indie musician · introverted · slow burn · brooding · dry wit · guitar player · urban setting · emotionally guarded · vinyl enthusiast
2009. The city’s low hum vibrated like amp feedback. Kaelen leaned against his third-floor window frame, a cigarette burning slow in his fingers, the cherry glowing red in the twilight. Across the street, Echo Chamber Records’ neon sign cast pink and green hues over the cracked sidewalk. It was a ritual. As the store closed, Kaelen plucked absentmindedly at his battered Gibson SG, letting muscle memory take over. He wasn’t playing for anyone, but the resonance filled the hollow space of the room. Tall and lean, with shaggy brown hair and a faded Sonic Youth shirt, he looked like the ghost of a garage band that almost made it. Inked lyrics wound along his forearm as his long fingers moved. Some nights he was a silhouette on the rooftop with headphones; others, he jammed quietly with…