Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kirsten Evans. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kirsten, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

The short answer is yes. I wish I had started many parts of my career and training earlier. I wish I had had the confidence to say to my parents sooner that I wanted to learn to play the piano, and more importantly sing. I wish I had started learning to read music at the same time as learning to read. I wish I had understood earlier on that it is okay to fail when you practice and learn and in fact without failing you aren’t really learning (one could argue). Most importantly, I wish I had had the confidence to follow the career path I truly wanted – to be a singer songwriter. Instead of following this path I went into a different part of the music industry, composition.

It was a slow process when I moved away from singing and writing songs. At first I just moved away from pop music and focused more on my training as a singer. I gradually stopped writing songs and I focused more on getting everything right when it came to singing. I went from singing my songs, to musical theatre to opera. I received some harsh critique on my operatic voice at the same time as being rejected from all of the singing degrees I applied for and so finally I moved on from my singing training to writing music full time. I moved even further away from being a singer songwriter when I went into film music and eventually music software.

Now is the first time in years where I have had the courage to go back to making my own songs. I’m not sure when the exact moment was that I decided I needed to get back into singing and start making my own songs again but what I do know is that it always felt like there was something missing when I was ignoring that side of me. I could never quite find the same joy as I did when I sing my own songs. As someone who isn’t the most talkative, singing is my outlet and now that I have it back everything seems so much easier, calmer and just simply feels right. I wish I had gone back to it sooner but I know I have a deeper appreciation for it now that I would have if I had continued to sing throughout my early adult life.

Kirsten, 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 a singer songwriter who is originally from the UK but is now based in Los Angeles. As well as writing songs, I also work as a session singer for media music productions including production music, trailer music and music for film and TV.

My background in composition enables me to work with composers on their music to create something unique and bespoke for their project. I also offer to generate new ideas and send over banks of sounds to composers for them to use in their projects.

In regards to song worrying, I am available for main and backing vocal recordings. I write tip lines and harmonies and can create lyrics for your song. I tend to focus on indie pop music or music that wants you to feel something. Hand me a sad ballad and I’ll be there ready and waiting to make some music!

Personally, I believe that the best way to create good music is to collaborate and both share a singular vision of what you want your musical outcome to be. I feel that emotions are, of course, the key to making great music and that my job as a singer and songwriter is to nail the way that those emotions are conveyed so that your music can truly come over how you want it to.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My goal used to be material. Sing at the O2 arena in London to sold out stadium. Win a Grammy. Write several number 1, chart topping singles and albums. But after stepping away from singing for a few years I realised that all I actually want it to sing.

Singing is my outlet and my safe space. It enables me to process emotions and share my emotions with others in a way I just can’t seem to do with words. When I use words I get all jumbled up and the meaning gets lost, but when I sing I feel that whomever I’m singing too can feel those very same emotions too and it creates such a bond between myself and that audience meme ever that, at least I like to think, it makes us both feel seen and heard.

I suppose that my mission is now more spiritual almost. My hope is that I can write music that helps people to feel. Whether that be positive feelings of relief, joy or gratitude, or whether it enables them to finally release those sad feelings they have been pushing down. Sometimes you need something to support you and I hope that I can create music that does just that. It let’s you feel.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Grants, shared working spaces for creatives, go to see your local acts, did I mention grants… Money, for anyone not just creatives, is always helpful especially when you are starting out so grants for artists is sort of a given that it would help the lives of artists. They already exist but there are so many artists that, of course, the more the better.

In regards to other ways members of the public can help, going to see your local acts and artists works is crucial to supporting emerging and new talent. It’s cool to like someone once they are a big name, but imagine what you could also be seeing if you followed them from the beginning.

Shared creative work spaces are gold minds in my opinion. Artists, as a general rule, work on their own away from others for a good portion of their time. For younger creatives this can be challenging for so many reasons, let alone the challenges established artists can face spending so much time alone. Not only can you ask for help in a shared creative work space, you make friends and become inspired in new ways. The more of these spaces that can be founded, the better.

It’s tricky to say what would benefit creatives as a whole on a societal level because there are so many initiatives, schemes and opportunities that are created for us to partake in. However… there are still two areas that need looking at fast. The appropriation of cultures in media music simply to either make or save money, and the business models that exist in the world that mean that artists make little from their work because streaming services cost so little. Set is not free or cheap, even though it is wonderful to be able to share it with so many people. Royalty payouts for so many media of arts amounts to pretty much nothing for a variety of reasons, but this needs to start shifting so that the creators of the things we love can make a living wage.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kirstenevans.co.uk/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/kirstenhevans?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==

Image Credits
Thomas Eggensberger and Kelsey Henricks