Katie Kerkhover interview

interview by Bill Palmer

If there is to be a punk rock revolution rising out of the Nashville music scene, it just might be led by Katie Kerkhover, the singer-guitarist who grew up on a farm in an Illinois town of fewer than a hundred people and is currently touring in support of her new album Blister. I spoke with Katie while she was in St. Louis (how’s that for a geography lesson?) for the lowdown on Blister and the surprising story of how she taught herself how to play guitar.



When I listen to your record, right out of the gate it’s “Screw you and your authority,” aggressive confrontational lyrics. I’ve met musicians who have those kind of lyrics who really are that aggressive and confrontational in real life, and others who have lyrics like that who wouldn’t hurt a fly. Where do you fall into that spectrum? From the videos I’ve seen of you talking, you seem much more well-adjusted than your lyrics might suggest.



I am. Deep down I’m a normal person. I think that in my alter ego, I would love to be this aggressive, “I don’t take shit off of anyone” type person, but I’m much more normal like I appear in my video, very laid back. The songs are about my life experiences, especially in Over Me, that song was about an ex boyfriend and another person that I was in a confrontation with, and it’s like a way for me to express what I almost wish I could say in real life to them. But as far as being the type of person that I am, I’m much more laid back than that.


Is it cathartic to be able to get up on stage and get those sort of aggressions out, and then not have to feel that way the other twenty-three hours a day?



Oh yeah, I love it. It’s just so rewarding. It’s like I get to go up there and be somebody else, somebody other than I am, like you said, the other twenty-three hours of the day. So it is, it’s an adrenaline rush and then you get that release, and it’s almost like you get a high off of it. It’s very addicting, being on stage.



I tried to learn something about Rockwood, Illinois so I could ask you something intelligent about it.



Good luck with that (laughs).



I thought I had something. A friend of mine who’s about your age is from Rockwood, Illinois. So I asked him, and he said “I live in Rockville.” So maybe you can tell me something about Rockwood.



I will. And that’s so funny that you tried to research it, because Rockwood is a very, very small town. We’re talking population forty-seven people. It’s that small. So it wouldn’t be surprising that you wouldn’t find anything about it. Back like years and years and years ago, it used to be basically all that was there was a post office, and so that’s why it’s classified its own town. But I went to school in the neighboring town in Chester, and then obviously because we’re only about an hour from St. Louis, hour and a half, that we would come up here , and one of my first jobs as a musician was playing at Six Flags. So growing up in Rockwood is very small, and I just got asked the other day I did another interview and they said, “What is something that we would find odd about you?” And I was like oh my God, I said okay, well growing up in Rockwood I grew up in a farm, and I actually know how to field dress a deer. Not that I do that anymore, but growing up in that small of a town you have to know how to take care of yourself. So survival of the fittest there.



Does the punk rock and stuff make it to you in a place like that?



It does. I grew up listening to all kinds of music. My earliest memories of music were what my sister listened to, which was Metallica and Motley Crue and Guns ‘n Roses, that kind of thing. It was around when I was growing up, but I grew up in the mid to later nineties, so I missed out on a lot of the great music when it was number one on the charts. So I grew up with a lot of that, and as I got into high school it was Blink 182 and Mariah Carey and No Doubt, that genre. So a lot of punk influence doesn’t make it out there, but music like Blink 182 and Sum 41, that style of pop punk makes it out there, definitely.



Did you learn the guitar before you headed to Nashville?



I did, actually. I got a guitar for Christmas when I was about ten, I guess. Living in that small of a town, to go anywhere it was such a drive, and so nobody really offered guitar lessons around there. So it was pretty much up to me, and I remember I went to I think it was Wal-mart one day, and they had their poster section, and I went into the poster section and there was this massive guitar chord chart poster. And so I bought that and I went home, and I started going through the chords trying to figure it out on my own, because I really didn’t know anything about it at the time. In the process of that, I started then writing songs. They both kind of developed together, which is cool.



There’s an irony in that Wal-mart probably wouldn’t sell your CD uncensored.



Oh I know (laughs). It’s cause it’s explicit lyrics. I know. Totally.



The Nashville music scene has expanded a lot, it’s not just about country anymore, you can make a rock record there now. But I guess I would have expected your kind of music to be the last genre to ever come out of Nashville. Were there any roadblocks to making that kind of aggressive record in place like Nashville that might be a little more conservative than Hollywood or New York?



Nashville is good because it’s called Music City, so you have the resources to make that. But stylistically the punk influence, I’ve definitely had a little bit of, not that it’s bad, but a little bit of “We’re not really sure what to do with this” or “We don’t know if we really understand this yet” kind of feel about the record in Nashville. I remember one person that I sent it to, not even the finished record, back a year ago or more, I remember they wrote me back and they said “Wow, this is just a little bit too racy for us.” And I was like wow, racy, okay. I don’t really agree, but thanks for your opinion.



So there has been a little bit of that, but playing out it’s been a great response. I think as the fans there or just people in general that are going to shows are exposed to that, because there are not really any punk bands in Nashville that are doing the local scene or anything. There are really great rock bands, and southern rock bands, and death metal bands, but the punk thing does fall a little short in Nashville. That’s good, but it’s hard to find other bands to play with in Nashville that are of the same style. So I’m doing a lot of shows with really heavy rock bands, and I’m so surprised that the audiences there, they come up after the shows and they’re like “Oh my gosh, we love it, it’s like a breath of fresh air.” So it’s been really exciting in that aspect.

Blister is available now in iTunes. Learn more about Katie Kerkhover at KatieKerkhover.com.