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

Katie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Being an artist has always been my calling. When I was little, anytime anyone ever asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up, without hesitation I always said “I want to be an artist.” At the time I wasn’t sure what kind of art that would entail for me, whether it was painting, music, dance, or going into the fashion world, I knew I was going to dive into all of it. Art has been my main driving force and my passion for as long as I can remember.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Kaitlynn, lots of people call me kitty, I’m 23 and my journey in the music industry began at age 15 as a singer in a cover band called Draft Avenue. Being a part of that taught me a lot about stage presence, confidence, memorizing lyrics, pro audio equipment, and how to get rid of my nerves when performing in front of people. Surprisingly so, I have way less nerves in front of big crowds than small ones. That part of my journey was a Segway into being a part of the band I’m in now called Falling Doves. I had always been a singer, but since around the age of 10 I started experimenting with different instruments like ukulele, piano, and guitar. It wasn’t until I joined the Falling Doves that I tried playing the bass for the first time, and fell in love with it. The first year in the band I was just doing back up vocals and helping out with the administrative work. After about a year of helping out with the band I decided to teach myself how to play the bass, with the help of Christopher Leyva (the lead singer and guitarist of the band). Within the first month of learning I was thrown on a tour to Japan with me as the bass player! Only knowing the songs on the setlist I went into it head first, and ended up doing well enough to become the full time bass player of the Falling Doves. I have now been living the life of a international touring musician for about 2 years now and everyday it puts me to the test. Touring full time is not for the weak, let me just say that. It’s been 2 years of discipline; training myself to live out of a carryon bag, training myself to play shows until 3 am, check out of the hotel at 11 am and be in a new city on public transit by 3 pm. It has been an amazing learning experience and it has developed my character beyond words. It is always important to me however, no matter how much I am moving around that I am constantly expressing with many art forms.. I continue to create paintings, and work in the fashion industry, and keep my singing voice alive no matter how hard it is to play bass and sing at the same time. It is truly a blessing to be able to live a quality life through creating music and creating art. That was always the goal, and I’m glad I stuck to it.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A big lesson I had to unlearn was that art was just a hobby. For me growing up, I was always told that anything involving art is not a business you want to get into, and no matter what you’ll always need a 9-5 day job. In a lot of cases that turns out to be true, which is why I believed it for so long. I however decided to take a more spiritual approach. I knew that if I unlearned what I had been taught about art just being a hobby, I could manifest it into my life as a career, and I did. Instead of settling for a reality I wasn’t going to be 100% happy with, I honed in on my craft and what I was good and took the leap of living my life as an artist. It’s a bumpy road but it does pay off, and I wouldn’t have it any of way.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

There was a huge pivot in my career when I met Christopher Leyva. Before I met him I was diving into the fashion industry creating my own clothing brand, and my cover and was just a side job. But after meeting Christopher he pretty much swept me head first into the music industry full time. This changed my life from living in Portland Oregon, selling clothes at street fairs, to living in So Cal and playing full time in a band. I still make clothes and sell them, but now that’s my side hustle and the band is the main focus.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.fallingdoves.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/misskatieboo_?igsh=MTUzdTlhbG9kMTFjdg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fallingdoves?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@FallingDoves?si=VK4hZT9_1jPI77y7

Image Credits
Kelli Hayden Maui Diego Bootzie