Keegan Jaeckel, better known as B00sted, is an up and coming pop/rap artist hailing from Vancouver, Canada. At just the age of 19 (going on 20 in April), he’s already made a huge splash in the music world.
His song “CBA“, a song that draws heavy inspirations from Logic, attracted an impressive 1.5 million views on YouTube with 1.2 million streams on Spotify. These are huge numbers, especially for an independent artist.
He dropped his debut album, Below Zero, in 2019 and which caught the attention of many listeners. The 11-track project is filled with gems such as “High Up” and “Back“, the latter of which received 1.1 million streams on Spotify.
Building off of that momentum, he released his EP, GPS, in January. We see him finding and playing with new sounds, ranging from his signature fast flow rap on “Baby Boy” to slowing it down with his pop/rap track, “Lost & Found”.
We got to do a video interview with B00sted, who’s sitting in his room-turned-makeshift studio. We dive deep into his inspirations, his creative process and what is next for him.
BTS: How did you come up with your artist name, B00sted?
B00sted: You know that adidas shoe, the adidas Boost? Back in like 2016, 2017? It was really popular back then and a lot of people would buy the shoes. I was kind of a hypebeast back in the day. I was really into Yeezy’s and adidas shoes and stuff. I felt like the Boost was really cool and thought it was a cool thing. So I put like “boosted” and I’m like let’s switch it up a bit and put the zeroes in and be Soundcloudy and whatever and that kinda just stuck. Once you memorize the two zeroes in my name, you [remember] it. There’s not like any deep meaning to it.
BTS: So do you wear only adidas Boosts now?
B00sted: I don’t anymore dude. I kinda fell off the hypebeast trend man. I used to but I wear a lot of Vans now. That’s just really the vibe.
BTS: Could you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard it before?
B00sted: I would say it’s different in a way, it’s not crazy different, but it’s unique in its way where you don’t really know what to expect with my music. I’ll drop more like hype stuff, more slow stuff. I feel like I’m really versatile. I’ll [sing] more on some stuff [and] it’s more rap on other stuff, kinda in that barrier between the two, like pop rap. It’s mostly happy, energetic music, I would say.
BTS: Who are your musical inspirations?
B00sted: My top three I always say is Logic. Logic was obviously a big influence for me. Under Pressure, his older Bobby Tarantino stuff was inspirational for me too. Like my song “CBA”, that was really inspired by Logic. A lot of people vibe with it, it’s like a fan favorite. Drake obviously, I listened to lots of Drake as a kid. I even say like J. Cole was a big influence for me too. I don’t really sound like Drake or J. Cole or even Logic. That’s just who I listened to a lot growing up.
BTS: How did you get into music?
B00sted: I actually started making music as a joke with my friends back in 2016. You know diss tracks like RiceGum and all those guys, you remember that age? So I started doing it as a joke and I was making diss tracks on my friends and buddies and we just joked around and I kinda fell in love with it.
I’ve always wanted to make beats and stuff and I [was] always into looking how to do that and I was like you know what, I might as well try to start making my own music because I’m sick of paying for beats and worried about copyright issues and percentage splits with producers and stuff. Recently last year, I enrolled in an audio engineering course. It’s like a nine month program.
BTS: So that’s what you’re taking right now?
B00sted: That’s what I’m taking right now. I’m in school right now doing all my online lectures for audio engineering so I’m getting a certificate for that. Kinda adds to my whole music. Kinda helps me with my whole thing.
BTS: Going off of that, what does your creative process look like?
B00sted: So when I want to make a song, I have lots of loop kits. I’ve been really into guitar loops recently. I’ll just load up samples on Ableton. I’ll go through sample packs and I’ll have my mic ready to go with my vocal. I have my own vocal template so it’s ready to go. It’s already pretty mixed so it sounds pretty good. Everything is locked and loaded. I’ll bring up loops and I’m really big into freestyling. So I’ll just hear a loop and just start freestyling over it and just like come up with some melodies and then if it sounds good, I’ll just write to it man. Make the beat right there.
BTS: I’m curious, does freestyling come easy to you?
B00sted: It’s really easy to me, yeah. I’m pretty known for just fucking going right off the top. It’s really easy for me to create melodies and create flows but it’s making the lyrics make sense with my freestyles. That’s when it gets a little harder. So I’m really talented in the way that I can just do it, but actually make sense of it is a whole another thing.
BTS: What has been your favorite accomplishment so far?
B00sted: I want to say getting on a Spotify playlist is always like my biggest accomplishment to me. It’s just nice to know that as an independent artist without the help of a label or someone working there, they would pick it up because there’s thousands and thousands of music that go up everyday. So to get placed on a Spotify playlist for me is a really big accomplishment.
Outside of Spotify, I’d say obviously having a fanbase on YouTube. I think I’m at like 23,000 subscribers now — and that’s just with official audio. I haven’t done any music videos or anything. I wanna do more music videos for my stuff and really interact with people more on there. But yeah, just making music that I like is an accomplishment for me.
BTS: If you wanted to work with any artist, living or not, who would it be?
B00sted: I would honestly say because they were my biggest influences: Drake, Logic and J. Cole. Recently, I listen to a lot of artists that are little bit more underground. So I’ve been listening to lots of like Mike Stud. He’s super dope, I’d like to work with him. Marco Luka. I was gonna do a song with him a really long time ago but it just kinda fell through and he’s been making really dope music with his own brand and Weston Estate, which is like his group of friends who make music together.
The Kid Laroi has obviously been making crazy stuff recently. Trevor Daniel is super dope. I like Bankrol Hayden a lot. Iann Dior is super dope. I kinda like that pop/rap stuff right now.
BTS: What’s one of your favorite songs that’s been in your rotation lately?
B00sted: Have you heard of Manila Grey?
BTS: No I haven’t.
B00sted: They’re a Filipino duo from Vancouver. They’re poppin’ off right now. They’re really big into R&B, kinda like smooth hip-hop. Super dope group. I’ve been listening to lots of their music in my rotation and they’re from Vancouver too which is super sick. I’ve been listening to Night Lovell, his new song a lot. He’s a dope artist from Montreal.
Eric Reprid, he’s an artist from Vancouver area too. His song “Cold World“, super dope song. FRVR Friday “100 Rounds“, that’s a really good one. Those are all Canadian artists. That’s funny. Anders, he’s also from Toronto. I listen to Stormzy quite a bit. Lots of underground. I listen to Aries. Super dope artist and he produces his own stuff too.
BTS: What are your hobbies outside of music?
B00sted: I was big into soccer. I stopped playing after high school, but that was my big hobby throughout my whole life. Currently, I’d say it’s more running, staying active, going on hikes, going on walks, spending time with family and friends. I like cooking too. Cooking’s really fun.
Music to me is still a hobby, not a job, but it’s something I’d want to pursue as a job. I’m really into cars. I have a Volkswagen GTI. It’s my first car and I just modded it out and stuff so if anybody wants to check it out it’s on Instagram. I’m a really active, kinda nature person. I like mountain biking too. I just haven’t been doing it recently. But I’ve always been big into outdoor activities like kayaking and stuff like that.
BTS: I also heard that you got a single coming out soon.
B00sted: Yeah, I have a new song coming out next Friday. Pretty hyped about it and it’s just like a pop/rap again. Kinda like my niche I’m trying to do. Yeah it’s pretty hype, next Friday the 26th.
BTS: What are some of your music or even personal goals that you’d like to accomplish for the year?
B00sted: Well my initial goal for the year was to hit 100,000 monthly on Spotify but I already hit it. So we can check that off the list. I would say maybe 200,000 monthly would be my next goal. Then also 30,000 subscribers on YouTube probably. We’re pretty far off and it’s harder to grow right now because I haven’t been posting music videos and stuff. It’s at a point right now where I need to [post] more interactive content with my YouTube channel.
100K monthly listeners 🤯 Thank you guys all so much for the support, this was definitely my biggest goal for 2021, let’s shoot for 150K next!! 🚀 love u guys ❤️ new music this month 🙂 pic.twitter.com/wNz5WkyF2S
— B00sted (@B00stedMusic) March 6, 2021
But those are just numbers. Getting better at what I do is obviously my biggest goal. I’ve been working hard the past couple of years, just trying to build a fanbase and find a sound. I feel like I’m not there. And it’s good. It’s good that I feel like I’m not there yet because I feel like I wanna keep getting better.
BTS: What does the rest of 2021 look like for you?
B00sted: Just a lot of singles and I’m gonna try to keep pushing more out. Lot of collabs with different artists. I also have a project, an EP that I was working on with my friend, Cody Known (a.k.a. KNOWN.). I worked with him a lot in the past. He’s from my hometown and we did a collab project when he came over to my house and we worked for 2 weeks straight. We just cranked out a whole EP with like four songs. I plan to release sometime this summer.
Be sure to catch B00sted on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
For more music news, check us out at Beyond The Stage Magazine.
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