Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on the Ann Arbor District Library’s Pulp blog.

Kelsey Detering has found her groove.

The Ann Arbor indie-rocker recently started playing bass and features new wave-inspired basslines on her four latest singles.

“Musically, I feel like I found myself starting at the end of 2023,” said Detering, who’s traded her previous Ceolsige (pronounced see-ole-sidge) artist moniker for Kelsey. (pronounced Kelsey period).

“I found myself as an artist and as a person, and everything locked in. That’s what happened to me, and I thought, ‘This is so different than Ceolsige, and it feels different.’ I’m hearing music differently since I started playing bass, and I’m writing and approaching it differently.”

Initially a pianist, Detering credits Duran Duran bassist John Taylor with inspiring her to pick up the bass—a Rio Dream bass.

“I learned all the [Duran Duran] basslines and started to branch out to other basslines and players, too,” she said. “That’s really the foundation of my playing. The first [bassline] I wrote was for ‘Throw the Stone,’ and you can hear [John Taylor’s influence] all over that. He was inspired by [Blondie], it’s a thread that goes through it.”

Detering’s including “Throw the Stone” and three other songs on a new Kelsey. EP, which will be released during her July 17 show at Lo-Fi Bar in Ann Arbor.

It features collaborations with singer-songwriter/guitarist Chris DuPont and guitarist/pedal steel guitar player Michael Harrington and drummer Billy Harrington of The Brothers Harrington.

“If you come to the show, you can get this packaged EP of all the singles I’ve released so far,” she said. “‘Wasted’ is the bridge song because half of it was tracked with these singles and the other half was finished in the album sessions.”

In addition to releasing a new self-titled EP, Detering has been working on her full-length debut album for Kelsey. at Ann Arbor’s Solid Sound Recording Company.

“In the fall of 2023, I had a lot happen in my personal life, and it inspired this whole album,” Detering said. “It was a lot of feelings that I had and a lot of new things I had never felt before.”

I recently spoke with Detering about her latest projects ahead of her show.

Q: You’ve been working on a lot of new music lately. How’s it been going? 

A: It’s been a lot of planning. I’ve been tracking my album, and I’m trying to get the show together that’s happening [soon]. I’m getting these songs out and getting everything ready to go. I’ve been practicing a lot because I’m playing bass and singing, which is going to be a new experience. I’m making a music video for “Throw the Stone.” It’s a fun, dancing-in-your-house kind of video, and I thought it would be simple enough.

Q: You wrote your latest singles in 2023 and 2024. How did those four tracks come together during the writing process? 

A: A couple of songs were written in 2023, and some of them were pieces that were put together eventually. I’d write part of a song and then throw it up for therapy on my Instagram. I wanted to put it there and just put it into the world. In 2024, they all started coming out, especially in the first half. Every couple of days I’d be writing a song, and a couple of songs snuck in toward the end of the year, too, that made the album.

Q: What inspired this prolific songwriting period for you? 

A: I write about what I feel and what happens to me. I write very personally. All these songs just started coming out, and it was over a year. And sometimes I still write because it’s like therapy for me, and that’s how I process my feelings. I soak up the good ones and … release the bad ones.

Q: “Throw the Stone” explores the strength and growth that comes from staying true to yourself. How did a poem inspire this song? 

A: I wrote the lyrics as a poem, and I don’t normally write that way. Usually, I sit at the piano and start plunking out some chords, but once in a while, I will write a poem. With that one, it had been a very stressful time in my life, and I walked to a park in the dark.

I had to chill out and go for a walk, and I was looking around at these trees. I was thinking about how they were spooky, and my head was turning with all of these metaphors of vines and trees. I wrote this poem about when you feel like the world wants to kill you and how you just keep going. It’s the force of nature doing it to you, and it’s also making you stronger, even if you don’t want it to happen.

Q: “Tempest” examines the anticipation of a negative experience and the anxiety associated with its return. How was writing this track cathartic for you? 

A: It’s the anxiety of knowing something bad is coming. It was written about a repeating cycle of when it keeps happening over and over again, and you try to keep going. It’s like waves that come out and come back, so that’s why I liked that metaphor. You’re waiting for it to come back, and you’re dreading it. You know that it’s coming back it … but you’ll get through it. And even if it comes again, you’ll get through it again.

Q: You first released “World on Fire” three years ago on your Ceolsige EP. Why did you decide to remix and rerelease it now? 

A: When I made the change over to Kelsey., I thought, “I gotta keep this one, and I gotta update it for Kelsey.,” so that’s why I tracked the bassline on it and remixed it. It changed the flow of it. The song originally came in response to the [2016] shooting at the Orlando nightclub [Pulse]. I was so upset, and I was trying to finish a different song, but “World on Fire” came out in 30 minutes. I wrote it vaguely on purpose because it can mean a lot of things and not just that, even though that’s where it came from. For whoever listens to it, I hope it provides some catharsis and alleviates your frustrations.

Q: “Wasted” is about being attracted to someone, but realizing they don’t want a relationship. What inspired this track about searching for the right partner? 

A: This one came from when you meet a person who’s so great and then you part ways, whether permanently or temporarily, with them. You’re thinking, “Wow! He was really something, and he was into me, so where’s everybody else?” That one was written in one day in the fall of 2023. It was at the beginning when all the new stuff started to happen. I wrote that one so pissed off at being single, and I thought, “I don’t wanna be single anymore. Where are all the guys? If he thinks I’m all that, they should be lining up out the door.”

Q: “Wasted” also features a fiery guitar solo by Michael Harrington. How did that solo come about in the studio? 

A: It’s amazing working with [The Brothers Harrington], and we’ve built [the album] from the ground up. We did it like a band, so I brought in most of the songs, and they were bare bones. We were making this album, and I already had “Wasted” almost done. I thought, “Mike [Harrington] is killer; he has to play on this song,” and I asked him, “Hey, do you want to rip a solo? Play something like Eddie Van Halen does on ‘Beat It.’” He did three amazing takes of it.

Q: How does “Wasted” help set the tone for your full-length debut album? 

A: It’s thematically and sonically the introduction to what’s gonna happen. The album has a lot of different flavors on it. “Wasted” is one of the heavier rock songs, and there’s an instrumental on there that’s super rock. It just happened in the studio, and I built a riff around it, and we just started playing together. I thought, “This is awesome; we gotta throw this on the record.” 

There’s some poppier and experimental stuff, and there’s a house song. It’s all real instruments and no beats. I thought, “How do we make the feel of a house song with real bass, real drums, a cool experimental guitar, and an organ?” The challenge has been keeping everything cohesive, and the players have kept it cohesive. The basslines, my singing style, and the synth textures that I put over those things have wrapped it up nicely.

Q: You’ve been recording your album at Solid Sound Recording. How has the recording process been going so far? 

A: We started tracking in December, and we did a lot in December and January, and a little bit in February with The Brothers Harrington. After they wrapped up their stuff, I [started] laying everything down. I built synths, and I’m not a synth player, I’m a piano player, so that was a new thing. In the spring, I did vocals, and I just wrapped up the synths. We also brought in a couple of string players. We have backing vocals left now, so we’re almost done. 

Q: What’s it been like collaborating with studio owner/engineer Eric Wojahn and The Brothers Harrington on the album? 

A: Eric is the best at listening to me tell him things that I want them to sound like, especially since I had no idea of what buttons to press. I’d say, “I think the bass sounds a little thin. Can we make it sound more like this?” Then he’d say, “Let me try this,” and he’d press all of the buttons really fast and say, “How does that sound?” And I’d say, “That’s exactly what I wanted.” He’s got some great ideas of his own, and he’s been a great producer to work with. He’s very collaborative, but he’s allowed me to take a hand in it.

When we first came [into the studio], I was doing scratch tracks. I’d be sitting next to Billy [Harrington] at the piano, working out a few chords or a few transitions on things. They were in there, and we were shaping these songs as arrangements. We weren’t just saying, “Here’s the drum part you’re gonna play, or here’s the guitar part you’re gonna play.” We worked together to arrange a lot of these songs.

Q: You’re performing on July 17 with The Brothers Harrington at Lo-Fi Bar. What can people expect from the show? 

A: We’ll be performing three of the songs from the EP, and then we’ll be previewing the album. There might be a cover thrown in there. We’re gonna have Nate Veldhoff fill out the sound, and he’s gonna play keys. There are a lot of piano parts, and I can’t play the bass and piano at the same time.

Q: What will Brielle help bring to the show as the opener? 

A: Brielle is a student of mine at School of Rock Ann Arbor, and I’ve been watching her go from a student to an artist over many years. She’s gathering her online presence now, and she would like to start recording her songs soon. Brielle’s got a great voice, she’s become a good rhythm guitarist, and she’s developing into a great songwriter.

Q: What work do you still have left for the album? 

A: Right now, we’re doing backing vocals, and I just did a bunch of percussion. I’m not a percussionist, but I’ve learned how to become one. Once the backing vocals are done, we just have to mix [the album]. I hope to take it out and shop it around when it’s done and see who’s interested.

Kelsey. performs July 17 with Brielle at Lo-Fi Bar, 220 South Main Street, Ann Arbor. Doors are at 7 pm and tickets are $8. The show is open to people ages 18 and up until it ends at 9:45 pm.