Kitty Rae
Growing up in rural Victoria indie-pop artist Kitty Rae had to follow a winding road to achieve what she has in music. Speaking with Pario recently Kitty told us how her upbringing inspired music, the challenges she had to overcome & how she hopes to give back to rural communities in the future.
Over the years Kitty's path to becoming a musician has taken many twists & turns. Right from the outset Kitty told Pario that music wasn't necessarily an obvious option since nobody in her family was particularly musical.
"My family aren't musical at all," Kitty said with a laugh. "But, because of that my dad really wanted to get me into music & put me into keyboard lessons when I was very little, but I absolutely hated it."
Obviously given this comment we had to ask, how did she go on to become a musician if she hated music as a kid? To which Kitty answered, "As I got a bit older though I started to fall in love with it, especially in primary school where we had a little music program, which was great."
So it must have been full steam ahead on a music career from then on, right? Wrong. There were more twists & turns to come.
"Once I got to high school we didn't have a music program at all," said Kitty. "So, I was pushed towards a much more academic route, which meant I lost a little bit of myself during that period."
It wasn't until Kitty then ventured off to university to study for an entirely unrelated degree that she rediscovered her passion for music.
"I started out at uni in a completely different degree, thinking that I had to do something a bit more mainstream, but everything just brought me back to music... Chatting to people in the music course there were people chatting about generations of jazz or big eisteddfods, which I didn't even know existed until I came to university. So that really opened my eyes to how important music education.”
That revelation, along with Kitty's love for Dolly Parton, inspired her dream of someday being able to give back to rural communities via music.
"I really want to give something back to rural communities & hopefully spread that inspiration through music," explained Kitty. "I feel like for me that would have to be related to songwriting, so some sort of rural workshops or classes which bring songwriting & the process of creating music to rural areas. I think that would be so valuable because songwriting is not something you do a lot of at school & I think that is something that could be really beneficial."
Another area where Dolly Parton has inspired Kitty is simply through her kindhearted nature.
"Coming into this industry you always get told it's cutthroat & that you've got to beat down the competition to get anywhere but that's so not true! You get places by being a nice person, building a community & networking. Just being nice to people can get you so far & Dolly Parton really typifies that, she is such a beautiful person."
This friendly & supportive nature plays out in Kitty's desire to use her platform to help elevate fellow female, queer or non-binary artists alongside her.
"It's been really interesting going through this industry as a woman. There is a big misconception that feminism isn't needed because we're all equal now, & I do admit I kind of fell into that as a teen," said Kitty. "That was until I started gigging & realised I was often the only female on most of the lineups. Then you look at the lineups for big festivals or you look at non-binary or queer identities there's even less representation."
With this knowledge in mind, Kitty explained that it simply requires fellow artists, venue owners, or event bookers to make a little more effort.
"It's not even that hard once you start looking," said Kitty. "I really want to have as diverse & widely representative lineups as possible. I just want to make sure that I am making the effort to see if there are people who haven't had an opportunity. We had an all-female & queer lineup at my launch gig, which was great. I was really proud of that."
According to Kitty venues & promoters may also reap the benefits of putting in just a little more effort because these "systemically oppressed" communities tend to be "incredibly tight-knit" & supportive of each other.
"We just want people to feel seen & heard."
Follow Kitty Rae's journey at www.KittyRae.com or on social media @KittyRaeMusic
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