His upbringing in Brooklyn has deeply impacted his worldview. The sights, the sounds, the music and the people have all left an indelible mark on Kieran's identity. 

Musician, DJ and Journalist

"Notes" and "beats" -- Kieran Meadows' professional life can be summed up by these two words. Both "notes" and "beats" are each essential elements in music and in journalism, the two worlds in which Kieran feels at ease. Both music (and audio in general) and journalism (and media in general) have been parts of his life for a very long time.

Raised in Brooklyn, New York

When he was young, Kieran had a portable cassette player/recorder with an internal mic, with which he recorded numerous "pause" tapes, exploring audio and sound from an early age. He also got to use his grandfather's 1980s shoulder-mounted VHS camcorder to shoot video and ask people questions on camera.

A product of Brooklyn public schools, Kieran began playing the drums and DJ'ing (and collecting vinyl records) when he was a teenager. After graduating from Stuyvesant High School, he went on to earn a B.A. in Film Studies and African American Studies from Wesleyan University. While there, he did substantial research into the life and death of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton, which he later contributed to the development of the Academy Award-winning feature film, Judas and The Black Messiah (2021). Also while in college, he honed a multidisciplinary approach to his academic pursuits and creative practice, which he still maintains today. At Wesleyan, he DJ'd numerous parties and played dozens of shows around campus. He also got his first radio experience on WESU, 88.1 FM.

The Road To Journalism

Kieran then spent the next few years working in the field of documentary film and teaching high school students video skills and media literacy with DCTV's youth training/ mentoring program. During this time he also began working for the TV/radio news program, Democracy Now!, where he worked part time for 15 years. His curiosity and interest in knowing people's stories led him to soon earn an M.A. from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism where he was a Punch Sulzberger Fellow. While in graduate school, he was selected as a Carnegie Corporation Fellow to be a field producer for ABC News' Investigative Unit. That year, he shot, reported and produced an enterprise story that aired on Good Morning America, World News Tonight, 20/20 and Nightline. The story required the use of hidden cameras.

Personal Music Renaissance

After graduate school, Kieran decided to end a self-imposed hiatus from music, which he had begun while pursuing a master's degree in journalism. He again started to practice the drums with discipline, as well as study and research music. He unpacked his turntables from storage and began to DJ again. He also began to teach himself and study Portuguese and then spent significant time in Brazil, particularly Rio de Janeiro. He was blessed to have the opportunity to perform music in southern Bahia and later DJ at parties in São Paulo, and in Rio, notably in Favela Vidigal and also at La Paz Nightclub in Lapa, Rio's main nightlife neighborhood.

From The Present Into The Future

Today, Kieran continues to hold down a job at Forbes Magazine, where he has been a Producer/Editor with Forbes’ video team for over 10 years, in that time having both directed videos and written feature-length articles. In 2016, he told the definitive story of the first five years of the influential music collective/label, Soulection. Since 2022, has been the Editor & Host i.e. the voice of the Forbes Daily Briefing seven days a week. He was a regular contributor to LargeUp.com, a music and lifestyle outlet revolving around the Caribbean. He co-hosted and engineered the associated weekly radio show, The LargeUp Sessions, during its run on RadioLily.com at Miss Lily's Restaurant in the Village.

Beginning in 2018, he served as a consultant and associate producer on the independent feature documentary, Bad Like Brooklyn Dancehall (2023), which was an official selection at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. At its world premiere, its executive producer, Shaggy, gave an exhilarating live performance, alongside dancehall star Ding Dong and dancehall legends Screechy Dan and Red Fox. The doc was the recipient of the 2023 Better Angels Lavine Fellowship (a component of The Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film) and was the winner of the 2022 Gotham Documentary Award from Decentralized Pictures Foundation.

As a DJ, Kieran has played at, among other places, The Blond at the 11 Howard Hotel, Soho House, Ludlow House, Nublu, Schimanski, Lot 45 and MoonRise in Bushwick, Baby’s All Right, The W Hotel, Louie & Chan, RT60 Rooftop at the Hard Rock Hotel, The VNYL, WeWork Soho, Better Days, the Broken Shaker at the Freehand Hotel, The James Hotel, The McCarren Hotel, The Thompson Hotel, The Made Hotel, Bunton’s World Famous, Ode to Babel, Kinfolk 90 and 94, C'mon Everybody, Friends and Lovers, Casablanca, The Late Late, the former Meridian 23 and Tiki Tabu Rooftop at Sixty LES Hotel, Under Bar at Row House in Harlem, and at Miss Lily's Restaurant and Spur Tree Restaurant. He has also performed in Brazil, in southern Bahia and in Rio de Janeiro's Favela Vidigal and at La Paz Nightclub in that city's nightlife-centered Lapa neighborhood. He has also been privileged to play in front of thousands at his alma mater, Wesleyan University.

His mixes have received support from The FADER, Okayplayer.com, Vashtie.com, Everyday People and The Guggenheim Museum. (To hear his mixes, see here.) He has also appeared on and played guest DJ sets on various notable radio shows, including SiriusXM’s Shade 45 show Sway In The Morning (guest set and interview here), RinseFM’s Jyoty (guest set begins at 1:25:37 here), and The Lot Radio’s Darker Than Wax show (guest set here).

At the former Meridian 23 Music Bar on W. 23rd Street, he launched his own monthly party, The REFRESH. He played an integral role in establishing M23 Radio, which broadcasted live from the storefront window of Meridian 23 during afterwork hours. His weekly Monday radio show, The REFRESH, broadcast from Meridian 23 for a little over a year until the venue closed when the building was bought. He then moved the show to The Late Late Bar, where he operated his own independent and mobile radio studio, set up to broadcast live in a storefront style. Mondays afterwork with the open window attracted quite a lot of attention and after almost a year, the venue had issues renewing its liquor license, partly caused by the Monday afterwork scene.

In early 2018, Kieran moved the show/simultaneous event to its current home at Kinfolk 90 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He currently curates, DJs and hosts the music program, The REFRESH Radio Show, which is a live broadcast during an afterwork happy hour hangout Thursdays 6:30-9:30pmET. As a drummer, he performed with ILLEGALIZE, a live instrument hip-hop group fronted by a male and female emcee duo.

In 2024, he refocused on original music production, launching the brand new label, Music & Sound Heals Recordings, a purpose-driven label to bring inspiring global vibes, dance music and healing sounds to the world. In February, he dropped his first official solo release, Lamento Do Beija Flor (Hummingbird’s Lament) — a deep organic, melodic Afro house record with Latin and amapiano influences. (You can follow his new artist page on Spotify here.) His second solo release, Far Away From Home — blending deep organic Afro house and 70s soul with strong Afrobeats & Brazilian influences — will be out April 18. Major Lazer’s Walshy Fire called the track “fire” and Everyday People’s DJ Moma called it a “summer heater.”

He is also very passionate about health, fitness, bicycling, meditation and all things wellness for himself and the community at large. His fitness journey has included capoeira, training in Wing Chun Kung Fu and now multiple days per week in the gym. He was raised as a vegetarian by his forward-thinking and health-conscious parents, and while not a strict vegetarian anymore, to this day he continues to love to cook up and share homemade plant-based and vegan meals.

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