We had the pleasure of interviewing Kenzie Cates, and here’s what she had to say:
Q: Could you give us a background story of how you got the idea for “I Don’t Need U”?
CATES: I was in the studio with my producer in Nashville and we had a sad day writing the day before. I wanted to write a song celebrating the fact that I had escaped a doomsday cult the year before. Even though many days were hard, many days were also amazing and I wanted to celebrate that.
Q: Could you walk us through your creative and production process for this song?
CATES: We started trying to find a vibe and once we got one we liked, we took turns freestyling until we found something we liked.
Q: How does your musical roadmap for the rest of the year look?
CATES: I’ll head back to LA and Nashville for more writing this year and I have two more releases planned. Honestly, after the past year, I’m not feeling rushed—I’m going to focus on enjoying my achievements from the past year.
Q: You attended a songwriting master class by Andrew Allen through the Songwriter’s Association of Canada in May 2020. What was your experience? What did you learn?
CATES: It was an affirming experience to be surrounded by talented people and exchange ideas. I definitely suffered from imposter syndrome and was worried I wouldn’t belong, but it ended up being an enriching experience and I left feeling more confident in myself.
Q: What advice would you give someone who is interested in becoming a musician, but they’re quite uncertain because they don’t know whether they’ll make enough to survive?
CATES: I would say that is a reasonable concern and you should really consider whether you love making content and being poor because that’s mostly what it consists of. If knowing that the pie chart of what you will spend your day-to-day doing will only have a tiny portion dedicated to making music and the rest will be admin, project management, content creation, and general entrepreneurship, you still feel compelled to do it, then get a serving job or seasonal job like firefighting so that you can dedicate the majority of your time to pursuing music while making enough to survive.
Q: What is your favorite memory so far from your journey as a musician?
CATES: This was a sweet question to consider. I have a very fond memory of performing an impromptu concert outside with some close friends after one of my songs came out. It warms my heart to think of it now. That or being selected as a finalist in NSAIs annual song contest *-*
Interviewed by Zoey King
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