CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS 147: KATE GILL

Kate Gill is back with another hot new single - ‘friends’, following up on the release of ‘toothbrush’ late last year.

The 23-year-old who has drawn similarities to both Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams, grew a large following of more than 500,000 on her TikTok account after her popular debut single ken&barbie in 2021.

Futuremag had a chat with Kate to discuss her new song and the challenges of riding the wave of TikTok popularity into the mainstream.

FMM: ‘friends’ is such a catchy tune and I can’t wait to see how people respond to it over time. Can you describe the process of not only coming up with the idea for the song, but also getting it made?

Kate: I had been trying to write for quite a long time. It was a concept that I think needed to sort of get off my chest. It sort of stemmed from personal experience and I really wanted to write it in like the correct way. So it’s been a long time coming. And it had gone through rounds and rounds of different writing and production and I just scrapped the whole thing we were working on and tried a new directions. It’s a little more upbeat than I thought it was going to be but I kind of love it. For this version of it, the writing process only took like an hour but it was months and months (where) I couldn’t figure out how I was able to say what I wanted to say. I write most of my songs in my bedroom on my guitar and one day I got lucky. It managed to come to me and I was like ‘wow that’s what I wanted it to sound like.’

FMM: How do your songs move from you and your guitar to the production room? What kind of process do they go through?

Kate: So I write the songs on my guitar and I work with a producer - Dion - who I’m really good friends with - I’m usually in the studio with him once a week. So if I have new ideas, I’ll just play it for him. I usually sort of have an idea with the sound direction that I want to go with. He’s really great. We get each other. Sometimes I’m not the greatest at describing what I want things to sound like but he manages to get it. It’s just a matter of me playing the song to him and we have a similar style which helps and we’re inspired by a lot of similar artists so it works well.

FMM: Clearly a key theme for you in this track and some of your other music in general is toxic friendships. Can you explain a bit more about this and how that influenced your songwriting?

Kate: I’m 23 now so I’m grown I guess, I’m still young. But in my late teens, early 20s and I think I was pretty naive when it came to friendships. You’ve been friends with someone a long time…you really love and care for them, then you come to the realisation that it’s not serving you any joy or bringing anything and you feel guilty for wanting to leave a situation like that and you want to help someone who has drama and chaos that they bring upon themselves. How many times can you give someone the same advice over and over until it becomes a bit draining. I think the song itself for me is sticking up for yourself and knowing when it’s okay to leave a situation like that. Because a friendship has to be a two way thing.

FMM: I want to reflect on your past few years. You amassed more than 500,000 followers on TikTok. What began this journey for you?

Kate: Yeah in the dark days of COVID-19 I had been scrolling on TikTok and I had loved watching other songwriters and singers post their stuff but I’d not really done too much of that in the past. I had when I was like 16, posted a cover or two on YouTube, that was about as bold as I got. I had definitely never shared any original music. During COVID, I got into writing the most, in 2020. I was sort of like ‘well, no one that really knows me follows me on TikTok, so I’m just going to do something. One day I had written a song and I was kinda proud of it. I shared a clip of a song I wrote called ken&barbie on TikTok. That’s sort of where most of my following came from. And then I was sharing other originals. That was the first song I ever got to record and release, that was a really cool experience. I guess I was in a really lucky position (where) the first song you write gets a bit of attention. I was very fortunate that I built an audience on TikTok and it was wild cause I knew nothing about the process of releasing music. Most of my audience is thanks to TikTok and I’m trying to branch out more into live audiences and stuff. Because most of my audience is actually US-based. So now trying to build from the ground up in Australia.

FMM: You’ve obviously had a bit of success already. But in the short term, is there a certain goal you’ve set for yourself?

Kate: I want to move to playing more live solo shows. I’ve done a bit of cover song work, especially growing up I did little cover gigs. I’ve never done my own headline show or anything like that, but I’m gearing up towards my first solo headline show. I’m really looking to do more of that around Brisbane. That’s my goal for this year. To go on a Queensland mini tour. I was doing support slots - that was something I got introduced to last year and that was such a fun period, getting to meet those artists you admire. I think (my focus is) live performing and honing your craft because it’s the area I’m most unfamiliar with. My comfort zone is definitely in the songwriting and recording rather than the performing and live aspect.

FMM: You definitely have a comparison in your style with Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams. Would you say these two artists are your main forms of inspiration on your music?

Kate: Yeah, Gracie in particular is huge. I admire her a lot, the music she makes, her writing style. Olivia as well. I was lucky enough to see Gracie recently in Brisbane and yeah she was amazing. I’m also a huge fan of Lizzy McAlpine, another one that I look up to a lot and turn to for creative inspiration. They’re all very, very talented musicians.

FMM: Favourite album, artist and song of all time?

Kate:

Album- I grew up with Taylor Swift when she was becoming big so 1989... I always come back to that one, it’s incredible, so I would say that’s my favourite album.

Artist- Favourite artist right now has to be Gracie, but I’m also loving Renee Rapp and Sabrina Carpenter. I’m a massive pop girly fan.

Song- I really love the song Loving Someone by The 1975. In high school I went through.a massive 1975 phase and I never grew out of that song.