Kellee Maize ready to break archetypes in Pittsburgh

Kellee Maize

FATE Lounge — 1650 Smallman St., Strip District

Friday, 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., free… Kellee Maize

FATE Lounge — 1650 Smallman St., Strip District

Friday, 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., free drinks 9 to 10 p.m.

$5, text “Kellee” to SMASH (76274)

Kellee Maize is a workaholic.

She works, on average, 90 hours a week — on writing, singing, dancing, Web site production, her events and promotion company, yoga, astrology and more. She just about does it all, even amid recording and planning the release of her sophomore hip-hop album, Aligned Archetype.

“I work all the time, every day, all day. All this has taught me how to market myself as an artist,” Maize, a Pitt alumna and current Pittsburgh resident, said.

A self-proclaimed “serial intern,” Maize worked a total of five internships while at Pitt, in addition to a part-time job — a gig first hosting a hip-hop radio show on WPTS and then eventually working as the station’s news director. Not to mention the day-to-day toils of being an undergraduate student.

Yet with Superman-like multitasking skills, Maize not only juggled work, class and music, she drew inspiration from all of these experiences to become a more well-rounded musician.

“A lot of my classes — media criticisms, TV and society and some of my history classes — kind of opened my mind to what was going on in the world. I’ve always been a bleeding heart, but once I really saw how the world worked, I was not very happy with what I saw,” Maize said. “So my writing kind of turned from personal issues to those having to do with the world. And that was kind of the turning point where I sort of felt like I was a channel for something bigger than myself.”

With its irresistibly catchy beats and focus on world issues, Maize’s music resembles something like Lady Gaga remixing a public service announcement with a hip-hop twist — a delicious combination that’s difficult to put into words.

“I have a very hard time describing my sound,” Maize said. “I would say conscious hip-hop with a variety of dance. I use a lot of Baltimore club, so that’s influenced my music a lot. And I sing, also.”

A native of New Berlin, Pa., Maize has been singing, writing and dancing since childhood. She even created a rap group at age 9 with her best friend. She named it Thunder and Lightning.

“We were like Salt-n-Pepa at the time,” Maize said. “Just really into what they were doing. We made a cassette tape and took a picture of ourselves and gave it to our parents. Mostly we just argued about who was Thunder and who was Lightning.”

Despite her early love for hip-hop and music, Maize never thought she would become a professional musician.

“I was never really a confident person. It was something I really wanted to do … but I was really critical of myself. As I was getting older and going through a lot of personal issues, I had a lot of angst, more than the average teenager. I was very into Tori Amos and Fiona Apple, so when I listened to them, I was kind of like, ‘I want to do that,’” Maize said.

But it was the exasperation of overwork that eventually pushed Maize into her hip-hop career.

“When I graduated … I was super burnt out. So I was like, ‘I’m gonna record music, because I’m really sick of working crazy like this.’ I had to make money, so I started working at the Pittsburgh City Paper in promotion. I kind of worked my way up to being the events and promotion director. During the last year at the paper, I started my own business, Nakturnal, an events and promotion company.”

As a workaholic with experience in event promotion, it’s no surprise that Maize’s Friday night release party, which will take place at the Strip District’s FATE Lounge at 9 p.m., will be more than just the standard affair.

“It is definitely going to be a spectacle,” Maize said.

In addition to Maize’s performance — complete with five different sets and Lady Gaga-esque costume changes — there will be belly dancers, ballerinas, local emcees, photography, artwork, a jeweler, free drinks, a raffle to benefit Haiti and the premiere of Maize’s Web site, among other things.