Today we’d like to introduce you to TROY KEMP.
Hi TROY, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
From Kempsey to Nashville: The Story So Far – Troy Kemp
I was born in Kempsey, a small country town on the east coast of Australia. My mum was a nurse who loved playing piano at home, while my dad was a physiotherapist who played guitar and loved to surf. So, I guess you could say I was destined to fall in love with both music and surfing from an early age.
Music was a huge part of my childhood. Dad had a record collection featuring everyone from ABBA and the Bee Gees to AC/DC, and he regularly had friends over for jam sessions. I’d always find a way to get involved, whether it was banging on a bongo drum or getting my hands on just about any instrument I could find.
When I was six, my grandmother bought me a cassette of KISS’s Dynasty. The moment I heard those big rock guitars, I was hooked! From that point on, there was never really a question about what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be a musician.
During my high school years, I formed my first band White Light, which we later changed to Foxx, with a couple of mates, playing Australian rock favourites like INXS, Midnight Oil and The Angels. After graduating, I moved to Sydney, where my musical tastes shifted towards bands like Bon Jovi, Poison and Def Leppard. I grew my hair long, formed a heavy rock band called Court Jester, and became part of Sydney’s heavy rock scene.
In the early 2000s, I headed overseas to Toronto, Canada, on a working holiday visa. There I teamed up with Canadian singer-songwriter Kent Rock, forming an acoustic rock duo called Kemp Rock, playing regular shows around the city.
Then I met a girl, and everything changed… Haha!
She was a musical theatre performer who played piano and wrote songs, so music was naturally a big part of our relationship. We eventually moved to her hometown of Regina, Saskatchewan, where we started writing and performing together, exploring a more country-folk sound.
After a couple of years, things took a different turn, that relationship ended and I eventually returned to Australia with a new direction and a pretty clear goal: I wanted to become a country artist.
Finding My Way Into Country Music:
In 2007, I made my first trip to Nashville to record a six-song EP with Australian expat producer Mark Moffat. Back in Australia, my first single, Throwaway Day, gained exposure on CMC (Country Music Channel) and caught the attention of respected country music promoter Rob Potts, who invited me to join the touring production Aussies Walk The Line, a tribute to Johnny Cash and The Highwaymen.
In 2010, I started co-writing songs with fellow performer Drew McAlister while we were out on the road. Those writing sessions eventually turned into something much bigger, and McAlister Kemp was born!
As a new country-rock duo on the Australian music scene, we were incredibly fortunate to catch the attention of Australian country superstar Adam Brand. Adam took us under his wing, invited us to tour as his opening act and helped us secure a record deal with ABC Records Australia.
Over the next six years, we released five studio albums, scored at least ten #1 singles, won multiple CMC Awards and took home “Best New Artist/Duo” at the Australian Golden Guitar Awards. We also had the opportunity to open shows for international stars Alan Jackson and Big & Rich during their Australian tours.
It was an absolute whirlwind, and man, did we have some fun!
During that time, we regularly travelled back and forth to Nashville to write and record. After meeting and working with so many talented musicians in Music City, I knew it was somewhere I wanted to call home.
After six successful years together, Drew and I decided to pursue separate musical interests, and I began making plans to move to America. However, an unexpected solo record deal came along in Australia that was simply too good to pass up.
That meant putting my Nashville plans on hold for another couple of years while I recorded and toured my solo album, Against The Grain. The album delivered three more #1 singles, and I was honoured to receive Male Artist and Australian Artist of the Year at the Planet Country Radio Awards. I was also fan-voted into the final five for Male Artist of the Year at the 2017 CMC Awards, alongside some of Australia’s biggest country artists.
A New Life in Music City:
In October 2017, I married my beautiful wife, Aleesha, and the following year we started making serious plans to move to Nashville.
We sold our home and pretty much everything we owned in Newcastle, Australia, and began the green card application process. We were told it would normally take around nine months. Two years and roughly twenty thousand dollars later, we finally received approval on March 3, 2020.
As fate would have it, that was also the day a massive tornado ripped through Nashville!
We had three months to leave Australia, and our flights were booked for March 24. Then, in what felt like a cruel joke, COVID-19 swept across the world just a week before we were due to fly, and our flights were cancelled.
After additional paperwork and two applications to get permission to leave Australia during the pandemic, we finally received approval.
On May 7, 2020, we boarded a near-empty Boeing 747 and began the 31-hour journey across the world, travelling through empty airports and deserted terminals in face masks.
Eventually, we landed in a virtually shut-down Nashville airport with five suitcases and a whole lot of uncertainty ahead of us.
It was scary, exciting and completely surreal!
The first year wasn’t easy. With work opportunities limited because of COVID, we had to get creative just to make ends meet. I started performing live-streamed shows on Facebook for tips, while Aleesha, a professional hairdresser, began cutting hair for people in our apartment complex to help cover the rent.
It wasn’t exactly the glamorous Nashville arrival we’d imagined, but we did what we had to do!
Six Years Later:
Fast-forward to today, and we’re living a fun, busy life in Nashville.
I’m playing three to four shows a week on Broadway, writing songs with some incredibly talented songwriters and continuing to immerse myself in everything this town has to offer musically. Aleesha is working at a fantastic Nashville hair salon called Vagabond, where she’s built a great clientele.
In late 2022, we bought our first home on the outskirts of Nashville, and in July 2025, our world changed again when we proudly welcomed our beautiful baby girl, Halo, into the world.
I’m still chasing the dream, still writing songs and still hoping to land myself a publishing deal here in Nashville. It’s a tough town, and there are certainly no guarantees, but I’ve always believed that if you want something badly enough, you’ve got to be prepared to put in the work.
After all, you’ve gotta work hard to earn your stars and stripes!
And I guess, after all these years, I’m still that six-year-old kid from Kempsey who heard those big rock guitars for the first time and decided he wanted to spend his life making music.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I really don’t believe there has been too many obstacles or challenges in my career.
If anything I think at times I’ve probably been my worst enemy and sometimes the challenge is just picking yourself up to keep going.
The music business is hard and you hear the word no way more than the word yes.
Obviously going through a two year Green card application trying to get to America was stressful both emotionally and financially, so finally being approved was amazing. The next challenge was trying to get out of the country during a pandemic!!
The current challenge is just surviving in NASHVILLE with the price of everything going up whilst trying to pay the mortgage and support my family. Wish me luck!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Essentially I am an Australian country Artist living in Nashville who makes a full time living performing and writing songs. I have built a great reputation for my live performances by the way I connect with my audience, working hard to bring a room together and make every person feel like they are a part of the show.
I call out Birthdays, Anniversary’s, get kids on stage to dance, invite the occasional person up to sing if they want to and just try to make it fun for all.
I am most proud of my achievements in Country Music and the life it has given me. I am also extremely proud to be married an incredible woman who works hard and is honestly the backbone of our life and family.
As for what sets me apart from others, I guess being Australian in the USA is obviously a point of difference but I just stay in my own lane and continue to work hard.
If anything, maybe the fact that I was crazy enough to move country in the middle of a pandemic, to go chasing dreams sets me apart from others.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I honestly believe that the essential quality that is most important to my success is the fact that I “never give up”.
I continue to set new goals and strive to achieve them.
Music is a tough business and takes you on a ride. One day you are playing a big show to thousands of people and a week later, you can be playing to 3 people in a quiet bar on a Monday night.
Work hard, be persistent, ignore what everybody else is doing, believe in yourself and move mountains.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/troykempmusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/troykempmusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6c03kIXMM8OZx4gTCVxUdQ
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@troykempofficial
