We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kaatii a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kaatii, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is my upcoming EP. It tackles the most difficult things I go through, like mental health, queerness, and my trans identity. I’ve been writing these songs with Kara Connolly over the past year and a half, and they feel very true to who I am at this point in my life. It is very therapeutic for me to be able to express these negative feelings in the form of song, because that turns the negative into something positive that I can enjoy. For example, I have OCD, and Computer Problems (coming out July 14th) is all about my experience with intrusive thoughts. At the time of writing, I was really struggling with that part of my mental health, Expressing that difficulty helped me to work through the pain, which ultimately allowed me to understand that part of myself better.

Kaatii, 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?

I am Kaatii, a 16 year old indie-folk musician based in Dallas, Texas. I use they/them pronouns and am very open about my queer and trans identity. I eat, sleep, and breathe music, and have been playing the guitar for the past 9 years. My top listened to song of all time is Parasite by Nick Drake, and his music has heavily influenced my recent writing. I love poetry and my cats and the color green, and I am a pretty normal teenager in my spare time.

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

My goal as a creative is to help make people feel less alone in their struggles. I write music to cope with the negative things I go through, and my dream is to be able to help someone out by talking about the topics I do. I am very passionate about the destigmatization of mental health and illness, seeing as it is such a widespread issue that nearly everyone goes through, and my writing shows that.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is the ability to impact someone’s life with my music. It brings me so much joy to know that there are people who decompress by listening to my music, or that I can put a smile on someone’s face by doing what I love.

Contact Info:

• Website: Kaatii.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaatiimusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kaatiimusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWNDDA31T76QuVgYu3JNllw
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2LvozeTg1aYh9IXTzKrq1f?si=eMO0Fg3ASm6481PWBodwyQ

Image Credits
Joyce Charat @joycevisuals (instagram)