Renaissance Soul

For this episode of Renaissance Soul, I’m joined by Dave Stephens, founding member and vocalist of the Troy, Michigan metalcore band We Came As Romans, as we talk about their debut album To Plant A Seed. Originally released on November 3, 2009 via Equal Vision Records, a deluxe edition of the album was released on January 18, 2011 which includes one bonus track and a DVD titled To Plant a DVD. In covering this monumental debut albu...

For this episode of Renaissance Soul, I’m joined by singer-songwriter, musician, actress, and Detroit rock pioneer and legend Suzi Quatro to talk about her new album The Devil In Me, released on March 26, 2021 via Steamhammer / SPV. Now at the age of 70 with 54 years in the music game, Suzi Quatro helped kicked down the doors for the women who wanted to rock! The Devil In Me is the second time she collaborated with her son Richard ...

For this episode of Renaissance Soul, I’m joined by Chloë Drallos to talk about her debut full-length album DOOMPOP under the moniker of Zilched. Based on the grunge influences of her teens like Nirvana and Jesus and Mary Chain, this new face of Detroit’s rock scene hits it out of the park with DOOMPOP, a collection of dark and melancholy songs that’s dips into the psyche of the young singer/songwriter during those formative years ...

For this episode of Renaissance Soul, I’m joined by indie singer, songwriter, arranger, producer, and all around jack of all music trades, Fred Thomas, band leader of Saturday Looks Good To Me as we talk about their 2003 album All Your Summer Songs. Coming from the Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor area, Fred Thomas’ contributions to the Michigan music scene are just as prevalent in Detroit. With a couple local releases for Saturday Looks Good T...

For this episode of Renaissance Soul, we go back in time with legendary jazz clarinet player and saxophonist and co-founder of Detroit’s Tribe collective, Wendell Harrison. Back in the end of 2019, the London-based Strut Records released Hometown: Detroit Sessions 1990
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2014, the first compilation bringing together the modern era recordings of Tribe, Detroit’s acclaimed independent jazz collective.

Tribe began as a musical...

For this episode, we are joined by Detroit hip-hop artist T. Calmese, member of the creative counter-culture collective The Black Opera, and his debut album Time and Time Again. Formerly known as Illite of the Subterraneous Crew (OneBeLo et al), Detroit native emcee T. Calmese has released several solo mixtapes, as well as collaborative albums with fellow Michigan emcees Octane (currently known as Ro Spit) and Vaughan T (of Athleti...

For this episode, your host Kelly “K-Fresh” Frazier is joined by Hobey Echlin, bassist of the early 90s Detroit shoegaze band Majesty Crush. They were an anomaly in the Detroit music scene as they were compared to bands with the shoegaze sound that typically comes from the UK, but they were oddly connected to so much within the city of Detroit. They were surrounded by other artists who also didn’t fit in any creative box while thei...

For this episode, your host Kelly “K-Fresh” Frazier is joined by Eric Lauder, guitarist of the Detroit thrash/death metal band Plague Years, as we talk about their debut full-length album Circle of Darkness released September 18th 2020 via Entertainment One (or eOne). While the idea of the band has technically been around for about a decade now, Plague Years only started to make it more of a serious band within the past few years w...

For this episode, your host Kelly “K-Fresh” Frazier is joined by Parker Bengry and Chris Williams, just two guys known as The Messenger Birds. The Detroit alternative rockers released their debut album Everything Has To Fall Apart Eventually on October 7th, 2020. We go into the origins of the band as both guys, who have long been close friends, found themselves in countless other bands before finally coming together in 2015 to form...

For this episode, your host Kelly “K-Fresh” Frazier is joined by designer, photographer, illustrator, film director, fashion designer, Mario “Khalif” Butterfield to talk about the branding and marketing history behind Detroit hip-hop. We get into how he first found himself in the Detroit hip-hop scene as a designer and photographer, who he met, what he learned, and how he networked throughout the city. Once he got comfortable in hi...

For this episode, your host Kelly “K-Fresh” Frazier is joined by Indie-Soul/Americana musician, singer, and songwriter Stephie James to discuss her debut EP, These Days. Growing up in the Detroit area, she helped kick start a DIY coffee shop with her brother that doubled as a music venue when she was teenager. She has since toured with 8-time Grammy Award winner Anita Baker when she was 17, enjoyed years on the road with Nikki Lane...

For this episode, your host Kelly “K-Fresh” Frazier is joined by Detroit hip-hop artist Fatt Father to discuss his latest album King Father that he released back in May 2020. Fatt Father is known as a member of the hip-hop collective Fat Killahz and is a staple amongst the Detroit hip-hop scene for many years now. Fatt Father is not just a clever name, as you will hear in this episode and on this album, as he takes fatherhood serio...

For this episode, your host Kelly “K-Fresh” Frazier is joined by Detroit hip-hop artist Miz Korona as we talk about her EP titled The Virus released back in April 2020. This release is very timely as she tackles current issues involving the pandemic and the current Black Lives Matter civil rights movement from her perspective. During this very educational and insightful episode with Miz Korona, we talk about her hiatus from releasi...

For this episode, your host Kelly “K-Fresh” Frazier is joined by Detroit hip-hop producer Apollo Brown as we take a look at a very adventurous project of his, Sincerely, Detroit, released on November 8, 2019 via Mello Music Group. We talk about his motivation of doing such a project that included over 50 Detroit hip-hop artists over 21 tracks. Sincerely, Detroit is a love letter to the culture and its one of the most comprehensive ...

For this episode, your host Kelly “K-Fresh” Frazier is joined by Detroit rap legend Esham as they take a deep dive into his classic 1996 album Dead Flowerz via his own imprint Reel Life Productions. This was the fifth studio album by Esham and it peaked at #38 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The album was produced by Esham himself along with Lord Maji (who was Mystro of the Detroit hip hop duo Kaos & Mystro)....

For this episode, we are taking a deep dive into the debut studio album, Rotting Piñata, from the Detroit rock band Sponge with the band’s vocalist Vinnie Dombroski. Sponge is celebrating its 25th anniversary of Rotting Piñata with a big show at Saint Andrews Hall in Detroit on Wednesday, November 27th. What a better time to reach out and get the dirt on the making of Rotting Piñata and its impact on 90s rock music with huge hits l...

For the debut episode of Renaissance Soul, we go into a deep dive of the album Big Shoes from Detroit hip-hop emcee Big Tone produced entirely by House Shoes, released on June 7, 2019 on House Shoes' own imprint Street Corner Music. Joining us in this deep dive is Big Tone himself to talk about this collaborative album with House Shoes, where their history together as both friends and collaborators shine. Through Big Shoes, we get ...

For the relaunch, we’re joined by acclaimed hip hop journalist Dan Charnas (author of The Big Payback) as he interviews your host Kelly “K-Fresh’ Frazier about my origins in the Detroit hip-hop and music scene, about the original Jay Dee discography I curated and the Renaissance Soul website, and what to expect for the podcast. Through my time in the Detroit hip-hop scene, there’s a lot of insight about the Detroit I can share with...

Renaissance Soul was originally a Detroit hip hop website started in 2001 by your host Kelly "K-Fresh" Frazier that first centered around the discography of legendary producer Jay Dee aka J. Dilla before it branched out to all Detroit hip-hop and music. In many cases, Renaissance Soul was the first place you heard many Detroit music artists that you love today. With it's revival as a podcast, each episode will focus on specific top...