Interview with Kate Cosentino: Indie-Pop Artist

Written by Doris Wang on Saturday, 14 May 2022. Posted in Interviews

 

Photo courtesy of Evergreen Entertainment


Kate Cosentino, a singer and songwriter born and raised in Kansas City, is a cheerful, warm person full of thoughts and ideas. She fell in love with music at a young age and has made a name for herself in the music industry with her musical storytelling and ability to touch and relate music with her audience.

Girls For Business had the chance to interview this amazing woman about what life is like in the music industry and how she made it to where she is today!

Q: How were you first introduced to music?

Cosentino was introduced to music in the first grade when she was into the popular musical TV show Hannah Montana and loved playing Guitar Hero 3. She was so mesmerized by the music and the media that Cosentino decided she was going to pursue guitar and be the next big thing, which made her start playing in the first grade.

Q: How did you get introduced to the music industry?

Cosentino started songwriting in the third grade, performing out in Kansas City and building herself a name there until she headed out to college at Belmont, where she got her music business degree. From there, she realized she has started to work with big people in the industry as she began interning at studios, interviewing huge bands, and it became her life. “I live in the industry now, essentially,” Cosentino remarked.

Q: Can you describe your journey as you navigate the music industry since then?

Getting to college was the best experience for Cosentino, who loved Belmont and felt it was such an accessible way to get into the industry. It was an environment with no strings attached, where you could just go in and learn. She graduated a little over a year ago and is now navigating her career as an independent artist.

“It has been a total roller coaster,” Cosentino said in regards to her life as a singer. Some days, Cosentino said, she feels like she totally knows what she’s doing, while other times she has to learn so many new things, like navigating the world of graphic design or PR, feeling like she’s in the mind space of a small business owner.

Q: How would you describe being a woman in the music industry?

Cosentino shared one of her favorite quotes she heard when she was at Belmont – “I don’t like telling women, oh, we face all of this bias and struggle in the music industry because it’s like telling someone before they go to a party that it’s going to be terrible – but still telling them to come to the party.” However, Cosentino greatly encourages more girls to come into the industry – whether it be as producers or any kind of job, more women are needed in music. From her experience, there may be times when people may be condescending to her and she has to go through with it, but Cosentino felt that it’s important to focus on the positives and that it is inspiring to work with other women and to connect with a female audience.

Q: What is the typical workday in the music industry like?

For her, it’s ever-changing but now that she is on a cycle of release, she has a specific checklist of things she needs to make sure she does. She always starts with the big item of the day – like making sure she makes TikToks to promote her music, PR emails, and playlisting campaigns, all in an effort towards the releases and shows around her music. But generally her life functions in a manageable way, in that she will work 9-5 on the big list of tasks for the day but also have breaks in between for herself to play Stardew Valley or watch a television show. 

Q: What’s the most rewarding part of your becoming a singer?

The most rewarding part, she says, is the connection she has with the audience. Music, she feels, is a service – Cosentino says that people need music because it makes people feel seen and makes life feel less lonely and more fun. And so when she performs and has a moment with someone where she can improve people’s lives or make them laugh, it helps her realize that there is so much importance in being a performer, and that it’s just magical.

Q: What is the song-writing process like?

Cosentino answers that the process of songwriting is chaotic, from “noodling on the guitar” to a stockpile of iPhone notes. The contents of these notes are completely random, filled with what tone matches guitar riffs, her own experiences, ideas from movies, etc. She can be inspired by anything and everything in her everyday life and will record her musical ideas from these inspirations.

Q: What are the intersections of music and business and how do they relate to your job?

Cosentino studied music business and describes herself as a business geek, saying that she has both sides of the brain - the creative and artistic one as well as the nerdy spreadsheet-lover side. She is passionate about business and feels that anyone who wants to be an artist is a small business. To be an artist, she expresses that you need to know how basic business works to set yourself up for success. The involvement of business is what truly differentiates a musical career from a hobby and a lifetime pursuit, as taking music to a business level reveals that. 

Q: What are the behind-the-scenes on music shows?

Cosentino described booking shows as a wild adventure, saying, “you never feel qualified to do it even though you do it every day”. Most shows are through networks of knowing people, and sometimes she gets texts about free spots at a venue that feels more laidback and fun

She describes full band shows as a different experience. You need to reach out to venues, email them, and learn about the differences between each venue. Some venues require the artist to pay, and some allow artists to come for free. There’s also the level of playing with a band and the allotted budgeting for the members. Even after securing these, Cosentino describes finding the space to practice as “surprisingly difficult” at times, and that she also wonders how many people will show up, how to promote her events, as well as dealing with some very specific contracts.

Q: You talk a lot about TikTok and promoting your music on social media. How have you had to adapt to the new importance of social media and connect that with your career? 

Cosentino expresses that social media has always been important and that she is grateful to have grown up participating in it. She has always been a fan of YouTubers and vloggers, enjoying making content and falling in love with the personalities of people on the internet. She feels that she doesn’t have to embody anyone else’s personality, and likes her content to reflect her personality.

As for managing her content, Cosentino always has a monthly check-in just to see if she liked what she put out, the amount she posted, and what she would like to do with her social media in the future to create a nice work-life balance for herself.

Q: May we ask more about your guitar strapline, Big Chick Energy?

Big Chick Energy is a guitar strap company Cosentino started in middle school when she walked into a guitar store at a young age. At the store, the owners recommended her a pink guitar strap, the only one they had that wasn’t covered in flames, bullets, or AC/DC logos. She rejected it, saying she wanted something that reflected her “quirky sense of style”. 

She started making guitar straps, which she used to sew. What she has up on her website now is the “new and improved” version; a guitar strap with velcro on the top and different changeable designs on patches that fit easily into guitar bags and are adjustable to the customer’s preferences.

Q: What are some of the challenges that you face on an everyday basis?

Cosentino feels that there’s some comfort in knowing that nobody knows what they’re doing most of the time, even after lots of experience. The mentality of everyone is faking it till they make it helps calm Cosentino down when she’s worried about doing well constantly.

One struggle she does face quite often is that there are so many things she can do, and it’s difficult to know what the next step is. She could upload on numerous social media platforms, record more songs, play some shows, and so the hardest thing is deciding what to do while making it manageable. It’s important to Cosentino to find a good balance that works for her.

Q: What is the process of recording, album production, and marketing as a singer?

Cosentino acknowledges that there are many ways it can go, but she always starts out writing songs with her guitar and recording it into Garageband. From there, forms a very rough draft of the song before bringing it to a producer to polish it. After that, they might play around and make different sounds, or in the case of her new EP, she had session musicians come in for different instruments. An audio engineer then mixes the song to adjust the sounds and fine-tune it into the final product. Once that is done, she picks a distributor like Spotify or iTunes, and then her music gets sent out on the internet.

Q: As a singer, what kind of audience do you cater towards, or is there any sort of message you want to convey

She hopes her music is accessible to a lot of people because, through her music, she tells her life stories. She says her music leans towards the “weirder, quirky” people like “bookies, quirky intellectual meets falcon jazz kind of people.” Message-wise she writes about issues close to her, from addressing the LGBTQ+ community, ladies, and sending messages about body image. She loves sharing human experiences through her songs, so writing a song from a third-person perspective which she finds is best for people to feel others or their own “humanity” and experiences.

Q: In all your years of working experience, what has been your happiest memory from working as a singer?

Cosentino replies that there are so many positive experiences she’s had, describing herself as “a happy girl”. She remembers enjoying the showcases they had at Belmont, where there is a big stadium and industry professionals listen to her. One of her friends got in and Cosentino was lead guitar and backup vocals for her. She had a lot of fun, enjoying being in the moment with a huge crowd in front of her. 

Q: Are there any aspirations you have for the future?

She has many goals, but right now her biggest goal is for her music to be in a TV show or movie. As for “baby-step” small goals, she’s also toured a little but wants to do a whole, large tour, where she can meet new people and be able to say “I did it, I had a tour”. Lastly, she wants to get on NPR. 

Q: What advice do you have for girls who would like to pursue the world of music and business in their future careers?

Cosentino says that if you love music, don’t let anyone tell you not to pursue it even though the industry can be weird. Everyone has different goals, and she thinks that if you’re passionate about it, it’ll bring a lot of meaning to your life and give something you are proud of to the world. One thing she loved about college was that she was able to meet people pursuing things in different ways. She says college was a valuable experience, as she was able to explore and figure out what things she likes and doesn't like.

Q: To end it off with a fun question: which musical artist do you take the most inspiration from?

For Cosentino, it changes all the time. Someone who got her started on her path was Regina Spektor, who is a really big inspiration for her. Spektor wrote music for Orange Is the New Black and 500 Days of Summer, and Cosentino admires Spektor’s “crazy, weird” lyrics that are also “beautiful”. Spektor inspires Cosentino to be unafraid to try weird things with her music, and she relates heavily with her.

Kate Cosentino’s new EP comes out on May 20th! Cosentino described it as her “college passion project,” with all her songs from college and a way to say to herself that she’s graduated, and now she’s doing what she’s always wanted to love. Titled Note To Self, Cosentino aims for it to be a way to say something to her younger self if she had the chance, and is excited to share her music with the world!

Catch her on Instagram @katemcosentino and TikTok, and make sure listen to her on Spotify and Youtube!

About the Author

Doris Wang

Doris Wang

Doris is the Writing director at Girls For Business.

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