We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elizabeth Katie. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elizabeth below.

Elizabeth , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

When it comes to creating music, my co-writers and I are definitely trying to write what feels real for us, even if it’s missing that industry standard sticker. We have such a respect for the music you hear on the radio and we are trying to find the balance of creating music that combines what we love to listen to and what we really want to say. There are definitely perspectives or topics we don’t hear as much of coming out of the mainstream industry and we really try to push ourselves to embrace and include those things in our own art; even if it’s a little different than the standard.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Poetry and songwriting has been an outlet for me since I was little. I didn’t start playing an instrument until I was in high school. I taught myself piano and then guitar on my mother’s old instruments. Music saved me at a really dark time in my life and I continued to cultivate my songwriting and musicianship throughout my twenties. A lot of life happened before I moved to Nashville but I moved at the end of 2019 and really dove into the writing scene here; partnering with artists I believed in. Unfortunately, the pandemic came shortly after. The time alone in my apartment allowed me to return to my pen-to-paper poetic roots. Then I got to do something I’ve always wanted to do, start a business. I started my business Spark The Beat to publish my creative works through and in 2022, released my debut poetry collection.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

I work with a group of artists (and friends) who I met in one of the most serendipitous weeks of my life. I was spending 3 months in Nashville on a trial run and connected with an artist, David Unlayao, who had just gotten to Nashville. We had written together before, just online. He pulled me into a last minute write the next day and we headed off to the Bluebird to play the song we wrote. Standing in line, we met another awesome artist we still work with and consider a friend, Mitchel Dae. Just a day or two later, a producer friend of mine connected us with Maya Manuela, who is still part of our Nashville crew! All in one week, I met some of my closest creative partners and friends.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I’ve worked a lot of different jobs; from working with children to working in a NYC office on an Island only accessible by boat. I’ve been the non-creative too. Just like any job, songwriting and writing requires energy and passion and hard work. It’s a skill you cultivate over time and through practice and failure. I think it’s easy to idolize what we do from the outside or easy to think it’s a walk in the park. While I am so grateful I get to do what I do, it’s definitely still work.

On one last note, it can be really hard to convey the feeling a lot of us creatives have, that nothing else will fulfill us. It’s a gift and curse to want to do one thing so badly. I definitely see some people who wish they had that direction or passion for something and I think it can be found in a lot of different places. This is just where I happened to find mine.

Contact Info:

• Website: elizabethkatiewrites.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethkatiewrites/
• Other: https://linktr.ee/elizabethkatie

Image Credits
Kayla Eileen (piano shot) Joseph Gutierrez (standing up playing shots with David Unlayao)