‘It’s Ok, B U’ is Kiefer’s first solo beats-and-keys album in five years, after his last full-length focused on a live band sound. The record mirrors the artist’s personal journey over the last few years, from “a 25-year-old who hadn’t had his dream come true yet,” to “a 31-year-old who has experienced real disappointments, and now understands the potential fragility of dreams, health, and relationships,” but aspires to have the courage to overcome his fears.
Instrumental beatmaking and keyboard playing aren’t usually associated with emotional catharsis, but that has always been a major theme of Kiefer’s music: his Stones Throw debut ‘Happysad’ was a bittersweet expression of anxiety and isolation, and his second album ‘When There’s Love Around’ was warm and open-hearted, with songs dedicated to friends and family. In line with ‘It’s Ok, B U’s subject of self-acceptance, Kiefer says, “I wanted to allow myself to go crazy and express myself in the biggest, loudest way possible. I had a few weird beats where I was really reaching for something.
As the music got more eccentric, the more it seemed I was aiming for really dramatic, strange, indescribable emotions.”
Track titles echo Kiefer’s ongoing journey towards self-acceptance. “Panic” and “My Disorder” refer to a condition which caused him to have multiple panic attacks a day. For “Doomed”, Kiefer says he wanted to let his inner superhero speak. “I stretch out and play the longest, most intense solo of the record. After a huge cascade, everything is quiet. Maybe everything is actually ok.” Relationships also bleed into the album: “August Again” arose from missing an ex longer than expected, “Hips” comes from a place of “love and lust”, and “I Was Foolish, I Guess” accepts the fact that not every relationship works out.
The drama of Kiefer’s playing is inspired less by other musicians than the fierce intensity of sports players like Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. Light touches – joyful piano solos, ironic titles, songs about getting high, a 3-second track – counter the seriousness, with Kiefer attributing his sense of humor to a childhood full of jokes and a diet of standup from Mitch Hedburg, Eddie Murphy, George Carlin and Jerry Seinfeld. He says: “I think the way comedians develop their art form is kind of the ultimate way – to go up in front of an audience every night and potentially fail epically is admirable.”
Though he’s a GRAMMY Award winner who’s worked with the likes of Drake and Anderson .Paak, as a student at jazz school, Kiefer wasn’t always so sure of himself. He now works to encourage other musicians’ creativity and help level the playing field with regular free lessons and his series of PianoLabs teaching videos. Active in L.A.’s vibrant musical community, Kiefer also hosts salon-like concert events in his backyard. The musicians in this scene orbit around jazz without paying genre much mind; Kiefer calls his style Black American Music, as inspired by D’Angelo and J Dilla as by
Herbie Hancock.
Ultimately, ‘It’s Ok, B U’ is about reaping the true rewards of self-care. Kiefer explains: “At the end of making this record, I realized that these songs are about ways that I deal with being sad. It’s easy to run away from feelings, through obsessing over an idealized future, getting faded, burying myself in music, or a thousand other ways. I’ve learned that it’s important to embrace when you’re sad and embrace your mistakes, because they are part of who you are. If we are loving toward ourselves in this way, we can be empathetic towards others, too.”
