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Reaching new 'Levels': Kassy Levels' career has surprised her audiences, her family and especially herself
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@acnpapers.com
It took nine years for someone to realize Kassy Levels could sing. Another three years passed before she really wanted to sing. But at 14, Kassy has a voice - and passion - well beyond her age.
"I want people to hear my music and share the feelings I have for it," she said. "It's how I get my thoughts out through something I've grown to love."
Now people across the nation will be able to do just that when they pick the McKinney teen's first album, "Storyteller," released on March 11.
Kassy sings modern pop with a contemporary appeal that reflects her maturity in music and character with influences ranging from Beyonce to John Mayer to Journey.
"Just by meeting Kassy, you can see that she has qualities that suit her well in this industry," said Teresa Lickliter, Kassy's manager. "Knowing the potential that she has and just being able to see the impact that she's already having confirms to me that the Lord has a huge place for her."
Humble Beginning
Kassy didn't always like to sing. She barely liked to talk as a kid.
"Kassy was the shiest girl," her mom, Karen, said. "She cried the first couple months of kindergarten and really didn't have any friends until sixth grade."
Karen even tried to push her daughter into dance school to "force the shyness out of her," but Kassy wouldn't budge.
Her older sister, Kayla, was the true star in her family. Kayla acted in commercials, sang at festivals and was even in an episode of "Barney & Friends". When Kassy was 9, she became Kayla's background singer, a role she accepted for unlikely reasons.
"My parents forced me to be her backup," Kassy said. "I cried about it because I didn't want to be a singer. I hated being in front of everyone."
Fortunately for Kassy, her mom and church friends weren't ready to give up on her. A couple of years later, Kassy joined the worship team at Crossroads Community Church in Frisco, where her dad is the pastor. She sang a Bible verse during Sunday school so well that her teacher, Lickliter's sister, immediately pointed her toward the church worship team.
Kassy said she didn't want to sing for the church, either, and instead wanted to be an evangelist. But Lickliter was the worship leader and soon realized her new member's powerful voice.
"When I first saw her sing at church, she sang Nicole Mullen's 'My Redeemer Lives,'" Lickliter said. "She was amazing. You don't hear kids who sound better than the actual artist."
Though Kassy started to enjoy singing, her passion for it came when she realized she could write her songs. She wrote worship songs that she sang at church. Soon, members of the congregation wanted recordings of them.
"Her music was so rich and deep," Lickliter said. "It didn't sound like a kid wrote them. That's what really showed me she has what it takes to do this."
Close Call
Others outside of church took notice of Kassy's voice, but it almost ended her career before it started. Kassy's 6th grade choir teacher kept pushing her to sing the loudest because of her strong voice. Kassy started developing vocal nodules. She had put too much strain on her vocal chords, which became callused. If not treated, Kassy could have eventually lost her voice forever.
Right as she began to love singing, a doctor told her she shouldn't even speak for months. Lickliter and the Levels took Kassy before the elders at their church and prayed over her. When Kassy returned to the doctor six weeks later, her nodules were gone. The doctor, who treated country star LeAnn Rimes as a patient, was shocked. He said it was like she had brand new vocal chords.
Kassy was only 12 at the time, but after just weeks without being able to sing, she realized how much she loved it.
"That's when I knew this was something God wanted me to do," she said.
Different Kind of Inspiration
Some might assume just by listening to her music and vocal ability that Kassy keeps a playlist on her iPod filled with songs by Taylor Swift and Celine Dion. Actually, she listens to everything Ð from country to R&B, to punk and Indie, to heavy metal. Perhaps her most surprising admiration is for "screamo" music.
"I like it when they scream every now and then," Kassy said. "It's something you can jump to and let those emotions out."
Emotion is what drives most singers' music, and Kassy said she uses her deep emotions as the inspiration for her music. She reads books and often feels the same emotions as a certain character, that lead her to write a song about the feelings.
"Mix emotions with music and writing, and that makes Kassy," she said.
Her mom said Kassy has always had an intense emotional connection to others. When Kassy was a kid, she would come home from school crying. Worried, her mom would calm her down and ask what's wrong. More often than not, Kassy was crying because someone else had been hurt or was upset.
Love also plays a big part in Kassy's music but not for typical reasons.
"I think love is kind of too mushy sometimes," she said. "But I think it is also a really special thing because it can change a person."
Most of Kassy's love songs are from other people's stories. Her song, "Never Ending Crush," is about her mom's feelings toward a guy she liked in 7th grade. Another song, "My Heart Speaks," came from a story her mom told her about when her cheer coach met her husband.
Kassy even finds inspiration from a source specific to a teenager.
"I write my heartbreak songs when my mom's mad at me," she said. "It's usually over something silly, and I'll be all bitter. Then I'll write a song, get excited and forget why I was upset."
All in the Family
Family provides more than just inspiration for Kassy. Her dad and Kayla are members of her band. Her little brother, Kaleb, and younger sister, Khloe, are her biggest fans.
"My little sister wants to be just like me," she said. "She tells me that a lot."
Kayla, who's played the piano since she was a little kid, took up the keyboard when Kassy started singing at church. Kayla helped her younger sister with lyrics and chords, and still plays with Kassy at almost every show.
Kassy's dad, Kevin, plays the bass in the band, much to the surprise of Kassy's mom.
"I've been married to him 18 years and had no idea he could play," Karen said. "When the kids started playing their instruments together, he one day just said he wanted to buy a bass."
Kassy and the rest of the family found out that Kevin was in a band during college and had played the bass since he was 11. Kassy collaborated with her dad in writing her song, "Strong Person," which reflects a similar experience the two had as kids in a harsh school environment.
Andrew, a close family friend and fellow church member, is the band's drummer. He's only 21 and taking classes at Collin College, but said after the recent release party that he was in it for the long haul.
The band practices almost everyday. The Levels turned their upstairs media room into the music room, which they use for nearly three hours at a time.
Kassy recorded her CD at Satellite Studios in Houston. Karen's second cousin owns the studio and immediately welcomed his family to use it.
A Touching Future
Kassy and her band perform at gigs around the Dallas-Fort Worth area almost every weekend such as Six Flags in Arlington, the Hard Rock Cafe in Dallas and The Door in Plano.
Lickliter, before just a mom and worship leader, manages Kassy's career and books all her venues.
"Once she started writing secular music, I didn't know what on Earth we were supposed to do with it," Lickliter said. "I felt like this was something God's given her so she does have a voice in this world and so she can be an influence in the community and the places she goes. That's what made me want to take on the position."
After this month's CD release, a promotional agency contacted Lickliter and agreed to spread her single, "Once Upon a Time," to 150 different radio stations around the country, starting this month. Other music promoters are taking Kassy's music to Europe.
She is set to perform at the McKinney Performing Arts Center on April 28. Other upcoming McKinney shows include the Wales Manor Winery on May 13 and St. Mark Baptist Church on May 28.
The future of Kassy's music career is just as unknown as those awkward days as her sister's backup performer. Lickliter said she and Kassy are appreciative of their notoriety thus far.
"If fame is part of the equation, that's great," Lickliter said. "If not, just the lives she's touched so far is enough for me, and I know it is for her too."
Kassy's album is available for download at www.kassylevels.com. Listeners can also hear her songs on YouTube at www.youtube.com/kassylevels. Her favorite song, "Ladida," has more than 10,000 views.
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