GET TO KNOW: KEEPVIBESNEAR

FEATURES - MUSIC - GET TO KNOW

MONDAY 1ST DECEMBER 2025

WORDS BY AMALIA CASTLE

KeepVibesNear is unbound - simple as that. Rooted in collaboration and driven by evolution, the Romford native’s catalogue knows no limits as he introduces a new chapter with his latest singles ‘Show & Prove’ and ‘Glad To Be With You’, proving just how far he’s come.

For Romford-born musician KeepVibesNear, music dug its claws in from the beginning.

From his early enthusiast days hunting for new sounds, to discovering a love for poetry and literature in his teens, it wasn’t long before KVN put pen to paper translating his emotions into stories of their own. This love for music was what first led him to archiving and documenting his taste as a music journalist, and which soon became an instinctual relationship with music that had to evolve from observation to creation. KVN began to pour his understanding of both these written and sonic worlds into his own work, completely unguarded in his expression.

Now, seven years on from his first releases, his chemistry with vulnerability feels more present than ever. As his sound evolves, he hasn’t faltered in his mission to find harmony between his own unique voice and the roots that first shaped it, never shying from reinvention. Having recently shared his singles ‘Show & Prove’ and ‘Glad To Be With You’, we’re given a glimpse of the next chapter, as he draws inspiration from his early influences in the indie scene and combining this with the mellow R&B signature fans have come to love. With ‘Show & Prove’ he asks us: “Are we really ready? Are we able? Are we man enough?” to confront the messy and wonderful realities of love.

We recently caught up with him for a chat around his creative process, the evolution of his sound with ‘Show & Prove’ and ‘Glad To Be With You’, and the importance of collaboration as an artist.

Congratulations on the release of Show & Prove! How has the experience been bringing it out into the world?

It's been great. It's nice to have songs that you only really held on to for a short space of time. I didn't hold on to these songs as long as I often do. I made them quite recently, and then let them go quite recently. So, it felt good and it's been received well. I feel like it was nice to start a new chapter with a lot of new producers that I've been working with over the last few months.

Show & Prove’ shortly follows the release of ‘Glad To Be With You’. Do you see these songs as connected chapters, or do they stand on their own? And if they’re part of a bigger story, where can listeners expect that story to take us?

I think they're not as connected as say a ‘yin and yang’ type of thing, because that's often how I think of my songs. But I think they’re a great pair in terms of a light and dark comparison, more up and down per se. These tracks paint a picture of the songs I have to come at the end of the year and the start of the new year, so they give a bit more of a shape to what I'm about and what I'm capable of. I felt like it was great to have ‘Glad To Be With You’, which is a more upbeat song and probably more similar to some of my older stuff. It also feels great to have something out that is closer to what I listen to when I'm not listening to straight soulful R&B kind of stuff.

These last two singles have leaned into a mix of soul and alt/indie influences. What have you enjoyed most about exploring those sounds?

I guess a lot of it probably comes from growing up and playing a lot of guitar, and when I was playing a lot of guitar I was listening to a lot of indie music. A lot of my influences are people like King Krule, Arctic Monkeys and John Mayer. So as much as I love R&B and Hip Hop, my artistry is skewed to an extent, and also my voice is unique in a way that I think doesn't always come across like typical R&B. So, the indie inspiration leaks in without me kind of needing it to, or even wanting or expecting it to. Thanks to a lot of the people I've been working with recently the instrumentation has leveled up. We’ve got to a place where everything feels a bit more real and nostalgic almost.

You’ve mentioned working with a range of producers. Who are some of the artists or producers you’ve collaborated with on these new singles?

It's great because the producer on ‘Show & Prove’ is my good friend, Val Fritz, who is actually a new friend that I met in the last year, and this is the first release that we've got together. It’s really nice to have this be the song we finally put out, because I remember when we made it. It was my favourite one out of the bunch we had at the time and I looked at him like, “whoa, this one is special”. Three or four months later it actually came out. Then the producer of ‘Glad To Be With You’ is one of my good friends, Taylr, who I've worked with a lot. I've also got quite a lot of stuff in the locker with him as well. It was nice a balance of someone I've been working with a lot, but then also like a new, fresh face that I've only been introduced to recently and that's now a big part of my life.

So two very organic link-ups then! I imagine that bleeds into the production process?

Yeah, I do a lot of sessions, and I link up with a lot of producers for the first time, and sometimes it's only that [a link up]. It's not that we didn't make a great song or I didn't enjoy the session, but sometimes you just gel. I almost strictly work with producers that I fuck with on a level, and sometimes we don't even make music. We just listen to beats and never actually record anything. I can be quite fast with my writing and quite fast with my ideas, so being able to come to the studio and not come up with ideas and not put that pressure on yourself is equally valuable to me as well. I'm glad that I can have that rapport with the producers I work with.

ou mentioned earlier some of your inspirations in the indie scene. Are there any particular artists, projects, or even tracks (from any genre) that have really shaped who you are as an artist today?

ou know, that's probably a better way to answer that question, because I don't think it's just one artist, I think it's certain projects. There’s albums in my life that I can pinpoint and say, “yeah that one had an effect on me”. It would probably be The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill to start with, as I’d say that was my entry point into music that really clicked with me. Then, if I skip to like my indie years, it would be John Mayer Continuum and King Krule Neptune Estate and then during my uni days it would be Daniel Caesar Freudian. That album till this day is one of my favourites. Obviously Frank Ocean, Odd Future and The Internet. I've had a lot of influences all around because I’m a big listener of music and before I was making music, I actually studied music journalism. At first I thought that's where my love for music came from, just an eagerness to find new stuff, but that's now translated into me making my own.

Can I ask where the name KeepVibesNear comes from?

I get this question all the time. It's crazy, because I think it's so obvious [laughs]! My name is Kevin and I always used to love this artist called AfterTheParty, around the time I was first starting to make music. I love PartyNextDoor as well, so I always wanted to have a name that was similar to my name, but that wasn’t so cut and dry. So I went from Kevin to KVN and then to KeepVibesNear, and that's stuck.

I thought that might have been the story behind it! Your songwriting is also a big part of your music too, particularly your affinity for openness and vulnerability. So, how did you first discover your voice as a songwriter? Was there a particular influence, perhaps even outside of music?

I guess it was literature. From a young age I was into English quite naturally. I just thought that I was good with words and so that translated into me reading a lot when I was at school. I remember when I was in sixth form I had a really good English teacher who used to analyse my songs in class. We’d use them the same way we’d use poems, which gave me the feeling that my poems were actually literature and that what I was doing was actually quite technical. Before that I was only really good at sports and I hadn’t really found something that came to me so naturally, I felt like [writing] was something that did. My interest in poems and analysing books gave me thought processes like ‘what does this really mean’ and ‘how can this mean this’. So when I started listening to a lot of songs I got that same feeling, which then translated into how I write my little words.

As we’ve touched on with your releases, you’ve experimented with indie, soul, lo-fi, moody R&B, and even acoustic textures. Where do you see yourself pushing your sound next?

I've been doing a lot of sessions with producers that are also multi-instrumentalists. This is so far from what I was doing, so it's great to find the balance and the contrast at the same time. Working with people that are taking me out of my comfort zone, even if it's just in a sense of percussion or tempo has really been helping me experiment with sounds. A lot of people often come to me and they're like: “I've got just the right thing for you, because I've heard your stuff, and I'd love to hear you on something like this”, and it's always some really relaxed and soothing shit which is amazing, but the producers I work with a lot, like Subculture has led me to making stuff that is so far left from my typical sound and much more percussion based. Three or four of the producers that I work with are naturally drummers, so I think that's starting to come across in my music too, which is more sporadic or more exciting. It's really helping lift the mood. It’s still chill shit, like but definitely some more challenging and interesting sounds

It’s really exciting to see you enter a new era with your sound, which you’ve mentioned also comes from working with a range of collaborators. I know this has also been a super important part of your identity as a musician, having worked with artists from The Silhouettes Project to Kojey Radical, FloFilz, and Frankie Stew & Harvey Gunn. What has collaborating with others, and being part of a collective taught you about yourself as an artist?

I feel like it's taught me there is power in community. Part of the reason I'm so into music is because I love finding new music and finding artists. I've always found artists that are likeminded and connected with them - that's kind of what music is for me. I love collaborating and being around people that have the same purpose as me and making music I enjoy. I like looking from afar and thinking “That's really cool, I'm gonna listen to that on my run” or “That's my friend”. I really enjoy that feeling and it definitely inspires me to connect with more people. There's so many of my friends that I haven't made songs with yet, that are also amazing artists. At this point it just feels like I'm collecting Pokemon [laughs]. It’s nice to know that we did that, that we might do it again and it might actually become a song that’s released and out in the world. It’s nice to connect and do what you enjoy with people that do the same.

And are there any dream collaborations?

I’d love to make a song with Tyler the Creator, and one with Orion Sun. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Tia Gordon. I actually went to her show the other day and it was amazing, so yeah, Tia Gordon as well.

Finally, if someone’s discovering KeepVibesNear for the first time through ‘Show & Prove’, what do you hope they take away about you as an artist?

I hope they see intention, because I feel like it’s an intentional feeling that comes across in that song. As much as it is a love song and it’s soothing, it’s also challenging. It’s something to think about and I hope the idea of the song and the thought process of it sparks the idea that love is cool, but like are we really ready, are we able and are we man enough? I’d like them to take away the fact that I am unbound by the music I make and the possibilities are endless. So ‘Show & Prove’ is ‘Show & Prove’ and the next song is something else. I hope they hear this song and think “Wow, what is he going to do next”.

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