Rorie Kelly is a Long Island-based singer/songwriter whose first-time listeners often remark that they “can’t believe that voice came out of that body.” Rorie writes catchy, melodic rock songs that she plays with enough passion to break guitar strings–and go right on playing without batting an eye. She has been compared to artists ranging from Fiona Apple to Janis Joplin to Liz Phair.
Rorie has opened for Alix Olsen and Jen Chapin, and was named one of Long Island’s “Top Ten Indie Artists You’ve Never Heard Of” by Pulse Magazine. She recently released her first full-length record, Wish Upon a Bottlecap. The album has hit the airwaves with a vengeance. Wish Upon a Bottlecap is getting spins on Triple-A and college radio stations across the country. Rorie can often be seen in the company of her band, Rorie Kelly and More of the Mess.
Table of Contents
2:55 – If you had to describe yourself as a band, song, or genre, what would it be?
4:27 – How did you get started in the music business?
13:44 – Looking back at your career, what stands out to you as your proudest moment?
15:20 – What’s been one of your biggest failures, and what lessons did you learn from that moving forward?
23:42 – Three things artists should be doing today to grow their fan-base and move their careers forward
If you had to describe yourself as a band, song, or genre, what would it be?
There is a band that I’ve been listening to a ton in the last year called Red Wanting Blue. They are an Ohio band, and like us they are indie all the way. They’re not signed, they are just hard-working, touring musicians and they are American rock n’ roll.
They write about how hard it is trying to make it in the music industry, and how they are toughing it out and going anyway and following their dreams. I love it because every single song they write is as if it were me.
How did you get started in the music business?
I was 13 years old–both my parents are musicians by the way. It’s just a stroke of luck for me. I didn’t know I wanted to be involved in music until one night I was home alone. It was 4am and I couldn’t sleep. I turned on the TV on the preview channel, which lets you know how old I am, that we still had the preview channel. And this song came on, and it put me into this beautiful, blissful state. And that is when I knew that music is something I had to do for the rest of my life.
Looking back at your career, what stands out to you as your proudest moment?
It’s not like a music resume item, but I think a lot of people say: “Yeah, I won this or that contest” or “I was on stage at X, Y, Z venue.” My proudest moment was when I wrote this song, If You Teach a Bird to Sing. Its a song about self-empowerment and moving on after a bad situation. And someone came to me after a show and said, “that song is helping me live. I went through this really hard time, I have PTSD, I’ve had hard stuff going on in my life, and hearing that song makes me believe I have strength.” It was so amazing and powerful.
What’s been one of your biggest failures, and what lessons did you learn from that moving forward?
I’m going to say something that I think a lot of musicians can relate to. I think a setback or failure is that I haven’t made it yet. Seriously, every year I’m like, “this is the year I’m gonna go full-time, go on tour,” whatever it is. There’s a series of goals that a lot of us have, and it’s really hard. And it’s really hard when you are pushing to make a career out of your art. It’s this one whole big shabang that you want, and you feel like you’ve done nothing if you haven’t accomplished it. It’s been a big “inner work” thing for me to try and recognize progress that I’ve made along the way. Instead of being like, yes you did it, or no you didn’t. Life isn’t pass/fail.
Three things artists should be doing today to grow their fan-base and move their careers forward:
- Get clear about what you really want in music. Some of us want to make a living, some of us want to record, some of us want to be a superstar. All of those goals are real, but the important thing is getting clear on which goal is right for you.
- Once you’ve picked a goal, go out and do it and then measure it. If the goal is money, breakout the spreadsheets, look at your gigs, and crunch the numbers. Reviewing it monthly will force you to get better at it.
- Find your tribe. That may be through soul searching, by working with someone like Wendy, or it might be just looking at who is at your show. Don’t try to be the store brand. Try to be that one unique thing they can’t get enough of. Stop trying to appeal to everyone.
The best ways to reach Rorie:
On the web:
http://www.roriekelly.com/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/roriekellymusic
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/roriekelly
Bandcamp:
http://roriekelly.bandcamp.com/
Tips for growing your fan-base:
http://theprosperousartist.com/
Outro Music:
Rorie Kelly
This is Not a Love Song
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