Kabi Kabi, Gooreng Gooreng and South Sea Islander artist Keely is geared up to release her second album, 'SCORPIO SZN', on Friday, November 6, following the release of its opening track, 'Ancient Blood'.

The singer, songwriter and researcher has spent the past three years developing the project while balancing motherhood, study and her work across several creative disciplines.

For Keely, music has been part of her life since childhood, growing up in an Aboriginal and South Sea Islander family where singing brought people together.

Her father and two aunties regularly sang three-part harmonies, while gospel music, R&B and hip-hop were among her earliest influences.

"Coming from an Aboriginal South Sea Islander family, music was definitely a central part of how we gathered," Keely told National Indigenous Times.

"My dad and his two sisters in particular, big singers, so they would always be doing three-part harmonies and things."

Her childhood also involved travelling across Australia as her father worked in schools in remote communities.

Homeschooled and spending much of her time on Country, Keely developed an appreciation for the sounds and experiences that would later influence her music.

She recalls spending days beside her father while he fished, exploring her voice and drawing inspiration from her surroundings.

"I had a lot of time to myself on Country as well, so I think having that time was how I got to explore my voice and the resonance of my voice," she said.

"Definitely being inspired by just all the textures and sounds and smells and colours of Country."

Today, Keely's work extends beyond music into performance, storytelling and Indigenous research.

She is undertaking a PhD at Queensland University of Technology, exploring the relationship between story, Song and embodied knowledge.

She is also raising her who is homeschooled.

Balancing these responsibilities with her creative work has required flexibility, although she considers creativity an essential part of her everyday life.

"Creating isn't something that I have to look for time for, but it's more so just a necessary part of how I experience the world," she said.

"As I get older and more mature, I'm getting better at just alchemising and bringing it all together into one kind of multidisciplinary practice rather than trying to wear lots of different hats."

Her debut album, 'Summer Vibes & Bad Habits', explored difficult personal experiences and attracted industry attention, leading to songwriting camps and opportunities to work with established producers.

Those experiences helped Keely develop her production skills and move beyond the home recordings and YouTube beats that shaped her earlier work.

However, the years following her debut also involved personal challenges, therapy and a changing relationship with music.

She explained that receiving autism and ADHD diagnoses as an adult helped her better understand herself and approach creativity differently.

"Music moved from being a way to process and express my emotions," she said.

"While it's still that a little bit, it's now becoming something that I can just do for joy, which I think is a much more freeing process."

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That growth has informed 'SCORPIO SZN', which explores love, survival and personal change through alternative R&B, neo-soul and contemporary jazz.

Its opening track, 'Ancient Blood', offers listeners an introduction to the project ahead of Friday's release.

Keely hopes audiences will look beyond the production and engage with the stories carried throughout her music.

"As a Black artist in this country, there's a lot of pressure to produce music that sounds a certain way," she said.

"I really do hope people spend a bit more time with the lyrics and see that there is a bit of a storyline that travels through from start to finish."

Keely will celebrate the album's release with a live launch at Outer Space in Fortitude Valley (Magandjin) on Saturday, November 21, from 6pm to 9pm, with tickets available through Humanitix.

'Ancient Blood' is available now on streaming platforms, while Keely's second album, 'SCORPIO SZN', is available for pre-save ahead of its November 6 release.