Rising Music Star Kory Shore On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Music Industry

Don’t act out of fear. Act out of love. We tend to love things so much that we get protective and then act out of fear to protect them. One of my professors at Belmont and long-time mentor, Mike Cortese, said “you can never put your best foot forward from a defensive position.” The moment I started believing in myself and adopted an abundance mindset is the moment I relaxed from a defensive posture and leaned into my potential.

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

As a songwriter and producer, pop artist Kory Shore has garnered cuts with artists like danny G, katie MAC, MNERVA, Leena Regan, Sheyda, Jack Decraene, Z Smith, and many others in Nashville and LA. Now living in Nashville, Kory plans to release several singles (including his recent single “IDKAT” feat. danny G) followed by his debut EP to mark the next chapter of his musical career.

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

I grew up in the suburbs of Philly in a creative and scientific household with my little brother Alek. My mom was a mechanical engineer and my dad had a career as an artist and a record producer back in the heyday of Philly’s Rock and R&B scene.

During my hour-long commutes into school, my dad would slide a CD into the car and excitedly break down songs from The Beatles. He was magnetic in how he explained their lyrical writing, chord progressions, and how they drew from Muddy Waters, Little Richard, and other great Black-American artists for inspiration.

My home was chaotic. My dad would write and fill the house with the baby grand piano in the living room, my brother would blast his video games loud, and my mom would be on a business call all at the same time.

Things would usually shift later in the night. My mom being more scientific and my dad being an unorganized creative usually meant they didn’t see eye-to-eye. Opposites attract but they rarely last. And my parents were no exception.

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

My parents would argue a lot. When their arguing became yelling, I’d go up and shut the door to my room. I had a keyboard by my window and I’d crank the volume up and play to drown out their noise. I was around 11 years old and music had become my escape and one that I depended on when I needed refuge. I couldn’t stop playing my keyboard and learn a real song because that would mean hearing my parents fight, so I just kept playing and freestyle singing whatever I was feeling in the moment. That’s how I started writing.

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

So I moved to Nashville because of a pimple.

It was my senior year of high school and I planned on going to Temple University to major in marketing. During my spring break, I was scheduled to have minor surgery on my nose to help me breathe better. In pre-op, they noticed a pimple on my nose which prevented them from operating because you can’t cut when there’s a pimple.

My mom and I canceled our spring break plans just so I could have that surgery. So we regrouped and decided to fly to Nashville to visit Belmont University and see the campus, even though I wasn’t really planning on attending. While I was there, I learned about the songwriting major they offered, which was something I didn’t even know existed. So I asked for more information and even though they said I was too late to apply, I wanted to know more.

At the info session, the woman presenting said that she hasn’t given the submitted portfolios to the judges yet. So I was like “oh really…?”

When her presentation ended, I waited at the back of the line because I wanted the most time with her. And when I got to the front I told her that I already had songs recorded from my high school album that I could give her right on the spot if she needed and asked if she could slip a portfolio in for me.

She said she’d be happy to do it as long as I could crush some essays in the next few hours. I got to work immediately and sent them as soon as I could.

Back in Philly, I got an email from that woman, it said “hey, I’m not supposed to be telling you this ahead of time, but congratulations! You got accepted into the songwriting program at Belmont University.”

I went up to my mom and said “hey mom, looks like I’m actually going to Nashville instead of living 40 minutes away at Temple University in the city”. And although she was pretty sad that I’d be farther away, it was a decision that ultimately led to me pursuing music full-time like I am now instead of pursuing music on the side like I was going to do while majoring in marketing. If it hadn’t been for that pimple, I don’t think I would be doing what I’m doing, or at least to the extent that I’m doing it.

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?

When I was about 14, I accidentally went viral.

I wrote this song that I made a rather crappy video for and posted it on YouTube. It got picked up on Huffington Post, Fox News National, philly.com, and all these other local radio stations as well. The video accumulated over 100,000 views overnight which back then in 2011, was seen as a big deal. People weren’t going as viral as they do now back in 2011.

The video was pretty cringey. I had a Bieber haircut, I was playing piano even though only violins were sounding. But I was a kid, I didn’t know what I was doing. People were calling me the new Justin Bieber, some people were calling me the Next Rebecca Black, which wasn’t exactly the best thing to be called at the time. But it was a very interesting experience because I got to see how the Internet responds to someone putting themselves out there.

Some people came to my defense and encouraged me and said things like: “this is great” and “you should keep going”. Other people said more extreme things like “you should go kill yourself”, or “you should join the military die”. And that negative feedback really got to me, you know? As it would any 14-year-old. I actually kind of stepped away from the spotlight. That’s why when I moved to Nashville, I took a backseat as more of a songwriter and producer working with other artists and for other artists. Because when I first got here I was super self-conscious.

And part of me right now, in all honesty, is still nervous about launching the second time. I’m doing this again and the first experience was unexpectedly negative and hectic.

More than anything, I’m excited to be launching now that I’m wiser and I know who I am. I’m way more comfortable in my own skin than I was in middle school.

That craze taught me that what people say and how people perceive you don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. I waited years longer than I felt I should’ve to make this step because of that trauma. But I’m glad I waited because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t know how to produce or be as good of a writer.

I learned that people are going to fight against you when you’re trying to make moves and you can’t let that stop you. You have to put on the blinders and only have a filter for positive people who support you and hold you up while ignoring everyone else who is trying to tear you down.

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

The next few singles and projects I’m rolling out! I have a few singles building into an EP. And then I’m moving forward with another surprise that I have in my back pocket for everyone. Palmer Hooks, my co-producer, who co-produced this entire project with me, and I are constantly working and making this music the best we can.

I see a lot of people try to assembly-line songs in a copy-and-paste, churn-them-out-quick kind of way. Palmer and I wanted to take on a more loving approach to every single song. So we spent two years working on this project and honing in on every single detail because we wanted to make something super quality that has depth and hidden gems in it. And it shows. It sounds like you can touch every detail in every song.

We’re both really excited to roll this out. This music comes deep from my story as a writer and it comes deep from both of our hearts as the producers who created the world that you’re about to hear.

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 think diversity is super important. I went to a school on City Line Avenue which is further into the city than where I lived in Philadelphia. It was a Quaker school, but it had people of all religions, ethnicities, in all walks of life, pretty much every single culture, other than southern.

It was a blessing to go to a diverse school. I got to learn a lot from people of different socioeconomic statuses and see the world socially, politically, economically, or otherwise through their eyes.

I grew a lot as a person because I can meet anyone and understand where they’re coming from and not be close-minded to that. I believe that close-mindedness is one of the roots of violence. And there’s no other way to become close-minded than to be exposed to only one group and one way of thinking.

I can only speak to the US Entertainment Industry because that’s what I know. But America is a melting pot. And as we have more and more generations grow up in America, we become even more of a melting pot.

That’s incredibly exciting and beautiful but that means we have to start getting along and we have to start understanding each other. The US has more immersion of different cultures, different ideas, different religions, different races, different ethnicities, different sexual orientations, different socioeconomic statuses than anywhere else in the world living in close quarters. We are a testing ground for if actual worldwide peace is possible.

I think it’s important our diversity is reflected in our talent. I’m a quarter Japanese. Having Hollywood always cast the Asian guy to be the good-at-technology and super-dope-at-math character isn’t necessarily the best thing for Asians. My mom is half Japanese and she’s one of the most creative people I’ve ever met. My dad is Jewish and he’s made mistakes with money (who hasn’t). Stereotypes limit our ability to learn about people. People are people and it’s important we get to know one another on an individual level.

I think the important thing is that we move past grouping people together and creating stereotypes and meet people as individuals. As a blank slate.

Where we say “this is a human being. I don’t know them yet, so let me get to know them”. And that’s it! We’re all humans, we all make mistakes, and we all have good and bad parts of us. I think a huge shift needs to happen in our entertainment to reflect this.

For a lot of people, entertainment is where they get their exposure to other cultures. They don’t have the resources or the opportunity to travel or experience different communities like I was so lucky to have at my school.

So we have to accurately show this in entertainment.

Three reasons why this is important is:

1. Personal growth. You grow as a person when you learn to see the world through diverse lenses.
2. Human connection and understanding. The most important reason. You can’t love human beings if you are only allowing yourself to see through the narrow lens of one culture that exists in the infinite amount of subcultures in the US.
3. Positive cultural change. We need to start with very young kids and expose them to different ideas, cultures, ways of thinking, different ways of living in the world. and showing that acceptance is a good thing.

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. You are enough. I wish I believed I was enough sooner. And that I could trust my instincts around music, my life, my career, and in the decisions I make.
2. Say no. When I first moved here, especially going to a university like Belmont, they always said “say yes to everything.” Horrible advice. That’s great if you don’t know what you want to do, or if you like burning out. But if you know you want to be a painter or land that dope job at your favorite marketing firm or want to be a graphic designer at the next up-and-coming clothing line, then say no to things that you shouldn’t be doing. When I started saying “no” to others and “yes” to myself was when doors started opening and my life started falling into place.
3. You don’t have to go to college. I really wish people told me I didn’t have to go to college. There are many professions where you need a lot of credentials. Music is not one of them. I would dare to say almost all entrepreneurial pursuits are not that way. A degree isn’t going to determine how successful you are and it’s not going to determine the course in life you take. I was ready to drop out of college after my Sophomore year, which would have saved a lot of time and a lot of money. However, I believe everything happens for a reason and if I had dropped out, I wouldn’t have this project or be where I am in my life.
4. You have time. Anything worthwhile takes a long time and you have so much time to make whatever you want to make happen. You are on your own timeline, don’t compare yourself to anyone. you are an individual, you are unique which means your timeline is unique. Being in a constant state of “I need to catch up, I’m behind” is a sure-fire way to burn out and hate your life. And why do work this hard if you end up hating the work?
5. Don’t act out of fear. Act out of love. We tend to love things so much that we get protective and then act out of fear to protect them. One of my professors at Belmont and long-time mentor, Mike Cortese, said “you can never put your best foot forward from a defensive position.” The moment I started believing in myself and adopted an abundance mindset is the moment I relaxed from a defensive posture and leaned into my potential.

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

You can ask one of my roommate’s from my sophomore year who found me on the bathroom floor barely conscious, unable to sit up or speak because I had barely eaten for two weeks, and slept about 4 hours a night without any breaks from music. I was so burnt out my body was literally caving in and destroying itself. It took two weeks to get back to health.

I promised myself never to do that again…

1. Have other hobbies. Things that you just enjoy that aren’t even productive. I love cooking and making lattes and watching Star Trek. Those things keep me sane.
2. Have friends outside of your passion. If all of your friends are in the same career path, you’re just never going to leave that box. And circling back to the diversity thing, I think it’s important to have people who are in diverse walks of life active in your life.
3. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. The moment I put my physical health first above everything else, which is a constant struggle, everything in my life got better. My relationship with my girlfriend, friends, music, and my overall happiness.

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. :-)

Connection. I’m tearing up as I’m saying this, but there’s a story I was told in middle school that’s never left me: A man was in New York, very depressed, and he left a letter that said the following: “I’m going to walk to a bridge, and if one person smiles at me, I will not jump.”

The man is not alive anymore.

Nothing is more important than our ability to connect and love each other as individuals, as human beings. And I’m seeing us more and more “connected” but we’ve never been more lonely.

So the move I want to help inspire is one where people love themselves and believe in themselves so much that their love overflows to the people around them. I want to encourage people to see people as individuals that are worth loving. It’s not a tangible movement. It’s not a “save the turtles”, which is important, it’s a big picture movement. It’s a “let’s put in the work to love each other.”

I have a whole list of books that I’ve read that have helped me. I have friends who have read other books that help them. I see a therapist, a lot of my friends see therapists. There’s a lot of things I think we can put into practice as a society to grow our EQ, and allow us to start coming together instead of pulling apart.

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?

It takes a village. I have a whole list on my phone called “People Who Built Me”. It’s a very long list that has people who impacted my life, teachers, family, friends, mentors, even my exes. They all helped me grow into the person I am today.

I have to say my mom. She put in so much time helping me understand how the world works, teaching me things, believing in me, being a great sounding board for any ideas I’ve ever had, a phenomenal listener, and someone who has been with me through my very high highs and my very very low lows.

She’s the kind of person who leaps. Before I was born she and my dad were on a boat and they watched a private plane crash into the ocean. The plane was underwater and all this thick black oil filled the area where the plane crashed. And my mom didn’t hesitate. She dove into the water, swam through the oil which really burnt her eyes, found her way into the cockpit and cut the seatbelts off both the pilot and the woman sitting next to the pilot, and got them both onto the boat. Her sister, my aunt, was a nurse. She took care of them. The pilot ended up surviving and the woman, unfortunately, didn’t make it because the engine actually went into her upon impact.

The point is, that my mom leaps when something catastrophic happens, and that’s incredible. If she can leap into an ocean full of gasoline where an explosion could happen post plane crash, I can leap into launching an album…

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

“Dare to suck”. From one of my good mentors, and someone I consider family, Jodi Marr.

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. :-)

Will Smith. He’s from another side of my neck of the woods and he’s someone I’ve always looked up to. I don’t know him personally, but I can tell he values family, and he’s been able to sustain a very influential and inspiring career.

How can our readers follow you online?

@koryshore on Instagram

@koryshore on TikTok

Check out ‘IDKAT’ Lyric Video on Youtube here and behind-the-scenes content to come!

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