We were lucky to catch up with Arianna Henderson-Hatfield recently and have shared our conversation below.

Arianna, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

It all started in elementary school. In choir class, the teacher announced that somebody was looking for two people to participate in an all women’s singing competition in Yakima. I was very interested because I loved singing so I tried out for it. Our choir teacher pulled the people who were interested aside and we had taken turns recording us singing a song that they had picked out. Im not sure how long passed before we got the news but I didn’t make the cut. When it was time for the competition, one of the girls got sick and couldn’t go. I was then told that I was the runner up so I got to participate. It was so much fun and the group I sang with, won the competition.

After this, I knew that is what I wanted to do, for the rest of my life. I continued choir all throughout middle and high school. Sometime in middle school, I would go over to my father’s apartment and he had this computer hooked up to a 4-track or an 8 track, I cannot remember exactly. I asked him what it was, and he showed me. He turned the computer on, loaded some instruments from a floppy disk onto the computer and showed me how to make beats. I fell in love. In high school, I decided to try rapping. I figured that since my father was a well known rapper in the early 90’s, I should try to incorporate some of his talents into my own. To my surprise I was pretty good at it. I just didn’t have the structure or the form understood at that time. I kept all my rhymes in a book, binders, folders, and whatever I felt that they would be safe in.

When I finally attended college in 2011, I decided to go for Business & Administration. I had to learn all aspects of having and owning a business. When I was told to make a business plan for one of my assignments, I got excited. I wasn’t quite sure what it would be. After a lot of brainstorming and writing all of my ideas on paper, I came up with the idea of owning a record label. Not just any record label. A record label with a daycare. My goal was to create a space where local musicians or any musician or person who have children, could come to the studio and drop their kids off downstairs. This area would provide quality child care with educational activities in relation to music where young children to teenagers could explore. I mapped out every detail. Unfortunately, I ended up dropping out due to a young death in the family.

A couple years or so go by and I decided I was going to get back into music. I have been performing my whole life, so I should turn that into my career. I researched what I needed to work on to be successful in this direction and wrote down every useful piece of information down. I hung it up on the walls to remind me to stay focused. I practiced every single day. When I could afford to pay for my music, I found someone who said that they’d help me out. I recorded a couple of my tracks and was fully present with the production of the beats. Sometimes I would show how I wanted the composition would song by beat boxing. I recorded a few songs and they were good, the only thing is that I never got tracks so that I could use it in a performance setting. I ended up getting a stolen program and a computer that wasn’t connected to the internet so that I could produce my own music. I kept telling myself that if I just make it sound as best as I could, someone would see my potential. I got pretty good at making beats and songs, I was so proud of myself. I thought I was dope, so other people must think that too. I have a pretty good taste in music.

A couple months go by and I felt that it was time that I start networking. I made appearances at local open mics and performed for the crowds. They seemed to like my music. I knew then that I should not give this up. I kept meeting new people and experiencing new environments. But every where I went, the events all had one thing in common. Poor business etiquette. Do not get me wrong, the venues have excellent customer service that was not the issue. The issue was the promotion for these events. I knew that I could do a better job promoting than what the people who were promoting it was doing. I felt like most of these people were lazy. So after some experience booking talent, I started to promote myself. I went to shows and scouted for people who I thought were talented and needed some promotion as well. I talked around and ended up finding some places that would allow me to throw an event of my own. I made the flyer, printed them out and hung them up everywhere I went. I didn’t even put that much money into it and the event was successful. Every artist on the bill that night made money from the show. Ever since then, I have been coming up with new ideas for events and put on the best possible shows with local talent that I can think of.

After a while, I got pretty good at throwing shows, but the quality of music stayed the same. Nobody could tell me or want to teach me how to make my music sound more professional so in 2020, I decided to enroll myself into an Audio Engineering program. They taught me many things from live sound, recording techniques, and post production work. In 2023 I graduated. Now that I have all this extra knowledge I am going to start applying it to my background in music production and throwing the best local live shows in Washington State. I am in the early developments of my business, but I know that as time goes by I will be successful in both ventures.

Arianna, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

For the people who do not know me. I am an Audio Engineer, Event Planner, and Singer-Songwriter. My North West Killas company offers music recording (audio/video), mixing audio, mastering audio, sound design, post-production. artist development, personal branding, booking, and promotion services.

I provide not only a safe creative space, freedom to create, but guidance as well.

Everything about me sets me apart from the others. My uniques style, my creative process, my effective listening skills and the ability to effectively communicate with my clients.

I am most proud of the finished product or the final result.

What I would like people to know about me is that I work with people who are talented and may not have the funds to create. I do not get paid until the artist gets paid. Once they start seeing a profit I do not follow a 60/40 split like most record labels. I follow a 80/20 split. The artist receives 80 percent of their profits all while I keep only 20 percent.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My family. I want my children to see that once you find that thing you love to do, anything is possible as long as you put your mind, time and dedication into it.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

It’s actually the creative process. Music brings me so much joy and bing able to create something and hear it back is the most rewarding aspect of being an artist. Especially when others enjoy your creation just as much or more than you do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sites.google.com/view/arianna-henderson-hatfield?usp=sharing
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/KrazyBaby425
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/krazy425
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arianna-henderson-hatfield-b79a641b0/
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/krazybaby425
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/krazy425baby

Image Credits
meticulously essentric john rainwaters