Keshi Through the Year's: Tracing His Age, Aesthetic Evolution, and Stage Growth
By Alexander Ross
Before sold-out crowds chanted his name in Seoul, London, and Los Angeles, Casey Luong lived a dual life anchored in rigorous clinical shifts. Raised in Sugar Land outside Houston, Texas, he studied nursing at the Texas Woman's University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2017. By day, he worked as a registered oncology nurse at the Texas Medical Center, caring for critically ill cancer patients. By night, he sat in his apartment until 4:00 AM, layering acoustic guitar licks over MPC drum chops under the stage name keshi, a childhood moniker derived from his childhood friend's parents' pronunciation of his name.
The emotional weight of oncology care directly informed the quiet tenderness of his breakthrough EPs, including THE REAPER (2018) and skeletons (2019). The contrast was stark. In hospital corridors, life and mortality were immediate and unvarnished; in his bedroom studio, Luong translated that sensitivity into intimate, falsetto-heavy pop. By early 2019, at age 24, streaming numbers across platforms had exploded past 50 million independent plays, prompting him to leave the medical field permanently to sign a joint venture with Island Records.
Alexander Ross has covered the video game industry for a decade, writing deep dives on game design, esports tournaments, VR developments, and gaming culture.
