
nice to take a step back sometimes and actually
they just listen to the music instead of just
like Analyze it right when was the last concert
that you went to and who was it and was it here
in the city? Yeah, I mean I like if you're if
you're talking like are you talking like underground
shows? Show where you were just a consumer and
a fan. Yeah, so I guess the the last the last
show I went to Was a P fest at skate bar, okay?
It's just a bunch of underground Kansas City
artists. There were some punk artists there from
out of town, too, I think. It was a cool show.
Kansas City's got a lot of energy, especially
a lot of underground talent, if you know where
to look. Yeah. And you mentioned being a senior
here at JCCC. Yeah. Does that mean you're graduating
in December or you're going to graduate in May?
Yeah, I'll graduate next semester. Okay. Awesome.
Awesome. Okay. What's been your favorite class
that you've taken here or do you have a favorite
moment? I'm not going to lie. I've really only
the only classes I've taken here have been a
part of the studio recording classes because
I got all of my gen eds out of the way at Emporia
State. So I've really only came here for the
studio recording and then I just got my transcript
from Emporia State. my credit transferred from
here. From Emporia State to Johnson County so
I can graduate with my Associates here and get
this the recording art certification perfect.
So in the immediate when you graduate in May
What do you think that's gonna look like for
you? What are your next steps? Yeah, so there's
a there's a lot that I've been thinking about
recently and it's I think the first thing I'm
gonna try and do is look for some sort of studio
recording job either in live music or in a studio
or You know, I'm gonna look for a recording job
of some sort while pursuing my music on the side
I think that's the that's that's the first step
is just to find a stable like music job So in
addition to all of the academics and all of the
recording and all of the rebranding and all of
the social media You also have a job like a paying
job. That's kind of really cool. Actually, please
share that with our listeners Well, well kind
of I am I am Selling reselling clothing and sometimes
sometimes doing upscale So all I go to the bins
are like goodwill outlets and find vintage clothing
or thrift clothing and just You sometimes I'll
take it and upscale it so I can like I like patches
or like like so new things on it or like whatnot
but Sometimes I'll just take the vintage clothes
clean them up and then repurpose them What got
you interested in that and how long have you
been doing that? I've really only been doing
this for like about half a year now. Okay. Oh,
so brand new. Yeah, I'm relatively new What got
me into it is just watching YouTube videos of
people that I like and some creators that I like
that are doing it right now and they said there's
good, there's a good side hustle and it's like...
Like what I could pay like $50 for a Gucci Gucci
logo on a white t -shirt or you go to a thrift
store and get a cool t -shirt from the 90s for
10 510 bucks Yeah, and then to think that there's
a story behind that shirt. Yeah, you know what?
I like that. It's being repurposed, and it's
not just going to waste absolutely not ending
up in a landfill So I can X Asher online can
folks see what you're repurposing and selling
or is there another way that folks can perhaps
purchase? No right now. I'm just looking for
like the only way that I'm selling stuff is like
I'm just looking for like outlets that I can
like sell my stuff at like like Like pop -ups
is like that's a big one so like it's like mini
or like garage sales like all over but a bunch
of vendors like mini vent smaller vendors will
come to these pop -ups and just sell a bunch
of clothes and I've got like racks that I can
bring and like Yeah, and then sometimes I'll
just like sell to like people that I know like
I've got a story on my snapchat that I'll sell
to friends and So it's not like super big right
now, but it's just definitely just a solid a
small side hustle I'm doing on the side something
that brings you joy. Yeah. Yeah, you know and
I think I think it's fun to you know I don't
have to do it just for the money It's definitely
helped my like my fashion My fashion sense to
and it kind of ties in with the music sure and
you never know how you're gonna meet folks You
know maybe somebody that might not know about
you as a musician or know your type of music
might purchase that for me would be like hey
Yeah, that's really cool. You know, like you
never know where your sources of fans and listeners
might be Here at JCCC. Of course, as you know,
I'm also a music student here at JCCC There are
so many resources for student musicians the MIDI
lab Studio space. Can you speak to those resources?
Yeah campus or do you maybe not use them and
you go someplace else? So I've used all like
I've used a good amount of the JCCC resources
I wouldn't say for my own projects, but I've
used them to complete like almost all of my projects
here and for my classes When it comes to out
-of -school work, I've got a little at -home
studio And I've also got some good connections
with friends that I can get into some nicer studios
with For some good prices. So sometimes I'll
record at a studio. Sometimes I'll record at
my own house I will say if somebody from the
the music department's listening Yeah, if you
could get autotune like if you could get autotune
on like all of the systems Maybe that would change
my mind about recording here. I will say like
I don't I don't need autotune But I'm also not
seeing country or or like folk music so I think
auto -tune is kind of like a stylistic choice
That I feel like I feel like that's another like
hot topic is that a lot of people think auto
to like people need auto -tune When it when in
reality is I can sing perfect. I just think auto
-tune as to my style, right? Right, but that's
one of the that's one of their main reasons that
I don't record here is just because they don't
have all the plugins that I would want to use
to Record my specific style and I'm going I'm
more in that pop ish hip -hop ish kind of scene
in there I feel like they're more tailored to
like rock or like Like rock or like I don't know
more Not as like new music I guess like like
rap like yeah like like rap or like like There's
like a bunch of new genres like hyper pop and
like Did you know that the library in Olathe
and the library in Lawrence have free studios?
I did not. Yeah. So all you need is a library
card for the Lawrence library or for the Olathe
library, which also would be Johnson County Library.
And yeah, you can get the studio twice a month
for free. Do those studios come with like engineers?
No, you have to do your own engineering, but
they do have the computer. You know what kind
of like softwares they use? What's the one that
we used in MIDI music? Pressules. Yes, it's Pro
Tools. It's not Ableton, it's Pro Tools. And
then they have instruments as well. So it's really,
really cool. It's a free resource. The only drawback
is you can only do it twice a month, and that's
because so many folks want to use it. Earlier
you said, I don't know how to phrase this, but
I will say that I was self -taught on Ableton
when I first started making music. And then when
I finally came to school here is when I finally
started learning Pro Tools. It doesn't matter
what what you start on honestly like if you want
to start making music you should just start it
doesn't matter what software you have available
to if you have any sort of software or Have any
access to you should go and learn how to use
it if that's something that you're wanting to
do Something that I'm learning as a developing
songwriter is that perfection is really the enemy
of good. And people think, I can't write that.
I'm going to quit because it's not perfect. Just
write the bad song. Write the bad song and keep
going. That's how you learn. You're going to
learn by writing things that aren't necessarily
the greatest, but you're going to get better.
Would you agree with that? Yeah, I'd say a lot
of the times, instead of going back and fixing
a song, I'd say that I'm more willing to move
forward and start a new song than trying to fix
something in the past. Unless I'm really passionate
about that song that I'm writing, then I don't
want to as much go back and fix a song. I want
to write something new. But do you think that
the experience of it helps you? Like in my job
in Human Resources, we would say every time you
go on an interview, you get better at interviewing,
right? So the next time you interview for a job,
you're going to interview better. Do you think
it's the same with songwriting? Oh, yeah. There's
three principles in music. there's like three
r's and it's like repetition um repetition uh
yeah no there's like three there's like three
i'm trying to remember this there's like there's
like three there's like three keys to to being
a good musician and like i remember one of them
is repetition is doing something over and over
and over again you know muscle memory yeah um
there's a You can keep going. No, it's okay.
Um, so what advice would you have and you somewhat
said that you know If you want to write right,
but what advice would you have for someone that
were to say to you? Hey Kaden I want to study
recording arts at JCCC or hey, I want to be an
independent musician. How would you advise a
friend that would say that to you? First I would
like figure out what you're good at like what
you want to do within the music industry So let's
say you want to be like a singer or a rapper
or let's say you want to just play guitar You
know find what you're gonna do like your part
your role and like What you're gonna do and then
find your people that you need so like if you're
gonna if you're just gonna be an instrumentalist
Then you need to find other people to play with
if you're gonna be like a solo artist then you
know I'd say the first things that you're gonna
want to do or like The first thing is start making
music like if you've got a song If you don't
have any start to start like if you don't have
any music to start with you know Just you just
got to start writing I would say maybe go to
YouTube first YouTube is a great place to start
You can find you can find all sorts of types
of different beats there find inspiration I guess
I guess if I were starting I would say Find what
inspires me and then try and make something similar
to that just to start You know you're not as
a new artist you shouldn't be trying to make
some sort of new genre or like right? You know
don't get too niche. You know try and do something.
You don't have to reinvent the wheel Do something
that you like already get inspiration from that
and you know just keep going from there. You
know you only You can only get better. You can't
really it's it's it's almost impossible to get
worse Yeah, you could only get better. I love
that. So as we're preparing to end our time together
today Is there anything that you'd like to share
in closing with our friends that are listening
and viewing? Any study tips any fun? How would
any stories from your performances anything fun
that you'd like to share with um? Yeah, I've
got a couple things I've had some advice for
my past self. Yeah, like if when I first started
making music I would say Something that went
over my head I guess would be there's like three
main things to making music the first part is
production The second part is the artistry and
the third part is the engineering all in it takes
those three things to bring like a song together
Okay, and when I first started making music I
really only focused on the artistry of it like
I would just find a beat that I thought was okay
and then I'd start writing music to it or I'd
make a beat and I started starting I don't know
you really like need to fine -tune each one of
those aspects of music to get a good song so
I kind of invested my skill points into artistry
where I could have invested into other things
as well like the end the mix and the master and
the beat and the production so can you explain
a little bit of the difference between engineering
and production because I would have thought they
were one in the same They're very similar because
you can do both of them on in one program. Okay,
you can do all you can do all of it in one program,
right? But yeah, the production is like the beat
is the core of it, you know your drums your your
other instruments you piano guitar bass You got
your like everything that goes into making the
beat minus like the vocals So that's your like
your production Back in the day the producers
job was a little bit different. It was kind of
just to make sure that that the track was sounding
good and that the artists like You know the producers
job was just to make the track better, but now
a producer is somebody who makes beats I'd say
the engineer it they take the they take that
what the producer did and they make it sound
better So when you sing when you sing directly
into a microphone, it does not sound good, right?
There's a lot of things that need to be done.
You need to EQ it add reverb. Sometimes you got
a delay DS it There's a million different things
you could do to a vocal to make it sound better
And to the same thing with your drums and your
guitar. You got to EQ and there's a lot of things
that go into the final product that I didn't
realize when I first started making music that
would have made me a better artist if I knew.
It's not as easy, like you said, as just singing
a song or like, you know, grabbing a backing
track from YouTube and singing along with it.
There's a lot more to it than that. So thank
you so much for sharing your time with us, sharing
your story with us. Everybody, please keep an
eye on Kayden Axe Escher. Kayden Axe. Caden X
Asher C -A -D -E -N -X -A -S -H -E -R Thank you
In the coming weeks and months and remind our
listeners and our viewers again when they can
see you in December at the rap battle Yeah, so
I'm just gonna be hosting it December 4th at
the skate bar from 7 to 10 But like I said 16
artists three judges one winner. It's gonna be
a crazy night. They're gonna be going head -to
-head I'm just gonna be the host for the night
And then, yeah, hopefully if you follow me at
KadenxAsher on Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, any
platform, YouTube, you'll see some of my new
stuff coming out pretty soon. Yeah, I'm really
excited. Thank you for having me. It's been a
great time. Absolutely. You heard it here first,
friends. All right. We're so thrilled that you
were with us today. Thank you so much for joining
us. As you know, we drop new content every Wednesday
here on The Messenger Mic'd Up. So we can't wait
to see you next time. Everybody have a great
day. Stay safe. Bye.