by Loriana Yaport
Kevin Rudolf is back again to show fans what rocks his soul. Having been certified triple platinum with his single “Let It Rock,” Kevin is hitting the highs and strumming the lows this year. With his new Cash Money Records album in the works and recent single release, “Don’t Give Up,” the New York native is giving fans a taste of his versatile music, with inspiration stemming from his residencies in N.Y.C. and L.A.
YRB: You’re in the process of working on your third album, what’s your vision for this one?
Kevin: I’m thinking of calling it “Everything Works Out in the End, If It Hasn’t Worked Out Yet It’s Not the End.” What I mean by that is, [with] this first record, “Don’t Give Up,” I’m feeling really like I want to give the world something really positive. I want to put a good message in the music because that’s really what I’ve always been about. Going back to “Let It Rock,” when I made it my first record, and I feel like it came out in “Don’t Give Up,” which is the first song that I made for this record. Right now, it’s a continuation of that vision.
YRB: What was the inspiration behind “Don’t Give Up?”
Kevin: I would say it’s definitely got a classic rock influence. It’s got some [Rolling] Stones in it; it’s got U2. That song just came to me; I didn’t even feel like I wrote that song because I was just making a beat one day and it all just sort of came to me at one time. It literally came through me like you would hear Paul McCartney say, ‘I didn’t write ‘Let It Be,’ it came through me.’ That’s how I feel with that record, it definitely just came through me. I felt like it was really inspired from the beginning. I had just moved back to New York and it was summer and I was leaving L.A. I left and I was just feeling really inspired and everything. It was spiritual, that’s what it was, because when a song comes through you, you can’t deny it. So when you play that record for other people they can like it, they can not like it – it’s almost like it’s not even about you. You’re not liking, or liking, this thing that just came through me. It’s almost like you’re not even responsible for your work to some degree because it just happens.
YRB: How long were you in L.A.?
Kevin: I was in L.A. for a year and a half.
YRB: You just came back to New York last summer. Does the change in scenery change your music?
Kevin: I think in L.A. the music scene out there is very homogenized. You know, I think music has just taken a turn because of what’s going on in L.A., in a sense that everyone is just trying to write a hit. They are just trying to make money. It’s kind of like the actors and models just going along trying to get a part. Everyone is just trying to get a piece of something instead of, ‘Hey, I was at the piano one day and I wrote this song. It came through me.’ That’s how I grew up writing. I grew up writing [with it] being a way of expressing yourself. When I went out to L.A., it was just a lot of people just trying to hustle and make money, which I get, I mean I’m all for making money and hustling. But to me, songwriting is about accessing something in yourself and giving that to the world.
