Tag Archives: Music

Belt It Out! • Katie Knipp Makes Her Own Way in the Music Business

Determined not to let anything stand in the way of her dreams, Katie Knipp became an expert in finding nontraditional ways to further her career in music. From ducking into her high school’s band room during lunch breaks to teach herself piano, to living a double life that connected her with the blues and allowed her to express herself outside of the strict world of operatic education, if there’s something Knipp wants to check off her list, she will.

Knipp recently put her music career on hold to focus on having and caring for her two children, but the songs kept creeping into her mind.

“Sometimes I would just get a lyric stuck in my head at three in the morning while breastfeeding and had to write it down,” said Knipp.

It took her a few years to figure out how to balance both a family and music career.

“I really do love performing, but I can’t be a deadbeat mom and just leave my family and go tour for 100 days a year,” Knipp said. “I want to be present for my family and have a successful music career. I believe I can do it.”

So far, Knipp is keeping her word by releasing her fifth album earlier this month, titled Take It With You. It is by far her most bluesy album to date, with a backing band that hit the floor running and gelled while in the studio.

“We didn’t even have a live gig,” said Knipp. “We just went straight into the studio. Then we played live after. It was crazy, but it worked!”

I sat down with Knipp right before the release of her new album, and discussed everything from dark poetry, to family life, to life-changing events.

How long have you been playing piano?
I taught myself piano in high school during lunch breaks in the band room starting at 15. We didn’t have a piano at home and I didn’t have piano lessons, but I loved it and had to figure that shit out. I was so in love with the piano. So I was in there almost every lunch break like a total nerd.

Did you ask your parents for piano lessons?
They were already giving me voice lessons. They were amazing, so I can’t complain. They were also paying for karate lessons at the time as well.

Sounds like you have been ambitious from the very beginning.
I have. I learned how to read music by playing the clarinet in the fourth grade and when I was in choir. I took that knowledge and taught myself piano, then in college is when I became real serious and started majoring in music.

Your new album is very bluesy. When did you first start singing the blues?
Well, I had a private teacher on the side all through college, and past college, who was allowing me to sing the belt-y, bluesy stuff in a healthy way because the people at the university thought that opera was the way to go and anything else was bad for your voice. So I had to sneak my second voice teacher. I had these two worlds going on. I would sing German, Italian and French opera during the day and in the night I would go out and get crazy.

Crazy in what way?
During my first year I had to keep it a secret that I was singing in clubs at night. I was in a cover band, and we did everything from Aretha Franklin to Fiona Apple—just whatever music I like to sing.

When did you start writing your own music?
I started tinkering around and writing my own songs on piano before college, but I wasn’t as assertive about it until I went through certain personal things. Then I realized it was a really great healer.

What led you to this realization?
When I went to UC Santa Cruz I witnessed a suicide. It was on my 21st birthday. It was a really gory suicide, too. I lived in the dorms in UC Santa Cruz, and it was the guy next door to us. What he did was, he leaned a rifle against the railing of his balcony because he wanted people to see. He laid on the railing and then pulled the trigger so it shot him in the head and made him fall. I didn’t see him fall, but I was all about lifeguarding at the time and helping people with their injuries, so someone yelled, “Hey Katie! Someone fell off their balcony and might have broken their leg.” I ran over to him and half of his head was gone.

I can definitely see how expressing yourself through music can be therapeutic.
But the thing that was the real kicker—I don’t know if you are spiritual—but at that moment, for the first time in my life I felt pure evil around me. I really felt evil in the air. It just enveloped me, and I was so scared. I just ran up to my dorm and hid under the covers like a 5-year-old. I just didn’t know quite how to process it I guess. After that, I started writing a lot of dark poetry.

Would you say that darkness can be found in your music as well?
Yeah, my music can be a bit dark. You’d think I’d be covered in tattoos or something. Especially on my previous recordings.

And not long after writing your own music you were signed to an independent record label.
I was. I got a record deal with a startup company called R Level Records. They were like, “We’ll hire songwriters for you.” But I was like, “No, that’s OK, I can handle that.” So that’s when I bought a guitar and started teaching myself to play. This was when I was going to UC Santa Cruz, so I would practice on the beach and let the sound of the waves drown out any bad notes so no one else could hear me.

Why did you want to write on guitar instead of the piano?
Guitar was a great way to get a rhythm going, and get a song written faster than piano. I was too classical about piano at the time. I had a dorm mate that said, “Katie, three chords and you’re a rock star.” And I took that and I fucking ran with it. After only two months of playing I threw myself on stage.

I noticed that you mostly play solo. Do you plan on playing more shows with your band?
Yeah, I’ve only had one band gig this whole year. The band only got together to record the record, but we’re going to do more band gigs now that they want to stick around. I’m really grateful for that.

I know you’ve called the Sacramento area home for a while now, but are you originally from the Bay Area?
Yeah, I grew up in Concord, but I’ve been in the Sacramento area for about 10 years. I moved up here with my husband. We got married and bought a house, and I got pregnant and crazy enough, I got pregnant again.

You can tell family is really important to you.
It is. The first pregnancy was a miracle, because … well, we had a miscarriage the first, first time I was pregnant. We really didn’t think I could have kids.

That does sound like a miracle.
It really was, but I didn’t realize how hard parenthood was until I found myself breastfeeding around the clock and only sleeping two hours a night. And then having a tantrum-ing one-and-a-half to 3-year-old who wouldn’t let me sing a note, or play a note. I was so depressed. That coupled with postpartum depression kicking in a little, I almost lost my shit, but writing Take It With You … it pulled me out of it and I’m grateful for that. I’m grateful for this album and I’m grateful for my family.

Katie Knipp will be celebrating the release of her new album, Take It With You, at The Torch Club (904 15th St., Sacramento) on Friday, Nov. 16, 2018. Knipp will be opening for The Sextones, who are returning from their European tour, so make sure you show up early. The show starts at 9 p.m. For more info, go to Torchclub.net.

**This piece first appeared in print on pages 12 – 13 of issue #278 (Nov. 7 – 21, 2018)**

TOUCH: Yoga, Dance, Meditation and More at California Spirit Festival • April 26–28, 2013

Diana Vitantonio

Diana Vitantonio

The California Spirit Festival brings together the ever-so-connected worlds of yoga, music, dance, meditation and community in a three-day event filled with workshops, concerts, organic food and yoga, lots of yoga. It all begins April 26, 2013 at the Masonic Temple in Sacramento, so grab your mat and get ready. Visit Californiaspiritfestival.com for information on passes, guest instructors and musicians performing. Pro tip: don’t miss MC Yogi on Saturday night—really good, vibe-y hip-hop with uplifting, positive messages! Sure to be a chill time.

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Zero to 60

For Jon Mess, Music and Art Share a Similar Rhythm

Artist Jon Mess might be the only human example of going from zero to 60 and back in 3.5 seconds. One second he is thrashing paint on a canvas with quick and forceful strokes; the next he is stopping and staring intently at the chaos before him. He likes to start off a painting at a very fast pace but then slows down to analyze each stroke. At times he will stare at his work for more than 30 minutes.

For the past 10 years, Mess has experimented with various art forms including painting, graphic design, writing song lyrics even perfecting screamed vocals. His causal demeanor and laid-back personality make it seem surprising that his well-known talent is screaming lyrics in front of raving fans. He has been in the spotlight as a vocalist for Sacramento’s post-hardcore band, Dance Gavin Dance, but has been under the radar as a talented local artist. Each creative side of him represents the perfection of organized chaos; that can be heard in the vocals and seen in his art.

“I try and create a sort of rhythm with the strokes…like the way that music or notes would go up and down on a scale,” Mess said while sitting on a bench outside of his art studio. “I like the element of just going at it and moving real fast but at the same time I want to have balance and stability and take into account [the] formal element of art.”

His abstract artwork is full of bright colors and sharp strokes that leave no empty space on the canvas. Each piece of art is completely open to interpretation and everyone will have a different opinion on what the image is or what it means to them. It’s a “choose your own adventure” art show, Mess said. One minute you might see a rabid zombie dog but after a close examination you might see two eerie dark figures appear in the painting.

Horse, Oil on canvas 30’’ x 40’’ 2012

To get started on a painting, Mess lets his natural intuition and spontaneous side work together. “That’s one of the main things about my process is that I don’t work from an image or I don’t usually work from an idea,” Mess explained. “I put a mark on the canvas, then another one and then it starts to look like something.”

But if Mess does have a sporadic thought in his head it normally comes out as a painting, a lyric or sometimes both. From the most recent Dance Gavin Dance album, a song titled “The Robot with Human Hair Part 2 ½” contains three words that seemed to cause a small uproar with some of his fans.

“There is this one lyric that is ‘confusing ice cream cone.’ People were always misinterpreting or are confused as why the lyrics weren’t cohesive, just scatterbrained. Well, my lyrics are confusing ice cream cones,” he said. “Then I painted a big ice cream cone with a big question mark.

If it works, it fits in the song and fits on the canvas, why do I need more meaning than that? Why can’t I just paint anything?”

Having a creative process isn’t new in his family; in fact his artistic talent could prove that the creative gene might be a dominant one. Growing up he watched his mom sculpt clay vessels and “curvy vases”; he worked for his uncle, a veteran artist who builds massive metal creations; he is related to one of the animators of the legendary cartoon show The Simpsons; and his cousin works for the art department at UCLA.

“Why is everyone an artist? This must be genetic,” Mess said about his artistic family history. “My mom always had a studio attached to the house with kilns, a potter’s wheel, clay and paints. I learned and did sculptor clay when I was a lot younger and I starting painting when I was 16.”

Since then, he has completed many paintings that he is ready to share with the Sacramento community. Starting on April 14 the FE Gallery will display some of his work for his fans and art enthusiasts to enjoy. He is excited to move all of his artwork from his current studio (that he shares with other local artists in downtown Sacramento) and formally hang it in an official art gallery.

CominUp, Oil on canvas 30’’ x 40’’ 2011

The final product of the art show will have a completely different vibe than Mess’ current workspace. At first glance his art studio resembles an abandoned warehouse, but after walking inside and smelling the paint fumes, anyone could sense the hard work that surrounds the studio. The crowded building is divided into multiple messy workstations, and it’s hard to tell where one art station begins and where the other one ends.

But this environment is a recent upgrade from working at home in his apartment. “I was getting paint on the carpet, the walls, my hands, bathroom and my cat. [It] would get on him and he would track it around,” Mess said. “So out of necessity I had to move it all out. It’s been really nice.”

His upcoming show will be his first official gallery show, apart from college galleries at Sacramento State. While attending college, Mess studied electronic art and started to feel out his interest in post hardcore metal music. This slight interest and curiosity led him to become a famous hardcore screamer, a skill that he happened to pick up randomly.

“I didn’t know what I was doing at all at first and there was no real guidebook,” he said. “I asked a vocal coach at Sac State and they were like, ‘You are going to destroy your voice. You can’t do this. You’ll have no career.’”

If Mess had believed the unfaithful coach, he wouldn’t have toured with Dance Gavin Dance across the United States, and he wouldn’t have been called a “resident screamer” by Alternative Press. After being told he would have no career in screaming, Mess ended up headlining Sacramento State with his band almost right after his graduation date. But in terms of his future career, Mess is a little unsure of where his art will take him. He is going to “play it by ear” but doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.

“I’m trying to stay within the creative field but in terms of what specific path it’s going to take,” Mess said. “I know that I can always just paint forever.”

Washing, Oil on canvas 30’’ x 40’’ 2011

Check out the works of Jon Mess at FE Gallery. The exhibition will run through May 3, 2012. The gallery is located at 1100 65th Street, Sacramento and can be found online at http://www.fegallery.com/. If you’d like to see more of Mess’ artwork, go to http://jondmess.tumblr.com/.