Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Boeck.
Hi Katie , thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Central California and grew up there most of my life. I was born with a cleft palate but had a natural love for singing. A surgery when I was 3 corrected my severe speech impediment and I started taking voice and piano lessons at 4. I was involved in local theater all through high school, which was when I picked up the guitar and started writing songs. I lived a few hours north of LA and ended up making a record with a producer I was introduced to when I was 16. I was accepted to UCLA’s School of Musical Theater and moved to LA in 2006. I had a great time there and performed in some great productions as well as at Spring Sing which was a huge school wide concert that featured student talent and original music. After college I played around town at open mics and singer songwriter venues in LA, which was how I landed my first paid music gig. I joined an all female group that toured throughout India playing weddings and corporate events. I ended up spending 6 months based in Mumbai and travelled all over the country even getting involved in Mumbai’s film and television industry and connecting with local Indian musicians. After that experience I came back to LA and worked various jobs, waiting tables, teaching music, and playing with my band at venues like Hotel Cafe. I ended up booking a small role on HBO’s The Newsroom where I sang Ave Maria during a pivotal scene in the show’s 4th season. Not long after, I was cast in a small 99 seat theater production of Spring Awakening with Deaf West Theater, an LA based theater company that works with Deaf and Hard of Hearing actors. The show was directed by Michael Arden. We had a shoestring budget but the show gained a lot of praise and momentum, and after a second run at the Wallis Annenberg Theater in Beverly Hills, we ended up transferring to Broadway for a limited run in 2015-2016. We were in the same season as Hamilton so it was a wild time to be on Broadway and were ultimately nominated for a Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. a huge accomplishment for our little show that could. After Broadway, I had a lot of life changes which inlcluded the death of my father and the birth of my son. I knew I wanted to keep writing songs and making records so I moved to Nashville to hone my craft, which is where I’ve been for the last 9 years raising my son. I’ve written and recorded several songs and an album, including my cover of The Sign by Ace of Base which is was featured on Love Island. Lately, I’ve been finding my way back to theater starring in a few productions this season including NASH a one woman musical based on a fictional female singer songwriter chasing her dream in Nashville and confronting some of the uglier aspects of the industry, which was one of the pieces at The Aspen Solo Flights Theater Festival this year. I’m also appearing in Once with Opera Montana this winter and will be joining the Nashville Repertory Theater for a show this spring.
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?
In some ways I’ve been very lucky with the right people giving me the right opportunities at the right time, and in other ways it has felt like one long dark night of the soul. This can be a really challenging business but I’ve learned to take the inevitable ups and downs of it all in stride. The period of grief after my dad’s passing, and those early years of motherhood were especially hard. I had to consciously detach my identity and sense of self worth from any form of validation through achievement. I just stepped completely away from it all and while it was hard, I ultimately emerged stronger and more centered; and the irony is that that energy is so much more fertile than desperation. I have an identity outside of my work. I have also chosen to be a very present mother so that role always comes first in my life. Everything I’ve done professionally I’ve been able to build around my life as a mother. But there’s a lot of things I say no to, or that I simply just can’t do because of that responsibility. But I consider it a privilege and I know I have limited time with him under my wing, so I’m okay with it. I’m a whole person. And I feel like I’ve finally found my way back to the version of me that just loved to sing, and play pretend, and use my imagination as a child. It’s been a journey, and while there’s a few things I might change if I could, I’m actually really proud of where I’ve landed and feel like the best is yet to come.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a singer-songwriter and actor, and so the thread that runs through all my work is storytelling. I love humans, and relationships, and how we are messy, vulnerable, tragic and funny all in one.
In my songwriting I draw largely from personal experience, but I’m fueled by groove and melody. Lyrics are usually born from a deep emotional place, it’s how I process my experiences. In my work as an actor, I love stories about women and getting into the mind, heart, and complexity of womanhood and all it entails.
I think what connects the two for me is a real curiosity about people. I want to understand why we do what we do, especially in the places where love, longing, humor, grief and contradiction all live together. I’m most proud that I’ve continued to follow that curiosity and build a life where I get to tell stories in different forms. I don’t know that I fit neatly into one box, and I’ve come to see that as one of my strengths.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Risk-taking is vital to success, in my opinion. Without it, you have no choice but to remain stagnant. I think discernment is important, but giving yourself the freedom to try and fail is the only way to really learn. And there is no failure if you can glean something from the experience.
I’m a recovering perfectionist, and one thing I’ve had to reframe for myself is the idea that there is some ultimate ending to a creative project; that eventually you arrive at the perfect version. I don’t think you do. It’s always an evolving process, so the enjoyment of that process is tantamount.
I try to think about my work as a process of constant refinement rather than an arrival at some finality. I never really put a bow on anything I do. I just recognize when I’ve explored what’s there to explore, and then I move on to what’s asking to be explored next, and risk is an important component of that refinement “process”.
As far as risks I’ve taken, there are so many. I’ve moved to various cities on a whim, said yes to motherhood, no to people and opportunities that didn’t feel aligned, and most importantly I think, I’ve consistently invested in myself even when it felt risky. If you nurture a sense of trust in your own specific journey, you can pursue your goals with purpose and confidence, knowing, regardless of the outcome, that you weren’t the one standing in your own way.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.katieboeckmusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katieboeck
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katieboeckmusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/katieboeck
