Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Blvd.
Hi Katie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Growing up, music and art were the two things that I needed to escape. At any given Tuesday afternoon, you might find me hunched over a piano, or staring deeply into the detail of a painting, even if that meant I might have failed Geometry. As crazy as that sounds, the summer that I spent taking Geometry modules was the same one that spent on YouTube, finding hip hop. Every moment of my upbringing was laced with music somehow.
Piano was my first introduction, I took daily lessons after school with Ms. Battle – our church’s organ player. She introduced me to classical music and the foundation of music theory. She was strict, non-secular and very focused. Never mean, but always stern. Through her I developed the discipline to sit behind an instrument and mess up, start over, and mess up again. Then came Mr. Moon and Mr. Marechau, my elementary and then middle school orchestra teachers. In the third grade I picked up violin as my secondary instrument. I remember going from being excited to play “On Broadway” with the full orchestra AND the band, all the way to working my way up to second chair in high school.
From there comes college, where my autonomy takes over. No orchestra teacher or piano teacher telling me what to do. What does music mean to me now? It started with me taking my stacks of poetry books and journals and transforming them into song. I didn’t feel connected to piano enough to express with that instrument, or violin either… and since it was around 2014, of course I picked up the ukulele. With the ukulele, I started fully writing songs. I performed all around NC A&T at gala events, dressing up in floor length gowns and pulling a microphone up to my cobalt blue ukulele. As time grew, I grew out of it and graduated to the electric guitar.
A year or so of playing guitar on my own, I found myself invited to a jam session full of unlikely friends. Music heads that loved the expression and interconnection of jamming together. We formed a band we called “Earth Tones”. We played around the college as well, my favorite gig being “Midnight Breakfast” where our cafe would stay open until 12am and we’d play music while other students ate. Never been done, never done again.
All of our members were also beat makers, so naturally I was introduced to the world of sample-based music. J Dilla, Georgia Ann Muldrow, Madlib, MF Doom, Ohbliv, and Tuamie are just a few names that circled our orbit. We created a beat maker collective called MTROKNWN – and started throwing events together around Greensboro. Our home base being the Common Grounds at Elam & Walker.
Years pass and Earth Tones releases an album – “Pangaea”. I graduate first, a few others behind me. Our bassist Kalin moves back to Kansas City. Our drummer, Dre moves to Delaware to pursue an IT career. Our keyboardist Devan and I are the only two that stayed in Greensboro, and since our other members left, we disbanded officially. Many of the members of MTROKNWN moved away as well, so it disbanded too.
Post-bands and groups, I become more and more “Katie Blvd”. I perform around the city of Greensboro at open mics until I begin getting booked. I start making beats for myself and marrying the guitar and electronic music. I save up for my own beat machine, the Roland SP-404. Trade in my starburst, entry-level guitar for a navy Stagg R500 with beautiful opal inserts. Started throwing my own beat making events, that I call – “Beats Batch”. Before I knew it, I’m playing on a boat as a featured artist at Sofar Charleston. I’m opening for Theo Croker at Swamp Jam in Durham. I’m playing beats at a historic church turned museum in downtown Chicago. I know that I’m on my way, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Of course there have been a few bumps along the road! The biggest one that i’m still working my way over, is my battle with music theory. Coming up as a classically trained piano and violin player, theory was drilled into me. I actually hated it! It felt like turning music into math, and I was never good at math.
When I started to teach myself guitar, I didn’t have teachers to train me. I started creating music without knowing which cords I was playing, and the corners I cut on learning music theory made it hard for me to bridge that gap of understanding. I found myself sitting in a room full of trained musicians – fluent in the language of their instruments, and I couldn’t talk with them. With practice I’ve found myself better, but not completely flowing just yet.
As for throwing events, I ran into some issues with interpersonal connections. Venues not wanting to pay, or wanting to pay very little. People that were “heavily inspired” by my original concepts. Booked performers that didn’t show up or cancelled at the last minute. N0 matter what – I stay grounded and intentional, because I know why I create spaces: to highlight and give love to the underserved.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m Katie Blvd!!! I’m a multi-instrumentalist, singer and rapper, who’s also an illustrator and animator as well. What i’m best known for? Depends on who you ask – by a certain community I’m known as a singer/songwriter, playing jazzy guitar chords over my deep voice. By others, I’m known as a rapper and beat maker, with a signature sound and a flow with funny lines and soulful beats. At my day job, I’m known as a hand-drawn illustrator, that can take a concept and expand it with motion, color and free flowing expression.
What sets me apart is my unconventional originality. I’ve always been “different” than the people around me. Dressed different and talked different. Growing up, I was the kid wearing suspenders to class in 2010. Now I’m the musician who blends wavy, beachy guitar chords with hip hop beats. Jazzy, low vocals singing about the shortages of water, and how social media will sell your information for profit. I think that’s what i’m most proud of too, in a society full of people creating ideas off of one another, and AI stealing artists work to create. I still carry a pen and paper with me everywhere.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
The Notes app probably is the most used out of anything. The organization, the way it connects through my computer, my iPad and my phone, makes it easy to create ideas and drop them somewhere to be picked up later. Google Drive and Apple Files comes up behind that for the same reasons. Garageband is one of the second big mentions! I wouldn’t have found my footing in creating beats and recording myself without that app. I’ve graduated since to Logic, but I still don’t forget my roots. Bandcamp and Soundcloud are really amazing resources, and the home for most of my music releases. I’m always team independent music, and those platforms do their due diligence to create space for independent artists.
As for books I’m a huge Haruki Murakami fan, and I’m very inspired by his ability to create worlds and tell so many stories about journeys to centering self. My favorites of his are Kafka on The Shore, The Elephant Vanishes and 1Q84.
For my visual artwork, I’m HUGE on Procreate, Adobe AfterEffects and Illustrator.
Honorable mentions must include: AnimationDesk, Guitar Tuna, and Koala Sampler.
A few podcasts (just because I love to put people on): Scamfluencers, Midnight Burger, Desert Skies, Tell Me What Happened and 12 Hour Sound Machines. But, don’t forget to tell people I showed you when you show them.
Pricing:
- Beat making – (contact for more info)
- Song writing – (contact for more info)
- Illustration – (contact for more info)
- Animation – (contact for more info)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.katieblvd.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katie.blvd/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katieblvd/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@katie_blvd
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/katieblvd
- Other: https://www.katieblvdcreatives.me
