Interview: Katie Garibaldi

By: Liz Coffey

Hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, Katie Garibaldi has made a name for herself in Americana music. Following 2009's award-winning Next Ride Out, she took some time off to reflect. Though she released several singles, it would be five years before she came out with another full-length album. Follow Your Heart has given a window into some of the most personal stories Garibaldi has ever shared in her music, and she teamed up with numerous great musicians to tell those stories. Through email, Katie answered some questions about how she got started in music, how Follow Your Heart came to be, and what she plans to do in the future. Check it out! 

Please introduce yourself and give us a strange fact about yourself.

My name is Katie Garibaldi and I’m a touring singer/songwriter in the Americana vein with my home base in the San Francisco Bay Area. A strange fact about me is that I really don’t like fictional horror movies, especially gruesome ones, and yet, I love watching shows or reading about real-life ghost stories and hauntings. They still scare me but I find them really fascinating and I’ve always had an interest in the paranormal.

When did you first get into music and when did you decide that this is what you wanted to do?

I was captivated by music as far back as I can remember. My parents used to play rock and roll records for me when I was a baby and said that I would light up when I heard it. As a kid I was always singing and creating my own melodies, which of course listening to great classics like the Beatles etc. gave me a strong appreciation for melody. I learned piano when I was younger but I didn’t feel like it was “my thing.” That epiphany came when I picked up the guitar at around 11 years old. I had an instant connection with the instrument, which was a very natural tool for me to use to turn my constant melodies into actual songs. Once I started performing in high school, I fell in love with the live aspect as well and quickly realized this was my calling. I became and remain passionate about every aspect, from the creative side of songwriting to the business side of marketing.

What artists influence you the most, and how do you incorporate that into your own style?

Jewel was a huge influence on me because I was learning the guitar and writing my first songs at the same time that her big debut, Pieces of You, was released. Up until that point I had been listening to rock and roll classics, pop singers, and some country. But Jewel came on the scene as this ballsy yet gentle songwriter who was completely honest in her lyrics and challenged the standard formats of song structure. She was so real to me and it made me realize that I didn’t have to fit in any sort of genre box; I could just be myself and do my own thing, as long as it’s true to my heart. Jewel’s guitar playing style also had an influence on the way I learned how to play the guitar. I think nowadays depending on who I’m listening to, my styles kind of fluctuate, but I mostly get inspiration from experiences rather than other artists to deliberately incorporate into my style. It’s more of a subconscious combination of whatever is inspiring me at the moment.

Describe your sound to someone who has never heard you before.

Country-tinged folk music with a soulful vibe.

When you write music and play shows, do you have a target group in mind, or do you just go with the flow and let your music speak for itself?

I definitely don’t think about that kind of thing while I’m writing. Songwriting is a pretty otherworldly experience for me, a sort of out of body event where I just let creativity run its course naturally. I don’t necessarily think about target marketing when I’m playing shows because I am always who I am, however I always come up with my set list for a show on the spot, unless it’s a big show with my full band, and sometimes we even tweak that song order as we go along too. But solo shows I almost always play the set by ear. I like to feel the crowd and see what they’re responding to. If they’re responding to the upbeat songs I’ll do more of those, or if it’s quiet and intimate I might play a ballad or debut a new song to spark interest.

What has been the biggest breakthrough you’ve had since beginning in music? The biggest challenge?

One of the biggest challenges and personal breakthroughs I’ve faced is probably along the same subject, which is finding my voice as an artist. In this industry a lot of people try to tell you what to do; what’s the “right” way to do things, which I’ve had a good dose of experience with, especially since I started performing at such a young age. I remember going to a songwriting conference back when I was in high school and there was a panel that listened to your music and gave you feedback. One panelist listened to my song and said something like, “It’s a good song but the title is only one word. You can’t name a song with a one-word title. Nobody does that and it will never get on the radio.” I sat there and thought to myself, ‘why not?’ I definitely struggled with things like this for years and it never made sense to me. When a producer told me I couldn’t put a crescendo (when the music gradually gets louder) on the intro of a song, I thought, ‘why not?’ When a drummer would tell me that he couldn’t slow down in the middle of a song where I wanted to change the tempo, I thought, ‘why not?’ I never really let these things discourage me, but when you go through those situations time after time after time while you’re still finding your voice, it can start to wear on your confidence. The truth is, when I let go of the frustrations and stress that outsiders threw at me that weren’t in tune with my true self and artistic happiness, I overcame so many challenges and realized the only hurdles I actually had were the ones I had built myself out of self doubt. Nobody could really tell me what to do when it came to writing and playing music from my heart. That’s a long and hard lesson I had to learn. Walking away from people or things that stunted my growth as an artist opened up new opportunities that encouraged my artistic evolution with the confidence and passion to speak my mind and just have fun making music.

What are your plans for the foreseeable future? (Music + Shows)

I just completed recording my new EP in Nashville, which is a collection of five brand new songs featuring classically trained and country string players. The EP will be released this coming Spring, specifically April 2016. I’m so excited for everyone to hear my new music because it’s sonically and thematically different than my previous albums and really showcases the storytelling of the songs. The theme revolves around introspection and self-awareness, as well as faith. I’ll be planning some new shows and touring in 2016 to support the new release. Release shows and more info will be announced soon at www.katiegaribaldi.com!

Aside from your music, what are your other passions?

I’m passionate about healthy cooking and eating. I was always conscious about trying to live a healthy lifestyle but I went through some health challenges when I was younger and it led me on a quest to improve myself. For the past three years or so I’ve been completely dairy-free, and significantly lowered the amount of gluten and sugar in my diet, which has immensely improved my quality of life, and I feel like it almost literally saved my life. I’m still learning a lot and very interested in health blogs and love experimenting with my own recipes. Once I discovered my food sensitivities, I found a whole new love for cooking that I never had before. I’m also pretty passionate about writing articles, as well as poetry sometimes, usually when I’m on tour and feeling inspired.

You released a video for “Lock The Door, Lose The Key” this past September. What was the process for shooting that, and where did the idea for it come from?   

The producer and I came up with the theme of the video together. The song is about a newlywed couple that are enjoying their blissful phase right after they get married. I wanted the video to reflect this joy without replicating the exact lyrics and being so literal. So we came up with the concept of the couple heading out on their way to their honeymoon when they run into car trouble. The hiccup could mean disaster, but the couple is so blissfully in love that they don’t even care and end up ditching the car for a spontaneous new adventure. It’s all about the journey, which is really the whole underlining theme of my album Follow Your Heart that “Lock The Door, Lose The Key” is from. We shot the entire video is one afternoon, which happened to be about 95 degrees that day! It was my first music video so I remember being nervous, but the actor who plays my husband in the video, Taylor Lambert, was a total pro and made me laugh through the whole thing, which calmed my nerves and helped me enjoy the experience. All of our laughter and smiles in the video are authentic, so I think that really helped showcase the joyfulness I wanted to get across in the story.

You released “Follow Your Heart” in 2014 after a length of time with no music. What does the album mean to you, and how do you hope it resonates with your fans?

I released a few singles between Follow Your Heart and the previous album, but Follow was indeed my first full-length release in five years. In those years I was performing and touring a lot, as well as writing a ton of songs. So I was definitely busy working, minus the recording aspect. I remember trying to record the new album a couple of times, but the circumstances and timing just weren’t right yet. In hindsight, I’m so glad I waited for the right time because I ended up in a studio (Tiny Telephone in San Francisco) and with an engineer and musicians who really put the heart and soul into this album. Follow Your Heart is so special to me because the whole process from the songwriting to the making of the album changed my life. I don’t think I really considered myself a professional recording artist, even though I had released six albums already, until this album happened because I wasn’t very comfortable in the studio before this. With Follow Your Heart, I gained the confidence I needed to enjoy the recording process as opposed to being nervous about it. I was able to communicate the kinds of sounds I wanted sonically and experiment with a different style than my last record. I also included some very personal songs, like “Wedding Day Song,” which I sang to my husband at our wedding. It’s one of those things that I thought I would save as just a private song but I was putting so much heart into this album, which is greatly influenced by the time of my life when I was engaged and newly married, that I thought it just fit. This song is something that I love singing and represents such a special time in my life. Every record is like a snapshot of my life at the time, so this, with other personal songs, belonged in this “photo album,” so to speak. The album is my message: Follow your heart because if you do, things always, always, always work out for the best and take you beyond your expectations. If you don’t, you’ll get off course, or things may still end up working out but they happen a lot slower and take you on a harder road. You’ve got to be honest with yourself and brave enough to listen to that voice inside of you, which we all have, because that is your true compass that is pointing you to your life’s purpose, even when it doesn’t seem easy. This is what I hope listeners take away from the album and find inspiration to follow their own dreams.

Do you have any advice for younger kids trying to make it into the industry?

The best advice I have for young people in this industry is to always be professional and nice. This industry has somewhat of a weird reputation for artists to act too cool for school. In other words, “musicians are always late” or “musicians can’t get up early” or “music isn’t a real job”. This is all false and frankly, I’m kind of surprised when I still hear these things. The world needs music and art and it is a completely valid, valuable, and fulfilling career. If music is what you want to do, roll up your sleeves, put a smile on your face, and carry yourself with a sense of professional responsibility. You are a songwriter, but you are also CEO of your business. Don’t fall into the short lived-sunglasses onstage in a club—won’t smile at the audience-takes two weeks to answer an email music artist. If you love what you do, act like it, be grateful for it, and don’t ever be afraid to be true to what makes you you.

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