ARALI MELENDEZ | staff writer
photo | NICOLE CHIN
Kellen Humphries joined other APU musicians to perform at Safe Haven Coffee House Nov. 10.


Kellen Humphries passion for making music comes from his desire to create an escape and inspiration.

Kellen Humphries’ acoustic guitar and relaxing vocals filled the Safe Haven Coffee House on Saturday, Nov 10, with soft tunes and quirky lyrics.

This senior communication studies major has been playing the guitar—as a solo artist and with a band—since the eighth grade.

“In middle school my friends wanted to start a band and I wanted to play the drums. A week later my friend’s dad bought him a drum set; that made him the drummer, so I decided to play the guitar,” Humphries said.

His first real show came senior year of high school when he and his band “The Monumentals” competed in a Battle of the Bands competition. They continued playing together after high school while he was taking classes at a community college in Colorado before transferring to APU.

While Humphries still played independent gigs throughout college, he took a break from music junior year to focus on his education. He chose not to be a music major, but instead focused on other passions. Humphries said he chose to be a communication studies major with a media studies emphasis because it has the greatest ties to writing, directing, and editing short films and movies.

“I wanted to focus on movies and making short films,” Humphries said. “I also started taking voice lessons my sophomore year. I wanted to focus on my voice by itself without the guitar to improve my voice. I wanted music to be something I loved, and I felt that if I went too much into the technical side I wouldn’t hold it as highly for myself.”

Humphries was born in San Diego, but moved to Colorado in the third grade. He started taking lessons in 8th grade, but decided after only six months that he wanted to focus on writing his own music. Neither of his parents have a musical background and while his siblings have also taken music classes, he is the only one in his family currently pursuing music.

Humphries hopes to continue his music career after college. He says school takes up most of his time, which makes it hard to work on his music. But, he is still currently playing and recording music.

“I would like to get signed,” Humphries said. “Honestly, I don’t feel like I’m good enough to be on a record level, but once I own my skills I would like to be signed.”
His inspirations include Jack Johnson, The Used, Something Corporate and John Mayer.

“It seems as if Jack Johnson is almost asleep while he is playing cause he’s so relaxed. The Used is fearless in expressing their emotions. They don’t care if they are considered ‘emo’ because they express their emotions so intensely,” Humphries said.

Humphries hopes to make his performances fun for the audience through his music and “story time” anecdotes. He includes cover songs in his sets, including Beyonce’s, “Irreplaceable,” because he says they are not only sassy, but also help his vocal range.

“The song is written for a male so that’s what makes it funny,” Humphries said.

Close friends of Humphries are supportive of him as a musician and friend.

“Kellen and I have been friends for the past year and he has really developed his talent,” junior applied health major Janay Poole said. “I think he has realized that music and playing guitar is a big passion of his. It’s been interesting to see him grow as an artist. In every show he has been different or better and even more confident. He is very introspective and I think he likes to philosophize about life in general and it shows in his music.”

He has a strong following of students at APU who love his work and support him every step of the way.

“Kellen is always smiling and is one of the funniest people I know,” junior liberal studies major Brooke Heumann said. “He has really gained more confidence and is really going out full force with his music. If he continues with even more confidence, I am sure he can one day be signed.”

Humphries is considered to be so funny that Heumann said if she had to be stuck in a house with only certain people, she would definitely pick him as one of them.

“My goal in music is to create an escape from reality and inspire,” Humphries said. “I hope in some way it tells people about God either in the sound or the lyrics. Peace, joy, and hope sums up what I want to do with my music for others.”