Mentored by veteran musician and producer Mark Lamm, the teen already has opened for a national act and is working on songs for a follow-up album.
Tremendous Musical Passion: Kate Johnson, 15, of Spring Lake. (Photo/John Sinkevics)
Teenagers have made a significant splash on West Michigan’s music scene in 2014.
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From the 18- and 19-year-old musicians in Traverse City’s The Accidentals to Holland “gypsy swing folk” artist Olivia Mainville, 18, the folk-rock landscape in particular is rife with young songwriters and performers embracing roots music and delivering mature-beyond-their years lyrical insights.
Writing Like Crazy: Johnson (Photo/Local Spins)
From that fertile environment springs another emerging artist who aims to have an impact on the region’s music scene in the future.
At 15, Kate Johnson of Spring Lake has just started her trek in music, but already she’s impressed veteran musicians with her knack for writing and singing.
“My impression of Kate was that she was older than her years,” says West Michigan guitarist-singer Mark Lamm, a solo artist also known for his work with The Trace and Martin & Lamm. Lamm produced Johnson’s debut EP, “No One Knows for Sure,” which was released in October. He first met Johnson when she was 12 and encouraged her to start writing.
“She’s shown tremendous growth faster than most people her age would show and that includes her writing, which I think sets her apart from people her age. She’s a tremendous writer.”
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She’s also a uniquely gifted singer who’s opened for the likes of national folk-rock duo Dave McGraw and Mandy Fer at Spring Lake’s Seven Steps Up, and who hopes to release a full-length studio album in 2014.
WRITING FROM A MOOD AND WRITING A LOT
“I’ve been writing like crazy and I can’t wait to release those songs,” says Johnson, a ninth-grader who also plays French horn in her high school band. “I try to write from my own experiences, but I try to keep it somewhat vague so that it can apply to other people. I don’t really put a lot of details or names or anything in my songs, but I write from a mood.”
Johnson showed off her vocal talents in the studios of News Talk 1340 AM (WJRW) this week as part of Local Spins Live, performing the song “Suitcase” with Lamm accompanying her on a 12-string guitar. Listen to the podcast of the show here with a video of her in-studio performance below.
Johnson, who cites Anna Nalick, Norah Jones, Eva Cassidy and Jack Johnson as influences, is a self-taught acoustic guitarist who started playing at age 8 and has since blossomed as a musician. She describes her music as “pop-folk with some jazz, bluegrass and rock influences.”
Lamm says Johnson surprised him with her guitar-playing and singing in the studio, knocking out her songs in just a couple of takes.
Johnson with Mark Lamm. (Photo/Local Spins)
“That just doesn’t happen very often with younger people especially; most of us can’t get those in two takes,” he says. “Vocally, if you haven’t been in the studio a lot, it’s pretty intimidating. But Kate shined right through. Once she got the groove … she was right there present at every moment.”
To put things into perspective in terms of her age, Johnson concedes her vocals improved after she got her braces off.
And as a young performer, she attests that she was nervous and thrilled to open for McGraw and Fer in front of a sold-out crowd of 120 or so at Seven Steps Up earlier this year. She hopes to perform publicly more often in 2015, but is currently concentrating on songs for her next album.
“I think she just has a tremendous passion,” says her mother, Liz Johnson, who works for Haworth in Holland. “As parents, it’s a beautiful opportunity to see something like that grow and bloom, and her father and I are doing our best to support her on her musical journey.”
Johnson already has gotten some sage advice about her burgeoning musical career from Lamm.
“One of the things I’ve told Kate to do is stay true to her music, to herself and to her music,” he says. “The temptation becomes, ‘Let’s go out and get a gig, let’s make some money and have a job doing this,’ and before you know it, you become a lounge singer instead of who you are. My advice to Kate is: Don’t become a lounge singer. Stay true to what you are.”
For more information about Johnson and to purchase her CD, email her here or visit her Facebook page.
Copyright 2014, Spins on Music LLC
You Da best K8 😉