Rising Stars: Meet Katie Fee

Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Fee. 

Katie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’m originally from South Dakota and grew up on country music. At 12 years old, I got to go to my first concert (Carrie Underwood) and also got my first guitar and started writing songs. That’s when I really started wanting to be a country singer-songwriter. In high school, I had always said I didn’t want to go to college. I just wanted to move to Nashville and pursue a career in country music. My parents, however, insisted that I go to college so I started searching for colleges in Nashville and discovered Belmont University. 

I went to Belmont and graduated with a degree in Music Business in November of 2020. Belmont was a great experience because it allowed me to connect with other people pursuing careers in the industry, whether on the creative or the business side. It also taught me about the different areas of the industry, including publishing, labels, publicity, marketing, management, contract law… literally every area of the industry. 

This I believe is such a great advantage as an independent artist because I currently wear nearly all the hats when it comes to my career, the one exception being production. I book my own shows, market my music, write my own press releases, etc. Everything it takes to promote an artist and their music; I’m doing on my own and it’s all things I learned from Belmont. 

On July 2nd of this year, I released my debut EP, Sunsets and Fireworks, and it’s great to finally have music out in the world. Currently, I’m focusing on playing more shows, growing my social media presence, and writing more songs. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I love my home state of South Dakota and my family. They all live there so it’s not easy living over 900 miles away from home. 

Another thing is that nowadays it’s a lot easier to be an independent artist and you don’t need a label to put music out there. The flip side of that is that there are so many artists out there that it saturates the market and it becomes a challenge to find a way to stand out above the crowd. There’re also so many paths you can take to get to the end goal of doing music for a living that sometimes it’s hard to figure out which path you should be taking. 

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a country singer-songwriter. My music is modern country with 90s influences. I grew up on Shania Twain, Deana Carter, and Faith Hill as well as Taylor Swift when she came onto the music scene. Current day influences include Carly Pearce and Eric Church, so there’s a good mix of country, 90s country, country pop, and country-rock in there. 

I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve been able to create music that I love and also have created fun content to add to that music. For my EP, Sunsets, and Fireworks, I created the graphics, lyric videos, behind-the-song videos, digital booklet, etc. all by myself with limited prior knowledge for how to create such things. 

Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Moving to Nashville and pursuing a career in music is in and of itself a big risk. This industry is unpredictable in a lot of ways and nothing is guaranteed so trying to do it for a living can be seen as risky. 

My view on risk-taking is that you regret the chances you don’t take more so than the ones that you do take that end up not working out. I would hate to live in a state of wondering what if I had taken that risk. I’d rather take said risk and then if it doesn’t work out, then I can be content in knowing that I had tried my hardest. 

Contact Info:

• Website: katiefeemusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katiefeemusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katiefeemusic
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/katiefeemusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/333Katie333Music
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6xzVEAgY4qnDOYAYXfTZJb