Meet Kiss Avery

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kiss Avery.

Kiss, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Hi, my name is Desmond “Avery” Daniels and this is my story of how I started my journey in music as far back as I can remember. I’ve been singing since the age of five years old. I never really sang around the house as a child so it was always a secret to my parents. I was and still am a very “high-energy” kid so in school it was very hard to always contain myself so I would get in trouble on the regular, like every single day. I attended a private school while in elementary school in Stone Mountain, GA and one day I think it was a Wednesday I got in trouble for something probably talking too much during class and on every Wednesday we would go to what we called the “Sanctuary” for praise and worship. During Sanctuary, I was sitting next to my teacher away from the other kids singing along to the songs and my teacher said she couldn’t believe what she heard that day from me. After school she called up my mother to tell her about what happened that day and I’m in my room thinking I’m going to receive the beating of a lifetime, but instead my teacher informed my mom about my abilities of being able to sing and said to her that it was a voice she said in her own words “so rich and pure” in tone that I must join the choir or get into anything music related, so that’s exactly what happened and from there my musical journey began.

I grew up in a time where singing as a guy was looked down upon and uncool to most of my peers. I remembered being picked on and made fun of a lot by the other kids, mostly guys. I was known as the kid with “no nuts” referring to my vocal range so it wasn’t easy being the only guy singing and making it publicly known. It didn’t make things easier on me not only singing as a guy but being a part of choir groups at the time where the choir members were all girls. To give a better illustration of what I mean, the choirs consisted of 99% girls and the other 1% was made up with me so I was always hanging with girls from a young age so you can imagine I was made fun for that too. Personally, I thought it was a dream come true I mean what guy doesn’t want to be surrounded by girls all day long. After a while, the teasing stopped bothering me as much and I continued being in school choirs, choirs outside of school, and church choirs. As a child, I was classically trained as a vocalist and went into fields such as opera and performed in plays alongside the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with the Atlanta Opera all the way up till the age of 14. When I was 16, one of my family members discovered that I had real potential and believed that I could really become a “star”. I was introduced to two gentlemen which at the time were music managers managing a few artists one of which was their main focus, Latoya Luckett. I went through artist development, voice lessons, and so many other things to help me get prepared for the industry I’ve always dreamed about being in. At the time I was still in high school where I started to write my own songs in which in my opinion weren’t good at all, but I knew you had to start somewhere. I also was very much engaged on YouTube and made that my go-to activity every day when I got home from school. I would make covers of the most popular songs at the time and broadcast it to the world. I did this all the way through college and knew with hard work and consistency I would eventually be able to embark on more opportunities to increase my chances of taking my career even further. YouTube opened up many doors for me. I was able to collaborate with other YouTubers at the time.

Made lots of friends and even gained followers and fans. I was feeling I was living yet another dream and I was so happy doing it. I came across yet another opportunity in which I was asked to be a part of an RnB boy “band” group that would take the industry by storm. This was around the time Mindless Behavior, Diggy Simmons, OMG Girlz, Jacob Latimore, & Trevor Jackson were very popular and I came to know them for a short period of time. Our manager along with my three brothers “members” thought it was the perfect time to introduce another set of stars to the world and we were a trending topic, literally. The name of the group was “Trending Topic” and we’ve done more than I ever thought I would be able to do at such an early age. Through the good times and the bad times, I had so much fun being a part of the group and still keep up with the other members still to this day, even my former manager.

A couple of months go by after the group disbanded in 2015 and I felt somewhat discouraged. Through everything I have been through with every opportunity I’ve had, I thought in my mind that this was going to be my big break and I was going to be smooth sailing from there. Wrong, I hit the bottom of the bucket again. At first, I shrugged the whole thing off because even before joining the group when asked to be a part of it I was very reluctant on joining because I was so used to being a solo artist and didn’t want to feel hindered by other members. I never turn down an opportunity though so I can’t say I regret my decision because at the end of the day all things in life are either a blessing or a lesson and I looked at it as just that. So continuing to move forward I didn’t go back to doing Youtube under my government name because I had such a long hiatus from it and I’ve learned so much I felt there was something more that I could be doing for myself. I got what I really wanted in the first place and that was getting back into writing my own music and making a name for myself. I didn’t know a name to go by at first because I thought anything that had to do with my own name would be lame so no I didn’t think about Kiss Avery at first. I actually went by another name before Kiss Avery. I went by the name THEDOUBLEXX. Initially inspired by the band The XX, I created that name with mystery in mind and also “XX” comes from being inspired by the phrase “X’s and O’s” which is kisses and hugs but I went for just straight kisses “X” which describes the love and compassion that I would present in my music. Also, XX, as we all know, is the female chromosome that makes up the genetic code of the women and all my songs are either based off a women in the real world or one I would describe in my dream world. “DOUBLE” pushes the notion of double “2x’s” the kisses, double the love so it represents the intensity of my passion. So THEDOUBLEXX was born. I started saving up a lot of money over the years to acquire my own studio equipment so that one day I would be able to own equipment to record, mix and master my own music. I’m a do-it-yourself kind of guy so this was the best option for me and plus I don’t have the budget to go to recording studios all the time and pay a large fee so I decided to do it all myself. While making my own music, I studied music business as my major at Georgia State University. Under the name THEDOUBLEXX, I started off doing covers of songs that I really enjoyed just to practice recording, mixing. and mastering. My first cover was Earned It by The Weeknd that I recorded which is still on YouTube today. I’m proud of the work I did on it, and that had me continuing to make two more covers to some of my favorite songs before releasing my very first written & recorded single called “Rider”. A couple of months go by and I started to be more involved in the music scene at school and outside of school having started yet a new journey but this time as the solo artist, THEDOUBLEXX. I was introduced to an on-campus music organization called PEG ran by Derek “Pres” Jackson & Xavier “Hubris” Jones. It was out the gates being able to showcase my talent with this organization, doing shows at what was once called The Arts Exchange and many other places on and off campus. At the same time, I had an internship and a part-time fill-in position as an audio engineer at the hottest studio in Atlanta at the time home of many recording artists you know today and at the time home base studio for Lil Uzi Vert. I learned so much being there and was given so many opportunities to meet other interns, record executives, engineers, artists, and many others. At the end of Summer 2016, I was fired from my position as an intern at the studio due to an incident involving me and Lil Uzi Vert. This is the first time I’ve made public of this information to any online article, magazine, etc., so you guys are the first to know. This has been weighing on my mind for so long so I think it’s time I talk about it. As an intern, my job was to help out around the studio from the moment I arrived until it was time for me to go. I never knew Uzi personally, but there was never a moment I didn’t see him or have small conversations with him from time to time. Short and brief never anything in depth, but I wanted to display that I was a somebody in that studio so I managed to talk to anyone I could when the time seemed appropriate. I may have had two kinds of conversations I’ve had with him that I can remember which consisted mostly of “Uzi: Hey, what’s good bro? *dap up *handshake” or “Me: Yo, you heard about the new Pokemon Go right?” “Uzi: Nah, I ain’t grab dat yet” “Me: It’s fye, you should check it out!” “Uzi: Ok bet!” And that was pretty much it haha. I thought he was really cool and I looked up to him as an inspiration for being a rockstar I wanted to believe he is and like anyone new and on the rise to success I want only the best for him and still do, but shortly after “Money Longer” came out he was turning into someone I couldn’t recognize anymore or really anyone else for that matter.

One week in the summer of ’16 the Savage Mode album by 21 Savage and Metro Boomin release party was being held at the studio. That night was the busiest and most hectic night for all the interns. During the night, I remember standing in the kitchen because luckily for some of us we had a little bit of downtime to catch our breath towards the end of the night. Uzi was also in the kitchen getting his pictures taken with something taken out of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in his hands. There were many others in the kitchen at the time of the incident taking pictures and grabbing videos on Instagram and Snapchat of his display. A week goes by and I’m called into the studio office thinking that I was going to be made into the anticipated full-time engineer at the studio after working with artists such as Kap G, Lacrae and other Atlantic artists at the time. Instead, I was questioned about a video of Lil Uzi Vert holding the same object he was holding the night of the Savage Mode release party to find out the video was taken the same night of the release party and posted on Instagram the next day. The studio managers asked me if I took the video which was posted to Instagram the same night, and I said no of course because it was the truth. Out of everyone I asked myself why I was being pulled in for questioning unless someone must of pointed me out specifically. They immediately followed with saying that Uzi said I was the one that took the video. My heart sunk immediately not only because I knew in my heart, mind, body, and soul I didn’t take the video but out of everyone in that room, I feel he singled me out personally. My reasons for this are opinionated so I won’t express them in this interview, but I literally was shattered inside from what I heard that day. Trying to keep myself together I knew from that moment even after replying I knew it was either going to be my word or his word and I knew in my mind they aren’t going to disown his word for mine even if they believed that I was telling the truth. They followed by saying that Uzi didn’t feel comfortable with me being at the studio any longer so I had to leave and I’ve never been back since.

Devastated once again, everything I had worked for half a year I believed would have propelled me even further stripped away. At this point, I was so discouraged that I didn’t want to try anymore and just stop everything that I was doing. A couple of days before being called into the office I forgot to mention that for a while I was slowly starting to steer away from the name THEDOUBLEXX because I didn’t feel that it was marketable. This was when I had a conversation with one of the studio managers and asked what he felt about the name Kiss Avery. “Better than THEDOUBLEXX, but it has potential,” he said. I took that and ran with it so after leaving the studio, I was Kiss Avery and started once again a new beginning.

Kiss Avery is broken down first by the word “kiss” which goes back to how I described THEDOUBLEXX but goes even more in depth more specifically why KISS comes before Avery in my name instead of being Avery Kiss which I thought about calling myself at one moment. The “Kiss” represents my mother’s love both physically and figuratively and after comes “Avery” which is me because without my mother’s love I wouldn’t be here and without my mother, I wouldn’t have started pursuing music as my life career. The name as a whole represents the origin of my life and I can never forget how I came up or where I came from. From there YouTube was my go-to place for finding production and anywhere else I can find the best beats. I released many singles on Soundcloud such as “Somebody” ft. Willis the Lion, No Girl Deserves To Be Lonely produced by Jay-mo Dejon & many others. It wasn’t until I started working with a guy I was in school with at Georgia State University who is, in my opinion, one of the hottest and fyest producers straight out of Atlanta, Georgia. I felt I started to climb once again back up the mountain I’ve been determined to reach the top for so long. From the end of 2017 in November all the way to the end of 2018 in December I would have to say was such a successful year so far in my career. My first record released with CAIN on production was called “Carrie On” which has scaled over 300,000 streams on Spotify and the numbers are still growing to this day. I released two projects in 2018 one was an EP I called “3” which was released on my birthday (August 3rd) and my collection of singles and songs unreleased and released I presented at the end of 2018 called “Collection Vol. 1” both available on every streaming service.

2018 was packed full of growth and development in an area I never thought I would be able to accomplish in a years time. But with the help of others, I was able to do so.

It’s now March of 2019 and going into this year has been nothing but productive and a bit of a minor setback yet again. I wish I could say I am currently still working with another producer but I have found myself yet again due to certain circumstances working on making things happen with my own hands. It is nothing, but a blessing in my eyes seeing how far I have come and how much I have failed to this very moment talking with you guys at VoyageATL. I appreciate you guys so much for allowing me to speak for your platform. Reading this entire thing not knowing how it’s going to even be worded so sorry if me ranting right now is messing up the whole structure, but this is a bit of therapy for me and I’m overly grateful to be able to share my story with you guys.

I am currently working on my own beats now which has me now in all areas of my artistry. At the same time I am working on releasing more singles throughout this year starting in April to eventually compile all of my work to release yet another collection following “Collection Vol. 1” as “Collection Vol. 2” to be released at the end of the year but I might need some time to rest, reevaluate my sound and really hone in on creating production for myself that I and my listeners will really enjoy. Life seems to be continuing to push me into becoming this entity that I felt I was meant to be in the first place but was terrified of being which is a true all-around artist that has a hand in every single thing that he or she does. I spoke with Raury not too long ago who is the artist that gave us “God’s Whisper” and he said this is the way to go when it comes to making music. I am ready to take up the task and work towards releasing another EP before COLLECTION Vol. 2 in which I have somewhat of an idea of what the title will be called. I have so much I want to show my fans and new listeners and in time I will, but its got to be right. I am thinking of changing my name once again, but not to a different name but just a different way of seeing it as well.

K.S.S.A. might be what I go by now, but we’ll see what it says on Apple Music and Spotify in the next couple of months. Thanks again VoyageATL.

Has it been a smooth road?
Hell NO!! So many struggles, so many that I would love to actually sit down one day and speak with you guys about it.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with KISS AVERY – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
I am Kiss Avery and I specialize in making music. I’m most proud of the way I am able to move people with feeling and emotion through music. No one can make the people feel the way I can make them feel.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love the music scene in my city the most. The south especially Atlanta has always run the music scene and we’re finally getting the full recognition that the city deserves. The least thing I like about the city is that it doesn’t have a beach or palm trees haha.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kissmeavery/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kissavery/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kissmeavery

Image Credit:
Jimmy Easton, Eli Lefty

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