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

Alright, Kat thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

When I was 11 years old I went to my first concert. I saw my favorite band Lifehouse at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom in Hampton NH. I saw how much fun it looked like they were having on stage and I wanted to experience that myself. I then got more into the band and researched their music more. When I was 12/13 a lot of unfortunate things were happening in my life. I saw the lead singer of Lifehouse, Jason Wade, said that he wrote music as a way of therapy. I started writing lyrics as my way of “therapy” at that age to help process what I was going through. Then it just snowballed from there.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a singer/songwriter and music artist. I write my own lyrics/music and I perform my music as well.

When I was 18 years old, my dad had let me know that the best way to start really getting into the music business, was to play gigs at restaurants in my local area. He drove me around my small town of Dracut MA, and I gave my business card to any place that would take it. At that time, there wasn’t a lot of social media, so to reach out you had to do it in person. I played my first gig at The Four Oaks Country club in Dracut MA at 18 as they were so gracious enough to give me a chance. I then grew from there as I started learning and building my own sound.

What I think sets me apart from other artists is I write most of my lyrics of my songs first before I write any melodies or chords. I love lyrics that sound like poetry and tell a story. I want to be able to connect with people and help others not feel alone by telling my stories through song. Stories others have told through music has saved me and I want to give back by hopefully helping someone else.

I am most proud of carving the way of creating a name for myself and the progress I’ve made just by determination. I don’t come from any ties in the business, so basically starting from scratch on trying to build my brand myself is not easy. Many days and many points of my journey I’ve wanted to give up but I keep going because music is apart of me. I couldn’t go through this life without creating it.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I had to unlearn was not everyone is going to support you or understand you. If you’re a creative, you’re doing something not many others feel comfortable diving into. A lot of the time it can be underlying distain for not letting themselves embrace their creative side, so they displace it onto you. That’s okay. You need to be your own #1 fan, especially when starting out. A huge misconception of society is that being a creative is not being a useful member of society because there is no clear path to get there. Yes, sometimes some may never “get” to where they want to be. However, we need creatives. If you really dive deep into a lot of things we use on the daily, we needed someone creative to help create those things. It’s a meaningful path, but it’s not an easy one. It doesn’t have a road map like a lot of other jobs do. For me, that’s something I had to learn too. Instead of being intimated by not having a road map, the fun of it is figuring out how to create my own.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My particular goal is just to be able to find an audience that connects with my music. People that can find something they need from it to help them in their life. I would love to be able to do a small tour soon to play to that audience and build it as well. To be able to connect with people through music is the best thing that comes out of creating it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kativymusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kativymusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KatIvyMusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kativymusic
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@kativymusic_

Image Credits

NashBash Collective
Kris Dobbins Photography