What is your name and role within the band?
My name is Kaitlin Butts and I am the lead singer, booking agent, manager, van cleaner, and driver.
How did you start?
I started singing when I was 5 years old doing musical theatre and at 15 I picked up the guitar. This was about the time when Miranda Lambert, Dixie Chicks and Taylor Swift were beginning to be huge and they were all women who wrote their own songs and played instruments and played them really well and I looked up to them a lot and thought, “Hey, I want to do that too”.
Where are you based?
Ardmore, OK
Please give an example of your music writing process?
I think, like most songwriters, it comes different every time. Sometimes, I’m driving randomly and unsafely come up with lines and type them down in my phone. Other times, I designate a time in my day where I can work on a song. I’ve knocked out songs in 20 minutesand other times it’s taken months.
What are you working on right now?
Right now, I’m taking a break from the Thursday through Sunday touring and taking some time off to write and release my next album. I hope to be in the studio by the end of the year.
What is your gear setup?
My band guys are the ones with the gear. All I’ve got is my guitar and tuner and I just plug her in!
What do you like to do outside of music and does it affect your music?
Two hobbies that I’ve taken up within the last couple of years are yoga and embroidery. I took up yoga in college and it has helped me stay level mentally, stay strong physically and helps me take a break from the business side of things to have no thoughts at all other than to balance. Embroidery is another hobby that I took up within the last year. I spend a lot of time in the van and when I’m not driving, looking at your phone and scrolling through social media gets old so I started embellishing my own clothing, making things to sell with my lyrics on them to the people who like my music or to give to family. I love music and songwriting when I can but sometimes its nice to do mindless things that are also productive.
How would you describe your music genre?
Country, Americana.
Do you know any music theory?
I graduated from the Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma in Oklahoma City and took 1 music theory class that was just the basics.
What are your plans for the future?
I hope to write great songs that mean something to me and other people. Songs that are therapeutic, funny, truthful, and easy to listen to. I don’t have any specific plans other than that, I think everything falls into place how it is supposed to but my focus is on the song, always.
How did you get into music?
My mom took me to gymnastics when I was 5 and they told her I was singing and dancing in the giant mirrors the entire time, so she took me to a place called Theatre Arts in Broken Arrow, OK where I could do that all I wanted.
What are you listening to at the moment?
Ryan Adams, Maren Morris, Midland, Angeleena Presley, Lori McKenna, Jason Lady, Flatland Cavalry, Brent Cobb, Kaleo.
Who are your top 5 influences and icons?
When I started playing country music: Miranda Lambert, Dixie Chicks.
Now: Dolly Parton, Lori McKenna, Chris Stapleton.
When are you playing next?
6/4-Waco, TX-Bowen Fest
6/15-Muskogee, OK-G Fest.