We were lucky to catch up with Kindal Tate recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kindal, thanks for joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Yes I’ve been able to earn a full time living with music and I honestly feel super grateful for it everyday. Like all artists I worked a 9 to 5 back in 2021 at a grocery store bagging groceries and quit top of 2022 after my grandfather passed away. His passing had me realizing that life is about purpose and he spoke about that to me often. Plus if I was going to make pennies getting bossed around by grumpy managers and customers I might as well take a chance making pennies doing something I love. So I started singing on Venice beach, picking up shows here and there singing backgrounds for my friend who later helped me connect with a music event organization called Sofarsounds. I did my first Sofarsounds show September 8, 2022 and continued to gain speed with my fan base. I saved money from busking, selling merch I made, selling paintings, and with help from my supportive family I was able to go my first sold out tour through Sofarsounds. My friend and I drove from California to Canada! We performed in San Francisco, Oakland, two dates in Portland, OR, two dates in Vancouver, Canada, and ended the tour in Seattle. The amount of growth and inspiration I gained from that tour sparked a fire in me to create my own show I always hesitated about. So my friend Edi helped me bring my event to life called “The Backyard Live Sessions” which is a live filmed concert series. I called up my closest dope female artist friends Refi Sings, Priscilla Perry, and Ainjo selling out of my volume 1 series February 24. 2023. The Backyard Live Sessions Vol. 1 was held at Hot & Cool Cafe in L.A’s historical Leimert Park. I since sold out my BYLS Vol. 2 series at Kulaks Woodshed in North Hollywood May 26, 2023 featuring artists Ando San, Revel Day, Edi Callier and myself. I have had overwhelming support from family, friends, fans, artists and organizations like Sofarsounds and Tha Juice Joint. From bagging groceries to sold out shows and tours is wild! Was it easy no, but anything worth having is worth working your butt off. I’ve laughed, cried, had anxiety, and celebrated every step on this journey. I honestly can’t believe I got here I have had so many shows and experiences I could go on for months about it. I couldn’t have done it without the support of my family, friends, and fans investing into my dreams and goals. I’m really thankful for everyone!

Kindal, 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 was 4 years old when I decided that music was going to be my life. I was always surrounded by music in my home and I litterally walked up to the T.V with the Country Music Awards on pointing and yelling at my family that I wanted to do that. They all told me it would be really hard but obviously it was the right choice I haven’t been able to stop and I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I was put into vocal lessons at JP Vocal studios where I took lessons and learned all of my professionalism from. Still to this day I go to my same vocal coach Jessica Purse she has taught me everything from ear training, mic control, breathe control, singing with purpose, performance training, even how to organize my own show. She always had us students run our own recitals backstage and holding us accountable for practicing. From then in my teens I studied every genre of music that caught my attention there really wasn’t a box I would allow myself to be put into. I studied a lot of Jazz, Rock, R&B, Punk, Alternative, Musical Theater and Country. My Favorite genre was jazz for along time and I still today fuse it with anything I do. I was apart of an artist development camp called Hollywood Launch mentored by Wayne Brady and many other industry professionals. I got to work with Wayne Brady because I was a Wayne Brady scholarship winner for the program. My family didn’t have a lot of money at the time so I auditioned for the scholarship program. I was super shy and not the most confident teen but I got in and through out that program I slowly gained my confidence and experimented with who I was as an artist constantly. A few years later after the program I attended community college at College of the Canyons in Valencia, CA. where I took music classes like piano, music theory 101, and entry level classes. I met my friend Victor Soto who met me in a performance class and immediately started planing to get me to sing in his cover band “Apache Rose”. For the first 3 years we performed everywhere and then decided to take a break because 4 hour sets are a lot. During our break we stumbled upon this jam that happened every Monday night in the heart of Hollywood called Tha Juice Joint. I went to that jam every Monday for a year and kept asking Mel the founder of the event to have me be apart of Tha Juice Joint House singers and still am a house singer currently. Years of doing open mics and cooperate shows. Things shut down and I would do live shows on instagram and during that 2 years learn how to produce, play ukulele, and write and record a bunch of songs that are currently out now. There were many challenges I faced in my life I was constantly bullied and ridiculed in school to the point where I had to drop out and get my GED, then from there went to college met a guy who mentally and physically abusive to where I stopped music for that 2 year period. I battle constant anxiety, ADHD, and depression. My message that I stand by is “How can I heal the world if I can’t heal myself with my own music?” I never try to mask when I’m having a hard day cause I maybe an artist but I want fans to see I am human just like any other star. I want any fans dealing with mental health issues to feel like they’er not alone that things can get better by sharing my journey with them. I believe what sets me apart from other artists is my vulnerability and ability to connect on a personal level to everyone in the audience. I am really proud of how much I’ve grown as an artist and person doing the thing I love more than anything in this world. I’m also really proud of this album I’m working on it’s really pushing me outside of my comfort zone and really testing my creativity. I’m super excited to share this album with my fans along with my new merch and art I will be releasing soon on my website.

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

I had to unlearn people pleasing. I used to worry about if what I was creating would be popular and keep up with current trends. I would take advice from people who really didn’t get my vision due to their popularity, but it left me feeling sad and like I wasn’t going to be able to connect with fans in a way that I do now. I finally had it one day and got tired of trying to fit in. That’s when I found people who embraced who I was and encouraged me to just create for me. I learned you can’t please everybody and there will always be someone out there with an opinion. What is for me is for me I create what I want my career to look like. That took me a while to learn and it’s still a practice but my career and life has evolved in a major way for the better.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I believe people can best support indie artists by buying tickets to our shows and buying merch it’s a big part of how we make money and use that to invest in our craft. Also streaming our music at least once a day sharing it to friends, using our music in instagram reels or tiktoks. Requesting our music from your favorite DJ and radio stations. If you have a creative outlet featuring us on blogs, YouTube interviews/ reviews of our music, or podcasts. Some of us also just have a donation button on our websites that goes to investing in studio time, rehearsal spaces, funding shows, tours or merch. Even word of mouth helps. Anything you can think of is really a big help just showing up for us and being engaged makes all the difference.

Contact Info:

• Website: WWW.Kindaltate.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Kindaltatemusic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kindaltatemusic
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kindaltatemusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/KindalTateMusic
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@kindaltatemusic

Image Credits
Edi Callier Domo (Infinite Imprints Photography)