Rising Stars: Meet Kelly King

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly King.

Hi Kelly, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
Born and raised in Nashville Tennessee I grew up around music royalty both legendary artists and hit songwriters within the country music genre. Being mentored and having worked with some of the greats such as Brenda Lee, Vince Gill, Dolly Parton, Victoria Shaw, and Gary Burr to learning the ropes of the industry at my first ever professional job in publishing when I was 18 years old alongside Jodi Williams at MCA.

After being an artist signed by Warner brothers in my late twenties, I decided to shift gears and really steer my efforts in artist development working at management companies in multiple genres (Philymack). Later, independently managing and A&R’ing my own artists (Mary Jo and Bennett Woolsey). Having served as head of artist development at KYN Entertainment for 2 years, I developed the girl group BoysWorld and solo phenom Dylan Conrique. I learned the skills and made the connections to take a project from start to finish. I also have seen and studied how tech-cultured companies such as Spotify, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube have been able to integrate with the consumer in the Pop and Hip-hop genres extremely well. I have a great understanding of these platforms and truly feel I can excel at connecting music consumers and artists directly to these platforms.

Recently over the last few years, I landed my dream job as the studio manager for UMG in Nashville at our Berry Hill campus of studios called East Iris and have found an absolutely magical place within the business. Where the true magic happens and where new talent is cultivated daily. Our 9 studios (3 Atmos mixing rooms) are likely the most special in town. We open our doors to the whole music community here (not just UMG artists or signed artists) in Nashville and we pride ourselves on having 55% female engineers and mixers within our staff. My personal hope is to have proper representation in the studio environments so all clients, guests, and members of the music community feel completely as if they are here at home with us. We accept all types of sessions as it’s important to provide for artists at all levels and give them whatever type of facility they need to create in the most inspiring ways. From writing, tracking, to content spaces to shooting videos and photos… we have it all. We also host a live night almost every month or so and invite local artists to just come and JAM! (This whole section is repeated below and I feel it should be removed from the backstory section and only used in the tell us more about what you do section)

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I would not say it’s been a SMOOTH ride… I’d say it has been a HECK of a ride though. Many struggles along the way with just navigating the ups and downs. So many personalities and definitely being a woman you have to attack things from different angles a lot of the time. Stay true to yourself and find the right leaders around you to guide you and help you through.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Over the last few years, I landed my dream job as the studio manager for UMG in Nashville at our Berry Hill campus of studios called East Iris and have found an absolutely magical place within the business. Where the true magic happens and where new talent is cultivated daily. Our 9 studios (3 Atmos mixing rooms) are likely the most special in town. We open our doors to the whole music community here in Nashville and We pride ourselves on having 55% female engineers and mixers within our staff. My personal hope is to have proper representation in the studio environments so all clients, guests, and members of the music community feel complete as if they are here at home with us. We accept all types of sessions as it’s important to provide for artists at all levels and give them whatever type of facility they need to create in the most inspiring ways. From writing, and tracking, to content spaces to shooting videos and photos… we have it all. We also host a live night almost every month or so and invite local artists to just come and JAM!

I’d say I specialize in the attention to detail of PEOPLE. It’s a passion to make people feel happy and at their most comfortable when they are creating. I think I am most proud of accomplishing alongside my amazing bosses and company here at UMG the 55% female staff. We also recently had one of our mixers advance to the Global Atmos mixer list of only 360-something mixers in the whole world who are truly qualified to Atmos mix. Only 7 of those were women. We just added the 8th woman to that list and the youngest at that being she is 22 years old. Her name is Madison Harmon and next, we hope to see her evolve into a Grammy award-winning mixer/engineer.

I think what sets me apart from others is my pure desire to help others. I like to say I got it from my momma as she truly embodied that as well, where I got the drive and determination from, my father! He taught me that I am NO different than any man in my position and to compete with the BEST by being MY best!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.eastirisstudios.com
• Instagram: @kellykingsings and @eastirisstudios