Music Overload

Kelly Seidel is an aspiring country singer and songwriter from Charlotte, North Carolina. About eight months ago she moved to Nashville, Tennessee to further her country music career. Last Friday afternoon Kelly spoke with us over the phone regarding her adjustment…

Kelly Seidel is an aspiring country singer and songwriter from Charlotte, North Carolina. About eight months ago she moved to Nashville, Tennessee to further her country music career.

Last Friday afternoon Kelly spoke with us over the phone regarding her adjustment to the Nashville life, her musical upbringing and talked to us about what it felt like being nominated for “Female Vocalist of the Year” by her hometown.

Music Overload: How was the adjustment moving to Nashville, where now you’re around everyone else that’s looking to accomplish the same goal you’re striving for (make it in the country music industry)? Is it tough adjusting and competing with everyone else in the area?

Kelly Seidel: “I view it more as an opportunity for collaboration. I feel like it can be motivating when you live somewhere and everyone has the same goal. When you think about everyone is here for the same reason, everybody needs everybody. It’s a co-writing town, everyone needs different musicians and writers. So you are working for the same goal, but you can’t get there without everybody else.”

So being able to move here and being around people that have the same goal has been such a great opportunity to meet new people and get different creative experiences. So that’s how I see it.

MO: Taking a step back, what drew you to music growing up? What was it that first got you into music and pushed you towards that career?

KS: “I started playing guitar when I was 14, so it was my freshman year of high school. It was funny because nobody in my high school––especially no girls––touched a guitar. I was literally the only girl guitar player in the school, and songwriting was unheard of. I just had a passion for country music. I loved listening to the radio, and I loved going to concerts with my mom. It just allowed me to be different and allowed me to be someone who no one else was at the time.”

MO: How about your family…are any of your family members into music, or play any instruments?

KS: “No, I’m the only one. My mom has a really good voice, and my sister has a good voice. But no one else has ever pursued a music career.”

MO: You stated you were really passionate about country music growing up. What are some of your musical influences?

KS: “I’d definitely say the early Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain. And then when Taylor Swift came out she just opened up a lot of doors for women in country music and for people who wanted to write and girls who wanted to play guitar. It was kind of like a revelation of ‘oh, she can do this, I can do this too.’ So I think she was also a huge influence on me.”

MO: Speaking of songwriting, I know you have some original songs out. What’s typically your process for writing songs?

KS: “For me, the lyrics usually come first. So usually it’ll start with me journaling, and then I’ll start writing a song from it. But typically for me it is the lyrics that will come before the melody or the music.”

MO: We saw that you were very recently nominated for the Carolina Music Awards’ “Female Vocalist of the Year” award. When you heard the news, what did the nomination mean to you?

KS: “It was really awesome. It’s cool because moving to Nashville, like you said, everyone does the same thing. But to be nominated and recognized by your hometown after you moved away from there and to still have people listen to your music and support you back home is a really cool feeling.”

You can vote for Kelly for Carolina Music Awards’ Female Vocalist of the Year here, and check out her music or upcoming shows at her official website here.

Also be sure to follow along with her music career via her social media accounts (Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).

Photo: Kelly’s Official Facebook Page