Inspired #93 - Kate Gratson
New York based artist Kate Gratson has just released her new track ‘The Girl You Knew’ - taken from her forthcoming EP of the same name. She took a moment to talk to us about her hometown and the inspirations behind the single.
Who are you top three musical inspirations?
My top three musical inspirations are Ennio Morricone, Ella Fitzgerald, and Joni Mitchell. Morricone was the first composer I heard and was completely fascinated by. His music always brings up beautiful memories from my childhood and takes me back to a time where I was learning what it meant to write music. Ella Fitzgerald is my vocal icon. When I was learning jazz standards growing up I always looked to her, she could do no wrong in my eyes. Last but not least, Joni Mitchell for her timeless songwriting. I listened to her growing up and she’s consistently someone I come back to whether I’m pulling out a vinyl, CD, or searching for her work on Spotify.
Is there a certain film that inspires you?
This might sound crazy but I’m just starting to get into watching films. I think I was so hyper-focused on music growing up that I kind of missed the mark when it came to watching movies and appreciating film as an art form.
What city do you find the most inspiring?
Well, I might be biased, but I’m born and raised in NYC so I’d have to say my hometown. The city itself is inspiring, but what’s more inspiring are the people I meet living and working here. The amount of talent this city holds is unparalleled. I am who I am, and my music is how it sounds because of this city.
Who is the most inspiring person to you?
Most of my earliest songs were based on books or television shows I found moving, but these days I’m looking more internally for inspiration. I’ve found the art of crafting raw ideas, how I take an idea and work with it, to be even more important than the source of inspiration itself. I’m answering these questions sitting on my couch, quite literally stuck at home because of the current state of the world, so these days I’m looking for inspiration in this sense of numbness and fear that we’re dealing with in NYC. My inspiration changes depending on the day, it’s not always some magical, mystic bout of genius, of course those are the days every creative lives for. For "The Girl You Knew" and the upcoming EP of the same name, I took a step back and looked to myself for inspiration.
What were your inspirations when writing the single?
After graduating college I moved back to Brooklyn and started on a quest to write music that felt uniquely personal, whether that was in the stories I was telling or the sounds I was using. I was writing all the time and experimenting with new methods of creating music: at my keyboard, sampling sounds from Splice, learning to produce on my laptop, etc. I started to live a life that was no longer dictated by school or music lessons, but a life that included a great deal of self-reflecting and falling in love for the first time. “The Girl You Knew” is about my struggles with self-doubt and the fact that I was so afraid of failure that I wasn’t willing to release music for such a long time. It’s a fear that I still struggle with every day, and I’m sure most creatives do, but writing “The Girl You Knew” was vital for me in acknowledging those bad habits and coming to a place of peace and understanding on how to work through them.
How would you like to inspire people?
I want people to be moved by my music. Personally, I find the act of songwriting to be a selfish act, I listen exclusively to my gut and make all the decisions. But, I write with the hope that once a song is complete it can offer some sort of emotional relief for the listener. If music doesn’t provoke a feeling out of the ordinary then what and who am I writing for?