Singer-songwriter KatieBeth doesn’t let anything or anyone define her or her music. She doesn’t take “no” for a final answer. She has turned down record deals. She writes music that can’t be boxed into one genre. As a result, KatieBeth is successfully living her dream, creating music her way.
Originally from a small town in Wisconson, KatieBeth always dreamed of “riding on treads of a bus barreling down the next stage to stand and dance on while singing my words out of my heart.” She would overcome an unendurable childhood, trauma, self-doubt, and disappointments in her young life to pursue her dream of music. The oldest of 4 children to a single mother, KatieBeth loved music from an early age and would sing to her younger siblings while growing up. She would go on to test her mettle by singing in the choir at church, karaoke bars, and then form a cover band, winning contests along the way.
While juggling school, 3 jobs, and a night DJ-ing gig, and barely getting by, KatieBeth thought she would never live her dream unless she believed. She needed a sign and received it on the car radio one night. KatieBeth heard Jennifer Nettle singing “Baby Girl” and it not only gave her the push she needed but as she sang the words, KatieBeth began to believe in her heart she could achieve her dream. The next day, she had the word “Believe” tattooed on her wrist as a reminder.
KatieBeth has self-funded two albums, Breaking from the Shadows (2009) and Here I Am (2011) and released singles from both. In 2014 she released the single, “I Got Your Freebird Right Here”, and in 2017 she released “All That Matters”, dedicated to our military veterans, along with a powerful music video for it. In 2018 she released the singles “Will I Ever Get To Love You”, “Liars”, and “On Your Left”.
Currently, KatieBeth is working on her new album, and released On Your Left, shortly after our interview. The single was her second new release in December.
I recently interviewed KatieBath via email about her song “Liars”, her future album, making music videos, her artist influences, her experiences with record labels, and much more.
Can you guess KatieBeth’s superpower? Check out her video below after the interview, for her answer!
Congratulations on the release of your new single, “Liars”! What is the concept/theme? What inspired you to write it?
This song is a female version of the song Bitches by Mitchell Tenpenny. I heard it one night and was so enthralled by the genius of the lyrics, the simple melody, and the whole idea of calling someone out for their faults that hurt them. And also being like listen, I ain’t doing this no more. And I just felt like it needed a female take on it.
What would you like for listeners to take away from “Liars”?
That song is this song is a song. It is a form of art. And that, although it is an explicit lyric, I am not advocating for swearing or using foul language but sometimes a thought and situation just calls for it. I want to add that I am not singling out any specific person. Or gender. I just wanted it to be from a female perspective. There has been a lot of drama drawn from the release, that I am personally attacking people that I’ve been romantically involved with. It really comes down to, it was a song that hit me. I was moved by it, inspired to rewrite the lyrics, four hours later I have studio time booked and later that weekend I was in the studio recording my version.
It just hit like lightning. And if they wanna up my streams, well, that only bodes well for me! Ha. 2018 has been a ridiculously insane year for me and this just felt like the perfect way to end the year.
You previously released another single, “Will I Ever Get To Love You” in July, and “All That Matters” in Nov last year. Are these releases a preview of a forthcoming album? If so, what will the concept/theme be? When do you plan to release it?
Well, I’ve been working on a third album for the last almost 3 years. And yes, these five singles released over the last year will all be on this third album. So many of the top 40, pop, hip-hop artists are releasing continuous singles prior to a full-length album now. Sometimes not even with a forthcoming album on the horizon. I just want to be able to give my fans music as it’s being created. It’s so expensive to record and release music. And that’s why it’s taken me that long to get out the third album.
The concept of the third album really is something kind of different from the first two. Both the first and second album really told the story of who I was growing up, who I was presenting to the world first time musically. It was really the stories of kind of my whole life. Whereas this third album although it’s still stories about my life, it’s really more from the perspective of a human going through human things on a journey. And not all of the songs are autobiographical. So much of those first two albums are so deeply personal. They really tell my intimate, difficult, stories of tragedy and hardship. This album is more about now, growth and dealing with the present as opposed to the past. And that’s why the album is titled All That Matters because it’s really going to encompass all the things that matter to me.
With the exception of the incredibly moving music video for “All That Matters”, the rest of your videos are lyric only or live performances. What is the reason for that? Why not make conceptual ones?
Money. Haha. Look, if I had the money or a financial backer. I have five or six or 10 music videos. There are so many music videos that I have concepts for in my head. It’s just so dang expensive to shoot. I don’t do anything half-assed. And so everything that I put out I want to be really impeccable quality, down to every last detail. And it has to be 100% my vision. So I don’t do anything on the low-end if I can’t financially fund it. Then I end up creating it myself. And there’s no way that I can shoot my own music video.
Explain your production process.
Well. I’m not exactly sure what this question is. So I’ll answer to the best of my ability. When it comes to shooting a music video there’s a lot of parts that come into it. It has to be the right song. I have to have the storyboard and treatment really visualized in my own mind. I was contacted by a pair of filmmakers that were going to do a cross-country United States track and filming a music video in all 50 states. And they ended up choosing me for Wisconsin. When they did that, I knew right away that it would be “I Got Your Free Bird”. I wanted my very first music video to be powerful, upbeat, uplifting, and I’ve just always believed so very much in that song.
It was a very long day of shooting. 16 hours. In 19° weather in December and an outside shoot. We probably went through that song no less than 300 times in those 16 hours. it was wonderful and awful. Hahaha!
For “All That Matters”, the same film crew decided to go out and do another set of music videos for some of their favorite artists and bands that they shot the first go around. When they asked, I immediately said yes. I’m so incredibly proud of the work they did. I also knew almost immediately when I wrote the song what a video would look like. So writing a treatment was easy. We only shot for about seven hours that day. Two locations. About 30 people. It was very low budget but the outcome was better than I could’ve ever imagined. My vision was executed completely, down to the handwritten letter with whiskey glass stain on it, I wrote ten minutes prior to shooting that part in the video. I even knew who I wanted to cast as the soldier and wife and I am so incredibly blessed that they said yes. I was very lucky that it all worked out.
Huge thank you to the little incredible airport out of Green Bay that let me shoot in their hanger!!
Why do you prefer to co-write all of your songs on your records?
Well, I don’t play an instrument. Well. Not well. Haha. So, I need someone to write the music. And I have written songs solo but there is just something magical about taking my ideas and blossoming them with someone else’s. It gives a whole new life to songs. I have gotten to write with some really incredible talent.
You turned down 2 record deals so you can make the music you want to, and not “sell out” your soul. How do record labels make an artist sell-out? Should an indie artist DYI their records or sign with an indie record label? Why or why not?
Labels need to sell in order to make money. They have stats and research and numbers they have to chase and make. It’s all about the numbers. I’m not a numbers girl. You can ask my manager. I don’t care. I don’t look. It’s not how I manage or gauge success. I hate it actually. I hate social media. I hate the cog of pushing for the numbers. Labels compromise artists all the time because they want you to be on that cog of “what works, what sells” well. If you haven’t noticed, I AINT THAT. So, if this is the peak. Hell, YES. I am ok with that. I did it myself. How I WANTED.
An artist should do WHATEVER makes them happy. Whatever allows them to close their eyes at the end of the day and still be them. Being Independent and doing it like this, isn’t for everyone. I didn’t even know I would be that. I chased the major label deals, the TV shows all the pretty shiny things when I first started and some want to be shown and told, molded. That shit ain’t for me. I would never. Could NEVER. Do it.
The first record deal, they wanted me to wear dresses and skirts with sequins, lose 40 lbs and make a Grammy my goal I work towards. I ran SO fast, you could see a me-shaped hole in the trailer door.
I couldn’t have done that for one hour.
Everyone has to find what is right for them. Art is art and no one can tell you how to make it or what the right way is. Just do it, you’ll find your way.
What do you want an audience to experience at your live shows?
The truth. Their own soul beating through their chest. Divine Intervention. Magic. An experience that they go home and tell someone about. I want them to be moved. I want them to chase their dream because they saw me living mine. I always say I did my job if I made ya laugh or I made ya cry. Either way; I want ya to feel something.
You say an artist needs to be able to perform in front of an audience be it 5 or 5K in the same way in order for them to move people and connect with them. Explain how you would learn to do that.
By doing it. Play to no one. Play to two someones. Play in a basement. A garage. To people who care and people who could care less. It doesn’t matter who you are playing for. Just keep doing it. And when you realize that it’s you, you’re doing it for, that is when the magic really happens. The only way to do it is to be as comfortable playing to no one as to 5000.
Where do you think your musical journey would be today if you had not heard “Baby Girl” by Jennifer Nettles playing on your car radio which gave you the push to pursue your dreams?
I mean I would like to say, I would still be doing this and that was just a flash of lightning that I needed. But who knows. Fear is a funny thing and it can keep us from doing what we love, what we are meant for.
I honestly have never really even considered where I would be without that moment. I know that I was meant to do this so I’m sure I would eventually have ended up on this type of road. Who knows what or when it would’ve been without that.
Why did you feel it was time to take the next step as a solo artist and move on from your cover band after winning contests, making a name for yourself, and developing a good following?
Because being a cover bar band was never what I wanted to do. It got me experience, I got to learn how to be part of a band and how to book shows, haul gear. It got me the gravitas. But I never wanted to be the cover band artist. I wanted to write my own songs and say my own words and tell my stories. I would pray and count down the days that the artists I love released new music, new albums (usually on Tuesday’s). I listened from start to finish. Top to bottom. And when it was a really good one, I would listen until it was worn out. I still listen that very same way. Artists I love, have something to say. A story to tell. They create for us to listen, and experience, and enjoy. And all I really am as an artist is just a fan. I wanted to give someone that visceral experience.
How did growing up singing in church and karaoke bars, and winning contests prepare you for performing?
Because if you can’t sing in a quiet ass church with all the judgment of the little biddies waiting for you to screw up, then you can’t sing anywhere. Hahaha. Also, singing in a bar with people who don’t care who you are and they actually take notice good or bad, gave me cojones of titanium.
Did it give me a foundation to start with? Yes, it built on the foundation I had of enduring being bullied all my life. I was harassed so badly by classmates I had to have a limited schedule my junior year of high school. When you learn to walk through fire without dying, you build your tolerance for idiots with big mouths.
When you first started out, you called one club consistently each week for a year and a half and was always told no. Why do you think you were repeatedly turned down? Why do you think they finally said yes? What made you determined to play at this one club?
I was a woman. He told me that. This isn’t a women’s game. It isn’t the girls club. And no one thinks a girl can do as good as a man. No one. They don’t think it will draw, it will sell, or that it’s good enough. He gave in because he was sick of me calling. He tried to not pay me at the end of the night. I stood outside his office for two hours and planted my boots in the hallway. I wasn’t leaving until he gave me what I was promised. I was determined because he didn’t want me because I was told no. I don’t do the word no.
Ten years into your musical journey you discovered that you needed to know people and make the right contacts. How did you learn to find the right contacts and how did it impact your career?
I still don’t know the right contacts. Hahaha, hence why I’m still working a full-time job. I just now understand that this business is built on them. Well, it’s 14 years later and I’m still trying to kick down the doors and find places that will have me play, make money at it and get my damn songs on the radio. So, I don’t know how much else to answer that.
How has each of your many musical influences (Keith Urban, Pink, Heart, Bon Jovi, Sugarland, Celine Dion, Trisha Yearwood, among others) across many different genres shaped your music?
I am a fan first. I came out of my mama singing. Hahaha. I was singing all my influences. Well, most of them. I am the melting pot of the artists I admire, the stories I heard, the artists I listen to.
My music is so heavily influenced by all of them. You can hear a song like “Road” and know without a doubt that it’s Keith Urban inspired. That’s why I don’t fit a genre. My musical tastes don’t fit into one. They are all over the map. I don’t listen to just one type of music. I listen to ALL the music. I write by which I’m inspired. Just depends on the day, or the album I was listening to.
You say your music isn’t defined by one genre or format. Explain how this is can be an advantage. Are there any disadvantages?
Advantage – you don’t have to be in a box. You can decide. You get to be free. You can change at any time. You aren’t abandoning your post if you do something different.
Disadvantage- no one understands, they like boxes. They wanna make it be this or that. But if you really think about it, all the greats aren’t one thing. Elvis and (Johnny) Cash are both in the Rock n Roll and Country Hall of Fame. Oh, what a time to be alive!
About your music, you have said, “It is me in every line and guitar lick”. Tell us more about that.
I have my hand in every single thing that musically comes from me. You won’t hear one note that I didn’t approve, one piece of artwork, marketing, one write up. I do it all.
I approve it all. I have my hand in every. Single. Piece. From the type of drumstick used on a recording. If it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t stay. The guitars, the melodies, what is played. What is said, what is written. It’s all an expression of me. It’s all some part of my own brain that is being communicated. Even if I didn’t write it, I felt it. I said yes, that’s what I want.
You cite Michael Jackson as your first musical influence when you were growing up and even now. In what ways does he still inspire you today?
Every time I hear his music, the very first beat. I know it’s him. Just think of the artists we wouldn’t have without him. Justin Timberlake. Lil Wayne. Bieber. Usher. He defined not just a generation but music. His music will live on for eternity. It spans genders, genres, decades. He’s one of the most incredibly talented people. His mass appeal is undeniable. It’s expansive. It will never be touched. Not in my lifetime. He inspires me today because I am living my dreams because he did.
Why is Oprah your hero?
She came from nothing. She was told she would be nothing. A black, poor, Midwest girl that endured abuse, rape, scrutiny, judgment, adversity. At 14 years old got pregnant and should never have been successful. She stomped right through all those should haves. Kicked down all the barriers and fought for her dreams. She is still that same down to earth human with big dreams, hopes, and the path to making other people’s lives better. She’s a freakin force to be reckoned with. She’s like a mystical creature that shouldn’t be.
You have a very powerful open letter on your website for sexual assault/sexual harassment victims about being silent and why they shouldn’t be. As a victim yourself, you mention that you teach people every day about this topic. Can you tell us more about that?
I work for organizations that do prevention and education on these topics. They go into schools and educate our young people so they understand what it is, what it looks like, how to get help and what to do. I truly believe that the very best thing anyone can do is to educate oneself.
“If you know better, you do better” – Maya Angelou (Oprah’s Hero)
How do you think women can be better supported in the indie music industry?
Just. Keep. Playing them. The same as the boys or maybe more to make up for lost time. We need equal air time and accolades. No gender is better. Art is art. It isn’t defined by what’s between your legs or your ears.
Good art is good art. No matter who the shit you are.
What advice would you give to women who are thinking about or actively pursuing a music career?
Make sure it’s what you really truly want. Play. Play. Play. Everywhere you can. Everywhere they’ll have ya. Learn an instrument. Write. Don’t take no. Be bold. Trust yourself. Trust your gut. Don’t let no man tell you nothing. Don’t follow no one in a dark alley or back room. Don’t sell yourself to the devil. Your body ISN’T your asset. Make sure that when you close your eyes at night, you can make peace with who you are and what you have done.
And the most important. Don’t wait.
What are your tour/show plans for 2019?
To be happy. That’s my plan. Haha. I am a full-time student and I work full time. And I created a radio show podcast. I’ll be immersed in all the things for the radio show and finishing my album. So, there is not much time for much else. But if a tour bus showed up tomorrow, you bet your ass, I’d get on.
What other projects are you working on for 2019?
See above. Ha.
VIDEO: BONUS QUESTION
What is your superpower and how do you use it in your music?
Follow KatieBeth on Social Media:
Twitter: @katiebethmusic
Facebook: katiebethmusic
Spotify Artist Page: KatieBeth
Instagram: ktbethmusic
Website: katiebeth.net
Buy KatieBeth’s music on these platforms iTunes and CDBaby.
Official Video for “Liars”
