Meet Kirsten Kirk | Singer/Songwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kirsten Kirk and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kirsten, what are you inspired by?
I could write an encyclopedia of all of the things that have inspired me, especially when it comes to songwriting, but I’m guessing I don’t have that kind of a word count, so I’m picking the first thing that comes to my mind. Other artists, independent musicians and producers who have one or two songs out, without the resources or maybe the industry/production knowledge to make it big (yet), but keep putting themselves and their work out there? They inspire me. Every single day I follow a tagged person on a friend’s Instagram and find a new song that I love, or I scroll through tik tok and see somebody’s home studio, or a friend Facebook messages me a Soundcloud link, and I am staggered by the sheer amount of incredible music that is out there. In my experience, a lot of people (especially outside the industry) assume that if a singer doesn’t go viral or hit a certain number of streams, that they did their best and it’s time to pursue another career path. But there are so many people who make music for the sake of making music, and they make me want to be a better musician. I have one song out right now, it took me over 24 hours total of writing and composing and recording, and it’s gotten a little over 200 streams. Quite frankly, I’d consider it a success if it reached 5, something I’m not sure I’d be able to do had I not found this international, online community of artists who make art for the sake of making it, and inspire me to do the same every day.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
It’s honestly still weird to think of myself as or hear someone refer to me as an artist. I think in my head there was a certain level of success that I had to achieve before I was able to consider myself an artist or consider what I create to be “art,” and it’s taken a long time to remove the prerequisites of what makes me an artist from my head. I’ve been writing songs since I was in 6th grade, writing songs that I would consider good for about a year and a half, and putting my work out there for about three months. I wrote my first chorus to a song that’s still unfinished sitting on my parent’s roof (I was super safe) at 9 pm after watching the DCOM Let It Shine with my best friend at the time and we had talked about wishing we could make the words in our head sound like they di. I was honestly more fueled initially by being offended at the notion that we (or I) couldn’t do what they did just because they were in a movie and I wasn’t. But once I started, and posted that chorus on my Snapchat story to feel out initial reactions, I honestly could not go a day without having to pull out my phone and record even just two lines that I just thought of. My Voice Memos app is filled with “New Recording 4-76” that I go through once a month to listen to and write down and try to consolidate into 3 or 4 songs. I wrote the lyrics to the song that I have out, When We Were 13, actually in about an hour, and spent the next 2 days holed up in my room after work trying to plunk out an accompaniment. It wasn’t until I asked my roommate to listen to it and she told me she genuinely liked it that I decided to try to record it.

I started trying by myself – I borrowed an audio interface from a friend, bought a $40 mic and cables from amazon, and spent a very frustrated Saturday trying to record and mix without any prior knowledge – it was that Saturday that made me decide I wanted to major in Music Production and Engineering rather than Performance. For that song (and that song only) I decided I would go to a studio to record once I had the song fully composed. I would have really liked to say that I was a fully self-produced artist, and there are some days (a lot of days) that I really wish I had buckled down and bought the software and done tutorials and read manuels, but I was working 50 hour weeks and doing college auditions and research and it was just not feasible. My priority was getting the music out there, and I’m really glad that I did.

I have a long way to go with my music career – I’m going to college to study MP&E as I mentioned; I’ll probably be there by the time you’re reading this. I have an album written that I want to record these next two semesters and release next summer. I want to get to a point in my production skills where I can have some lyric ideas and be able to throw a track under it in an hour. I want to meet other artists like me who have music they want the world to hear and be able to help them put that music out there. Long term? Yes, I’d love to have my music reach larger audiences and meet people who listen to it and travel the world. Short term? Get through my first week of music theory. I hope to have a long musical journey ahead of me – and I hope you’ll stick with me along the way!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
This is such a perfect question for me, I’m in the process of finishing up my Dallas bucket list before I move to Boston for school, so I’d definitely have them do it with me. In my head, my best friend is visiting pre or post covid, so everything is safely open. Throughout the week, we’re going to do my DFW queso crawl, which is exactly like a bar crawl but with queso instead of alcohol. I think on day one, they’ve got the day to rest and shake off the jet lag, so I’ll pick up Torchy’s Tacos (queso #1) and rent an obnoxiously Texan movie (Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Lone Star? We might just stream 3 episodes of Dallas and call it a day).

On day two (Tuesday) we’ll get breakfast at White Rock Coffee, and spend the morning and most of the afternoon at White Rock Lake – if we’ve recently gotten our paychecks we might rent a paddleboard for a few hours. We’ll get dinner at Zaguan (queso #2) and go to bed early.

On day three we’ll get up at the crack of dawn, either grab a breakfast bar from the pantry or donuts from Inwood Donuts, and go down to watch the planes take off from Lovefield. I did this over the summer with a friend, and we saw 2 planes, so I am determined to redeem that experience. For lunch, we’ll go to a food truck called Azucar (queso #3), and have an easy afternoon before going to a Rangers game in the evening.

Day four is a chill day, we’re going to sleep in, grab brunch tacos from Rusty Taco (queso #4), and that evening go to an every-other-weekly drag show at The Gold Room in Denton (co-hosted by MaryAnne Somers who I adore).

Day five is “road trip” day – we’re going to a coffee shop in Irving called Pax and Beneficia, and then going to the Fort Worth zoo, specifically for the Texas Wild! section. We’ll go to Rio Mambo for dinner (queso #5) That night we’ll catch a show – I’m not sure what will be going on, but there are so many amazing theatres in Dallas Fort Worth, I could honestly just open Facebook and we’ll buy tickets to the first thing I see when scrolling on my feed.

Day six we’ll go to either Six Flags or Hurricane Harbor, depending on whether or not it’s water weather, and we’ll spend the day there until we’re sunburnt (despite using sunscreen). That evening we’ll go to another show, concert, reading – really anything artsy, but only after going to Avila’s (in Oak Lawn) for dinner and queso #6.

On day seven we’ll be exhausted, and they’ll just be packing before I drive them to the airport – but we’ll definitely have time to stop by Desperado’s for queso #7 on the way to Lovefield!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
So many people deserve recognition in my story – I think Sasha Maya Ada and Chelsea Coyne are the first people who come to my mind. Chelsea is my voice teacher, she basically got me through the first quarantine summer and she and her daughter are my favorite people to be around when I start getting that nasty “you’re a bad singer” voice in my head. Sasha got me through my college audition process, and honestly most of this year. The plan was for her to coach me on my audition pieces, but when I started throwing all my life problems at her and had a couple of night-before-audition-breakdowns on the phone with her, she never missed a beat. She’s become one of my first true mentors, and I’m so grateful for her support always. I’m not sure where I would be without these two women, and I cannot thank them enough for their support and mentorship.

Instagram: @kirsten_kirk101

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100013369270216

Other: https://open.spotify.com/track/6YWb8AkGaPxdrALpF2xDCz?si=949283dff34e4b35

Image Credits
Stacy Horton; Anjali Gonuguntla; Shalini Kishore