Rising Music Star Kate Cosentino On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Music Industry

An Interview With Edward Sylvan

Music is a service. You’re there to serve the audience, and it is a privilege to do so. I have had this mentality for most of my career, but it’s a piece of advice I always come back to. Whenever I’m scared I won’t perform well or I’m feeling demotivated, I remind myself that what I do is a gift. It’s a gift to the audience. It is a service. It is so generous of people to give you the time and attention to listen to your music.

As a part of our series about rising music stars, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Kate Cosentino.

Well-versed in the art of puns and guitar-shredding, Kate Cosentino’s music is something of jazzy sleekness atop the lyrical precision of witty slam poetry. Garnering acclaim from initiatives like the Nashville Ballet and Bluebird Cafe’s Emergence Series as well as the Johnny Mercer Foundation’s Songwriters Project, Cosentino’s soulful songstress abilities are anything but commonplace.

The Nashville-based singer’s discography is aflush with lyrical quippings that indulge in clever wordplay and poignance in the same breath. Songs like “Dirt On It,” “Starving For Love” and “Just Remember” deal with struggles and hardship in a dark world, but Cosentino doesn’t shy away. If anything, her music lets the light in. Donning her personal sound with the fitting description of “Regina Spektor and Norah Jones meeting a Charlie Puth bassline,” Cosentino’s genre-bending style coupled with her authentic storytelling talent make for consistently compelling works of art. In her post-grad life, Cosentino performs weekly in Nashville and recently opened for Katy Perry in Colorado Springs. Her recent release “The Match” went viral on TikTok at 85k views. Cosentino is working on an upcoming EP set to release in May of 2022.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

Happy to be here! I grew up in Kansas City — specifically, Overland Park, Kansas — in a beautiful, big Italian family. As a kid, I was a quirky nerd obsessed with playing guitar, video games and anything artsy I could get by hands-on. My parents were always super supportive and put me in guitar lessons at the age of 7. Once they saw my passion for music, they brought me to more concerts than I can name and toted me around to coffee shops and band gigs around KC. I loved growing up in Kansas City. It has a vibrant music community — especially jazz and indie music — so growing up around that influence was such a privilege.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

When I was 7, I was a huge fan of a few things: Guitar Hero 3, Hannah Montanna and Eddie Van Halen. I wanted to be the next greatest female guitarist. So, from a young age, every spare second I had would go to playing guitar. In the third grade, my voice teacher, Jaqueline Venable Simmons, gave me a Regina Spektor CD and a notebook, and that was the first time I fell in love with songwriting. Something about Regina’s heart-wrenching and unapologetically unique lyricism spoke to me. From then, I knew that songwriting was the path for me.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Writing a song for American Girl Doll was definitely a wild story. I was writing songs in Kansas — in high school at the time — but had made some connections in Nashville. One day, I got a call from a Nashville friend to write on a project intended for young girls. I said yes not knowing anything, waiting weeks, signing contracts only to find out it was for American Girl Doll’s new songwriter doll, Tenney Grant. I was ecstatic beyond words. My song was put in her books and in the guitar hero style video game on American Girl Doll’s website. I got to speak to kids about following their dreams and performing at the Bluebird Cafe. It was a magical whirlwind I wish I could do 100 more times.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

One of the funniest mistakes I made was when I was interning at Drive-By Studios in Nashville. Greg, the producer/owner, asked me one day to help set up for a session. I was running around, fixing mics and cables, and then he asked me to go “bang on the Hammond.” I said, “Bang on it?” to which he responded, “Yes! It’s in the other room.” So, I went and found the thing labeled “Hammond” and started hitting it like you’d hit a jammed printer. Well, little did I know, he meant he wanted me to play the Hammond organ, not physically hit the generator for it. I learned the lesson that sometimes, you have to mess up and make a fool of yourself to learn. The embarrassment passes much faster if you can laugh at yourself, too.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

Currently, I am working on a four-song EP called Note to Self. It’s my post-college graduation project, and I am ecstatic about it! The album art is very Wes Anderson-esque. The extremely talented Sara-Anne Waggoner designed a set for me to do this shoot and, needless to say, I am PUMPED to share it! I also have a single coming out called “Prettiest Girl in the Room.” Tony Chetta nailed the production on it, AND I have a sick music video coming out with it made by Working Holiday.

We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?

I love this! The number one reason I think diversity is important in the media is it normalizes seeing all kinds of people in all kinds of positions and roles. I think Schitt’s Creek did an incredible job representing the LGBTQ+ community by showing a gay relationship in this small town that none of the characters questioned. They were just seen as a couple. I think that is a powerful way to shift into a new, more accepting norm in society.

On a similar note, I think films, TV, and music speak to the heart and are one of the best ways to garner empathy. These mediums tell people’s stories in a way that the viewer or listener can step into someone else’s shoes. They help people understand other cultures, backgrounds, etc., when they are given a character they can see themselves in. I think that empathy is one of the most powerful ways to evoke change and be an activist because it captures something anyone can relate to: the human experience.

Lastly, I think showing diversity in the media is a beautiful way to share in one another’s cultures. Social studies classes only go over so much. What better way to showcase the beautiful nuances of something like the Italian tradition of the seven fishes or the meaning in Mardi Gra in New Orleans than to capture the experiences of people living them in an evergreen medium.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

1. There will be another song. Another album. Another EP. Another show. Don’t get too caught up in the details if it doesn’t feel 100% perfect. Before I went to Belmont, I recorded a few singles and an EP and felt so lost. I had no idea how production or the industry worked. Listening to my old stuff now, I can appreciate it and what it did for me, but I also know it’s on to the next. The extra time worrying about getting it 200% perfect won’t matter in a year when I’m on to the next song.
2. Audio engineering might not make sense to you until you do it 4 million times. Let yourself be bad at it until you’re not. Growing up, I loved recording myself in GarageBand, stacking fun harmonies and pretending to be Imogen Heap. When I headed to Belmont for college, I had an emphasis on music production, and those classes were some of the hardest I took mainly because, despite being presented with the information, it didn’t click fast for me. I couldn’t hear frequencies. I could understand the science behind compression and different recording techniques but didn’t really hear what was good or bad unless it was blatantly obvious. So, I felt like a broken audio engineer. I was frustrated and resigned in my ability to record anything for myself until I had Leslie Richter as a professor. She said something along the lines of, “When I first learned this stuff, I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. I couldn’t hear anything they were talking about. I just kept doing it and doing it, listening and listening. And then one day, I realized I was hearing those frequencies, effects, etc. It might take you months or years even to truly hear some of this stuff. Just keep at it.” I’m paraphrasing, but hearing that was the assurance I needed that I wasn’t incompetent but that I needed to be patient. Shoutout Leslie!
3. About 50% of this career is music. The other 50% is advertising & business. I knew being a musician was a business, but I didn’t know how much of it is the exposure you can get for your music until now. As I release music myself and watch my peers succeed, the ones who are “successful” purely by the metric of the number of fans and shows are the ones who have a great social media strategy, advertising and typically a team to help with all of that, mainly from an artist perspective.
4. Someone will always be better, have more, etc. Celebrate your own success! Going to a music-oriented school, it’s easy to get caught up in wishing you got the pub deal or the shows your peers got. You can waste a lot of time and energy wishing it was you instead or being angry about it. I feel like I need to hear once a month, “ You’re on your own journey. Your time will come!” Plus, someone’s probably looking at you feeling jealous right now, too!
5. Music is a service. You’re there to serve the audience, and it is a privilege to do so. I have had this mentality for most of my career, but it’s a piece of advice I always come back to. Whenever I’m scared I won’t perform well or I’m feeling demotivated, I remind myself that what I do is a gift. It’s a gift to the audience. It is a service. It is so generous of people to give you the time and attention to listen to your music.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

Oh, gosh, I struggle with this all the time. My advice is:

1. Remember to enjoy what you’re doing. Every day, you’re handed the easy opportunity to stress about how good your song is or that no one watched your TikTok. I try to focus on “I had fun making this!” instead of “I suck because this didn’t do as well as I wanted.”

2. You won’t forget everything you learned, and people won’t forget about you if you step away for a minute! Go off of social media. Go recharge. My good friend Lizzy McAvoy once told me not going to every party, show, networking event can be a good thing. Keeps the mystery alive, and let people miss you while also. Keeping your sanity alive.

3. Remember to fill the career goal bucket you have and also fill the life goal bucket. Plus, living normal life makes for great songs.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Oh, gosh, this is a tough one. One thing that’s been on my mind would be a movement towards cultivating community with your neighbors. I think one positive thing COVID brought was that a lot of us actually talked to our neighbors. We loaned each other eggs and flour or babysit each other’s kids. I think that sense of community makes people feel important and less alone. I know that’s not the most pressing social issue, but I think active participation of caring for others always sparks goodness.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I am ever grateful for my mom. This past year, I’ve struggled a lot, having graduated college. In the times I’ve feared pursuing my dreams, she has been a beacon of light always pushing me back towards music.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My friend Kara’s dad, Scott Horning, once said to me, “Life is like a game of golf: you only spend a few seconds swinging, so you have to learn to enjoy the walk.”

I try to live by that quote every day. As a musician, I tend to be hyper-focused on playing the next show or writing the next album, but those big events are always brief seconds in time. I have to remind myself to enjoy the small things like practicing guitar or spending time with people I love or watching RuPaul’s Drag Race while eating Panda Express. They’re just as beautiful as the big gigs!

Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

Oh, gosh, I think I’d have to say Annie Clark. She has managed to shift through several genres, unapologetically shifting from folky to rock to pop to R&B. She has cultivated a following that subscribes to her as a person, and I so admire how unafraid she is to be authentically herself. I’d love to hear about her journey, which parts were true highs and true lows. How did you find your people? What kept you on your path? And then maybe she’d let me make a Big Chick Energy guitar strap for her signature guitar ;) www.bigchick-energy.com are my designs.

How can our readers follow you online?

@katemcosentino on Instagram and TikTok and Twitter

www.instagram.com/katemcosentino

www.tiktok.com/katemcosentino

www.twitter.com/katemcosentino

www.facebook.com/katecosentinomusic

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3J9oPSOtWiwtitCxyKWD1v?si=K4LidVPkR9eIRBoHGKSKGw

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/kate-cosentino/526537070

YouTube: www.youtube.com/k8thegreat13

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!