1 month ago
1 Let’s say you had to sing for your life. Or, actually, sing for someone else’s life. What song would you select? And you had to, er, kill it, or else…
Choose wisely…
Nashville-based singer Kelsie Watts would pick Sia’s “Chandelier.”
And for the moment, we’ll call Kelsie a singer.
“It wasn't the first one that popped into my head, but as I'm going through ones that I've sung over and over and over again, and have sung for people over and over and over again, it's one that is so comfortable, and it's so easy, and you can sing it a million different ways,” she said.
Perfect for Kelsie, who can sing a gazillion different styles. The talented vocalist and indie artist possesses a wide range. Ask her to cover a genre, and it’s done. Fait accompli. Seemingly, no genre is too big of an ask. Pop, R&B, rock, Christmas hymns — she knocks “O Holy Night” out of the park and all the way to Bethlehem — as she effortlessly navigates her way through countless compositions.
But undertones of R&B can be heard in many of her interpretations, her voice deftly suited to the genre. Kelsie Watts belted out a version of Kelly Clarkson’s “I Dare You” on The Voice. Her experience on the show is well documented. However, Kelsie noted that she did not volunteer to be a participant. A producer found her. Yep, that’s right. And it wasn’t the first time she was sought out to be on the popular series.
“This was the third time they had reached out to me to come audition for the show. I did not want to go the first two times. I was like, we'll see how well this works. And didn't get cast, didn't get put on the show the first two times. So when they called me a third time, I was like, ‘Why? You already told me no. Why do you keep calling me when you still tell me no?’ I was like, this doesn't make any sense.”
But Kelsie did it again and nearly won. Her performance was so epic it gained viral traction before you could say, “Goodbye Season 19 of The Voice,” garnering millions of views.
“I took it for what it is. It's really cool. It's a cool show. I went in knowing this is not going to make me famous. This is not going to give me a music career. But what it is going to give me is an absurd amount of eyes that I would never be able to get if I tried on my own, especially being a Covid season when everybody is just sitting at home and they're all like watching their TVs. I was like, oh heck yeah, this is awesome.”
Kelsie Watts was never a songwriter. One hanging out in her room with a guitar and strumming away or penning lyrics in class while the drone of a teacher’s voice provided background noise. That wasn’t Kelsie’s experience.
Her past was all about the voice. Kelsie was a voice. It’s kinda that simple.
“So crazy enough, I don't have the normal story I feel like most artists have. I've been singing since I was like two or three. I don't even know, forever. I mean, I grew up singing in church. I grew up in a musical family, so that's just been part of my life.”
She performed in musical theater, sang opera, and did Broadway-style corporate shows before attending Belmont University, known for its prodigious music programs. Kelsie, a Lubbock, Texas native, actually transferred to the famed Nashville school from Texas Tech.
“So I came in already having done all of the opera. So I got to jump into your actual courses you want to be in.”
Two courses that made an impact were oral skills and ensemble. Oral skills taught students to identify specific harmonies, sounds and chords coupled with theory. However, ensemble provided a practical experience for Kelsie.
“It's all audition-based,” she said. “It was an ensemble group called Phoenix. It was like the pop/pop-rock group of Belmont. There were like 10 people in there. So five guys, five girls, and a really intense audition process.”
The ensemble performed two shows a year, and she was responsible for creating her own charts, lighting design and sound, as well as constant communication with the band.
“As far as like taking it into real life, that's helped me astronomically because I now walk into situations with a band that I could have never worked with before, and I'm not a stupid singer,” Kelsie said. “It really helps me a lot to be able to show them. I do know what I'm talking about. I'm able to speak drummer. I'm able to speak guitar. Able to speak bass.”
Kelsie has brought that knowledge into songwriting. Writing wasn’t an immediate goal of hers, but now she isn’t just a singer; she can pen a song, too. Kelsie began her foray into writing around five years ago, eager to learn the craft.
“It's not something that, I'd ever pursued. It wasn't until right before The Voice in 2020 that I was like, ‘I’m going to move back to Nashville. I'm actually going to do the artist thing. I have stuff I want to write. I want to get connected with the right people.’ I really just wanted to put myself into rooms where everybody was better at writing than me. So that way, I could learn how to actually be good at it…I've come to love it a lot.”
One of her initial compositions was a very personal ode to her late brother Jordan, who passed away by suicide. She literally talked her way into the song — entitled, “I Can’t Say Goodbye” — while sitting in her apartment in Nashville. If that doesn’t have a songwriter written all over it, then who knows what does? I’m sure Waylon, Kris and Johnny all found inspiration in a Nashville apartment at one time or another.
“That came out of nowhere. It was one of those days…just chilling in one of the little rooms in the apartment with my piano. I just started playing and saying things that I felt, and it literally just turned into a song. It was like my heart put onto paper and I was like, wow. So my husband got home, and I was like, I have something to play for you. As I'm going, I’m just sobbing. I’m like, I need you to hear this. It turned into something really, really special, and it was kind of the start of me being able to be a songwriter on my own.”
Since then, Kelsie’s collaborated in a number of co-writes, building her confidence as a scribe and composer of song. (“Difficult,” a melodic flow drizzled over an 808 drum beat platform.)
“I just got connected with really cool people that gave me a shot and were like, ‘Let's work together,’” she explained. “And so I started doing co-writes with others.”
What appealed to her mostly about the songwriting process was the opportunity to say something and outwardly express the internal.
‘While we were writing, they asked me, ‘So what do we want to talk about? What do we want to write about? What do you have to say as an artist?’ The last four years of me finding my sound, I've been blessed to work with people who have let me say what I want to say.”
So, singer or songwriter? I would say that Kelsie Watts is both. It’s not up for debate anymore…not that it ever was…
“I’ve been able to exercise that muscle and really write for myself as an artist, for other people, things like that. So I'm super grateful.”
Connect with Kelsie Watts via
Find Kelsie Watts latest single After Midnight and more great NEW music on our NEW INDIE MUSIC playlist. Available on Spotify and YouTube.
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