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Q&A: Katie Rush
Katie Rush is an independent artist based out of Brooklyn, NY and her brand new album “Stage Life” is guaranteed to transport you to a vibrant pastel landscape. Give it a listen below:
How long have you been creating music and have you been a part of any other groups prior to this project?
I started making music with Sam and Zak Mering (Raw Thrills, Mak Zering, Greatest Hits) in 2013, with no experience whatsoever other than singing. Zak and Sam took a chance on me because of mutual friends knowing that I could sing and that I wanted more than anything, always, to make music. Up to that point, I didn’t have the skills or faith in myself. We made Law of Attraction EP as kind of a one-off thing, for fun, but it turned out so well that we ended up continuing. Sam and Zak taught me everything I know about songwriting for sure, and are the only people I’ve ever worked with. Sam moved to LA in 2015 and we had to take a break, finishing the second album Stage Life together in LA in 2017.
By the time Sam and I made the third album, I was doing most all of the songwriting to his production but, still, I would say that Katie Rush was always mostly Sam Mehran. And I feel extremely fortunate and blessed to be able to say that. After he passed I thought of ending my music career there, but I still have the second and third album to release, I write nearly every day, and I’m just gonna keep going because that’s what I know he would want.
Musically or non-musically, where do you find the most inspiration for your music?
I’d say the main inspiration for my music stems from the story of how Sam and Zak and I wrote our first song, the title track of our first album Law of Attraction. We watched The Secret, the documentary on, well, the law of attraction, and all got really into it as a quasi-spiritual faith system of sorts. I believed fully, and still do, that it was the law of attraction that brought me to the guys and to the music, making the album kind of meta in being the manifestation of its theme. Times got hard and I lost my faith in it, I think all three of us did, but I’ve come back to it fully since Sam’s passing. Spirituality as it relates to the ebb and flow of life sparks my creativity, and I’ve now found, strangely or not so strangely depending on what you believe, that many if not all of the songs we made turned out to be prophetic. For example, Sam and I wrote a song called “Time Dilation,” on the third unreleased- album, about whether, or that, time is in fact just one moment and therefore there’s a stamp for each of us into eternity. It’s more profound and heartbreaking than I could’ve imagined in the wake of Sam’s passing, but it applies to all of us.
Do you now produce music on your own or do you have any help from friends?
I write just about every day without playing any instruments, I’m definitely looking for a new team to manifest my sound as I intended it. Sam and Zak, and then just Sam, had a near-psychic ability to pull out just exactly how I wanted Katie Rush to sound. I don’t know who I’ll be working with in the near future, but I know it’ll work out just the way it was meant to, because I have that faith. Law of attraction, baby!
Do you play shows often in Brooklyn (or anywhere)? What do you like/dislike about the Brooklyn music scene?
I’ve played once or twice over the years at many of the venues I like in Brooklyn, but right now I’m taking a semi-hiatus unless the opportunity to open for a much bigger band lands in my lap. I love performing, but I just want to focus on writing and getting a new band together for now, as performing can take a lot out of you. But there’s nothing I really dislike about performing and going to shows. At some of these venues, it’s one great new song after the other between sets, and the bands are almost always on point for music discovery. I feel like a lot of the people involved with the underground DIY venues grew up and started legit venues, so a lot of the venues still have that same cozy community feeling. I applaud these places for, as much as they can, taking chances on bands that may not have a big draw but who are really good. There’s always a sick show to go to in NYC and I’ll never get bored of finding the next best stuff to see live.
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