WHY THIS PROJECT
IS DIFFERENT
Most artists start with a record.
This project starts with a system.
The music is real.
The room is real.
The elders are real.
The audience is real.
And for the first time, every part of the process is being documented as it happens.
Not recreated.
Not scripted.
Not manufactured after the fact.
Captured in real time.
This project is built around a simple idea: the elders are still alive.
People who have already done the thing. People who know what lasts. People who know the difference between attention and meaning.
The project documents what happens when those people gather around an artist at the exact moment he becomes himself.
The album is one output. The documentary is one output. The live content is one output. The publishing deal is one output. The tour is one output. The Sphere experience is one output.
Together they form a system.
The artist owns the audience.
The audience enters the process.
The songs gain value.
The documentary gains value.
The community gains value.
The elders are honored.
And everyone participates in the success of the work.
The music industry has spent decades building products. This project is building an ecosystem.
Connected. Not separated.
Most artists ask:
How do I get discovered?
This project asks:
What happens when the right people gather around an artist before the world discovers him?
The answer becomes the album.
The film.
The movement.
And everything that follows.
KENNY McCORMICK IV
Thirty-one on May 1st. Raised in the Mormon church. Left the church and the normal path. Certified Piano Technician and Tuner. Performer. Believer. Rebel. Addict. Seeker. Son. Kenny has lived multiple lives before most people finish one — Kenny Holland, My Name Is Nobody, Jimmy Flinders, South Park Kenny. Each one a step away from who he was and toward who he was becoming. Since 16, he's been in rooms with musicians, producers, and elders who actually understand what it means to make something real.
A mirror next to him now is saying one thing: "You can finally be Kenny."
Kenny McCormick IV is a star. Not because we're building him. Because he already is one. He's walked into rooms with people who shape music. He's created at the highest levels. He's lived multiple artistic lives — each one more developed than most artists get in a lifetime.
In October of 2024, Holly Carter heard Kenny sing. She knew.
"I want it all."
And the work begun…
Big Blue · October 2024 · Northridge, CA
Kenny + Holly + PK · October 2024
THE DEER
TRAIL
Before the studio.
Before the deal. Before the cameras. Before the room.
There was a song.
During a session with Gary Arthur, something surfaced around Kenny. The message was simple:
"The elders said I must go."
And then: "Take the Deer Trail."
Nobody fully understood what it meant.
But nobody forgot it.
Over time it became a song. Then it became the final song on the album. Not because it was strategically chosen. Because it arrived.
Before Entering the Room
Gathered on the property of Stephen Sedmak — co-founder of SRS Labs and spatial audio pioneer — 131 acres in Asheville, North Carolina. shopecreekwilderness.com →
This is where The Deer Trail was made.
In June 2026, before entering the studio, Kenny gathered with a small group of elders, artists, healers, family members, and collaborators at Shope Creek Wilderness in Asheville, North Carolina.
Not to make a record. Not to perform.
To listen.
To slow down.
To remember.
Over several days, conversations unfolded around healing, family, fathers and sons, creativity, music, purpose, legacy, and what it means to become fully yourself.
The Deer Trail became the thread connecting all of it.
…and others who have helped shape the path leading to this moment.
The Making of The Deer Trail
While at Shope Creek, Jackson Averett began documenting the creation of a music video for The Deer Trail.
What started as a music video quickly became something more.
A living record of a transition.
A gathering of elders.
A moment before the next chapter begins.
Not a documentary about success. A documentary about becoming.
Because before Kenny enters the studio. Before the publishing deal. Before the rollout. Before the audience.
There is this moment. This land. This song. This path.
The Deer Trail is the final song on the album.
But it is also the first step into everything that follows.
A song about trusting the path beneath your feet before you can see where it leads.
One step.
Then another.
Then another.
"The elders said I must go."
"So I took the Deer Trail."
THEY CALL ME
TRINITY
The debut album — pre-production complete. Produced by Neff-U and Brett Nolan. First single: Open Heart. Made with a specific group of elders, producers, and collaborators. Not a character. A framework: the self you're given, the self the world names, and the self you choose to become.
The Machine Behind the Sound
Produced by Neff-U and Brett Nolan — Neff-U, a Grammy Award–winning producer and songwriter, shaping the vision and translating instinct into records; Brett Nolan engineering and holding the room. Guided by executive producers Holly Carter and Walter Millsap, steering the project's strategy, positioning, and path into the world. Recorded in a Dolby-certified room built for immersive sound.
The Room
Where It Happens
The sessions happen in a Dolby-certified room built for immersive sound — co-produced and engineered by Brett Nolan. Not a generic rental. A curated environment where the acoustics, the people, and the process are all aligned. The room is part of the story.
Kenny + Neff-U
In the room
"Sound is expensive."
Start to Sphere
This is not one project. It is a sequence. Each step builds toward the next. Every piece was designed to connect.
The
Elders
Are Alive
A making-of documentary. A record of what is already true and where it goes next.
How This
Becomes Real
This isn't theoretical. This is how the project moves into the world.
Everyone Gets Paid
No one works for free. Every voice in the room is valued.
Through brand sponsorships, licensing deals, publishing deals, streaming deals, and the content plan—every elder, every collaborator, every voice that shaped this work is compensated.
This is how you build sustainable, artist-first systems. Everyone benefits from the work being real.
The Songs Get Valued
As the record is being made, the songs are positioned for a publishing deal.
The goal is simple: Place Kenny McCormick IV as a serious writer with a real catalog.
Publishing is the first structural validation.
The Room Goes Live
When the studio is active, the world can step in.
Live windows open through platforms like Twitch and Kick. Not as performance. As process.
You're not watching a show. You're watching the work happen.
The Story Becomes Film
Everything captured inside the room becomes a film.
Not recreated. Not scripted. Not staged later. A real-time creation process shaped into:
Positioned for platforms like Netflix, Apple, and premium buyers aligned with music + culture.
The Record Gets Released
The album is immersive. You feel it.
Built in spatial audio in a Dolby-certified room. This is not a stereo album. Licensing and distribution partners step in to:
Without taking ownership of the artist.
The World Expands
From one room, multiple outputs move at once.
The album. The film. The live content. The audience access layer.
And from there, it builds into something larger: BOATS — the live immersive experience designed for Sphere.
This isn't a rollout.
It's a sequence.
And every piece is already in motion.
The masks. The characters. The versions of himself Kenny performed for everyone else—they fade away in this room. With every session. With every moment of real creation. What remains is not a character. Not a performance. Not a name someone else gave him.
What remains is Kenny McCormick IV.
The mask comes off
The Elders
These are not symbolic figures. Each one brings a distinct form of credibility, experience, and presence to the project. They are here because they have earned the right to be in the room.
Holly Carter is an Emmy® Award–winning producer and the founder and CEO of Relevé Entertainment, known for creating premium content at the intersection of culture, faith, and mainstream entertainment. Across television, film, and live production, she has worked with major platforms including OWN, BET, WE tv, and TV One—consistently identifying and elevating stories that resonate both culturally and commercially.
But Holly's real value is not just what she's produced. It's how she sees where things are going. We are in the middle of a shift. Artists are no longer just signing deals—they are building ecosystems. What Justin Bieber helped accelerate in music—direct-to-audience creation, streaming dominance, and brand extension—has evolved even further. And what Lionel Messi demonstrated in sports—participation across media, platform, and revenue layers—has redefined what it means to be talent inside a system.
Holly understands that shift. She recognizes that the next generation of artists won't be owned by a single label, defined by a single release, or limited to a single revenue stream. They will operate across music, content, brand, and experience simultaneously.
In October 2024, Holly heard Kenny McCormick IV sing and said three words: "I want it all." That moment set this entire project in motion.
As Executive Producer, Holly's role is to position Kenny as a serious artist and songwriter, help secure a publishing deal and long-term catalog value, guide licensing and distribution strategy for the album, and package the making-of project into a premium documentary or series. She is the bridge between what is created in the room and how it scales across platforms.
In this project, Holly is not just producing. She is helping build a model where the artist owns the work, the audience enters the process, and the system evolves around both.
Walter Millsap III is a Grammy Award–winning producer and executive who has worked across music, film, and live entertainment at the highest level.
His career spans chart-topping records, major artist development, and high-level deal structuring.
But what defines Walter in this project is not just experience. It's execution.
Walter understands how to take something that is already real—and give it the structure, capital, and pathway to scale. He's the one who sees where value is actually created, knows how to unlock it, and moves quickly enough to capture it before it disappears.
He doesn't build the moment. He makes sure it actually happens.
In this project, Walter is the bridge between the room, the work, and the world it's about to enter.
Neff-U (Theron Feemster) is the album's producer and the closest creative counterpart to Kenny inside the room.
A multiple-Grammy-winning songwriter and producer, Neff-U has worked with Michael Jackson, Rihanna, Dr. Dre, Eminem, and Justin Bieber. His credits span global hits and genre-defining records, bringing both commercial precision and deep musical intuition. But what defines him in this project isn't just his track record—it's his presence.
In the room, he operates like a modern-day Rick Rubin: Minimal. Focused. Unshakably clear. He doesn't force sound—he reveals it.
Neff-U listens for what's already there beneath the noise and helps pull it forward, guiding moments into records without overcomplicating the process. He is the translator between instinct and execution—the one who turns ideas into songs that actually land.
He doesn't just produce records. He shapes what they're allowed to become.
In this project, he is the sonic architect—ensuring that everything being built inside the machine is grounded in something real.
Coming
Brett Nolan built something rare: a room that actually sounds right.
His Dolby-certified studio isn't a rental space — it's a purpose-built immersive audio environment, designed from the ground up for the kind of spatial sound that matters for a project aimed at formats like Sphere.
He doesn't just open the door. He understands what the room can do and why it matters.
Now he's stepped into the producer's chair alongside Neff-U — co-producing the album and holding both the sound and the space where it's made.
In this project, Brett holds the space where everything is captured. The room is not incidental to the work — it is part of the work.
Real sound. Real environment. Real time.
Stephen Sedmak is a pioneer in the evolution of modern audio and one of the early architects of spatial sound as we know it today.
In 1993, after Hughes Aircraft spent an estimated $4 million developing a revolutionary sound technology, Sedmak saw what Hughes could not — its future. He acquired the technology, the engineers, and even the soundproof lab they worked in (nicknamed "Arnold's Sandbox"), and co-founded SRS Labs to take it to the world. The Los Angeles Times covered the story that Christmas Day.
SRS — Sound Retrieval System — introduced a simple but revolutionary idea: Sound doesn't have to stay in one place. It can move. The technology expanded audio beyond traditional stereo into immersive, multi-dimensional environments, licensing to Sony, RCA, and beyond — paving the way for formats like Dolby Atmos.
But his role in this project isn't just technical. It's foundational.
Stephen understands how sound behaves in space — how it surrounds, shifts, and shapes perception. In a project designed for environments like the Sphere, that perspective becomes essential.
He doesn't just think about what you hear. He thinks about where you feel it.
And he opened the land where this project began. Shope Creek Wilderness — 131 acres in Asheville, North Carolina — is his property. It's where Kenny gathered with elders before entering the studio. It's where The Deer Trail was made.
In this room, Stephen represents the bridge between recorded sound, immersive experience, and the future of how music is actually lived.
Dan Harden is the founder of Whipsaw, one of the world's leading industrial design firms.
He has spent his career designing products that don't just function—they define categories. His work spans medical devices, consumer technology, and award-winning instruments.
But in this project, he represents something else: the physical future of music.
Dan created the Ravenchord—a completely reimagined front-projection upright piano. Unlike traditional acoustic pianos where the mechanism is hidden and the sound is indirect, Ravenchord exposes all internal working elements so you can see exactly how the sound is being created. The strings are arranged on a spiral-shaped steel frame, ranging from short vertical treble strings to long horizontal bass strings. The hammers and dampers are lit so you can watch them hit the strings as a piece is played. By revealing how it works, the musical experience is deeply enriched as form, function and music become one.
More than just an instrument, Ravenchord changes your perception of a piano entirely. It is strangely evocative and utterly dynamic—a product of the Whipsaw Design Lab, conceived by Dan as a music lover dreaming of what instrument design could become.
Kenny is positioned as the first artist to bring Ravenchord to life in this context. Dan is not here to decorate the experience. He's here to shape what it looks like when music becomes visible.
Gary Arthur has spent over three decades helping people restore alignment—not just in their bodies, but in their lives. As the founder of Health In Balance, he built a practice rooted in trust, longevity, and real results—working with individuals at every stage of transformation, from physical injury to deeper emotional and systemic imbalance.
But in this project, his role begins before the room.
Gary worked with Kenny for months leading into the sessions—aligning structure, breath, and chemistry. He wasn't preparing Kenny to perform. He was creating the conditions for clarity before a single note was recorded.
From that process came one of the earliest breakthroughs: The Deer Trail. A song written before the studio. Before the pressure. Before the performance. Alignment came first. The music followed.
Gary doesn't shape the sound. He prepares the person making it.
In this project, he represents the foundation beneath everything: body before performance, structure before expression, truth before output. He is the origin point—the reason the work that follows has somewhere real to come from.
The Room as
a Venue
The room is not treated as just a recording studio — or just a filming location. During this window, it becomes a functioning creative environment with multiple outputs happening at once.
Artist · Kenny's collaborator · Paints to music
Patricc is a close friend of Kenny's and an artist who paints to music. He is inside the room for the duration of the project — not documenting the process after the fact, but working at the same time the music is being made.
The work is not preplanned. It develops as the sessions develop. Canvases begin during early sessions. Layers are added as songs change. Pieces are finished as tracks are locked.
The visual work becomes a parallel record of what happened—without words.
There are select nights and sessions where the room shifts slightly. Not into a full concert. But into a controlled, intimate performance environment.
Audience
Limited. Invited guests. Collaborators. Select industry. They are there to witness, not influence.
At the end of the window, the room shifts fully. The work is no longer in process. The album is complete. That is when the environment becomes a finished performance space.
The art on the walls is complete. The music is complete. The room reflects the full process.
When the project ends, what exists is not just an album or a film. It is:
That becomes part of the film, future exhibitions, and the next version of the live concept.
BOATS
Based on a True Story
Becoming Nobody
A Live Immersive Experience · Las Vegas Sphere
For most of his life, Kenny has been playing characters — versions of himself shaped by expectation, religion, culture, and fame. In this show, every one of those characters appears at once. And for the first time, by the end of the story…
he stops playing all of them.
And simply becomes Kenny.
NoPlace
A suppressed, directionally controlled society where individuality is erased.
Dreamville
A glittering illusion of fame, where becoming 'Somebody' requires losing yourself.
Anywhere
A barren in-between where the forgotten gather and healing begins.
The Return
A confrontation with family, belief systems, and inherited identity.
The Tree
A final convergence where all identities dissolve and truth is revealed.
The Sphere goes dark. A single spotlight remains. Kenny sits at a piano. No mask. No character. No performance.
"Boats may contain different names…
but don't get caught in the waves."
Blackout. Silence.
Because at the end of the night, the question isn't just about Kenny.
Who are you… when you stop playing the part?
40 Days · 40 Nights · Asheville
BILLY LOVES WILLIE
A 40-day revival to save cannabis · Begins Sept 1
Music, mountains, plants and one honest question — counting down to the last legal night. Kenny's debut album launches across the forty nights. The Deer Trail documentary carries the story.
Enter Billy Loves Willie →