Multitalented Sacramento native Kevin Defro has been singing and songwriting since high school, but his love of music has been with him his entire life. " I remember going into Toys R Us with my mom when I was five, and she had said I could have anything I wanted. I spotted the drumset with Geoffrey the Giraffe on the very top shelf and quickly became a drummer."
It was only the beginning of what would prove to be a lifelong love affair with music.
While you can hear the effect Pink Floyd, Carlos Santana and Elton John have had on Defro, one may be surprised to find that his initial efforts were Reggae. " Strictly roots," he says, " I felt inspired by Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, Black Uhuru, Bob Marley, and later, the more mainstream sound of Steel Pulse and UB40." Still, while he enjoyed writing Reggae early on, he felt a pull toward straight-ahead rock and roll, especially power ballads.
Moving to Los Angeles in 2002, Defro found it a challenge breaking into the business, finding that too often artists allowed their music to be diluted by what others- usually non-musicians- felt would be marketable.While this concerns him even now, Defro does not allow it to shake who he is or interfere with his dreams. Most importantly, this gifted singer knows that in order to be successful, he must be true to himself.
" There's a beautiful space where reality meets poetry," he says. " From there, it's all about writing beyond my experience so that I hopefully include the experiences of all. I can't write outside my experiences, but I always want to have lyrics that others can relate to, and music that clearly defines my influences without mimicking them too closely. If I lose myself by letting others determine who I am, then my music loses its relevance. and I think that people sense that."
This unaffected honesty is what sets Defro apart in a cookie-cutter world where art gets lost in the process of homogenizing everything down to what is eventually force-fed to the masses.
The music reflects the man: realistic but hopeful, fun-loving and intelligent, unique and beautiful; humble, yet strong. Even at first listening, it is easy to see that his sincerity is his most appealing feature.
That rare quality of earnestness, coming across with every note, ensures that it is just a matter of time before the entire world discovers singer/songwriter Kevin Defro.
