Katie Cole

 Most stories begin at the start. Mine, however, begins somewhere in the middle. I am from Australia, and things are done a little differently there……….I am a songwriter/singer in my 20’s, born and raised in the city of Melbourne. I have just recently moved to Los Angeles and finished recording my debut record, but I won’t jump too far ahead yet, as the story of my great love of music was no sudden epiphany. My earliest childhood memories are of my mother blasting Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones and The Beatles, and my father with his Maria Callas arias and other classical music he would play. Sound confusing? Probably, but for my sister and me, sitting around the piano singing show tunes with “Opera Dad” was a regular occurrence, followed shortly by sitting with my Mum and watching 20 minutes of concert footage of Hendrix, awaiting the “best guitar solo ever played”, according to her. As crazy as it was, I guess it all went in subconsciously, because as soon as I considered myself old enough, I started booking myself into clubs with a guitarist and playing gigs.   Untrained and unconventional, I must have regularly stumbled over my musical instruments enough times to teach myself piano and guitar. In all honesty, I learnt 99% of all I know from the live gigs I have done – and boy, have I done my share. When I commenced doing paid gigs in venues, I was quite young and simultaneously this is when I began to hone my skills as a songwriter too. During the day I would write songs and play gigs at night, covering songs from some of my favourite artists like Sheryl Crow, Marvin Gaye and Janis Joplin. This was my life. My long apprenticeship of gigs started in Melbourne venues, performing solo, in duos, trios and bands, then, graduating onwards to travelling around the country. I performed for many corporate clients and squeezed in a few TV spots, too. Soon, I was legally allowed to be in the venues my agents booked me into (fancy that) and as I owned all my own music equipment and amps, anytime there was a gig, I would grab a guitar in one hand, boomerang in the other, hop into the pouch and ride my Kangaroo to work. Right before I left Melbourne, on average, I was performing acoustic gigs 3-5 times a week at 3-4 hours a pop by myself. All the gigs helped me to realise that with music, I didn’t just want to be “weekend warrior”, so to speak. Although I had been busy focusing on being a singer, I now, more than ever wanted to share the other side of me, the songwriter, with a larger audience. It was time for a new chapter.   At some point during all my vegemite eating and dingo racing, I got a surprisingly good email from a welcome stranger. One of my favourite record producers, Howard Willing, sent me an email after stumbling across some demos on the web. He was interested in working with moi and possibly recording 3 or 4 songs. I thought it was a joke at first, but after many hilarious phone/email conversations later (please imagine montage of chatting, packing suitcases and taxi to the airport to the happenin’ 80’s sounds of “Maniac” – Michael Sembello), I leapt forward and booked flights, car and hotels on my own dime to see if we would all work well together. I landed in Los Angeles where we recorded 4 songs so fast and with so much ease, that everybody agreed that I would fly back later in the summer to finish the record. Done. Now, I am putting a band together and we are in the process of booking some band and acoustic residencies around town to give you a taste of the record. One thing is for certain, things are moving fast. I am contemplating now if stilettos are really appropriate footwear for running. But as I explained earlier, Aussies do things a little differently…