About this time last year, I decided I wanted to get back into the studio and make music. My first single "Man Up" had been out for a few months and I was proud of it. It was the first time I had introduced "Natalie K" to the world and I was very excited to show them what else I had up my sleeve. Something felt off though. The song was catchy and fun, but for some reason, it didn't feel like me. That's really weird to say because I wrote it, but it just wasn't who I was (anymore.)
Where do I go from here?
So I decided it was time to make more music and with that, release a full-length album. I started writing. A lot. I spent months meeting with different producers and working. But again, something felt off. I felt stuck and I couldn't find my sound. Did I want to continue and make more songs that sounded like "Man Up" with the hope that more people would listen to it? Or did I want to make the type of music that I listened to? I struggled. I felt exhausted. To be honest, I questioned myself a lot and I didn't know if music was for me anymore. I mean, shouldn't a real artist know what their music should sound like? One night, I got a Facebook message from my cousin. The universe works in mysterious ways I guess. As usual, we talked about music and I opened up about my struggles. His response was simple. "Make the music you want to make. Don't worry about who's going to listen to it." The conversation was short and to-the-point, and I knew he was right.
All the pieces fall (into place)
It was settled. I was going to make the music I wanted to make, without worry of who would listen to it.
So I sat down at the piano, and I started writing again and this time, things were different. Nothing felt off, nothing felt forced, the music just started flowing.
The story of: Nothin' on Us
"Eyes looking in mine like I'm all that you want tonight." I wrote those lyrics in phone one unforgettable summer night. I knew I had to write a song about that night, so I started writing the lyrics in my songwriting journal. But then, nothing came out. I didn't know what to say, so I stopped. The song wasn't there.
(It wasn't time.)
A few months later, I was sitting down at the piano and came up with "they ain't got nothin' on us." I just wanted to keep repeating those words, over and over again. So I did. As I opened my songwriting journal to jot them down, the page immediately opened to the lyrics I had written a few months prior. "Eyes looking in mine like I'm all that you want tonight." Again, the universe works in mysterious ways. Seeing those lyrics immediately brought back the exact emotions I felt on the summer night. This time however, it was different. This time I knew exactly what to say. So I wrote, and I wrote and I wrote some more. I had a verse, a bridge and a chorus.
I had recently learned that a song could only be as good as you allow it to be. I had a verse, a bridge and a chorus, but I needed outside perspective. So I reached out to my friend Julia Piker, a talented writer and artist from New York, and I told her my story. Together, we wrote the second verse. And there it was. "Nothin' on Us" was born.
I truly believe as artists and songwriters, we are vessels. The songs are in us, and we have to experience things and open ourselves in order to let them flow out. And as with anything in life, it shouldn't be about what other people think or like, but about what we feel. "Nothin' on Us" is the music I've always wanted to make. It represents the sounds and music I'm inspired by. It's honest, it's real, it's part of my story. It's me.
Until next time,
Natalie K <3
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