Today we’d like to introduce you to kate wright.
kate, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’ve been playing in cafes since I was 16 or so, churning out angsty covers of third eye blind and slyly weaving in original songs as I gained confidence. Writing was always the driving factor for me – disguising messages in metaphors and putting them to music a preferred method of communication and catharsis.
I was lucky that I moved to a city as diverse and artistically inclined as Atlanta, where, as grassrootsy as can be, every little gig led to new people and those new people knew of somewhere else that needed live music. It’s always kind of been like that – like following a breadcrumb trail laid out by enthusiastic fans leading to fun new spots to play.
The important beginning, of course, would be when Chris Adams (percussion, vocals, etc) and I began playing together as The Threadbare Skivvies – we were very newly in love and my songwriting soon reflected that. Where I had previously enjoyed playing solo, it soon seemed obvious and necessary that Chris be a part – he was a fantastic musician, he was flexible about instrumentation, he knew me so well he knew how much to add to a song and where – and the music was about both of our lives and experiences and therefore much more poignant when we performed them together.
Chris bought me a banjo one Christmas and that became the whole new thing. We have lots of instruments and I still feel most comfortable writing on the guitar, but the banjo had the twang that really suited our personalities. A couple of years later, we met Ian Mastrogiacomo on a small tour through FL – he was playing reggae at the time. We became good friends on that trip and he began playing bass with us fairly regularly after that. He lays in some fantastic harmonies now as well.
Along the way we’ve had different musicians on board – most recently George Norman (mandolin), who we met at a long-time favorite musical watering hole, Javamonkey in Decatur, GA. I’d like to think we are and will continue to be a bit open-ended in that way, picking up new people whose energy is in line with what we’re working on.
We’ve been playing fairly regularly for a couple of years now as The Threadbare Skivvies, performing in a myriad of venues all around the southeast, as well as all the down-home woodsy festivals and backyard gatherings we possibly can. We have a full-length album out, Flourish & Thrive, that we are super proud of and we truly feel fortunate to have been able to share what we love to do with people who are into it, and we hope to continue to have plenty more of that to come.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
As with many artists, I think, it’s easy to prevent your own progress by getting in your head. It’s very easy to convince yourself that what you’re doing doesn’t matter. But then someone will tell you how much they enjoyed a show or how much a song resonates with them and that purpose feels redefined and worthy again.
Working with the demands of the digital age has been a struggle for me as well. Chris and I are outdoorsy people. I try to do as little screen stuff as possible yet at this point, it’s definitely expected that we have a “presence’ and ‘content’ and a lot of other buzzy internet words that begin to make me feel inauthentic.
It’s not my forte, hustling to sell us to the online world. We shine in person. But we try to keep it balanced and give friends and fans what they need to keep up with us.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thethreadbareskivvies.com
- Instagram: @thrdbrskvss
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thethreadbareskivvies
Image Credit:
Hank Martin, Ben Martin, @michellescottphoto
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