Eclectic singer-songwriter [Katie Welch](https://imthekatie.com) was born for the stage. With dreams to become a performer like the notable Michael Jackson, Prince, and Cher, Welch’s has released her debut EP,_The New Renaissance_.
Based in Los Angeles, the blonde bombshell has a long repertoire of titles. From philanthropist to host, Welch finds her passions through a wide range of activities. However, her love for dancing and music is above all. With pop and jazz influences, her newest music embodies confidence and the beauty of having no label at all.
_Flaunt_ sat down with Welch and discussed her rise to fame, her undefined sound and her obsession with Cher.
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**How did you get into singing?**
My mom and my godmothers were in a trio that did a lot of local stuff in South Florida when I was growing up. As soon as I could, I just wanted to be performing. I would drag my little fake baby piano out and knock on my neighbor's doors and make them come listen to my \[songs\]… God knows what they only sounded like. I grew up just singing in church and at school and around town and grew up dancing as well. So the stage is very much my happy place.
**When did you start making your own music?**
Well, I never thought I was a good enough singer and didn't really know what the music business was or how I would ever become a part of it. Growing up in South Florida, it felt so far away. My family's not in entertainment at all, so I really thought I was going to be a dancer. I had toured with a dance company and didn't want to go to college. I wanted to be a dancer and my parents were like, ‘just try it for a summer and if you don't like it, then you can go dance somewhere.’ But of course, I went and loved it. College is fun. While I was in college, I got brought into a sort of like girl group. It was supposed to be like a Burlesque, like Pussycat Dolls kind of thing that one of the VH1 Basketball Wives was putting together in Orlando. I did that for a year or so, and it just wasn't really coming to anything. I knew a talent manager in LA, so I hit him up snd he was like, ‘why don't you come out and come visit? I'm doing a boot camp for all my clients’…he was like, ‘come out, we'll see if we can get you an agent and whatever, and you can keep going back and forth between school and here.’ As soon as I got out to LA, I was like I live here now. This is where I need to be. So, I found a roommate, found an apartment and stayed. The rest is sort of history. I started out working with Free School, which \[is\] like a Baptist writing camp. I worked with their team for a while and just kind of \[tried\] to find my way through the pop music world. I had some good experiences and some not so good experiences. At one point, I was just like, ‘I don't know if this is for me. This is a lot of like, honestly, 40 year old people who are drug addicts, alcoholics, and I was like, ‘this doesn't, if this is what it is, I don't know if I want it anymore.’ I decided to go through yoga teacher training. Did that for a while, and before I could even start teaching, everything else in my life just started to happen. I started making music again with some good friends. I started working in fashion, and I did that for about three years. Then in 2015, I put out my very first single. \[The H.wood Group\] threw me a big single release party at Bootsy Bellows, which is really cool. I just kept on going. I made my next project \[that\] was like a visual EP. All of my friends just sort of came together and made this incredible four piece music video project with no budget. Everyone was pulling every favor we had and everyone worked together so beautifully. That was really cool. In \[the\] end of 2017, my friends were putting together this singing competition at a bar in West Hollywood. At the time, I had already started performing a lot of jazz stuff around town. I used to do the W jazz night that we started Delilah jazz night. When my friend asked me, I was like ‘I don't know if that's for me’ because I had already gone to producers and all of that for all that like singing competition shows. It's just not my thing. I don't like to be controlled. Do it my way. \[Very\] Aquarian. Very much so. I did the same competition one, and then I started hosting that. My music partner the night before the finale, we started working together in 2018, and I've just been sort of non stop releasing stuff, making music videos. Because I'm a dancer, the visuals are very important to me.
**When was the point where you had to decide between dancing or singing?**
I was trying to do both when I first got out here in 2010. This is like before Instagram and TikTok. Now, everyone wants you to be everything. When I first got out here, it was like pick a lane. You have to do one. I was acting and dancing and singing, but everyone was kind of like ‘you got to focus on one.’ So, I still dance for fun a lot. I've loved friends that teach and I'll take their classes and stuff, but I never really pursued it professionally after college.
**Where did the title for _The New Renaissance_ come from? What inspired you for the title?**
When I was making the project, we were originally going to make a full album. Because I grew up dancing, I grew up around so many different styles of music, and I'm a very just eclectic person by nature. That was a net, like people are always like, ‘what's your genre? What's your sound?'…and I'm like, it's not that I don't know. It's just not definable by one or two words. Words now, and everything, and nothing at all at the same time. For me, I really wanted to tap into that, for being a pretty short EP, there's like a big range of styles. The plan was to drop part two coming up, but I think we might be doing something a little more. \[I’m\] going back to Atlanta in at the end of the month to finish my next project. But _The New Renaissance_ to me, I just could feel culture and people and everything moving into this place of a second Renaissance. People are so much more into astrology and philosophy and art and culture than they have been for the last 10 years. That's what it's about to me– just a celebration of artistry.
**What's your favorite track from _The New Renaissance_? Why?**
Probably “Sober” because it was written about such a turning point for me personally. That song is about not only overcoming addiction, or all the things that hold us back, our fears, our insecurities. Life is a journey and that song is kind of written about my turning point. “Sober” and “Tired” were written kind of at the same moment. “Tired” is actually written to myself. Like, I'm standing in the mirror saying all of those things to my demons and fears that are holding me back, because everything we've ever wanted is on the other side of fear. We get so caught in the voids that are inside of us and our traumas and all of these things that when you face yourself, head on, and realize you're the only thing standing in your way. Then, once you take ownership of that, you can kind of move through it. That's what that's about. Now is the time. I'm the only one in my way…let's go.
**What do you like most about music and songwriting?**
Songwriting, for me, is typically very therapeutic. It's like my journal. It's how I process through my emotions and release them out into the world. But working on this new project, I've found a lot more joy and not only within myself, but in the process. If you listen to a lot of my old music, it's all very heartbroken…trying to overcome all of these things. I feel like through the process of my last couple projects, I've gotten to a place where now I actually have worked through those things and really celebrate and be joyful, and spread that joy out into the world. Because we're all music, essentially. We're vibration and frequency, just plus matter. That's why music has this profound effect on people, because it can quite literally change your vibration. It's also the universal language. That's my favorite part about music. It just builds community and brings people together that might otherwise never know each other.
**Do you have any particular artists that you look up to musically or personally?**
I think, sonically, my influences kind of bridge between like Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Toni Braxton, the soulful Ella Fitzgerald. And then then the great pop the the jack like Michael and Janet and Prince. That's a lot more of my vibe. I'm a 90s baby. I grew up on NSYNC and loved all that.
**What are your influences on your sound? What moves you?**
I think because I was a dancer, beat is so important to me because I don't just hear music, I feel it. When I'm writing or singing or recording, I'm always moving with the scales and the beats and the sounds. I just love what moves me.
**Would you say that your eclectic sound translates into your fashion sense? How would you describe your personal style?**
1000%. I've always loved vintage. I actually have a vintage line how to collect and play the vintage. And maybe it's just my like Aquarian spirit. It really started because I just didn't want to look like anyone else. I wanted to have stuff \[that\] was unique and one-of-a-kind and special and dazzling. In high school, I got a lot of stuff from my grandmother's and I was always going to consignment shops and thrift stores and finding stuff that was just really unique and cool. Fashion is really what you say to the world before you open your mouth. To put on, you're sending a message out into the world \[before\] anyone gets to even hear your voice or pick your brain. Constant self expression.
**Outside of music, I know that you do a few philanthropic projects. Can you tell me a bit about that?**
God 2013, I think was our first one. I had been out here for a couple years, and I'm very social so I would get invited to parties and things like that. I was just really tired of going to all these charity events and not really feeling like anything was happening for the charity. Like great, people are having this party but who's cutting checks? Also, not everyone can cut a check. Like some people are barely getting by and paying their rent. I've always loved like Angel Tree and Toys for Tots and organizations like that because I'm a Christmas girl. I love the Christmas spirit. So to me, I was like, not everyone can cut a check but everyone can afford to buy a toy for a kid that needs it on Christmas. I thought it was like a really cool way to allow everyone to feel like they're giving back. I was working with AT&T at the time. So, they funded our first couple events that we did at my old house in my backyard. We did like an all day concert, so I had a bunch of my different artists friends performing. It was just really fun and cool. Now, we just do it every year. We've had a lot of different locations be really supportive with it. It's just like a fun party where everyone gets to give back and feel good about themselves.
**What can we expect from you in the future?**
Oh my gosh, my new project should be done in the next couple months. In the meantime, for the rest of the year, I have a couple collaborations that are coming out. I just did a song with Bobby Newberry…A song with a Swedish DJ. I just had a rap feature song I did and it just came out. So, just a couple collaborations throughout the year, and then probably top of middle of January \[you’ll\] see something.
**Who would you love to collaborate with?**
Cher is my queen. I love the artistry and I feel like that's a little bit of what's missing in entertainment right now… the show, the entertainment. For a long time, everyone's been very in their feelings and sad, myself included. The great Michael Jackson's, the Janet Jackson’s, and Cher’s, the Diana Ross, Prince…those epic performers. Because to me, I know when I step on stage, it's no longer about me. My job is to make sure that everybody there is transported from whatever drama and bullshit is going on in their life. We are just living in this beautiful moment together outside of time and space. That is what lights me up. That's where I feel like my most authentic self is when I'm able to share joy and music with people.
