In the release of Fault Lines during January 2025, RAHS 2022 graduate Joey Kelly — or more popularly known as Lowjam — stood beside Emerson Freybler for the production.
Though he’s more known for his pieces collaborating with Freybler, Kelly’s music goes beyond the shorelines of Emerson Island, dating back to a Soundcloud account from two years ago, to his own solo release from August 2024, “Hear These Words.”
“Hear These Words” is a song that could be described as “mellow and weighted,” with the lyrics depicting loss and love, which is further supported with the fact Kelly associates this song with his late father.
The song has quiet moments, but those moments cannot be described as “soft.” This adds a an uneasy touch to the song, which adds onto the emotional lyrics. It also gives a feeling of nostalgia and late-summer heat that gently wraps around the listener.
During Kelly’s RAHS years beginning in 2018, he did theater, RAHS Improv, and played the French Horn in Band. To this day, Kelly still emails Matt Dehnel, his Band Instructor from 2018.
“I really enjoyed doing Mary Poppins my senior year, that’s definitely my fondest memory from when I was in highschool,” said Kelly. “I was Bert.”
“His music is very out there and I enjoy it occasionally,” said Sophie Kolger, a RAHS senior who met Kelly before he graduated. “I was in the production of Mary Poppins with Joey, I remember I always thought he was awesome at acting and wondering why he didn’t do more.”
Kelly always loved music, at a young age listening to American Idiot by Green Day. “I was listening to American Idiot by Green Day because my brothers were into that album, specifically ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams,’” said Kelly. “I had my dad burn it on a CD.”
Radiohead has been a huge influence on Kelly’s musical journey, as he wishes to create music that resonates with his listeners, just as Radiohead’s music does with him.
Radiohead’s In Rainbows also helped Kelly survive throughout the COVID19 Pandemic. “For Band it was really mid,” said Kelly. “Initially it was fully online until we did hybrid learning, in which only half of us were there on any given day, but it was better than doing nothing at all for sure.”
“It was terrible! Band during COVID was awful!” expressed Dehnel. “We couldn’t do any of the things that we liked to do. We couldn’t play together, we couldn’t connect with each other.”
The pandemic wasn’t a beloved time for many students and staff members, especially the Music Department. Due to distance learning and social distancing, the road was rocky for those who needed community engagement to create music together.
“The only way we could make music together was by individual people recording themselves, and then digitally putting it all together, which is impressive as an end product,” said Dehnel. “But it’s not any fun to do while you’re doing it, because you’re playing it by yourself.”
Even though the connection and community was frail and on a whim, Dehnel and Ian McKnight — the other Band Director — tried their best and had confidence in their efforts to maintain it.
Some activities to maintain connection included the usual band rehearsals over ZOOM, and occasional talks about how everyone’s doing, and how they’re holding up during hard times.
“I think the students did a good job of reaching out to the band teachers and to each other,” said Dehnel. “It was hard, but it was a good exercise in supporting each other as human beings.”
After graduation, Kelly continued to email Dehnel updates on his life and music. Even though Dehnel suspected Kelly of slacking on his French Horn practice, with no hard feelings in mind, finds amazement and a fond sense of pride for Kelly’s work.
“I think, in high school, he spent more time playing guitar than he did practicing his band instrument,” said Dehnel. “It’s fun for me to hear that, y’know, that he’s still doing what he’s passionate about, that he’s still excited about it, and he’s really good at it!”
Dehnel expressed how much he’s in support of Kelly’s work, and is always looking forward to seeing what he creates next. “It’s kind of a fun story,” said Dehnel. “It was a rocky beginning as a high school music kid, but now he’s a superstar musician, which is fun.”
Kelly plans on releasing a new and improved version of “Hear These Words.” The song holds a special and deep meaning for him, and believes he could do the song more justice, given the fact his work has progressed since its release.
He isn’t very content with the version he released, as he believes it’s withholding its full potential, and plans to release it inside of an EP (Extended Play) of six songs this upcoming autumn.
“It’ll be a whole EP, and it’s going to be like six songs,” said Kelly. “It’s going to be called It Glows Like It Burns. As far as the songs go, you’ll just have to listen when they come out.”
