My Friend the Rock Star – Interview with Singer/songwriter Kristy Krüger

by Lesley

The first time I heard Kristy Krüger perform it was in a college voice studio and the song was an Italian aria. As her lovely voice cascaded up and down the notes I was impressed, but the words “Rock Star” never crossed my mind. I knew I liked her, from the slight southern drawl that would pop up in only occasional words, to her energetic and genuine attitude, she was the kind of person you wanted to be around. We weren't close friends, and I certainly didn't know that at age 19, a broken heart in tow, her life as a songwriter was going to begin.

The first notion I got that Kristy was a Rock Star (capital letters required) was when she accompanied me in rehearsal one afternoon. Although Kristy had started writing Debbie Gibson inspired songs at age 11 (didn't we all?) she put her lyric writing skills aside to concentrate on being a jazz pianist, her first major at University of Southern California . During our brief duet Kristy transformed the pedestrian “If I Were a Bell” from Guys and Dolls into a jazzy rendition that was so much fun I almost asked her to play during the concert. Not a day goes by I don't regret that decision, either, just so that I could say that I jammed with the one and only Kristy Kruger.

When I finally got to see Kristy play her own music it all fell into place, and I knew that I was going to be following a long, albeit at times struggling, Rock Star career. The bar she was playing at looked like a converted garage and the crowd was mixed. I was there with my dad, who always enjoyed learning what the “kids were listening to these days.” When Kristy's band began to play it became clear that there was no way to pinpoint this musical goddess with so many influences: from jazz to blues to funk to country to rock, often times infusing several of these into a completely unique sound. When one song would end my dad, who dug it, by the way, would try to compare her to another musician. (“She kind of sounds like that girl from that band No Duh.” “You mean No Doubt, Dad.” “Right.”) But by the next song it was clear that there was nothing imitative about her. She was an original.

The element that ties her songs together is her consistent poetically driven lyrics. Whether she was comparing a defective relationship to a hangover in “Dry Heaving,” or exploring the world of childhood imagination in “Robin's Back Yard,” Kristy is a storyteller with a true gift. Like all good song writer's she has the ability to write about a very personal experience in such a way that it speaks to the masses. From that evening on I was a Kristy Krüger Fan.

Shortly after this Kristy came out with her first album, Bachelor of Apathy , which she produced herself on her label “Do It Yerself Records.” The aptly named CD was a collection of songs she wrote during those years in college. “When I was 19, that's when I actually felt like I was writing songs that might have some value to other people. It was when the first love of my life had broken up with me and I was devastated and I wrote this song called ‘He Said.' It was all about what he said. The song goes ‘I'm not in love with you anymore, he said.'” Kristy sang a few lines of the song to me over the phone as I interviewed her one Sunday afternoon. She was in L.A. , where in just a few days she would be doing her first gig at the Staples Center (where all the Rock Stars play) for “Denim Day.” This event, which is sponsored by the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women, is only one example of Kristy's involvement with women's issues and groups, but we'll get to that later.

Even before Kristy became a serious songwriter she began to gain attention as a musician and composer. Honored with numerous awards during high school for her compositions, including four first place awards from the Texas Music Teachers' Association, Kristy was on her way to a very promising jazz pianist career when she got bit again by the songwriting bug. “I hadn't written a song in many, many years – I hadn't done any lyric writing…something just shifted and I wanted to write songs. I changed my major several times and I just started writing songs all the time, and haven't really stopped.”

Three albums and several more awards prove this to be true. After graduating with a degree in Music Industry from USC Kristy said goodbye to the band she had worked with on Bachelor and headed out on the road to Rock Stardom. She started back in her home of Texas , playing in any corner she could find, often for little to no money. “Going solo is a challenge because if it falls apart you are the only person up there, but I have gained a lot of confidence from spending time onstage by myself.” She toured by herself around the US and Canada , and the experience created a whole new list of songs for her second album, The Noise I Make . Kristy talked about life alone on the road, “It's great for a writer cause you do what you want to do…[you have] total autonomy. It's really great period. I recommend that any kind of writer travel alone.”

Now getting up onstage was the easy part, but her struggles continued with the business end. It was the same question all artists try to answer – how do I make a living at it? Her songs “Minimum Wage” and “Singing to the Cakes” deal with this very problem with the usual Kristy flair and humor, and can be appreciated by anyone who's graduated college and then had to take a job at the corner coffee shop. I asked Kristy what advice she would give herself if she could travel back in time. “I think I had such a cloudy mask, and I still do sometimes, this negative thing about meeting business people. I get really nervous around them and [about] networking, and I really didn't do any networking whatsoever…I wish I would have done that more. On the flip side, if I hadn't driven around the country by myself for six years I wouldn't have all these stories and songs. We all think we would do things differently, but if I do get to make a living solely as a musician, it's because those experiences I had made me unique.”

While Kristy's lyrics and music are outstanding, she's also discovered the art of producing to be an important talent as a musician. “For me [when] you start a song, you kind of hear in your head the other things that go along with that song…you get a sonic picture of what it is you want and build on those things. And then you sit back and say, ‘Okay, is this too much?' You try something and see if it works. If it works you keep it, if it doesn't you get rid of it.” Even though The Noise I Make is considered an acoustic album, her ability to layer on musical arrangements and background vocals (usually sung by herself) has garnered her high praise. Even live, Kristy's sound is more than one woman and a guitar or piano – there are rhythms and layers and a richness to her music that always astounds me.

After releasing The Noise I Make , Kristy got back on the road to self promote and tour, and the album received a Just Plain Folks nomination for Best New Folk Album of 2001 . Then she made a pivotal connection with engineer Andrew Gilchrist, who had previously worked with one of Kristy's favorite artists – Ani DiFranco. Kristy took a chance and relocated to New Orleans to lay down the tracks for her newest, and at that time untitled, album ( An Unauthorized Guide to the Human Anatomy ). This time Kristy co-produced the album, though she put in just as much, if not more, work than she had on her previous tracks. “On the Anatomy album I did an insane amount of production – I worked very hard on that.” The stakes were high – Kristy saw this as her best chance of a radio friendly album. Anatomy would also turn out to be what Kristy dubs her first concept album.

“The thing that's really funny is that it wasn't a concept album at all. I had the master copies and I still didn't know what I wanted to call it. I listened to the album for about a month, trying to figure out what the hell it actually was. I really stray away from naming an album after one song, I feel like you are saying that album is about that one song. I try to find a through-line. So I sat back and listened to it and all I could think of was that each song was a different character, they sort of represent a different slice of the human experience…envy, pride, desire, hopelessness. I just made a list of what everything was about. One day I was driving around and thought of a body part…and then went through every song and they all matched with a body part.”

Kristy began looking at old medical textbooks and visualizing the amazing art that could go into the CD book, trying to come up with a title. “I wanted something very dry…they were all ‘authorized' guides and I thought ‘unauthorized' because it's what I say.” The result was a beautiful collection of music with a textbook style booklet, complete with written notes in the margins, which won Best Singer/Songwriter Album of the Year by the Just Plain Folks International Independent Music Awards in Los Angeles (out of 10,000 entries, I might add). The single “Coming ‘Round the Mountain,” one of my personal favorites and one that definitely celebrates the independent spirit, won Second Place for Best Song of the Year .

Although Kristy has bee n active in political or cultural issues (she went on a swing state tour to promote Anatomy during the 2004 elections, urging her audience to sign up to vote and even bringing along the sign-up materials) she doesn't consider herself a political songwriter. However, she's always happy to lend her talents to a worthy cause. “I'm happy to donate my performances for a fundraiser that I agree with that I think helps people.” One of these events is ‘Take Back the Night,” an annual awareness day to speak about violence against women that is celebrated on college campuses nationwide. “The whole ‘Take Back the Night' thing happened while I was at USC and someone approached me and asked if I'd play. I didn't even know what it was.” When she found out she jumped at the chance, and has bee n playing USC's “Take Back the Night” event ever since. “Then it just kind of opened up…there were other women's centers who needed music for their events and I started to call them.”

And now all the hard work and self-promoting have paid off as Kristy gets ready to play for over 1,000 people at the Staples Center . Well, okay, so she's not headlining inside on the center stage, she's actually playing in the parking lot for the big event. But the bottom line is anyone who's seen Kristy play, either in her leather pants at a trendy club or in the tight corner of a café, knows that she is and will always be a Rock Star. Of course Kristy doesn't necessarily see herself that way, “In the end I'm still just a person who wants to sit in the corner and write songs.”

If you'd like to learn more about Kristy, find out about her shows, and order her CD's please visit her website – www.kristykruger.com .