Rising Music Star Kirsten Evans On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Music Industry

An Interview With Ming Zhao

Don’t be afraid to set boundaries when it comes to your health — If you’re pushing yourself and feeling ill, you are allowed to say so. In fact, you should say something before you start feeling unwell, let alone once you start to see negative effects on your health. You are a human, not a robot. If someone can’t see that, then it’s not the right time or project for you and that is okay. There are a million opportunities out there, so strive for another or create your own, even if it takes longer and is riskier.

As a part of our interview series with leaders, stars, and rising stars in the music industry, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Kirsten Evans.

Kirsten is British a singer and composer now living in Los Angeles and working as a coder and product developer for the LA based sample library company, Cinesamples. Kirsten’s previous work in films saw her in the role of Score coordinator for the MARVEL movie, Morbius and as a vocalist in the Netflix original Apostle. Kirsten is one of few coders who work writing in the langue KSP and in the even smaller population of female coders who write in this language.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about your “origin story”. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

I grew up as an only child, splitting my weeks between my mum’s house and my dad’s house. I’ve always been a quiet person and pleasantly content in my own company, where I spent most of my time drawing, going to ballet on a Saturday, or baking and watching my favourite films. Throughout my childhood I dabbled in a variety of music lessons, from keyboard, to steel pan, to piano, to singing musical theatre, and then opera singing when I hit 17 years old. Still, with all of the instruments I’ve tried, I would say that I don’t have a natural talent for most instruments. In fact, when I was roughly 10 years old I accidentally dropped a steel pan, which inevitably caused it to go out of tune just before we were about to perform for the rest of the school. I’m not sure why I thought I could carry an oil drum at 10, but I think I was just trying to be helpful. Well, lesson learned.

Someone that had a large impact on me throughout my childhood and was a big influence on my conviction to continue to play the piano, was my grandad. For as long as I can remember, my grandad has improvised and composed his own jazz piece on his digital Yamaha piano. I’ve always been mesmerised by the fluency with which he could play and the complexity of the music he creates. I’ve only ever wanted to impress him when it comes to the piano, really. Sadly, I don’t think I’ve ever really reached the point where I could be classed as an ‘impressive piano player’, but my grandad has always been very kind and listened to me play whenever I have something to show him regardless.

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

Most of the things I’ve done in my career so far have really orientated around hitting one goal — move to Los Angeles. I knew, in order to get my visa approved, that I would need to build my career to a certain level before I could consider a move across the world. This, therefore, led me on a very specific path: I wanted to work in film and television, so I decided I needed to start from the bottom and work my way up. I worked as an intern, an assistant, completed additional orchestrations, wrote additional music, wrote production music, created my own sample libraries, and now I work for one of the biggest sample libraries in America. I didn’t ever really imagine that I would be coding, but I’m lucky to have fallen into something so great with a brilliant company.

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

Just recently I had the opportunity to work with a choir that I’ve loved for nearly 10 years. I came across the choral group Voces8 when I was first thinking seriously about pursuing a career in singing. I listened to their music day in and day out for months. I dreamt about being able to sing with them and always thought that this would just be a pipe dream, that I would never get closer to them than watching one of their concerts. While I didn’t get to sing with them, I did get to work closely with them on a new project and it was only at the end of the three days of working with them that I realised my 17-year-old self would probably be in tears if she knew this day would one day come. It’s funny how things circle back to us later in life.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. 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?

I definitely didn’t admit this to the cellist I was working with at the time, but during one late night in the studio I realised that I had made everything about the recording process exponentially harder for not only the cellist but also myself. This was the first time I had recorded a solo cello by myself and the first time I had written music for a film that I would need to record live before I could finish it up. What could have been a simple piece of music to record at a normal speed was made infinitely harder by the fact that I hadn’t really thought about the tempo when I was composing the music — I wrote what I thought was simple music over the top of a tempo and time signature that didn’t match inside of my DAW. When we got to record the solo cello, the click track my cellist was listening to was so fast that it was almost impossible for them to count as they played their music. It probably took 2 hours longer than it should have to record just 5 minutes of music — and, of course, the moment I realised what I had done was 10 minutes before the end of our session. I then had to spend all night editing the music together and sent the cellist an enormous present as a thank you for all the hassle.

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

I’m writing my first solo album! I bought myself a loop machine for my birthday, which is now permanently stationed on my desk beside me. Since using it to record my ideas, I’ve discovered that my loop machine is the best way for me to get my ideas out and really start to play around with them and flesh them out. At the moment I have 7 ideas for tracks and my aim is to create 8 for the album. Once the ideas are fleshed out I’m going to head into the studio and work with some brilliant musicians on making these tracks the best they can be, really inviting the musicians to have fun. Then, once the album is out, it’ll be time to take it out on tour!
Oh, and I’m going to be making a stage name for myself to release the album under, too, which is actually a lot harder to come up with than I thought! It kind of feels like picking the perfect tattoo.

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 music, film, and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?

Especially now — with all of the technology we have, just how portable it is, and how it’s becoming more accessible (still with a long way to go, mind) — you see new ideas popping up from everywhere! There are billions of people in the world and there’s no way that only one, small portion of those people are the only ones having good ideas. Just look at the Netflix production, Squid Game — no one would take this idea to production for roughly 10 years, then it became one of the most watched shows ever. Everyone is unique, with their own ideas. I believe it’s important that those ideas get out and continue to spark new ones in others. Without this type of chain reaction, we will just end up consuming the same thing over and over again — and we all know how draining that could become.

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. Don’t be afraid to set boundaries when it comes to your health — If you’re pushing yourself and feeling ill, you are allowed to say so. In fact, you should say something before you start feeling unwell, let alone once you start to see negative effects on your health. You are a human, not a robot. If someone can’t see that, then it’s not the right time or project for you and that is okay. There are a million opportunities out there, so strive for another or create your own, even if it takes longer and is riskier.
2. Trust your gut — After 9 years, I’ve realised that I should have just pursued what I wanted to do in the first place and sing. I love the work I do now, but there’s something about song writing and singing live that fires up something inside of me like nothing else does. Follow that feeling and really go for it. Who cares if it’s hard, if it takes a long time, or if it never happens? You tried and you were able to do something you love while trying, that’s what’s important.
3. Focus on one thing — It seems that we are so often told to gain new skills and generally just learn to be great at a range of things, but when you look at the ‘greats’ from any industry, what did they do… one thing and one thing only for years on end. Imagine trying to be a virtuoso on 10 instruments at once rather than 1 — it’s not going to happen. After zigzagging for years on end, yes, I have gained invaluable skills. Now that I have these skills, however, it’s definitely time for me to put them to use towards the one thing I really want to do.
4. Connections are hard to break with the right people — I used to worry a lot about how I was interacting with the people I was working with, to the point where I would plan out what I would say in a conversation days in advance, just in case that topic came up. I thought if I said the wrong thing then all my hard work and previous relationships with my co-workers would evaporate: I would have to start my career all over again. I’ve realised that, when you work with the right people, that simply isn’t the case. Again, you’re human. People will respect and understand you. Plus, if a work relationship does fall apart, then so be it. If they were that picky about what you said, then they didn’t have your best interests at heart and it probably wasn’t the right environment for you to do your best work in.
5. Don’t get big-headed — Unfortunately I’ve let things go to my head in the past and haven’t shown up as the best version of me, in and out of work, simply because something good was happening for me and my career. I would blow people off or generally act arrogantly. Seeing this now, it makes me really sad to think that I let myself act this way. I now know that it’s a trait I have, so I make sure that I just keep an eye on how I see the world each day by practicing gratitude each morning.

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

• Don’t push yourself to the breaking point for someone who wouldn’t do it for you.
• When you find something, you love, go after it and plan for the long term. There is no need to push hard now to get somewhere exciting if you’re too tired to enjoy it when you get there. Let everything take a little longer so you can enjoy the whole process, not just the relief of getting to a destination.
• Find other people that love what you do and be open to sharing your art and collaborating — you don’t have to be the best at everything, so find people you want to work with and value, then ask them to team up from the very beginning. Focus on what you bring to the table and leave room for everyone else to bring their skills to the table too.

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. :-)

I would love it if people could submit job applications anonymously. Just list your skills and previous employers. Leave out all of your personal details and just put in your contact information so they can contact you for the second round, which can then start to introduce personal details. Someone should be chosen to fill a role, for the most part, based on their skillset. Of course you need to consider other things, like whether someone can work well with your team or simple logistics of whether they can make it to the office each day, but those are things that can be sorted out later. Narrow it down based on skills first to make it a less biased process.

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?

Someone who has helped me a lot over the last year is my manager at Cinesamples. He has shown me that creating boundaries is right, allowed, and far more respectable than just bending over backwards every chance you get. He has shown me that each person you work for is completely different and that you can build strong working relationships quickly and easily. He sets the bar high and is a brilliant role model and representative for our team. I couldn’t ask for a better manager.

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

I normally can’t really remember quotes very well, so I’ll tell you my mantra instead — “my identity is beautiful and I deserve to show it”.
While I have enjoyed the projects I’ve worked on so far, my real passion is singing. I’ve never quite believed that I would be good enough to create an album that people could really truly love, so I didn’t think it was right for me to ever write or release one. After becoming severely burnt out a couple of years ago, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on the decisions that have led me to becoming so burnt out. As I continue to recover, I am learning more and more about what truly makes me happy. I’m writing my first album now because that’s what truly reflects my passions. Singing really is a part of my identity and I simply can’t wait to get to do it more often.

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. :-)

I always say this but… Dua Lipa. She is a brilliant singer, and the leader of the enormously successful business that is Due Lipa. What a powerful yet humble woman! A chance to meet her would be insane and one of the best moments!

How can our readers follow you online?

I’ll be talking more about my upcoming albumin my instagram account soon: @kirstenhevans

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