#126 Hayley Jensen
In this podcast we get to know Hayley, where she came from what she studied and her secrets to her success and how she manages to keep going and coming up with such amazing music. She talks about her new single Karma and her album which is out on the 22nd of October and you can pre-order on her website HERE
Hayley Jensen is an artist whose vocal abilities place her in elite company within the industry. Bursting onto the scene in 2004 as a Top 4 finalist on Australian Idol, Hayley has performed for Coalition Forces in the Middle East, won a MusicOz Award, and was mentored by Kylie Minogue on The Voice Australia, who described her as 'the whole package'. Her 'blind audition' has received close to 2M views on YouTube. ‘Past Tense and Present Peace’ was Jensen's first iTunes #1 album & her hard work was rewarded with a Aus. Indie Country Music Award and Top 5 finalist spot at the 2018 Country Music Channel (CM) Awards. Hayley signed with Social Family Records to release her album 'Turning Up The Dial', produced in Nashville USA with Grammy & Emmy Award winning producer, Jamie Tate. It debuted as the 3rd highest selling Australian Country Album (ARIA), #2 iTunes Country album. Over the past two years Hayley has toured nationally & internationally, performing at Buckle & Boots Festival in the UK (‘Summertime Soundtrack’ dubbed the festival soundtrack), Calgary Stampede & Dauphins CountryFest, in Canada in 2019.
Connect with Hayley:
Transcript
Rae Leigh: Welcome to a Songwriter Tryst with Hayley Jensen. Hello, how are you?
Hayley Jensen: Hi. I'm great. Thanks, Riley. How are you?
Rae Leigh: It's Rae Leigh and you? can just call me Rae but that's like just coming. Rae
Hayley Jensen: five? I'm sorry.
Rae Leigh: right.
I was in studio with rod McCormick and Gina Jeffreys all weekend and rose, like it's RaeLeigh this is RaeLeigh and I'll let you know, it Leigh my last name. You just call me. Rae But that's fine. Everyone does it. So.
Hayley Jensen: Oh, gosh, sorry. right.
Rae Leigh: that's fine. Hayley, Jensen. I'll just call you that the whole way through.
Hayley Jensen: Exactly. That's right.
Rae Leigh: so I love
Hayley Jensen: do it's weird people. Do they just like, it's like they catch onto a certain name, like JC penny. I can never say JCV without like Jay he's just JC it. So you're really just take it
Rae Leigh: Yeah, right. Like, I mean, if you met Keith urban, you'd be like, hey Keith, like, cause we're best mates. Right. And if you like you guys, you say no, that's Keith urban.
Hayley Jensen: Oh my gosh.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. That's probably how I'd say it. No, I'd be like, Hey Keith, what's up?
Hayley Jensen: Yeah. all
Rae Leigh: Oh, mates. Yeah. All right. So I like to start, like you introduce yourself, say, who are you? Where do you come from? And how on earth did you become a songwriter of all things?
Hayley Jensen: Well, my name's Haley Jensen. I am a singer songwriter for I'm based in Sydney. I actually grew up on a property just outside of Canberra, near Bundoora. And yeah, just music has always been a huge. Big part of my life. I grew up kind of seeing in all the, school musicals and all that sort of stuff.
And then by the time I hit high school, I joined a band and we started writing our own material and performing it sort of community events and that sort of stuff around town. And so it was great to just sort of be. I guess there were three of us and we'd co-write together. So I guess my first sort of introduction to songwriting probably was in that co-writing kind of space where many people probably just have written since they were, young.
I hadn't really I was just until, it was only at the point where we were like, well, we're a band, right? We should like have our own songs and stuff. So let's write some songs. That, that I really started thinking about this that was kind of, yeah. In year 11 and 12. And yeah I've sort of done mainly co-writing I guess across the years and just, yeah, love, love some writing love that.
I feel like it's kind of like a bit of a puzzle, you start out thinking. How on earth is this thing going to come together? I've kind of got this theme or idea that I want to explore. And then it's just about, I guess, putting those pieces of the puzzle. And sometimes it's like, that missing piece has fallen under the table.
You're searching for it for a year before you can finally finish it. But, It's very satisfying when you do.
Rae Leigh: Sometimes, you'd have to find the right person. Like I had like a verse and a bit of an idea for what felt like ages. And then on the weekend, I've just met
this one person and I just showed it to him. And then we finished the song in like 40 minutes and It was like so
Hayley Jensen: That is all.
Rae Leigh: so, I mean, it's good.
Hayley Jensen: It is I've I do feel like that. It's like, there's this puzzle and you've got some pieces and, especially when you're writing it with somebody else and they might have other pieces until you find that other right person it's like nuts. I mean, cause there's been so many times I've taken ideas to people and they're like trying to.
Using the analogy, like fit it into their puzzle and they're like, no, it's this puzzle.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, right.
Hayley Jensen: It's like,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Hayley Jensen: Trying to shove some stranger or different idea into it. And it's like, no, that's going to take a complaint. And sometimes it's fun to explore that, but, yeah.
Rae Leigh: don't know until you write with someone how it's going to work. And so how did it go? I want to
know one most importantly, what was the name of your high school band?
Hayley Jensen: We were called and, or like as in and slash or
sitting around the table going, oh, we should probably come up with a ban. Yeah, it was at one of the guy's houses and we thought, oh, we're looking around everywhere for sort of inspiration and everything. Those band generator, things on the internet where you're like, put in three words.
And then we looked at the fridge and there was like something written on the fridge that was like, you couldn't do this and or this. And we were like, how about and, or, and slash, and then we're like maybe just end or. Random
Rae Leigh: It is. I mean, but that's why I asked because the high school band names were always random.
Hayley Jensen: random could have been worse. I think.
Rae Leigh: it could have been sex pistols.
Hayley Jensen: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: So the three people that you like were in the band, d do you guys still play that? Are they still musical or did you kind of continue when they
Hayley Jensen: know what, we've kind of all drifted off and in different directions. And one of the guys Laughlin made contact a few, what was probably a year ago or something just saying, oh, I'm so glad to see you. So I'm still doing music and everything, but yeah, no. I'm not really sure about the other guy actually.
And he was the main sort of writer, but it's funny paths just kind of diverge and yeah. Everybody goes their own way, but yeah, it's I think music, I think if it's sort of in you it'll find you again, like, I don't think you can escape it. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: I, Yeah. I have to agree. And I think anyone who's got the songwriting music bug will understand exactly what you mean.
Hayley Jensen: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: When you say you've done a lot of co-writing and obviously you started in this band, how have you developed and worked on your craft? Because that is something that we all need to kind of continually sleep, get better at. What have you done? to kind of continue to grow in that area?
Hayley Jensen: Oh, gosh, what have I done? Probably not enough.
Rae Leigh: Says all of us.
Hayley Jensen: Yeah, exactly. It's like the never ending, Journey of becoming better and learning, I guess. For me exploring by doing is probably the best way that I've found to do it. So, and also, I guess, riding with other people you get taken down to directions that you wouldn't go yourself or, you might say he can't go to the, that section of the song there.
That's not the right way, but then it's like, well, okay, hang on. Let's just like drop all of those, right. And wrong ways here and see where this takes us. So, I think just being open to the song, kind of leading its own direction look I've done some songwriting courses or being part of like groups and that sort of stuff that were like, write a summer weekend, submit that and that sort of thing to try to get some good feedback.
And that was something that I did quite recently, actually, which is interesting. Right. That's it during COVID. I was like, I need to just get stuck in writing something every, every week I'm submitting it. Be good to get feedback and, hear different people's opinions. Turns out I don't always,
Rae Leigh: It's a very humbling experience, but it's good for the ego. We all need to be humbled every now and then, but it's people's opinion. Feedback is always just
opinion. You have to take it with a pinch of salt.
Hayley Jensen: Yeah. And especially when it comes to songwriting, and I think that's something that and music, I think I've over the years, I've had to really come to terms with that, that, opinions, everybody has got one and it's like, you may or may not agree with it.
And that's totally cool. It's that it's meant to be something that's an expression of you. And if that's what you've done and that's what that's. That's what you feel like you've done in that piece then that's great. It's art, it's not meant to be like perfect and fit into a box.
And that everyone can say I can't poke any holes at that. It's meant to be interpreted. Whoever's the listener it's it sort of belongs to them after you've put it out there. Right. So it's yeah, you can't take it too personally, but yeah, I guess I put being part of some writing groups and getting feedback, that sort of thing.
And also, yeah, co-writing and also just listening, I think, listening to other music, other people's songs. I'm in the country music world, but outside of that genre as well to try to get an inspiration sometimes if we all listen to the same thing, we all end up sounding the same. So it's was like, okay, what's, what else is going on out there?
And what interesting things are happening in the world Of music?
Rae Leigh: when you're going outside of country?
Hayley Jensen: My favorite. I would flick to pops as a default, but I get pretty bored of it pretty soon. So then I end up in some sort of, swagger singer, songwriter, bluesy, rock kind of inspired song, playlist and that stuff hunting around for gritty sounds and, yeah. Interesting. Yeah. So.
Rae Leigh: And you've done a lot of writing and even if it's been co-run, but when you're writing a song that is for your brand Haley Jensen, is there, do you have like a something that you like to have as a consistent message or viewpoint that your brand and your songs were always kind of going down or, something. We should look out for that. We would know this is what she kind of always thinks about or does in her co-writes and her song writing.
Hayley Jensen: Ah, good question. I don't think there really is something I probably should should think about that. It's kind of, I think H it depends on the set of work, you know what I mean? Like it might, my latest album is all about it's called breaking hearts. It's all about that. Kind of like.
Heartbreaking, and I guess all the gritty stuff that goes with it, the revenge or the calmer, or the like, the stuff that's like, around the fringes of being treated bad and, I guess. Coming out, trying to come out on top at the end of it, I guess.
Rae Leigh: Spin on things.
Hayley Jensen: I think that would probably be something that if I think about my body of work through all of my music from a very first album, So you through to this latest one that's coming out soon, it would all have to be that twist, there might be tragedy, but I think that hopeful twist at, somewhere in there that
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Hayley Jensen: leaves you not feeling too depressed at the end of the, at the end of the song, but also it's, I guess that's just my, it's just the way that I've tried to look at life, shit happens. Life, life sometimes gives you lemons and, but, we, we've got to reframe things sometimes and
Rae Leigh: Make
Hayley Jensen: yeah, that's it. That's it, baby.
Rae Leigh: That's all you can do really? Isn't it. Otherwise, what's the point.
Hayley Jensen: That's it.
Rae Leigh: No, I appreciate that. And when you go into a co-write, tell me about the like prep preparation. And then is this something that you always take into a co-write, Or that you like to do to kind of set the space.
Hayley Jensen: Yeah. I generally always try to come with a bit of a.
Either a topic or a title or a few lines that might sort of, or even just like an idea with a bit of a brainstorm around it. So, a bunch of ideas. For example, when I was going in to write my surveys and some fireworks, it was like I had this melody and I knew that I wanted it to S.
Sometimes, like if I'm writing a particular song, I know what I want it to. I want it to soar. I wanted it to feel like what it sounded, what it was, like the and so melodically, I wanted it to feel like what the title of the song and what I was trying to express was. So I'll usually come with a bit of a melody, a bit of a baseline or some sort of chord progression and Yeah.
And I, and a few sort of lines or a bit of a Stata kind of thing that can be tone torn to shreds or expanded upon. Yeah, and I'll probably, I have like a bit of a spreadsheet that I use in on my computer that I just kind of jot. If I get an idea, I put sort of a title. The sort of idea or two, and then like a bit of a description, which could be, a fully formed verse, a chorus or something, or it could be just like the idea that, whatever it is, like, we're all gonna get old and lose our mind someday or, oh, that we've all experienced some kind of heartbreak and what that means at a particular time
Or, how,
Rae Leigh: Come up with a title. An ID can be the hardest part. Yeah.
Hayley Jensen: Yeah. I mean, there's it's
can be about anything, right? Like songs are meant to just express everything in the human experience, I guess. So it's I think, it's like,
but the fact that it can be anything, sometimes you're like, ah, I want something really poignant and sometimes a bit catchy or, but sometimes it doesn't even need to be that complicated.
Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Oh yeah. But there's every ugly emotion is beautiful, it's like there's a time and a place for it and we just got to go down it. So, with your journey, cause you started with your band and then how, like how long did it take for you to go, Okay.
I'm going to do my own thing. Cause it's a big jump to go from, playing music in high school because lots of kids are encouraged to play music in high school.
Not a lot of kids are encouraged to go and try and be an artist and make money from music. That's a Really different thing to do. What was that journey like for you?
Hayley Jensen: Yeah. I think what ended up happening was through
school, my teachers and stuff were quite, you should go to the school of music and you'd need to really focus on music. So I've actually got put forward for a scholarship program at the ANU, which was for jazz jazz. It was a jazz prep course, I guess, to go and study like, jazz.
Music as a degree. And it was basically like I could choose classical or jazz. That was the, these were the choices to me exactly as a 16 year old girl. Ah, right. Jazz or classical. Well, I don't really connect with classical, but jazz sounds cool. I went and auditioned for these a jazz course and got through thankfully, but I think by the skin of my teeth, because I had absolutely no, no exposure to jazz.
True deep jazz music. Yeah. And when I turned up there, it was like all of the other students. Their dads were like famous jazz musos or they'd listen to, all of these records for their entire upbringing. And I was like, oh, I love van Morrison. And they're like, Hey, dad's is a great song.
Rae Leigh: no.
Hayley Jensen: That was probably as jazz as I'd ever experienced. But I liked that.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Yeah. So you felt like a, bit of an outsider at school with that school?
Hayley Jensen: Totally It was just such a, from being somebody that like, in school, everyone was like, Hey, this
is great. Again, he's got a great voice. She said to Ben, absolutely. At the bottom of the wrong of like, who do you think you are? You don't even know what jazz is and me going. I don't, but it, Going
Rae Leigh: feel in country music, if I'm honest.
Hayley Jensen: We all wait, don't we all, I mean, yeah, it's look. It was so crazy. And so, but about it pulled me out of my comfort zone of being,
Somebody that had just listened to pop music. And all of a sudden I was learning all these modes and different, scales and stuff. That was so outside of my frame of reference of, as a listener to music.
And but it's stretched me so much that I, nearly broke my action, but it really turned me off from music altogether. But now I look back and I think, oh, I just, I'm so grateful for that because all of those scales, those blues, jazz blues references that at the time I was thinking I'm never gonna, sing any of these off.
I don't want to write or have, be out there singing this music, like.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Hayley Jensen: It just seeps in somewhere along the line, those little scales and runs with different things that you do that you have to do. And you're
improvising and scatting. Whew. I bring some of that into country music.
It just sort of gets in and more and more that I've got into country, it's kind of realized that this so much of a blues kind of undertone to some of that music as well.
So it's actually been really cool to kind of fuse those things, but it's, I think, yeah. The journey to writing my own music really only began after I was on Australian idol in 2004, I was very young and and it was basically thrown in the deep end of like, you've got this huge, profile.
Now everyone wants you to put music. Yeah. Hurry up and write something can get it out. Or otherwise he's some songs that you can just sing. And I remember going, oh, but I didn't really relate to any of these songs or they're not really, cause the record labels sort of give you a bunch of songs during the process that if you win, you would record the songs, and I remember thinking like this is a bit weird. I thought like, being young and naive and about it at the time, Music industry, which I really was at that time. I thought, oh, I thought you'd get to write your own songs and, work with people like that. But no, you just sort of got given some songs.
And so yeah, I think that process really kind of kicked me into this gear of, well, if you don't want to sing those well, what would you want to do? If that's not what, there's these big record company execs sitting there saying that this is what they think. Everyone got their disc of Ken songs that matched them.
And I was like, really? That's what you think of what cause I'd like to, so it kind of pushed me out of my comfort zone there to go, okay, well I'm best. I guess I better start. Telling mine stories and writing them in my own way. And so out came the old Casio keyboard and
Rae Leigh: oh,
Hayley Jensen: down with my little, probably my tape deck at the time or something, or I think I did have a program on my computer and
Just started writing from there.
And I had no idea what I was doing at all. Well, I just loved the music of like Sarah McLaughlin and phrasing of someone like Eva Cassidy. And I just sort of used these artists as like references for my writing of mean Ava didn't. She did wrote right. Some of our music, but a lot of it was interpreting others, but Sarah McLaughlin, for example very lyrically, like heavy lots of lyrics and, in her music.
So I guess I started sort of writing very much like that, which wasn't really pop at all, I guess. But but it was, very much seeing the song writery and yeah, just whining that's it. And just trying to connect to experiences that I'd have in my life. And it was funny how, I look back at some of the songs that I wrote then that.
It's interesting how sometimes you can say in a song, things that you would never have the courage to say out loud. Otherwise I think that's a beautiful thing about song writing and it sometimes catches you unaware, after the fact you sort of look back and go, did I say
Rae Leigh: Did I say that yet? Yeah, yeah, I think I used to think that, like, when I wrote a song, it was like, I could, it's like doing a painting, right? Like you could do this murderous painting and it's just a painting, you don't.
There's like a disconnect or like you're hiding behind the artwork. And I think I used to think that if I wrote like a really angry song or something, I could just be like, oh, it's just a song. It doesn't have to come from anywhere, but I was so naive, but
Hayley Jensen: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Then you look back and you're like, oh, I can't believe I'm not kind of.
Hayley Jensen: Yeah. Yeah. I think to myself, wow. I was, and I remember exactly where I was when I started sort of writing and I was in this, I was in, I was married, but it was a horrible, it was a really awful relationship. And thankfully we've, divorced and I've moved on and married to a beautiful man. Now it feels like my life has kind of started all over again.
But I look back at these songs and, during the time. Certainly was not able to express any of those things out loud to anybody. And I think anybody around me would have just been like, yeah,
Rae Leigh: Wow.
Hayley Jensen: but I was like, they're just great songs,
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Hayley Jensen: about got, the songs, like note to self for God to kick him out of the house. Just that it didn't take me long to find out what the guys you had.
Rae Leigh: Oh, dear.
Hayley Jensen: I'm like, oh, I could say it in a song, but yeah.
Rae Leigh: Oh goodness. And it's so true. Sometimes we, our bodies know what's going on before our minds have like connected the dots and yeah, it can kind of come out through song and it's, hindsight's a fun and humbling things sometimes.
Hayley Jensen: Dade shore is show is yeah that, oh, no. Sorry. Go
Rae Leigh: I was just gonna say, it sounds like, you kind of had like a music just kind of took off for you quite young, and you had a lot of encouragement.
Was there someone in particular who was that, that real turning point for you that encouraged you and just had your back and supported you through this journey?
Hayley Jensen: Look, I think my family have always been. My mom and my dad and my mom's partner have over just always been super, super encouraging. And I think everyone's parents are, but
Rae Leigh: Not always.
Hayley Jensen: think, yeah, well actually that's true. That's true. That is true. But I, they have always been super, super encouraging across it, through the whole through my whole life of music.
And I think just having.
We'll love you no matter what, but you better give it a go give it a good, hot crack because you got something, and I, and my dad sadly passed away just a few years ago, but I remember him saying to me, like, w what are you doing? Are you going to actually, are you going to do this or not?
Because you better get on with it and you better get into it, cause
Rae Leigh: Thanks dad.
Hayley Jensen: Yeah. I'm like, But I think I'd been sort of flapping around in life, like doing another job that I hate it, but it's taking up all my time and, it was great cause it was money, but I'm like now.
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Hayley Jensen: Yeah, exactly. But it was like a sort of.
Hot one foot in one foot out, I guess, it was like, oh, if something happens, it's great. But, and I'm trying, but I really, and it's like, I think that just gave me the real kick up the fund bomb to be like, right. That's it get stuck into it. You don't want to live with regret. You don't want to get, another 10 years down the track and look back and say, what on earth did I do with, anyone could do this job that I'm spending all of these hours of my life and stress and everything else doing.
Can everybody write these songs? No. Can you, other people can write other songs, but can everybody do what you have to? There's no one else in the world. That's got what you have to offer with your music, that like, there might be people that are great. There are lots of people that are great, but everybody is so unique and has something special and individual, and, to offer that is, could just be the key for somebody else.
So it's just, they offering to the world and it's like, well,
What am I doing sitting behind this desk every day, or investing so much of myself into that really? It's not so much about sitting behind the desk because we need to do that, but when we need to, but yeah, just, I guess, investing so much of myself into it instead of what I was truly passionate about. So
Rae Leigh: Your daddy must've really loved you to give you that kick in the butt because it does take
Hayley Jensen: yeah.
Rae Leigh: loves you to do that.
Hayley Jensen: Yes. Yep. Absolutely. No. He's the biggest fan. The biggest fan, all the posters of the say days around the wall, stuck on the walls and, oh gosh. If anybody ever came over, he'd sit them down. I'll just show you this one song three hours later,
Rae Leigh: I can imagine. They're like just having that support. Like that's something that I definitely would say don't take for granted because most people I've actually
spoken to didn't have that parent support. It's when you're going to get a real job, how are you going to survive in this world?
And that's probably been the most common thing. And so it, it does. And actually what's also a common trait of the a hundred. And so many people I've spoken to is that we all need someone. To believe in us, someone else to just say you can to help us believe in ourselves. You can believe in yourself all you want,
but everyone needs someone else to just confirm that. Yep. You can do this.
Hayley Jensen: It's true. It's such an, I think it was really, it was my dad giving me a shove and my husband crease just coming alongside and saying, come on, what do we, what do you need to do to get it? Like, what do you need to make it happen? Like, let's just make our lives, whatever we need to do in our lives so that you can do this. Let's do it.
Rae Leigh: I have one of those husbands. That's good.
Hayley Jensen: Yeah. Oh my gosh. That's what I take for granted, like I, cause I'm fade on the other end of on the end of the other type and to have somebody that's just like, yeah. It's going to be tough. No, we're probably not going to have all of the things that all of our friends have, but let's just like invest in this and I'll come with you on the weekends.
And you mentioned how you set these things up and run your website and like, just amazing.
Rae Leigh: Amazing
Hayley Jensen: and also just like where I will sometimes doubt myself. Oh, I'm not great at playing the piano for this thing. He'll be like, you sure. Art sounds great. What are you talking about without a doubt in his mind?
Or like, I love, I'm not sure about why not. It's great song without a doubt, and I go, oh, okay. I can leave that questioning doubting Thomas at the doll
Rae Leigh: you knew that anyway, you just needed someone else to say that you're right.
Hayley Jensen: I
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Hayley Jensen: it's were so hard on ourselves.
Rae Leigh: but having someone else going, no, you're good. And you're like, yeah, no I do know, that I just, I don't know. Yeah there's a imposter syndrome that goes on
Hayley Jensen: Oh.
Rae Leigh: have to deal with it, but my husband, we have three kids, so he stays at home when I'm off, traveling and doing whatever it is.
And so you can't be there and it can be hard sometimes, but at the same time, like I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing. If it wasn't for that, that person behind the scenes just doing everything. Yeah. Oh. absolutely. And you just were not supposed to do stuff alone last night meant to be alone.
It's meant to be, with people as much. As we say independent.
Hayley Jensen: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: it's the complete opposite. And
Hayley Jensen: Absolutely. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: the best advice. that you've ever been given in this industry?
Hayley Jensen: Oh, best advice. Just keep going. Don't give up. I think Everybody talks about the whole be authentic thing. And I mean, that's just to me that you just have to do that, but two, I think the best came from good old Kylie Minogue and my dad,
Rae Leigh: What did Kylie say?
Hayley Jensen: yeah, just, you've got everything going for you just don't just go for it.
Don't give up, like don't hold back and just, go for it. I mean, I think with everything that you have, like, I, I think when we dabble or we kind of all give it a bit of a go and then we sort of, God didn't work, did you freely give it everything that you had?
Did you really do everything that was in your power to, to make it happen? Because if not, the world's always going to come up with, there's always going to be things that are going to try to knock you off course or take you in another direction or whatever. Yeah. And just, I think, trusting yourself, trusting your own story and your own.
Intuition around direction. There's no right way. There's no wrong way. I think when I like being a Capricorn, I like my rules. I like things to be organized and ordered and
know where I have a strategy and a plan. And then I'm like, This ever moving kind of mess of a thing.
It's like the music industry, it's like, nothing is set in stone, but yeah, it's just keep plugging away. Like don't, it's hard, it's bloody hard. And, but you know, the people that make it are the ones that hang in there and and just CA and the, well, I think the ones that find the most joy out of it are the ones that.
And at the end of the day, just say, well, you know what it's not so much about this chart or this, that, or whatever. It's the whole journey is the good part, like learning along the way, how to do things and how to get better at things. And and every not taking things for granted, like I think, yeah, Okay.
Rae Leigh: I think that it can be really hard to be able to do that, but we just got to keep going, like you said, and.
get over trying to be perfect. Cause that was my thing.
Hayley Jensen: Oh my gosh.
Rae Leigh: It'll be what it'll be. Right. Like, and then you just do the next thing and then you get better and he take feedback.
As much as you don't like it, sometimes that's the only way you can grow and get better unless you think you're perfect already.
And if you do think you're perfect. Well,
Hayley Jensen: Yay. Come and
Rae Leigh: to get better count. tell us a sacred, we're trying to work it out yet, but it is it's a hard journey, but I think you're, I agree with you,
like just doing it and the whole, like, be authentic, like yeah.But what's authentic for you now might
Hayley Jensen: What is that?
Rae Leigh: in 10 years you're or even tomorrow, like,
Hayley Jensen: Exactly. It's so true. It changes, and everyone that you can be authentic to them. So I think it's just like, you got to take that step and then take the next step and then take the next step and then take the next step and then just keep doing that.
Rae Leigh: taking steps. No, I like
Hayley Jensen: some point you're like, oh my gosh, look up what I've done. Like it's,
Rae Leigh: Following your intuition can be really hard too. And you mentioned that. Is that something that's always been easy for you? Like you, he knows something, even though it doesn't make sense, you just follow your gut or is that a journey that you've gone on?
Hayley Jensen: Yeah it has, I have had to do that because yeah, I think being an independent artist, not having, I've thought a bit of a team around me now, but even then, like, I think ultimately. It's your art, it's your name, your music when you die, people will remember you by that song or that I know that so it's all well and good.
If somebody else loves this song or that song or whatever, but Or, whatever it is, but yeah, if you're not trusting your own self and sometimes you might do it and it doesn't come up with the outcome that you wanted, but at least you were still honest and truthful with you with your own. Self, and you've probably learned something else out of that experience.
That's even more valuable than you would have if it had been the number one song or the whatever I, it's like just what did you learn from
that then? Okay.
Rae Leigh: I actually told my son this morning, cause he was making, getting upset about making mistakes in class and how everyone always has always lied making mistakes. And I said to him, I said, Eli, the most successful people in the world are the people who have made the most mistakes.
Hayley Jensen: Yes.
Rae Leigh: just the more mistakes you makes. It means that you're trying, right? Like you're going to make mistakes, but you're not going to make mistakes. If you don't even try. So like, just keep going. And I definitely, and it is humbling. I've, just starting this industry and being so fresh in here, I'm like making so many mistakes, but I think the one thing I learned to do was laugh at myself and just keep going and like
Hayley Jensen: what's the mistake. What is a mistake? Like it's just an experience where the outcome is different to what you expected or, like, I mean, no, it's like, is it? And then he's not even really.
And mistake. It's like, well, it's just part of the journey. It's just a learning experience. I think that's trying to kind of take away that, like I did that wrong.
I did, I didn't do it right. Or whatever. Which is very hard for me as a Capricorn. I've got to say, but I'm going to be gentle on myself as a human being to not be so critical and say that it's just like, okay, what did I learn there?
Rae Leigh: Sometimes. Yeah.
Hayley Jensen: great. Now I have that learning piece with me, or like for the rest of my life
Rae Leigh: Exactly.
Hayley Jensen: back and yeah. And
Rae Leigh: matter how bad it is. There'll always be a lesson in that. If you're
willing to look at the lesson, if you're not willing to look at the lesson, I'm a big believer that lesson will keep trying to teach you
Hayley Jensen: well, yeah, God. Yeah, you're done for
Rae Leigh: You got it very true. Like I've made so many expensive, I've had a lot of expensive lessons and sometimes the only thing that I've gotten out of it.
is a lesson of not what not to do. Sometimes That's just what you have to do to be able to move on and take the lesson and move on and don't beat yourself up about it.
because yeah, we've all been there. Everyone's been there. And if you haven't been there, you haven't learned the lesson.
Hayley Jensen: Sorry. It will be coming for you shortly.
Rae Leigh: Oh, anyway. All right. If you could go back and talk to yourself and give yourself one piece of advice, when you were starting out, say in high school what would you say?
What do you think that child or teenager needed to hear?
Hayley Jensen: Stop trying to be cool.
Rae Leigh: I never had that problem. I was not cool. in high school. I didn't. Yeah,
Hayley Jensen: I wasn't particularly cool. I hung out with some cool kids and I wanted to be cool, but it was probably, it was so detrimental to my education and everything else. Cause I wanted to hang out with the cool kids and they weren't doing the schoolwork and they weren't, focused on their futures.
Like, I kind of knew inside of me, like Haley you want a bright future, right? You want to achieve things in your life. You have this dream for something that you want. Why are Trying to be cool and
Rae Leigh: Everyone wants to belong somewhere. Don't they? I mean, that is a, we all want to belong, but,
Hayley Jensen: These little only Childs, like, longing for people to like it.
Rae Leigh: I've never thought of this, but do you reckon the kids that we thought were calling high school are now as adults going? Oh, yeah. I was really cool in high school. Like, do you think
Hayley Jensen: won.
Rae Leigh: I only asked because there was this girl.
I remember she always had older boyfriend. She always looked gorgeous and she was like the cool girl that all the girls in my high school, like wanting to be like. Right. And I remember just thinking so far away from my belief, I was like, whatever. I just even try. Right. I was going to be a doctor and that was
me. I remember meeting her at a Christmas party or like a new year's Eve party, like a few years after high school. And she'd never spoken to me. I just always assumed she was too cool for me. Right. Because I was the nerd. And she spoke to me. She's like, do you know what I was always really
by you, because you always seemed so confident and like, you knew what you wanted.
And I it, that really just threw me cause she was so insecure. That's why she was so quiet all the time. And she spent so much effort on her appearance and trying to be cool. That a few years later she could actually say that to me. And I'm like, well I never, I mean, yes, I was probably overly confident in high school because I just didn't care.
I of, I got over trying to fit in. It was never going to work for me,
Hayley Jensen: yeah.
Rae Leigh: Isn't that funny, like, yeah. Anyway.
Hayley Jensen: think, and also, just with music and stuff, like I think, I probably knew a lot earlier on that. Like, I really did, I think really like country music. And if I just actually gave it a chance, then I probably would have gotten into this scene a lot earlier, but I remember coming out of idol and my manager, I was 21, my manager at the time.
Started working was like, that's right. I know you, you are the perfect country girl. You should the country. And I was like, I don't know anything about country music. I studied jazz. I like pop music. What are you talking about? Like, I just wouldn't. Was like, I'm not slim dusty. Like, do, what do I look like?
What do you kind of say? And he's like, no, like it's really big overseas. And I'm like, well, I've never heard of it. Like, and I literally had just never heard of, I mean,
Rae Leigh: grow up on it
Hayley Jensen: face here, but then I stepped back and I looked and I was like all the songs that I loved growing up, like, faith hill and jewel and all of these crossover country artists that you know,
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Hayley Jensen: I didn't know that we're country at the lone star, Vivian.
Rae Leigh: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, we got to talk to the songwriter of that song actually.
Hayley Jensen: Oh,
Rae Leigh: Amy, my, I can't remember what number she was, but Yeah. she wrote that she covered that song, but it's Yeah. It's funny. It's
like, I don't know, country is like the foundation and the base of like so many genres that it's.
Hayley Jensen: So many.
Rae Leigh: It is a lesson to, to be a part of. And so many people start there and may not end up there at the end, but Yeah. I, was a big believer, like, because I came into it so much later in life. And I was like, yo, I had no idea at all. What I thought country music was like banjos and spanking spoons.
Like that's all it was. Right. And then when I really found it, I was, huh. It's like country music is like the soul of storytelling and music. And so then
it was like, okay, so there's two types of people. There's people who like country music and the people who will one day,
Hayley Jensen: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: they just don't know yet. Anyway,
Hayley Jensen: Yeah. I just, I wish I had taken these advice and also just like thrown off this, like, oh no, that's not cool to be cool. And I remember coming out of the show and there people like Ricky lay and all.
Help stars. I was like, oh, I want to do that. But really, like, I was never, and, riding these, like Sarah McLaughlin, ballads of a million words, like, yeah, I want to be a pop star.
And my manager is like, oh, Hayley, just stay country. And I was like, yeah, it's I don't know anything about it. And I just wish I had taken a few. Female minutes at that time to go. Okay. What's he on about? And then sat down and gone. Actually, I love that song. Oh, I love that song. Oh, I love this one. Okay.
All right. This is, feels like a good place for me cause
Rae Leigh: And I've been to a lot of different music festivals, but country music festivals, I feel really safe at And it's fun
Hayley Jensen: yeah,
Rae Leigh: I've been to rock concerts. I've been to like the Duff doff big day outside of stuff, like lots of drugs, lots of alcohol, lots of escapism and not so much soul.
I go to a country it's like, everyone just seems to be so emotionally mature and like, just,
Hayley Jensen: They've all had that experience. They've all been through this, like, country. What's our country's cool. And then they're all of a sudden, they're just like, I don't care what anybody thinks about me anymore.
Rae Leigh: Level-headed people. Yeah, no, I love it. That's really cool. All right. If you could, co-write a song with anyone in the world, dead or alive, Who would it be?
and why?
Hayley Jensen: Who would it be? I heard you ask this question. I will just have the answer. It's just going to come drink. Look, I think
this there's just so many people that have, that are just magnificent. Writers and storytellers and yeah. She's sort of just somebody that has been part of my musical life for so long as I can influence. And I think I love the way that she tells stories and waves, words, and phrases and yeah, I think it would really have to be her from angel, her song angel that I did a cover of with Becky Cole recently and saying on idol all those years ago to all of, oh, well it's on fire and falling.
And it just so many of her records I just had on repeat,
Rae Leigh: spoke to you.
Hayley Jensen: Yeah, absolutely.
Rae Leigh: Imagine what you guys would come out with. If we did something together,
Hayley Jensen: Well, it would be tasty. I would, yeah, one day. Hopefully, look, I'm just going to put it out
Rae Leigh: Yep. Why not? It's recorded now, so,
Hayley Jensen: That's
Rae Leigh: All right. So what have you got going on this year? What, where are you going to be? What are
your plans? What are you releasing? Where are you playing?
Hayley Jensen: Yeah. I am smack bang in the middle of preparing for a big tour that's happening at the end of this year to to launch my album, which is called breaking hearts. And I wrote this album, a lot of it with a bunch of Canadian songwriters.
Rae Leigh: Cool.
Hayley Jensen: And it was produced in Canada. I did my vocals here in my
In my house, in my cupboard
Rae Leigh: Wow. Nice.
Hayley Jensen: said, yeah, let logic pro and yeah, just recorded them all myself and I'm sending them over.
And my amazing friend, Troy, Coco over in in Canada produced them all and yeah, I'm just, I'm so proud of it. It was probably one of the most creative. Yeah. Least satisfying songwriting and production kind of just experiences of my entire life. Being able to bounce back and forth with ideas and melodies and yeah.
Rae Leigh: I'm
Hayley Jensen: Sending voice memos at 3:00 AM. What about if there was something that goes, Ooh, and then he's like, great, I've put it in the track and I'm like, hang on that voice memo. Yep. it's literally like, there's so many random things going on that I just love about it. Cause it's so real. And yeah.
And so, yeah, so the album is going to be coming out yeah. August. And you have released a few singles off it so far, which at which you've done really well, I'm so proud of them. The latest ones, karma, which is all that kind of. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Or kind of thinking about commerce, if it's not just something that happens to you, but someone that happens to you.
So yeah it's just, it's exciting exploring all these concepts. Twisting things around and
Rae Leigh: And I saw you're in Brisbane,
Hayley Jensen: really proud
Rae Leigh: I'm hoping I'll get to be there. And I'm just looking forward to seeing how it all unfolds for you this year. And just being your cheerleader up in the gold coast and everyone who's listening, we're all going to be cheering you on. And just hoping that, it's an amazing release.
And I love hearing that you are so passionate about it as well. That's just makes it even better. And yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna support you. We're gonna put the description. It's going to have your website and all your socials and all your music is in there. I'll put in camera as well so that people can go straight to that song.
But is there anything else you would like to say before we finish up?
Hayley Jensen: Oh, I just want to say thanks to you. Thank you so much for your patience in getting ahold of the means in a crazy time,
Rae Leigh: all right.
Hayley Jensen: Time wise and emotionally and everything else. So I'd just really super grateful for your patience and for your willingness to have a chat about me and my music and some writing. And It's been lovely having a chat with you today. Thank you.
Rae Leigh: I really appreciate that. And I'm a big believer in divine timing. Everything happens exactly when it's meant to.
Hayley Jensen: Yeah,
Rae Leigh: and we can't control it anyway.
So yeah. I mean, we've got so many people wanting to come on the show now when people it's not right time. That's fine when it is, it will be so, and
Hayley Jensen: yeah.
Rae Leigh: just the way it is. And I'm so glad we finally got to have this chat and I'm so looking forward to meeting you in person and like, like I met Amber Lawrence for the first time on the weekend and like we'd had
Hayley Jensen: Oh, wow.
Rae Leigh: hadn't met each other and we're like, it's so weird. Cause I feel like now I know you, we've never actually seen each other, but it is really nice to have these conversations and really just get to know the person a little bit more and we'd come from and I'm so glad you found country the same way I did. And.
Hayley Jensen: my eye.
Rae Leigh: Oh. it's just music feels so good. And I think that's the best compliment I can give to anyone. When I say it feels good. Like I can, it feels authentic and soulful, and you're definitely in the right place as far as genre, from what I can
Hayley Jensen: Oh,
Rae Leigh: My humble, but correct opinion. All right. Well,
Hayley Jensen: Correct. We're not, we don't make mistakes around here anymore.
Rae Leigh: no, exactly. Right. All Right. Well, keep it up and I'm thank you so much.
Hayley Jensen: Oh, you're just a treasure. Thank you.
Rae Leigh: Welcome to a Songwriter Trysts with Katrina Burgoyne going, how are you?
Katrina Burgoyne: I'm good. Rae, how you? doing?
Rae Leigh: Good. I'm looking forward to learning more about you and your entire journey, because you have an incredible songwriting journey that, dates back to your grandparents. So I want to find out more about it.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah, I'm excited to be here.
Rae Leigh: Tell me where you're coming from at the moment, though.
Katrina Burgoyne: So I am, coming from a very summery Nashville, Tennessee, as you just said, how cold it was and the gold Coast there. I live in the USA now being here for four and a half years, trying to live the Nashville dream. And, yeah, it's still here. It's good to talk to an Aussie and here in Aussie accent, though, I tell you what
Rae Leigh: Well, I'll put it on a little bit more for you. But
Katrina Burgoyne: thanks pleased do.
Rae Leigh: when I was in, when I was in Nashville, people like, oh, so where from the UK are you from? And I'm like, I'm not for
Katrina Burgoyne: I get that. the
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Right. All right. So tell me, why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are, where you come from and how you got into songwriting.
Katrina Burgoyne: I've come from a small country town called Ganada news in new south Wales near it's like 45 minutes from Tamworth. For those of you who don't know reg Ganada is not to be mistaken with Canada.
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Katrina Burgoyne: and I grew up with both my grandparents. My both my grandfathers played music.
My grandfather was a violin player and he had played with the pit orchestras and Sydney with his mother who played the piano. And he ended up going on to playing like jazz ragtime sort of stuff on saxophone and clarinet. And then my poppy who's my mother's father. He sang country music.
So I would sit on his knee and he'd play country music. And like all the kids, the grandkids would play. All my cousins would be playing and like Papi would bring up the guitar and I would, I'll be mesmerized. I'm, Yeah.
He's. Pretty amazing. But him singing and music just, he was like the pied Piper for me.
And so from then I picked up the guitar. I picked up my brother's guitar when I was about 11 years old and started writing songs and it started There I went to the tomato festival, talent quest in Ganada and sang a song I wrote when I was 11 years old. And the the job. Became my guitar teacher.
And it was really from that summer, I, you know, it was like the next week the 10th country music festival was on. And I entered in all the talent quests. So it started studying.
Rae Leigh: There you go. Then appeal straight middle. Let him
Katrina Burgoyne: I actually just wrote a song.
Could it'll start in a hometown talking about, you know, we all have big dreams about doing all these amazing things. And sometimes we question if we could ever get there, if the dreams too big, but
Rae Leigh: Hm, imposter syndrome.
Katrina Burgoyne: yeah. Every single person that has ever achieved something big, it all starts, you know, running track or, you know, playing tennis. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, absolutely.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah,
Rae Leigh: So your grandparents inspired you or your grandfathers, both of them on each side. And that kind of keeps you off. When did you actually write your first song? Was that when you were 11 at the talent quest?
Katrina Burgoyne: I was 11. I I, actually was obsessed with Shania Twain.
Rae Leigh: Nice me too,
Katrina Burgoyne: loved so obsessed. Like I used to dream that I'd be her best friend one day. I still haven't questioned that.
Rae Leigh: working on it.
Katrina Burgoyne: Still working on being her best friend.
But yeah, so I picked up the guitar. I used to play piano. I've been playing piano since I was seven. And I noticed, I got given for Christmas. I shania Twain manuscript
Rae Leigh: Oh,
Katrina Burgoyne: right? Like where, like it. teaches you to play the parts on piano. And I noticed that they had good tacos written above music, the manuscript. And I was like, Oh, and it would teach you, like, it would be like the guitar chord. You kind of look at it, the guitar chord chart where you can, I'm sure you have play a C chord.
And I was like, oh, and I kind of, I don't think anyone showed me how to read it, or even, I just knew that was for the guitar and that if I put my fingers on those places, I could make it work. So I picked
Rae Leigh: like the strings with the little dots? Those pictures.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. And so. Yeah. So I thought I'd give it a crack. And I picked it up so quickly.
Like I just found such joy. And I think, I remember I tried to learn a really hard Shania Twain song, and then I thought, you know, I could just write a song. So I started writing my own. But I was always obsessed. Like as a little girl, I remember running around the house. I wasn't even in school at the time running around the house, just singing.
And my Nana said to Me What song is that? What song are you singing? And I go, I didn't know. I made it up and I'd always see music in my ears and my head and be singing along to the songs in my mind. And then I remember being, oh my gosh, it's funny. How, like, I always say that God or the universe kind of is guiding you from as long as you can remember.
And High chair or not a high chair, like the booster seats as a, in the back seat of a car. And I, I said to my dad, I said, I must have been like on the three years old, I said to my dad, I said, dad, I was really concerned about this. Cause it really bugged me. I said, dad, one day we're gonna run out of songs.
And he says, what? I said, we're gonna run out of songs one day. Yeah. Well, how do you figure that? And I said, there's only a certain amount in Alma. This is me explaining it as like I would have been on the three. Cause
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Yep.
Katrina Burgoyne: you know, I said there's only a certain amount of keys on like things. I don't know. I think I said keys, but what I was trying to say is there's only a certain amount of keys on a piano and there's only a certain combination you can have of them.
Like I could understand that as a kid And then, you know, I started writing my first song when I was about seven, but I actually really struggled reading and writing. I couldn't read or write. I was about 11. I was a bit of a late bloomer. And so I couldn't, I would write songs, but I could never remember them or put them down.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, I have I have a eight year old son and when he was about seven, he came down to be one day six mom I've got 22 songs. And I said, oh, where are they? He's like, what do you mean? I was like, well, Eli, they're not a song. Unless you've written them down. He goes, oh. And he walked away. And then a few days later he came to me.
He's like, mom, I've got four songs.
Katrina Burgoyne: That's awesome.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Do you need to write them down? Otherwise, if you don't remember them, how are you supposed to share them? Right.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. And I even think, like, I think back then, I finally, I had like a tape recorder, like think of these, like, you know, you've got those voice memo app. I use that every day and I think. I really think what it was. I hadn't actually written songs, but I had, you know, as a songwriter, I'm probably driving to Louisville, Kentucky, and I go, I pull out my phone, put my voice memo on it and I'm like, just driving down the highway.
You don't want to mean I'm making something up as I go.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: I think I've always done that you know, The beginnings, the birth of a song or a creation or an idea has
Rae Leigh: The idea is, yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: been with me since I was little. I just never knew how to recall it.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, so many. I mean, I learned the hard way. I think a lot of us do because we have these great ideas and we don't write them down. I'll have a, I have a voice note on our phone and then we forget. And it's like that instant regret of done I'll really liked whatever that was, but you have to let it go and just hope that maybe it'll come back to you one day, but I have so many voice notes on my phone that have the indicator clicking in the background.
I'll pull it out quickly when I've stopped at the lights, you know, something like that. So you can hear the car and the traffic in
the background, and I'm like, I've just got to get the idea out.
Katrina Burgoyne: the wind screen wipers on a rainy day.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Windscreen wipers or an indicator or something like that. But it's just the rawness of that, the idea.
And you've got to make sure you get down because it might not last in your head to your destination.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah.And even things like
I sometimes lay in bed and I'm the worst for this I'll lay in bed. And, oh my gosh. In my dreams, I've written so many hits songs. Like I've written songs and like have actually drained. That I had dreams a few times where I'm onstage and, but I'm actually, it's like, I'm looking at the person singing it.
Like I'm behind the person that's singing it and they're singing this song and it's so singable and I grow and I'm like listening to this hit song that I've written and it's such a singable solid. The chorus is super singable, like something
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: so simple. And I know it in my mind. But I can never, like, I might wake up in the morning.
I might wake up from the dream and go, oh, I'll remember that. Like, that's so easy. I'll remember. And I don't ever
wake up enough to recall it. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Oh, that must be so frustrating, but it's a part of the journey. Like there's something in there, you know, your subconscious or whatever
it is that just is constantly on isn't it.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah, absolutely.
Rae Leigh: Being a kid and being creative and writing songs and being in music is very encouraged until we get to a point usually in our late high school when everyone's like, okay, so how are you going to actually add money and make a living?
So how did that, how was that transition for you going actually, no, this is what I want to do to make a living.
Katrina Burgoyne: You know, I have the most say, Okay. we're up to nine minute, 10 minutes on this. A little kind of, I always make jokes that like, talk to me for five minutes and I'll tell you.about my mother.
I got to 10 minutes that I have the most amazing mom. I know everyone thinks that they have the most amazing mum, but really I have the most amazing mom.
Rae Leigh: Okay. Swap you.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah,
well she is she's been one of those people. Yeah, You know, I'll tell her this crazy dream and I'll say, mom, this is what I would love to do someday. And maybe saying it as a thought of something, I would really love me sharing a secret with my mom saying this is something I would love to do one day, but like, I'm probably never going to be able to do that.
Like I've. So I have such a low self-esteem sometimes and doubt my ability. And she's always like, well, how are you going to do it? And I'll From being down on my dumps of thinking. And that's a dream that I'll never, ever reached to me going
what you think I could do. And then should go yet.
Ha. How would you do that? How you make that happen and I'd kind of go well, I like, for example, I remember I came home from Nashville and I had my money cause I spent everything to be over here for three months and move time with mom. And I said, mama, think I'm going to move to Nashville. And she goes, Yeah.
How are you going to do it?
What are you gonna do? How are you gonna make this happen? And she kind of reverse engineers that with me, she sits down with me and talks me through how I could possibly make it happen. And not just that. She also thinks that she believes in me cause I wouldn't be able to do
it. If my mum didn't tell me I could do it. You know? I mean, I, Yeah. And so, but you know that doesn't come without,
you know, the naysayers and the people that make you doubt yourself. I remember.
You know, our gosh singing country music going to high school. I would take my guitar to school. I was like attached to my guitar. I didn't want to go a day without like, I would carry it around all day, just so I could play it in the lunch break, you know, like I just loved it.
And you know, the, you know, those kids at school were like singing as a country song Katrina, like, and I think that's the Australian way as well. If you get
Rae Leigh: Tall poppy syndrome,
Katrina Burgoyne: total poppy syndrome.
You can't get bigger than the hood. Cause if you get above the head, they got to cut you back down and make sure you stay humble.
Which I mean is a blessing and a curse, you know, I think frickin hell, I've been humbled so much that it, you know, on a main like,
Rae Leigh: Being humbled is something we all have to go through.
Katrina Burgoyne: yeah,
but in saying that too, I do think, yeah. Like, yeah, I've just for the first time. Okay. Actually in a long time, decided that my goal would be, I would love to be. I would love to be the first Australian female artist to make an impact in the American country music scene in the last three
decades, since Olivia Newton, John, and she was the first, she was the one and only, and you know, for me to even say that out loud, like I've lost such confidence to say a goal out loud like that because I'm thinking 15 years old and sitting in maths and.
I was a bit naughty, like to be honest, I wasn't really focusing on mathematics and my math teacher smacked his hand on the desk and he says, what do you.
want to be when you leave school Katrina? And I said, I want to move to Nashville and be country music singer. And
Rae Leigh: Okay.
Katrina Burgoyne: like the eye-rolls the people that tell me I could never do it.
The, you know, and like, it's like, you can take it for a little bit and like, you can laugh at It and go, well, I'll show you. You can only do that so much before you kind of go. Maybe, I just shouldn't tell people that's what I want to do because they laugh at
Rae Leigh: idea to protect your dreams. Yeah. I definitely, if there's a place to protect your dreams, but I also love the saying that if you believe you can, or you believe you can't, you're probably right.
Katrina Burgoyne: Well, you know, I think about that you know, me I started telling everyone I was going to move to Nashville for sure. You know, on public, on social media. Like I moved out, I came out for three months and then I was 14 months saving at home and. They do say, I think it's like 70% of people that's like say their dreams to a friend or say their dreams on social media or say their dreams out loud basically.
And not keeping it to themselves actually achieve it. Whereas only 30% of people that keep it to them. I there's statistics that I'm recalling from memory, but I don't know if they're correct, but it's like, something like that where you have more chance of achieving a dream. If you tell someone because you're being held accountable.
Whereas if you don't tell anyone, you can go yeah, but like make excuses.
Rae Leigh: You're only letting yourself down, but you have to believe in yourself somewhat as well. You have to have a certain level of dedication and belief in drive to even be able to get past that.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah, absolutely. I, and I may not, I do struggle with believing in myself and that's where I think where my mum has stepped in for me, where it's just like, It's more like the more I do it. And the more I, for example, my artistry, I thought I'm just a songwriter. That's all I'll ever be non artists. Cause I'm just not that.
great.
Like, you know, and I tell myself that, but then I would, you know, I've the last 18 months I've been recording and releasing and doing all the things again. And the more I do it, the more I go, I am an artist. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: absolutely. Yeah,
Yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. So it's just the more I do it, the more I believe it as well, you know? So it's, and it's you know, we've been producing content and trying to get up, you know, great music, videos and content.
So I can convince someone else to believe in me, but I never thought about it. Like, by doing this, I'm actually believing in myself, like even more like multi-family to walk into those rooms and say, Hey, I'm an artist and this is what I'm doing. Would you like, you know,
Would you like to be a part of this, you know, and Yeah. Yeah. Backing myself,
Rae Leigh: Absolutely. And it's so important to be able to do that. And yeah, you just do it and don't think about it, you know, and that's really easy to say,
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. I think we got, and I'm the worst for it? Oh my gosh. but,like, just to get out of our own heads, like get out of our own units, do the fricking task, stop being a little whiny thing. And this is me being a little whiny thing. Like,
Rae Leigh: No.
Katrina Burgoyne: Face your fears and just get over yourself.
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Katrina Burgoyne: I said, that's why I'm suffering such tough love on my own self.
Rae Leigh: no, but that's good. And like, when I, when we first started, cause I've got a really big family, I come from like the big fat Greek wedding type family, right. Like huge cousins and they're everywhere. And when I first started music, I think. I just went into it so naive and excited. I was like, you know, yeah, my family will at least support me.
Right. And I was having lunch shortly, like a bit, probably a year and a bit into it. And I was having lunch with a guy from a major label in Sydney and my friends. And so we were talking, I said, you know what? I've had more support and encouragement from complete strangers than I have from friends and family.
And he turned around to me and said it's not talked about a lot, but that's actually. Common and true for every artists across the world, doesn't matter how huge they are. They get more support and encouragement from complete strangers who don't know you personally, then the people that you know, knew you when you're in nappies.
And it's just hard to be able to. For on that side, it's hard to be able to see someone that you saw as a kid or growing up, you know, like the story of Jesus in the Bible. Like he wasn't accepted in his own home from the people that he grew up around. And it's like, it's the same people. It's really hard to change your opinion on someone when you've known them for so long.
And then they change. It's hard to be able to see that, you know, but it's also hard.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. You know, I totally can reflect on that even though like, my mom was totally there and supported and my Cole family, my mom, my auntie, my uncle totally supportive of me, but it's like, you know, the friends from school and the, those kinds of people, it's like, I'm kinda starting to see people come out of the woodworks and support me that.
Never used to support me, never believe me in me and saying, you know, I know her she's from my hometown. I went to school with this girl, you know, and it's kind of funny. I'll be like, man, if only you like told your 10 Facebook, if you told your a hundred Facebook friends that, you know, 10 years ago, it would have been probably I would have been, I might've got a here quicker, you know, like it's so interesting how that.
Rae Leigh: you got to believe in yourself first before anyone else will though. And you've obviously done that. Even if you doubt yourself, sometimes you, you believe in yourself more than you doubt yourself, and that's why you are where you are.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. That's true.
Rae Leigh: Tell me about the trip, because you talked about, you know, your dream of moving to Nashville, you're accountable because you told people, but you actually did it.
So tell us about that experience and moving it. Cause I'm sure there's a lot of people, me included. I'd love to like, I've been there, but I've not
taken the jump of moving there. That's huge. How's it gone?
Katrina Burgoyne: Well, so first start is I look back at it and I think I honestly don't know how. I really don't like it, it was the hottest thing I've ever done in my life. Like, I, oh my gosh. Well, there's, it's kind of a lot of elements to that, but so basically I moved out here. I, well, I did the three months here.
First. I did the 90 days. Over here and I wanted to try it on. And by the end of that three-month trip, I had people publishes interested in me saying, you need to move here. I played the Bluebird cafe. I kind of did a lot of amazing.
Things. It was like, it was almost like someone from above was putting me in all the right rooms, surrounded by all the people that say, yes, you need to do this.
You need to do this. Right. And then I went home and I saved for 14 months and moved out here with three suitcases, a guitar. $15,000 American, by the time it converted. And also let's just sprinkle in there a huge ass debt. I came out here with $30,000 worth of
debt in Australia. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: not like student lanes though. It's like credit cards or
Katrina Burgoyne: Actually that doesn't include the student loans.
Rae Leigh: No one ever thinks about the student loans.
Katrina Burgoyne: yeah, no, I'm just like, oh, I'm sorry. That's what I did. And I thought if there was ever a time when I can't if I don't do this now, I'm never going to do this. I just had that little moment of bravery and I don't know how I did it, but I moved out. I bought myself some furniture and a little crappy cough for about four and a half thousand dollars.
And I thought, okay, 10, I ended up with $10,000 leftover and I thought $10,000 would get me through. Enough. I spent $10,000 on the three month trip, like with Uber's and stuff. And I thought, well, if Uber's cost me a fortune I, So I thought if I'm not using Uber, I could probably get that to last me at least three months, a
little more.We'll see how far I could stretch it.
Rae Leigh: Right.
Katrina Burgoyne: And I actually,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: yeah, so in my visa only allows me to make an income from music in the most competitive music in the world.
Rae Leigh: Thanks Faiza.
Katrina Burgoyne: I know, sorry, but thankfully two weeks in moving to Nashville my housemate and I was living with at the time she got offered a gig at this little place called the row in Midtown. And basically it's an hour. It's got a ma it's got a PA system there and there's a sound guy there. And every hour they changed. There's a new artist comes and they play purely for tips. So here I am, Willis Jaylene may,
Fresh off the boat, rocks up, plays this gig. And I
really connected with the person who was he's name is Mike.
He's an older guy who does the sound and. He had me that
every single night he gave me an hour spot every single night. And you know What the first gig I ever played for tips in one
hour, I made $300 American.
Rae Leigh: Oh, wow. That's incredible.
What a
Katrina Burgoyne: I think it was like, I think it was just special because
like,
there's a different culture in America.
Like in Australia that will kind of cheer you on sometimes I'll bag out. They're not going to leave you a tip, you know, cause it's just not in our culture to
Rae Leigh: We don't do tipping
now.
Katrina Burgoyne: But in America
they, and I think it might be in the south too, but they really pride themselves on if they can help someone.
So, sorry. That first tip, you know, those first tippers that night, like, you know, the first person who ever tipped me, the, you know, they, so when I first moved to town, I was playing this hour slot. I mean, I would always make about a hundred bucks to 150 bucks. So. I'd be, but I'll be working every single night, like put makeup on going out, but you know, it was kinda good.
Cause Nashville's like that. I didn't know anyone. I was making friends. I was at every single night except for this one hour. So I kind of started there and then I headed to meant this and started building a few shows in Memphis. And so to start getting on the outskirts of town instead of playing things as well.
So thankfully, somehow, and also too, I'm like, if the chips are down, I will. Hustle my butt off. So, Yeah.
I somehow made it happen. I don't know. I just, I got really lucky. I always had work and financially in getting work in the USA was never an issue for me, but 12 months into my trip into my move, I actually fell chronically ill.
And I had a. It started off and I always had sinus problems in Australia, but it started off with a sinus infection that
never went away for 18 months. and
Rae Leigh: your voice.
Katrina Burgoyne: yeah, so I would get laryngitis and lose my voice all the time. And it started off as like, you know, a weekend of missing gigs and. At once a month, it would flare up.
And I don't know why. I also think too stress had a lot to do with that. I was, when I first fell sick, I got stressed out. And not just that, I think too. I ended up changing friend groups after a year of being here. And I think that, you know, I'm pretty spiritual. So I think I think if you're in a town where everyone wants to be famous, do you know what I mean?
Like, this is a town where everyone moves here, get famous. You're going to encounter a lot of
narcissistic people. And so I.
And I actually became friends with people and it turned into being a bit of a, I needed to, for my own mental health, I just kind of removed myself and I never stood up for myself in the suit.
I never stood up for myself in this one particular situation. And I just removed myself gently. Cause I was kind of. want this
person to come burn my house down. It was a bit kind of like that. So I just removed myself from a situation as gently as I possibly could. And I never stood up for myself and spoke up for myself and I lost my voice and I thought that was so crazy.
And it kind of actually made me feel Americans for a little
bit. I just, I felt
Rae Leigh: guns. You have to be careful.
Katrina Burgoyne: I'm not afraid of the guns, but it was mostly just the toxic, the toxic ness of the situation where I was just like, I kind of messed with my head. I really thought like, you know, because Americans are so confident when they say things like they'll they confidently.
It's like the fake it till you make it a hundred percent that they will tell me like, Oh, my gosh, I'm going to get a publishing deal by July. And I'm like, geez, I wouldn't say that out loud to anyone just in case you
don't get it. That's a bit awkward. That's me being Australian. You don't want to
Maine, but Americans will tell you that they are the best.
I've had some people tell me that their profits, that they're going to get a Grammy by the year. Fricking 2016 and never happened, but like this things that, You know, I think when you're in a country so big, there's so much the percentage of mental health is still the same, but
it's just like, there's more people, right?
So. Yeah.
So, but anyway, so I kind of removed myself from this group and I was like, Okay. I just need to find my people. I found it so hard to find my people and to I, it was just, I lost my voice. Throughout this process. And I don't know if it was from that from not speaking up for myself.
But I do know that put a lot of stress in my life. Like I, I always so stressed out about and alone miserable in another country, trying to find where I belonged. And it was winter time too, and I get seasonal depression. So I just kinda kid, I just kinda heat away for a while and tried to find who I was and where I belonged.
And so, This sinus problem went on for 18 months, as I said, but the first six months of 2018, I would basically two weeks of every month, I wouldn't, wasn't
able to sing or even talk. It was like, hello,
Rae Leigh: Oh, wow.
Katrina Burgoyne: So I had to, I would try and sing through gigs. And, but I had to cancel. And, but thank God I had just beautiful people in my life.
Like the guy at the row, I would call him up and say, I'm so sorry. I got an art text him. I can't sing and he never canceled me. He never said, I'm not booking you again. Cause you all are always sick. Like I was so thankful to have people like that in my life that like genuinely cared about me and genuinely looked out for me.
So, but I, you know what I actually it was three 30 in the morning on, on a late night. Oh, early morning, I should say. And this was about in August or June, July of 2018.
Excuse me.
Rae Leigh: that's right.
Katrina Burgoyne: Hang on. Let
me stop
Rae Leigh: Can you grab some water?
Katrina Burgoyne: I got it. And so it was like a late night. Early morning, July, and I'm on the front of my dad and I'm crying.
I like, I felt pretty strong. I felt like I was a strong girl and I could get through anything and I could do this. I think at this point I had nothing. I had no, nothing left. Like I had pushed through six months of no income, like just barely making it scraping by I had $150 left to my name and I knew that I had to, I knew that I had to go see a doctor and I knew that.
I thought people kept telling me I needed to have a sinus operation. And I knew that meant coming home to Australia because I didn't have any health insurance over here and going through Medicare and the public health
system in Australia. And I
don't know what the waiting list would have
Rae Leigh: Which can be quite slow. Yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah.
So that was my Nashville dream gone anyway. So I ended up, I need, like, when I'm in moments like this, I will go through and
read, like I'm such a self-help junkie and
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Katrina Burgoyne: yeah. And like a motivational book, anything I can read to get me in a head space to fight, give it to me, I'll swing. And so, I bought this That was called a hundred days to brave and by an alpha code NF by the, her name's F downs.
And. I go to, so this will help me through it. I'll do this a hundred days to brave thing. Anyway, I open it up and it was a Christian devotional and I'd never seen it. Yeah.
I'd never seen a devotional before. And I always come from a spiritual aspect rather than a religious, you know, things have changed for me now I've sort of started learning the Bible and reading the Bible and doing all that as you do when you live in the south in America.
But
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: you know, at the
Rae Leigh: a Rite of passage.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. At the time, it was like, oh, a daily devotional, this wasn't, I did two pages of it. And I'm like, this wasn't resonating with me. It wasn't doing what I wasn't helping me like a needed help. You know what I mean?
It wasn't doing what I needed it to do. So I so I, because I also didn't have a relationship, but when I believed in God, but I didn't have a relationship with God at all.
Anyway, so it was 3, 8 30 in the morning and I'm calling dad and I'm like crying and I'm like, I don't, I never felt, you know, I had gone through depression and I know that like, looking back, I had everything within myself to get better with that. Like I had all the power to get better if I chose to just fight and take it on and just be persistent with it as I did when I got through depression.
But with this, it was like, I was helpless. I was like, my quality of life was me sleeping all day. And, or like, cause it was like chronic fatigue as well as like a constant head cold. I had a head cold for 18 months and having I would use like,
A steam mask thing all day so I could sing. Anyway, so I, it was three 30.
My dad said I'm crying, talking to dad. And he was saying, just keep swinging his crying. Isn't you're So, strong. You can do this. Don't stop swinging. Even when you think you can't swing anymore, he goes, prove yourself wrong. You've got it. And you got to one more swing and I. Got off the phone that morning, that night morning, whatever it was.
And I opened up this book, this Christian devotional book to a hundred days to brave. And in this book it says. Talked about the story of this girl. She felt a calling to pack up and move and sell everything. She was lived in Georgia and she said, I put everything in the trunk of the car and I headed north until I sold the iconic Batman building in the skyline of Nashville, Tennessee. And she said, it's not like I was moving from a small town, half a world away. I just said the next.
Oh, she put, I was scared, you know, she said, but I just said the next yes, did the next thing. And God created a life for me in Nashville that I couldn't have dreamed of. And our members sitting there and just crying and saying, well, that's the sign, that's the sign I needed.
And so I ended up doing this devotional book all the way through and I, I. Towards the end. It was almost the end of this book. And I, this one morning I was, I used to journal as well. I journal and I, this one morning I had $150 left to my name. It was in cash. I had no money in my bank account. I've never been this broke.
I had enough food to get through until I played my next gig. If I could sing the gig and I took this 150 bucks and I went to this ear nose, throat, doctor out of town.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: And the verse in this devotional said, you don't need a man. You don't need to rely on a man. You don't need a man in your life to protect you and keep you safe.
I'm going to keep you safe. And I remember driving to this clinic that morning. It was the most beautiful drive an hour out of town. And the countryside in Tennessee is just so beautiful. And I remember thinking. That's right. You know, I don't need to rely on anyone I just need to, and my relationship was always the universe.
I just need to trust that I'm going to be safe in this universe. And that day I met this doctor who looked at me and he did the test for $150 that I paid for, just to see if I had nodules on my voice. And he said, you don't have nodules. You've got laryngitis, chronic laryngitis. And he goes, let me do something.
Let me do some tests. Let me do some more tests. I'm not going to charge you. I just want to find out what why you're so sick. Like this day I was like this, I go down and they talk like, that's how I was. And he did allergy tests. He did these cat scans. He did everything. And he said to me,
I know your situation.
I know you don't have any health care, but I've just made a phone call and I want to donate an operation to you.
Rae Leigh: Whoa.
Katrina Burgoyne: And I must have looked like a stray dog that day. And I got in the car, it was 6:00 AM in the morning in Australia who, from soup, getting emotional thinking about it. And I just cried and I said, mom, he's gonna make me better.
And. You know, so 2019 for me was really fighting for survival. And I think you have to be, you know, I think about, I feel so blessed that I come from such a great home where, you know, my mom was so amazing, you know, I was so blessed to have come from a really great home. And I do think of all those kids who didn't have the same opportunity that I had in regards to just having love in there.
And I do think that you have to come from, you have to find safety before you can
find flight. You know, you can't fly unless you come from that safe space. And I think it wasn't really, until I met it, wasn't till I went through this until, and then I met my boyfriend like a few months later.
Rae Leigh: Cool.
Katrina Burgoyne: That I had safety over here before I could fly here.
And as strong as a strong and independent of a woman that I am, there was something within me that just deeply this I had, I felt like traumatized really, to be honest from my
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Fair enough.
Katrina Burgoyne: So yeah, that's a long story. That's a long version.
Rae Leigh: So, so what was the surgery, if you don't mind me asking him, I'm
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. So he had he put a balloon, it's kind of like a balloon thing. And basically he ballooned up my passengers in my nasal passages. And then to be honest, that didn't actually, it wasn't working for me. It
Rae Leigh: Right.
Katrina Burgoyne: didn't work. So we actually went in for another operation where he actually completely claimed.
He kind of scraped out and carved out a lot of things in my sinus passage. So I have more now, the only problem is that now all that sinus passage is so big that it doesn't hold as much sinuses. So it always drips down the back. I have postnasal drip, I've got all the time now, which means that like, I've found this a drug called mucin Musinex in the USA, which I have every day.
And so, Yeah.I mean, I. Am I, it goes through seasons where I don't need to take me to the next at the moment. Oh my gosh. It's been so bad lately, but it's not like I'm not losing my voice over it.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Well, I'm really glad
Katrina Burgoyne: manageable.
Rae Leigh: you had that journey and that there is a real Testament of faith of just believing. In yourself enough, like, I know you say you struggle with belief in, and even I appreciate you being honest and vulnerable about your depression and mental health issues, because it's something that a lot of us have, like on I've had my own, but it's something that can also be really shameful that we feel like if we share it, people will think less of us.
And if I'm honest, when someone shares that, I think so much more of them because I know for me, I know what that is.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: It takes such strength to push through the valleys. You know, someone told me once when I was going through a depressive moment that you don't stop in the valley and, or, you know, when you're going through hell, don't stop and have a picnic, you know, like when you're going through hell, you gotta keep going.
And otherwise you'll never get out of there. And. It can be so hard, but it takes absolute courage and strength to just keep going. And those moments when you just want to give up. And so I just want to say well done because,
We are really resilient as human beings, but you never know how resilient you are until you have to be.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. I actually wrote this song called tough girls, which kind of was inspiration for just that, you know, like, I always, and I always have to remind myself in these darkest times and the only way I can get through it, because like I do struggle with, I don't think I can do it. You know what I mean?
Like I have moments where I can, or I just want to give up. And I think one thing is my ego is probably a bit too proud that to give up, like for me to pack up and go home, like what it feel like. You know what I mean? Like that's in my mind, that's what I'm thinking. So like, I can't do that. That's not an option.
Everyone's going to laugh at me. I'm going to be a loser. you know what I mean? So like, I can't do that. I have no choice. I had to kind of keep fighting this thing. But so you know, my mom was a single mom and I, you know, there's this one line in tough girls that like I learned to be. resilient when I was three years old.
And I used to watch my mum too. She, couldn't get a job in the town we lived in. And so she used so close. My mom had this great, has this great ability to make money out of whatever she can make money out of anything. Right. But to scale it and become a millionaire is something she's never mastered.I
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: She can go like, so for example, she's a really great, so us, so I'm a seamstress. I don't know what you call it. So she, actually, my little kids are within a small country town. She couldn't get a job anywhere. So while she was studying nursing, she actually sewed clothes that she would, she used to create the ma.
On the weekends. And so she would go and sell children's clothes at these markets because the only store that they had, Yeah.
They had four C's. I think it was the only children's store they had at a clothing store they had in the small town. So, and that pain I ran, you know? And so I look, and I look at, you know, the older I get, the more I look at my dad and I go, Oh, yeah, he's human.You know, I love my
Rae Leigh: We're all human.right?
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. Right. And I look at
Rae Leigh: Keith Urban's human. So Nyah Twain. She's human.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. And I look at my mom and the things she's going through, and I think that's another reason why I was able to get through things like that. Cause a great way, man. When my mom was this age, she did this, like, this is nothing compared to what she went through. So I think that's kind of as like, I've got to kind of toughen up, otherwise I'm not my mother's daughter.
Rae Leigh: I want to ask you something and I need to keep going, because I've got another call after this, but that's okay. And I've, I really appreciate you sharing your story. It's very inspirational. I'm looking forward to sharing it with everyone else too, but.
Katrina Burgoyne: And I know I already stuck on that topic for a long time. I hope we got everything you needed.
Rae Leigh: Do you know what? I believe that everything is exactly the way it's meant to be all the time. So that's
Katrina Burgoyne: Okay.
Rae Leigh: Tell me what the best advice that you've ever been given.
Katrina Burgoyne: The best advice I've ever been given.is don't give up just because you don't hit it the first time around the second time around the 15th, the hundredth time, I think persistence is key for everything that you do.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Perfect. That's amazing. Okay. And if you could give one piece of advice to yourself when you were maybe that 15, 17 year old girl at high
school, what would you say?
Katrina Burgoyne: I would say that you're good enough.
Rae Leigh: Love it. Yeah, you are good enough. And that's such a hard thing that, you know, children have to be told. And it said that they have to be told that, but we all need to be told they don't mean,
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. You know, I look back through all day old videos of my son's trip to Nashville in 2019, I've always struggled.
data. I would never, I was, you know, we didn't have a lot of money. I always felt like I was the kid that the, you know, not the pretty girl with the ribbons and a hair and then nice school bag.
And I was just a little kid that would try and run along and keep up.
That'd be kind enough to talk to me So I mean, that probably wasn't what it really was, but in my head, that's what I think. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I look back at that little girl that I was with all the videos and as a different person, it's like, I look at this little girl and I go, wow.
She was doing it a couple of times. She took on, she was taken on the world, but at the time I didn't believe that I could do it.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. If you could co-write I think I know what the answer is going to be with anyone in the world, dead or alive. Who would it be and why
Katrina Burgoyne: Oh, You know what I'm kind of on a case I've been fixed right
now. So I'd love to write with Keith Evan. Is that how you're going to say?
Rae Leigh: he's doing a bit of collaboration and I thought you were going to say Shania Twain.
Katrina Burgoyne: Oh yeah. I love Shanaya. Not, I think I like her cave. I mean, I would love to sit down and have a wine with Shanai official.
Rae Leigh: Okay. So wine with Shanaya, write a song with Keith and he has been doing a lot of clubs slightly. Hasn't I mean, he's the king of collaborations, right?
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. He's.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Awesome. Cool. So tell us what you're doing now. What's 2021 looking like for you? I know that you've just released a song songwriter in April and how's that going for you?
I love that song by the way. And it's very topical to what we're talking.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah, well, that's Like my hot right there. Like It's the most vulnerable song. It was pretty tough to write. I mean, emotional and proud. Like I had to kind of put a lot of pride away to share that song, but you know, it's funny. That sounds didn't really, it hasn't done very well. Like it hasn't really charted or anything, but it. That's my song, you know, I think like, as a songwriter artists that's who I am. And I'm so proud of that song. I think whoever finds it and wants to get to know
who I am. That's the song to listen to that. Thank you. I'm going to be constantly and consistently releasing music. So, it's going to be a never ending stream of releases from here on out.So, any support that anyone wants to give me, I would just love you forever. And. Yeah, I just want to keep growing.
Rae Leigh: Are you ever going to come back to Australia and put on a show for us?
Katrina Burgoyne: I would love to, honestly, I actually, I was meant to go home for Christmas last year, but. With the pandemic. I hadn't been home for two and a half years, but yes, absolutely. That's my goal. I wanted to be touring again when I get back up. I know I got a lot of listeners in Brisbane, so, I did play a show last time I was in Brizzy.
I don't know how many people would come to my shows, but
Rae Leigh: we can collaborate. We'll put on a show together.
Katrina Burgoyne: let's do it. Perfect. So
Rae Leigh: host one here. You host one in Nashville. I'll come to you too.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. Perfect. Sounds correct.
Rae Leigh: All right. Is there anything else that you'd like to share before we finish up and thank you so much for, I'm going to put all of your description, your socials and your music. It's going to go on the description of the podcast and your website. Everyone's going to be able to find you on the blog and on the description. Is there anything else you'd like to say?
Katrina Burgoyne: all I could say? is. Be my friend. I would love to keep in touch with everyone. I've you can go to cause my last name. So how to spell my name's Katrina Burgoyne. For those of you, you didn't catch my name and we started, but you can find me@kbcountry.net. So super
Rae Leigh: Oh,
Katrina Burgoyne: have to write it down. Hey, b country.net.
Rae Leigh: KB then is that your
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah, please do. Yeah. Yeah. I mean you could call me Kat, but, kB is easy to.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Yeah. Cool. All right. Well, we're going to follow you. We're going to stay in touch. We're going to support you and just be your home ground cheer squad over in
Katrina Burgoyne: I would love that I need some Aussies cheering me on that means a lot.
Rae Leigh: Oh, absolutely. And that's what we're here for. And I'm just looking forward to seeing what comes next, but I love songwriter. And I'm looking forward to everyone should go listen to that song, by the way, especially if you're listening to this podcast and you're probably a songwriter, so you'll get it.
But yeah, thank you so much for being so open and vulnerable, and I just appreciate you spending the time to share your story. Thank you.
Katrina Burgoyne: Thank you, Rae thanks for having me. You're such a sweetheart.
