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Quick Q and A with Kat Quinn
 by Kathy S-B  ·  25 February 2012

I knew Kat Quinn before she had a stage name.

I met Kat when she was in my son’s kindergarten class. She was Katharine Feeley then but college and a musical career have taken hold of this young woman from Marblehead and we couldn’t be happier for her! Kat participated in our annual Beatles benefit last summer and we couldn’t wait to find the perfect slot for her to come back and sing her own tunes.

Kat has just released a new EP called Exhale which was produced by Peter Calo, a long-time musical partner of Carly Simon’s. To learn more about Kat, check out her website. Here’s a little video that Kat has up on her new YouTube channel. And to give you an idea of what she’s like in front an audience, how about “a little help from my friends”?

Kat QuinnI happen to know that you were very involved with the arts when you were attending school here in Marblehead. Did you ever in your wildest dreams ever think that you’d be pursuing a career as a musician?
Never! In high school, the drums were my main instrument. And I loved playing, but it was always more of a hobby than a potential career. I also did a lot of musical theater, but never a main role or anything. Singing in front of people used to terrify me! It never even crossed my mind to study music in college. My plan was to focus on International Studies and pursue a career in foreign service.
Do you recall any special turning point in which you began to view music differently? Have you always gravitated to acoustic music or was this a new passion that you discovered during college?
The summer after I graduated high school, was the first time I really got into playing the guitar. I would look up chords online and learn all my favorite songs. So college is really where I began exploring acoustic music. The turning point came about half way through my sophomore year when I sent the first few songs I had written to a recording artist/producer in LA who saw some potential in me. That was the first time I realized that this thing I loved doing so much, could maybe be more than just a hobby. It might actually be a career.
Tell us about your move to Nashville and then to New York. Did you have any contacts in the music worlds in either of those big cities or did you just plunge right in and see what it was like.
I was very lucky to have had music contacts lined up for me in both cities. I moved to Nashville to follow up on a series of meetings that had taken place on my behalf before I arrived. New York was a similar situation, but at the same time I was plunging in on my own. I was going to open mics and meeting people, and that’s really what gets things going in a more immediate way.
How would you describe your style to someone who did not know your music?
I have to do this all the time, and I still don’t have a very good answer. I usually call it acoustic, indie-pop. With a few exceptions, most of my music is pretty well-suited for a coffee shop setting (or a Coffee House!).
Do you have any current favorite musicians?
Hmmm . . . so many. I’m currently listening on repeat to Patty Griffin, Mariah McManus, Ingrid Michelson, and Andrew Belle.
What would your dream gig be like?
My songs are pretty lyric-based, so I really love playing intimate venues where you can actually hear the words. It would be in a cozy place like that. And since I’m dreaming. James Taylor would be singing backup.

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