The Craig Veltri Interview: Kirstie Kraus

A fun and vibrant conversation with a fun and vibrant artist. Craig chats with Country singer-songwriter Kirstie Kraus about her calling to music, career, and her latest single "You Got That Lovin'".

www.kirstiekraus.com

https://moonshinevagabonds.bandcamp.com/track/inside-the-cabin

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?...

Follow Craig on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craig.veltr...

Follow Moonshine Vagabonds:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?

linktr.ee/moonshinevagabonds

Listen to Craig's Music:  @craigveltrimusic
  / craig-veltri
   / craig veltri - topic  

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Well, it's that time again. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the interview with Greg Developer.

SPEAKER_03 0:18

Thank you, Megan Pennington. And welcome to the interview. Our guest is an award-winning country singer-songwriter whose songs are as simple as they are, savvy. Her latest You Got That Lovin' is a chill bit of twangy that gets a lot of familiar notes and verbiage without being trite. We will play You Got That Lovin' at the end of the episode. When she's not continuing to add to a respectable and fun catalog of songs, she's constantly touring. She's open for the likes of Thomas Rhett, Kit Moore, and Brandy Clark. She has toured the UK extensively and most recently served as an on-hair hair host for Country Line TV while having good hair, I must add. Recording in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and calling in from Nashville, Tennessee. Here she is, Kirsty Krause. Kirsty, welcome to the interview.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

I love that. Thank you so much. That was wonderful.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

I appreciate it. So, born in Florida, moved to Janeville, Wisconsin, about 45 minutes south of Madison when you were six before you were six years old, at which point you mark the moment that you knew you wanted to be a singer.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:35

I'll ask you specifically how you told your family that and and nearby elders that this is what you wanted to do with your life. But how early in your life were you singing? Is your earliest memories like singing in and around the house?

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Yeah. I mean, I remember listening to the Amy Grant album and the Gloria Stefan album, and they had like massive albums at the time when I was like three years old. I remember like helping my mom clean are we talking like baby baby heart heart in motion?

SPEAKER_03 2:06

I think was the record.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

And I was like, these songs are so fun and they make people dance. And like here I am dancing with my family, like cleaning the living room, because you can't really do that as a three-year-old, but we were helping. Oh, my mama tried, but I remember that, but uh you know, I got asked the question recently, like what's the first like solo or something that I remember? I I do remember I was five, so I started doing solos in school, but I was jumping up on picnic tables at two years old, and I don't remember it, but there's video footage of this. And uh I declared though, it was really like my kindergarten teacher talked to my mom when I was in kindergarten and I was five, and she was like, Listen, you need to do something with this. And she was my mom was like, I don't know. We just sing Barney and at home, and we sing like the American kids songs, and Joni Bartell's had a cassette tape, and I just knew all the words, but she didn't think anything of it. And then it was um by the time I was six at school, they said, When I grow up, I want to be, and I put a S-I-N-G-R. So like I write songs and I sing, but like never great at spelling.

SPEAKER_03 3:21

Uh, do you still have that paper?

SPEAKER_00 3:24

I have a picture of it. I haven't located, I don't know if the paper would be like at my parents' house, but yeah, I have a picture of it.

SPEAKER_03 3:33

I saw an interview of you describing the music that your parents were listening to. You mentioned the adult contemporary that you were dancing around to around the time. You mentioned your parents were really mostly into classic rock. You become a country singer. Um, and I will frame it like this. Was your first song that you wrote a country song? You you said you wrote your first song, your first song in 11. Was that a country song?

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Yeah, it was actually it was a gospel song. It was just like a Christian song, and it was like a chorus, you know, small verses hit back with the chorus, and I was jumping on my parents' bed. So that was like the first song around, but first like complete song. Yeah, I was like 11 years old, and those were it was just about like one was called Friendships, it was about just being a kid, really.

SPEAKER_03 4:27

I mean, I feel like I didn't have, you know, and then the next was it like almost like not too far removed from being 15.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Yeah. And you know, boy crushes, I feel like I didn't have like a whole lot to to like write about, but it was it was super fun. And um writing the first time I went to Nashville, I was 11. So I feel like that that was just a bug for me right there, and then discovering Leanne Rhymes and country music and Schneid Twang was crossing over at like seven years old. They the crafting of the song like really drew me in, and it was like a story, but also like incorporating feelings, where to me, like all the divas were way more feeling-based songs, but they kind of married both, so it like pulled pulled me over.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

I was gonna ask you if Shania was what kind of turned you on to country music. You are obviously not the only woman of a certain age. My partner in crime, Megan Pennington. Uh we've had conversations many times about her influence from Shania. I've had many women on this program that have talked about the phenomenon that that Shania Twain was back at the time. What was, and obviously it drew you down. Was it you mentioned Leanne, but was Shana, did you look at Shania and just like, okay, that and and all the trappings in between?

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Yeah, she was, I feel like she just crafted her own sound and an own lane, but yet she was accepted. And I in like the commercial market of country music, even though she was doing this crossover and and both, and I was like, I feel like she really found something super unique and cool. And even songs and in like later albums after I discovered her, like waiter, bring me water, like who writes a song like that? But it's such a catchy, fun song, and and getcha good. And I was just like, this is this is so fun. And then Leanne Rhymes, I was drawn to because she has all like the dramatics, and I was grew up as a theater kid, and so like her like commitment and undeniable, those two songs, and and that whole record is just like so dramatic, and I was so here for it.

SPEAKER_03 6:55

Well, yeah, I want to go back also to the you know, you mentioned the commercial viability of uh of Shania Twain. Uh keep in mind most of the record the records that made her big, The Woman and Me and Come On Over, that was co-produced with her eventual and later on ex-husband, um Lang, who had a vaunted history with a lot of the uh classic rock uh stalwarts that were that were really big, ACDC, Def Leopard, Brian Adams. So was it the soundscape also that drew you in with Shannon?

SPEAKER_00 7:33

And like building off of that, I think when I have a song like You Got That Love In or Dabba Dolly, two very different, like in the same playing field, but I would choose different producers for that song. Like I'm I'm very much the marriage between a producer and an artist and how they work together and the sound that they can get out together. I mean, that's so important. If I had time to learn all the production, I would myself, but I love to just co-produce, executive produce, and like really drive it. I do not know the buttons all per se, but it's I think it's very important to have the right person that helps you bring the song to life.

SPEAKER_03 8:15

Uh I have uh one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen. Fifte buttons on knobs on the that's oh my. Okay, well, uh all I'm saying is the uh the the doorway into into doing that is not as not as difficult as you think. I'm kind of kind of in the process of getting uh getting into the production side, but I love the collaborative side of things too, and I do want to talk about that in a little bit. We're here with Kirsty Krause on the Craig Veltry Interview, proud member of the Scarfire Media Podcast Network. For more on Scarfire Media, please visit our website, Scarfiremedia.com. Check out all the fine podcasts here on the Scarfire Media Podcast Network, the Cool Brother Podcast, the Deep Lore podcast with Emmy Susanny, mommy rock star with Megan Pennington coming soon. And thank you for listening to the Craig Veltry interview. Like, share, and subscribe. Let's not bury the lead any further. You got that love and just dropped this past week, and it is a it is a really, really, really fun song, and it is uh kind of a return uh to your to your collaborators. Uh, you had uh it's it's a co-write between you, Mike Loudermilk, and Ariel Jade, who you did a single with uh this past year. How did you three come together on this? Uh and uh uh who was and was there somebody that uh they were thinking about they're loving it as far as what anyone was thinking about that, that I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

We're I think Ariel and I share definitely an independent woman, like we're gonna open these businesses and we're gonna do it, and we get you know, like all the honey isn't making money, throw your hands up at me. And and so um it was because we wrote that I know no better together, put that out. Then she was like, Well, would you want to write with Mike Loudermilk? And he's in and out of RCA all the time. She has a studio in RCA. Uh, she works with him directly on a bunch of songs and also Wood Newton. And that's how I met her. I was going in to write with Wood. He was like, You need to meet Ariel. So that started, and that collaboration came about. And then she's like, We should write with Mike Loudermilk. And I was like, Yeah, let's let's write with him. And so this is our first write with the three of us, and then he was like, Yeah, let's go, let's go produce it.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

He's a very well-known name in Nashville. Uh, he's mostly known for for a song that he wrote with uh Crystal Gale back in the early 2000s, but he's been like his office in RCA, so he's been on the scene for uh quite quite a while, and he does all the instrumentation on this, and it does very much have the song that is has very much that early 2000s. And it almost sounds like it could have been, if it weren't for the leaning and gender, it could have been something that showed up on a Kenny Chesney album around that time. So uh talk just talk to me about. I mean, was it partially his song? Was the instrumentation what you decide decided to go with, uh, or was this all his suggestion?

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Well, we definitely had multiple conversations before I even went over there to do the recording, and I was like, I do this beach country, and then I do this like 70s rock kind of country, bluesy. I was like, we need to marry all of this, like this song, and and even when we were writing it, I I love at the bottom of the document writing notes like, okay, this song is kind of like a robust follow me, but we're gonna bleezy country it. We're gonna have a little bit of that like signature lick that is an extension of follow me.

SPEAKER_03 11:56

It's a great lick. I I've been humming it all week.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Oh, I love it. And then as he's grabbing instruments, I'm like, mmm, like, no, not or not that sound, or not, and he's so fast and so steady with his hands. Like, even when he's recording bass, it was blowing my mind. I've never seen like the bass that consistent in sound as he's recording, and he could just can take notes right there on the spot, and he's super fast about it. And so, yeah, I I was very impressed, and I was very grateful that it was just just the two of us in the room to create something.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

It's people would be surprised that that that's a lot of the time uh these songs get written and these songs get created, that it's usually just one person doing that. That's uh for the most part true about the last record that I did. Because anytime I say last, uh I can hear somebody saying, I hope it's your last. But uh the but so my previous record uh Dallas Jack did I'd say about 90% of the uh uh instruments on that particular record. You talk so vibrantly about such a vibrant song, and yet you told me that the song almost didn't get recorded. Um I'm gonna reserve smart comments until I ask the uh uh ask this question. Why?

SPEAKER_00 13:18

You know, as an independent artist, I love like that I have this say on what to put out when, and I I do a lot of trusting in in God and that I'm on the right path, and so He will just like put in opportunities in my path as I go, and I just like saw this and I saw this this opportunity. I was like, okay, that'd be cool. The three of us will go in and record it, but then it didn't really fit, you know, for Ariel and like she had other released stuff going on, so so then the conversation was like, okay, that's it. Like we we just won't. And I was like, I kept subconsciously thinking about it, and I was like, I wonder if Mike would be cool, you know, and have just the two of us do it. Because I was so bummed about that news at first, but then like a couple days later, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna ask him and see. And he was totally open to it and and continuing to do it, even though it was just the two of us, and like they he has more of the rapport and has worked more with Ariel, so yeah, I was I was happy it did, and I was happy that I kind of like went out of my comfort zone and I was like, maybe just the two of us can work on it.

SPEAKER_03 14:32

Well, is that a common thing that you found in your career? Do you often do you do you find that you're uh that the songs that you come out with they're running up against schedule, that's there's conflicts with it, or are you or do you tend to just bulldoze the project to project? Is this is this an outlier, is what I'm trying to say.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

I think I think it's kind of normal, like uh especially with collaborations or like talking about collaborations. I've done eight now, and so you definitely you have to consider both schedules, uh, but also I have to physically like make sure I'm in town, one to record, but then make sure I'm in town to physically do all the admin work because it's I see your touring schedule, I know how difficult that must be. Yeah, so I I can't like work on a song and and bring a song to life if I'm on the road. So I really I think good signs is for new music coming, is if you see that there's windows where I'm in Nashville longer than normal, like longer than a two-day, four-day window. That means I'm definitely working on new music. Uh just because it's easier, I found it so much easier for me. And if I need to jump in the studio and add something else or talk back and forth, or you know, like I'm I'm much more better here listening on my speakers, the whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 15:53

I wanted to ask you about the about the collaborative nature. You mentioned the eight uh collaborations that you've done. You've done many duets over the years, and uh you and obviously you mentioned uh the people that you've worked with in studios. You do is that to say that you prefer co-writing at this point, having co-writers.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Yeah, I mean, yeah. I when I write songs by myself, they don't see the light of day that much because it's for me to get out emotions. And I like putting out music that is groovy and that people like I'm not the sad girl person on Spotify to find for that music. Like, I I don't want to be that, but I think you do not have the scenes I write everything. Maybe in conviction, but not even it's you know, deep. Like I've I've written down titles and I'm like, ooh, that's for another day. Like that is we're gonna table that for when I'm I'm ready to dive into that.

SPEAKER_03 16:55

But yeah, this is before the coffee, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Music's always been the thing that allows me to be playful and escape and like enjoy and like uplift my energy, and you know, so I I want to put stuff like groovy things. I've always loved the bass and just like getting people to like groove and dance and be happy.

SPEAKER_03 17:20

I got this advice. I'm not gonna name the person that uh gave this to me, but I had I mentioned to this person that I was doing a lot of co-writes, and he said, make sure that you're that you're doing a lot doing more solo rights because you don't want to lose your uniqueness. And I and I love getting advice from people, and I'm very very receptive to that advice. I didn't agree with that advice at all because I've always been of the opinion uh no person is an island and you can't keep it if you don't give it away. Um, do you uh I mean, is is that what you find uh the reward? Uh do you find uh more of what you're looking for when you're going into the into these co-rights for those reasons?

SPEAKER_00 18:02

I think uh in order to be not follow the algorithms and what AI is telling us to listen to, I think when you do collaborate and you bring two people from very different backgrounds and and musical, different musical influences, you create something that is unique and different and something that I wouldn't do. Like, I mean, even talking about writing with Ariel Jade, she's from Mississippi, and her style is different than mine. And I would have never written a song called I'll roll you, you know, I'll roll you in the river, don't need my daddy because I keep my own guns. Like, these are not lyrics I would have put out, but because we were able to do that, I I've said before, like that allows my sandbox to be bigger because I'm like, ooh, okay, like we can dip into that. And it's a duet, so it's almost like I can get away with more. But I also think, like, if you just write with yourself, yeah, you're not expanding your yourself.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

Well, you mentioned being by uh mentioned rolling in the river. Uh, it seems that you're more comfortable by the ocean, not merely because you're originally from Florida, but much of your output does have that uh you've referred to it as trap rock. Now, I the the Jimmy Buffett influence is strong, not merely because, like Jimmy, you qualify as a journalist, but just the just and it goes into the good, the good, the sunshine and the and the vibes. Uh being in Nashville, being from Wisconsin, uh, how often do you get back to the shoreline?

SPEAKER_00 19:38

A lot. Some people asked me if I moved to Florida at one point because I was playing down there so much. And they're like, no, I just when you play down there, then you get more opportunities because you're playing now and they offer you, you know, new shows. So I've been to Baton Rouge and Biloxi and and um Gulf Shores and Orange Beach a ton. Uh, Mobile and you know, Florida, Pensacola, and that that Florida stretch pretty much to like Sarasota. Uh, and I just love it. I love the ocean, like you said. I was just down on a cruise, and immediately when you talked about that, I was at Meghan's Bay in, I think it was our first stop. No, it's our second stop. So that was St. Thomas in Meghan's Bay, and I swam in the ocean the whole time, which meant the teal water reflected. I was sunburnt the rest of the trip. I had to wear like a long sleeve, but it was worth it. It was so worth it to me.

SPEAKER_03 20:40

Do you find it do you find it's reinvigorating, or is it almost like going back to the source for you? I I I tend to believe that human beings love being near water because deep down evolutionary, that's where we crawled from uh millions of years ago. Um maybe it's not that deep for you. Is it just the view, or just just uh is it but that seems like your happy place? It's certainly the one you go to in your music the most.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Absolutely. I think I think water in general, with with I don't know much about it, but I remember reading one time that my signs and the way it works is that water was like a really good balancer for like a fiery background person. And so I was like, okay, that makes sense. Also being, you know, like you said, from the womb, and then just being born in Florida, I feel like I am made to be down in that thick, warm weather. It makes I'm just a lot happier when the sun's out and I can go to the water.

SPEAKER_03 21:35

You seem also very expert and passionate about the business side of the music business. I notice in your discography that it's mo that's Moses singles. You do have a full length record. Um what is the strategy behind you doing uh singles? Is it financial? Is it we have the song, let's just get it out there? Um, you have said in an interview that you uh The idea of doing albums, but uh what so why are you sticking to singles at this point?

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Yeah, I mean in a perfect world, I would already have like seven albums out, and in my mind, that's that's how it is. Uh, it's mostly financial, just to doing music like full time and then just being hired as a contractor as a host. Uh, you've heard a lot of people like they do music and they have side hustles and they do you know this, and I I really want my day-to-day to be 100% focused on on the art and being an artist and and putting out art. And so I'm I want us, I want to survive. So, like if someone, if I get an email, I got an email recently, and someone's like, Yeah, if you want to record this song with this producer, I will pay for half of it. And I'm like, hmm, like those are all very good incentives to like, I mean, I loved the song, anyways, but I feel like I'm also biased with my music. I think we all should be, right? Of course, but in it, yeah, everybody. Everybody loves the main land.

unknown 23:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

I would um I am looking for the exact and hopefully landing um Christian Bush to record my next album. That would be amazing.

SPEAKER_03 23:20

For those not familiar, uh, who is uh that uh person you coughed under your breath poorly?

SPEAKER_00 23:25

Yeah, poorly. Uh he was part of Sugarland. They're they're kind of revamping and touring, but he very much focuses on production and does Megan Roni, he did Lindsay L, the her continuum project, and so many others. And he's done stuff in the trap rock community as well, because his songs and solo project is in that vein. Uh, trap rock, aka beach country, whatever you want to call it. Um, some people hear trap rock and they're like, I don't know what you're talking about. Uh, and it's a whole community in itself, a whole loving, beautiful, fundraising community in itself. I've gotten so hooked. It's been since 2021 that I went to their first festival, and now I'm just part of the Finn fam. Like I am uh president, I'm the new president of the Music City Finns. And so anyone who's into Jimmy Buffett and wants to raise money, volunteer, do charity work with us, ask, ask me about it. But uh, it's a great so music city fins.

SPEAKER_03 24:33

Um well we'll uh go to the questionnaire in a in a second or two, but uh there are, I mean, the list is longer than what I what I put forth in the intro of all the people that you've in have opened for. And you mentioned uh in that last answer, uh, Megan Moroney, who during her tour with Kenny Chesney had several instances where she got to go out and perform in front uh with Kenny in the in the main set. Um, did you have do you have you had a moment with that among the many that you've uh opened for? Or at the very least, a very nice, some very nice FaceTime with.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

Yeah, yeah. FaceTime, there was the only thing I can think of was like Blake Shelton was at this. Um, there was a festival called Country on the River, and it's no longer going, and it's like right on that border of Dubuque and and Wisconsin and like kind of right there. So it's not that far away. And it was like one of their first years doing this festival. It's massive. Like Blake Shelton was there, like massive artists were there. He came over, he was wearing a sombrero lit. He was so lit, and he was like, and I was like, You guys know this is the place for me when Blake Shelton's in the house. And then next thing I know, there the keyboard player who also played with Jody Messina came on stage and we did bye-bye by Jody Messina with this keyboard player, and we like cranked up the keys, and he was like pounding on these keys, and it's a great keyboard part, so yeah, yeah. So we were like really featuring him, and the the this tent. I wasn't even on the main stage. This tent was like huge. There was these thousand people like cramped in this tent. Like the Midwest is so good for country music, they just love it. People who don't go up there don't know, but uh America's breadbasket, yeah, and and so it was that was a definitely like a funny highlighting moment, you know.

SPEAKER_03 26:33

So as far as uh as far as moving forward, you have you have eyes on doing an album. Have you you have a dream producer at this point? Um, is there a timeline for new music uh coming out from you soon, sooner than this?

SPEAKER_00 26:50

I don't have a timeline to give you. I know that I'm I'm talking about three or four different projects right now in the future. So I have an idea of kind of when they're gonna land, but nothing I can directly say until it's like a a hundred percent go type of thing. Uh, but there's you know, it's there's a lot of hands involved, and one of them has this producer, one of them has this producer, and then there's always that, the album that I'm just like, okay, rearranging songs. I've definitely asked like OG fans, and I probably will put out an email that's like, here's what I'm looking at, here's kind of alternates. I want your votes. I've I feel like this go-around with an album, I would love to hear from people to help me. And it also really does, it really helps me because I'm biased and I'm just like, well, it'd be great if I could put all of that.

SPEAKER_03 27:49

It crowdsourcing. And and talking about that, I mean, you hear about all about you know aspiring authors and how much they torture themselves and toil themselves over over the novel that they've been working on. Yeah, sometimes with a lot of the records that I've done over the years, I understand the feeling in total.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

It's more daunting for a record. Like, I have a group of songs that can fit over here, you know, in this kind of group and a this kind of group. I I haven't I found it easier to explain my songwriting in eras. Like this is my icon era, you know, write a song about Dolly and Willie and Tom Petty and have this, and I kind of get in this groove, and it's my era of this. And then I called, I had like a Cheryl Crow era for a long time where I was just like writing her kind of style and vibes. And I feel like I'm definitely in the very uplifting, like comforting love era right now.

SPEAKER_03 28:48

I don't know what my era is at the moment, but I've definitely gone through uh Lyle Love and Allison Krause a couple years ago before that. It my one record sounded exactly like Tom Petty, and in between, I was just writing songs thrown in the uh mine was trying to fit in on music row and not exactly fitting in anywhere. So uh yeah, I think every uh every artist can attest to that for sure. Well, uh Kiercy, we have a nice way of closing here on the Craig Velcher interview. It is called the No Kidden Questionnaire. A couple of rapid fire questions. First thing that comes to your mind, whenever you're ready, and away we go. Childhood celebrity crush.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

Oh, um well, for a long time it was Ben Affleck, young Ben Affleck.

SPEAKER_03 29:35

I remember you saying uh you liked him in a rather horrible movie. Uh Pearl Harbor, correct?

SPEAKER_00 29:41

Yeah, you I liked it because of, I mean, they had Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, but it was also like beautiful music, and I was, you know, Faith Hill was one of my top fives, and she had a song on that record.

SPEAKER_03 29:54

In Pearl Harbor, I can't seem to recall him being her song was called There You'll Be.

SPEAKER_00 29:59

There You'll Be. I remember like a recording of that, of me singing that song.

SPEAKER_03 30:03

Like I was like, yeah, that that was an in I I love that period of Faith Hill when she was, you know, she became you know, the breathe album, uh, made made her gangbusters, then she did her very best to try to be Celine Dion. I like the performances, but it was like net Nashville, uh completely rejected. But back to back, back to Affleck. Uh, what uh was it about the guy? The the hair, the eyes, the dimple in the chin.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

Yeah, he he looked uh like cleaned up, but also a little scruffy, and like the dark features and you know the height, and he just had this like poised kind of swagger about him. And I I liked that.

SPEAKER_03 30:45

It just follow-up question Is that the kind of man that you found yourself dating over the years?

SPEAKER_00 30:52

I've uh I know I date more about from energy and how we you know if we're on the same playing field as far as that. And so definitely like personality and energy is huge, and communication is what I go for.

SPEAKER_03 31:09

Moving on with the questionnaire, what is your what was words, what was your favorite subject in school?

SPEAKER_00 31:17

I really liked math. Really? Yeah, I and I feel like I was, even though I did, I had to show every single thing, I was good at math because I also did piano and piano, like it was I could see how it was all similar and I could see how math came into music.

SPEAKER_03 31:36

Uh, did you have a preferred subject, algebra, geometry, calculus, perhaps?

SPEAKER_00 31:44

I definitely didn't like geometry. I remember like loving algebra and calculus was like that. I remember liking, I remember liking that a lot. I just liked that there was like a definitive answer. And I could like, this is how I get there, this is it, because I feel like everything else in my life is not definitive. Like our jobs are never done. There's always stuff to do. There's always like, and there's no direct answer. Everyone has a different path, and it's it's kind of open, and the creative world is open, where like that was like a balancing thing, I feel like.

SPEAKER_03 32:21

Is that perhaps why you took to songwriting so much? Uh, because almost the mathematics of it, you can kind of give it a straight line and make the nonsensical make sense.

SPEAKER_00 32:32

Yeah, I remember learning about you know the clap the classical music and renaissance and like doing my music minor in college and testing out on piano, and I really enjoyed the the math part about it and how and like they would ask us to compose a song based on these rules, but then this era was like these different rules, and I I was like, Oh, this is cool, like to see how music evolutionized.

SPEAKER_03 33:02

What occupation other than your own would you like to attempt?

SPEAKER_00 33:08

I mean, I always said if music did not exist at all, which would be a such a sad world for us. It would be so sad.

SPEAKER_03 33:17

God, I'd be dead 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

Um I would definitely do event planning. And in some ways, I feel like we host events all the time, but I'm very detail-oriented, and I like kind of coming up with something and then making it all happen in the details. And I definitely looked in college, they made me look at other careers as well. There's like a little binder, and I had to go into it. And um, so I remember meeting with an event planner and asking her questions.

SPEAKER_03 33:50

I would say that of all of the artists, and I've I've interviewed close to 200 people on the show, most of them singer songwriters. The uh the yeah, yeah, I know. That's amazing. The uh, but the what I'm what I'm getting to is most uh is that I I I like your uh online presentation, you are probably the most seemingly organized uh artist I've seen. Like like every single uh bit of promotion that I that I've seen has got to be the is uh is the most detailed, it is the most succinct. Um maybe you should have been an event planner is what is what is what I'm getting that. Uh maybe uh I could ask you this. Do you uh is that just uh is that just uh being uh incredibly prepared, or is that just something that have you always been like that?

SPEAKER_00 34:46

Uh is it uh yeah, no, I I mean I keep that in mind. I really don't I feel like I have all this content and like you know, I done this this event and this event this week, but I don't I don't want to over-stimulate, like I I really try to post what is needed, like still be able to give glimpses of my life, but I'm not just gonna like throw it all up on online. I really, I really do want it to feel like I'm not doing that, and it's and it's it is thought about. And I, you know, around the single, I and and singles, I want to also give it enough space where I'm I'm celebrating it and we're still I'm still talking about it for X amount of months, and I I kind of just have my version of how I do marketing. I graduated in marketing and sale, like a business degree, so that's been helpful. But as far as keeping up with all of these different social media platforms and how they change literally weekly, I mean it's in anybody's game.

SPEAKER_03 35:53

Well, maybe well, you're doing a good job at at uh keeping the plates spinning, but on the other side of the coin, I don't care how many bags of money have been handed to you, Ms. Krause. What job would you never want to attempt?

SPEAKER_00 36:09

Never.

SPEAKER_03 36:10

I'm not and it can be something you have done before.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Okay, it's it's not, but uh my sister is an OR nurse, so any any sort of nerd, like I'm such a baby, I do not want neat, I do not want my shot, like I don't want a needle near me, like smells, I have a very keen sense of smell, like more than even most females. And so I could not do a job like that, or like the taking care of, you know, we don't have to go much detail, but taking care of elderly or doing like in that environment, it would it would be really hard for me to not be.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

One thing that I one thing that I've shared many times on this program, and a thing that I haven't shared on this program, the one thing that I have shared on this program before, that would be my answer to anything involving uh being near uh an emergency room or any kind of hospital situation where I would have to be in the best position to say to somebody we did everything we could, but they're gone. The second thing that I that I haven't shared on this program, I I used to be the worst when it came to doing shots and getting blood blood drawn. I when I was four years old, this is true, I was four years old, they needed three nurses to hold me down so that they could so they could administer some kind of a shot at at a doctor's office. As penance, I try to I try to ever since uh back 2001, I've always tried to at least once a year give blood. Just something to some some kind of selfless act, something that I'm fearful of and not be so selfish about about things. So I love that. Well, you have been around the world, uh, but so maybe maybe this can be an international answer. What is your go-to food on a road trip?

SPEAKER_00 38:03

Ooh. Um, internationally, I want the English breakfast as much as humanly bangers and mash. I mean, they do all that protein. They're like, yeah, beans and bacon and sausage and eggs, and then hash browns and uh tomatoes and mushrooms, all in the same plate. Like that is like how they start their day. I'm like, sign me up. Uh, but road road snacks would be that uh Lenny and Larry's cookies, those protein cookies.

SPEAKER_03 38:34

I've heard of them.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

Those save me for sure.

SPEAKER_03 38:38

I need to try them.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

They they do save me if I just yeah, I can't can't stop anywhere. Um, otherwise, I do a lot of wraps, like put turkey, put hummus, put some mayonnaise, roll it up. Wawa's really good too. It's in the south.

SPEAKER_03 38:58

Uh uh I I am uh from Pittsburgh and uh Pennsylvania. I mean families go to war over over sheets and wawa. Nice. Sheets coffee is better, they make a better, they do make uh better uh better sandwiches. Um I there have been a few items that I've been really impressed by by Wawa.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

I'm they have everything. They have everything. Yes, and like obviously Bucky's is super nice and convenient, and like I love the burritos, like you know.

SPEAKER_03 39:33

Oh, I will always stop for a chicken burrito.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

Yeah, you can't beat the price for what you're getting, and so I'll I'll stop, or like um a fruit plate, like a a fruit thing, or I love those eggs with like the protein little pack, eggs with the nuts, with the cheese, or like the venison sausage.

SPEAKER_03 39:52

Yeah. Uh I've heard I've heard you mention uh a couple of times uh uh that you that you are something of an aficionado uh when it when it comes to coffee. What's your favorite roast and how do you take your coffee?

SPEAKER_00 40:06

Ooh, well, I do rise. I've been doing rice for rice coffee for like two, some years now. And right now I'm doing it where it's the rice coffee meets the the chai, and I put them both together, add some almond milk and just like raw baking sugar and put that in and like stir it with my little whisk and I'm good to go.

SPEAKER_03 40:31

Sounds almost like a latte, I think, correct?

SPEAKER_00 40:34

It definitely is it's a sweeter thing, especially with the the chai rice involved.

SPEAKER_03 40:42

I think I know the answer to this one as well, but if you could have dinner with anyone dead or alive, who would it be?

SPEAKER_00 40:52

I mean I would I would have dinner with Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 40:58

That's a that's a popular one. I've had that one on here a couple of times. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

It's hard to, or Michael Jackson, he's just like his brain and the way he writes, or one of the you know, one of the studs over from the Beatles, like just any, anyone, any of these people that I'm just like amazing. Like I just, but I feel like if you're sitting down with Jesus, you are you're just feeling the love, like just literally sitting in his vicinity, it's like a whole warm blanket over you. I couldn't even imagine. Like it would be like, I don't even know if I could form sentences, you know, I would just be in awe. So uh yeah, sounds like the Mercy Me song.

SPEAKER_03 41:43

Uh you can only imagine. Um, well, I you are a very pleasant person. I don't I don't think that you peeve easily, but what is your biggest pet peeve?

SPEAKER_00 41:57

Okay, I if I've heard it, like if someone who repeats themselves a bunch.

SPEAKER_03 42:04

Oh boy, why I'm not in customer service.

SPEAKER_00 42:07

Yeah, it's um it is a pet peeve. Like I sometimes I'm like, I heard it the first two times, like I got it. We I'll let you know if I didn't, you know, like or um people that will repeat things, but then they they reword it, and we're at like time five or six, and they're just they're like taking forever to do the point, you know, because my ADD brain is like, whoa, I we got that. Can we move on?

SPEAKER_03 42:34

Like we got like I I again why I'm not in customer service. Um, but uh uh Kirsty, what is your biggest pet peeve? Nah, just kidding. Uh one last question of the questionnaire. Uh, what is the best advice that anyone has ever given you?

SPEAKER_00 42:54

Um gosh, don't sign anything.

SPEAKER_03 42:58

Don't sign anything, especially without a lawyer present, right?

SPEAKER_00 43:02

Yeah, and just really, really check references. And I think when you have when you're running a small business, like the people that you bring on board, you just really need to make sure that they're the right people. So don't don't jump into it at all. Um, and and just just work with them for a good like six plus months and see how see how that works. There's no reason to yeah, jump into it, especially if um you got to find out if they do business like you do business.

SPEAKER_03 43:30

And spoken like somebody who uh has a business major, I've always said that part of the curriculum, you know, forget algebra, give kids a sales course. At the very least, they'll be able to spot DS from a black blimp in a fog storm and be better equipped to deal with, you know, you're you're never gonna use uh use algebra. I can guarantee you that at my age, you will run into somebody trying to scam you. It happens all the time. And a simple sales sales course, a simple business course, that that would shut that stuff down in a heart. You got that lemon is on all streaming. Where can we find it? Where can we find you? You are touring like a mad woman in Legger Bluff, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 44:21

Yeah, wherever you listen to music, Apple Music, iPod, Pandora, all the things you do, uh, everything's on the website, Kirsty Krause.com. You can fill it. Like that. And um pretty much every social media thing is Kirsty Krause. I think it's a little different on TikTok, but I'm on all of that. So feel free to connect.

SPEAKER_03 44:44

And I'm glad we did. And this was a wonderful conversation. And uh again, dig your music, dig your overall vibe. Uh hopefully this ain't the last time we're chatting. Thank you so much for joining me here today on the Craig Veltry interview.

SPEAKER_00 44:57

Thank you so much. I wholeheartedly agree. This was wonderful. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 45:04

The Craig Veltry interviewer. Craig Veltry interviews wonderful people is a production of Scarfire Media, the voice of the independent artist. Written and edited by Craig Veltry. Your announcer is Megan Pennington. The opening theme, Shut Up I Love You, written by Trenton Chandler and Craig Veltry. Performed by Craig Veltry, produced by Jackie Gavin. Inside the cabin, the debut album from Moonshine Vagabonds, is available now on all streaming. Support Moonshine Vagabonds by downloading direct from Bandcamp. Time now to update the event calendar because you must know where I am at all times. April 10th, Friday, April 10th. I will be at Grapes and a Glass in Canton, Ohio from 8 to 11 p.m. That's a solo gig. The next two it will be Moonshine Vagabond gigs, starting with Friday, excuse me, Saturday, April the 11th, Big'em Tavern in Bridgewater, BA from 7 to 10 p.m. And then April 13th, Big'em Tavern in Mount Washington, also from 7 to 10 p.m. Both of those gigs brought to you by Root Down Entertainment. For full dates, including Pittsburgh, New York City, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, visit my website, Craig Veltry.banso.com for booking info and clean full band and this podcast. Email me at craigveltryofficial at gmail.com. You can find the interview on Facebook by searching the Craig Veltry Interview, YouTube at Craig Veltry Music, and you can find me on Instagram or as my old roommate, the Tommy Thomas, used to call it, Instagirl at Craig.veltry. For Kiersty Krauss, I'm Craig Veltry, and this has been the Craig Veltree Interview. With that, I'll pass here's the latest from Kiersty Krause. It's you got that lovin' on the Craig Veltry Interview. Proud member of the Starfire Media Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 46:55

And a penny woman and happy alone. With no problems, sleeping at night, and a beach morning with no worries inside. By taking matters into my own hands. Never knew I wanted more than I already had. Then you came along with what I need so bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come down up and that one needs to be In this crazy life you caught my eye. I can't see you as my ride or die. Everybody wanna already have.