Meet Keep Your Secrets | Pop Punk Band

We had the good fortune of connecting with Keep Your Secrets and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Keep Your Secrets, what are you inspired by?
We were in the middle of quarantine when the band Meet Me @ the Altar released their music video for “Garden,” and it was really cool to see an all women-of-color band blow up in the pop punk scene. That was one of the main inspirations for us to start this band.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
We are a pop punk band with easycore and emo influences based in Washington, DC. We started out in May 2020 as a YouTube cover channel by college friends Malerie Gamblin and Matt Nguyen-Ngo. We met in the music scene at William & Mary, performing with pop punk and emo acts at student-run venues from 2015 to 2017.

After receiving a shoutout from TikTok influencer and musician Joseph DuBay in April 2021, our covers of Billie Eilish’s “Therefore I Am” and Machine Gun Kelly’s “Forget Me Too” blew up on YouTube and Spotify, giving us thousands of streams and followers overnight. That inspired us to take our project more seriously, and recruit other band members to complete the lineup. We started releasing original music as a band in June 2021.

As a pop punk band composed of all people of color and fronted by a Black woman, we aim to make our mark within this predominantly white male genre. Despite our first tour being a challenge to book completely DIY, we learned a lot along the way about touring and making connections. Recording and releasing our upcoming music has taught us – and is continuing to teach us – not only about making music, but also about the processes that happen behind the scenes.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We’d love to be shown around LA too! 🙂

As for DC, we really enjoy going to the Smithsonian museums, hanging out at the Wharf, petting cats at Crumbs and Whiskers, and seeing live music at any of its music venues.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We’d like to thank Joseph DuBay for giving us that initial shoutout, pushing us to thousands of listeners. We’d also like to thank The Violet Violence for giving us a chance to play our first show with them, and connecting us with Casey Cavaliere of The Wonder Years, who mixed our upcoming EP and has been a supportive mentor in our musical journey.

Website: https://keepyoursecretsband.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keepyoursecretsband/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KYSecretsBand

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KeepYourSecretsBand

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/KeepYourSecrets

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@keepyoursecretsband

Image Credits
Camille Brayshaw Will Dommers Rob McKenney