Kezia Is the Bay’s Fresh New Voice of ‘Rock’N’B’

Rising singer Kezia is clear about who she is and what she wants: “I’m Kezia. I’m an artist. I make rock’n’b, and I want you to love yourself and believe you’re hot and sexy and can do anything, always,” she says in a recent interview.

At her first headlining show, May 11 at San Francisco’s Brick & Mortar Music Hall, the singer-songwriter will preview tracks from her upcoming project, showcasing the dreamy sonic world that she’s built for her fans.

In the three years since the release of her Claire EP, Kezia has dropped a number of singles and evolved her sound, an ethereal combination of soft vocals over fuzzy guitar and trap-inspired hi-hats. It’s a fusion that stems from her earliest loves in music

“I remember growing up, riding with my mom listening to the Bay Area alternative music station, Live 105,” she says. She found inspiration in bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Incubus and Paramore — the first band she discovered on her own. She also loved the stacked vocal harmonies of R&B singers like Brandy. Now, she melds these sounds into one that represents her.

Her warm and hazy track “megan fox” has received over 3.6 million streams on Spotify, thanks to a placement on the popular Lorem playlist, which highlights indie artists across genres for a largely Gen Z audience. The placement connected Kezia to fans across the world.

Kezia’s musicality has been a constant in her life — growing from childhood jam sessions on guitar to later studying music in college at Cal Poly Pomona, where she cites a class on the history of American pop music as a turning point. “Learning about the history of rock’n’roll and R&B, it was really fascinating for me to discover that they really sprouted from the same seed,” she says.

It was this newfound knowledge that inspired her to look to the core of the classic music she loves and ask herself why it still resonates with fans after decades. “For a song to be classic and timeless, it has to be real and authentic and punch from the heart,” she says.

Raised in American Canyon, between Napa and Vallejo, Kezia describes diversity and commitment to authenticity as the ethos of the Bay Area — values shapes her creative process. The Bay is a place she considers magical, and she tries to not spend too much time away while pursuing her dreams in Los Angeles. “I think growing up in the Bay Area, you don’t realize that you’re living in a completely different world than the rest of the country until you leave,” she reflects.

Looking back at her early days of performing at underground shows, Kezia says the culture here helped her grow. “People can tell when you’re faking and trying too hard, and they don’t like that,” Kezia notes. “Bay Area crowds will not lie to you, they will walk away.”

Spirituality and getting in tune with herself have been integral to Kezia’s artistic journey. “When I’m in the studio, it’s a very unconscious process,” she shares. “The flow state is real.”

For her, the creative process revolves around letting her spirit guide her, freestyling melodies and letting the rest of the song come. “A mantra that me and my producer on a lot of this next project, Oscar Scheller, will constantly say in the studio is ‘no thoughts.’”

In jam sessions for her upcoming project, some songs came together in a matter of days; others took years to perfect. Kezia mentions the arrangement of a forthcoming track titled “Skywalker,” inspired by a joyous recurring dream. Dreams are a continuous inspiration in Kezia’s world — she describes one of her latest singles, “sweet nothing,” as the feeling of fantasy softening harsh realities.

As she prepares for her headlining show, Kezia draws upon her background in acting to get into that flow state on stage. While rehearsing, she’s also focused on more than how she’s going to sound or look. “Music is really so important to the spiritual health of the world, and it provides a great service,” she says. “Anytime you’re sharing or channeling your gifts, it’s always going to be spiritually healthy for you.”

Kezia views her fans as peers who see themselves in the lyrics; she wants her songs to be as empowering for them as they are for her. “At many points in my life, certain songs have been a friend to me,” she says. “I just hope that my songs can be that for people when they feel like nobody understands them, to inspire them to see themselves clearly and to love themselves more deeply and to honor their own inner nature.”

Connecting with her fans after the show is always a highlight for Kezia. “I love the community that we’ve created,“ she says. “One of the most beautiful things about music is that it’s always existed to be shared amongst the community, and that’s why I’m really excited to play my show.”

Kezia performs at Brick & Mortar Music Hall in San Francisco on Saturday, May 11, at 9 p.m. Tickets and details here.