Breaking Nashville: Angie K's Latin Country Revolution

Breaking Nashville: Angie K's Latin Country Revolution

[The Trout]

Let's talk about you and your beginnings. I appreciate the fact that, let's see, which one of your parents was, one of your parents was born in New Mexico?

[Angie K]

Yeah, my mom.

[The Trout]

Your mom and your dad is from where?

[Angie K]

My dad's from El Salvador.

[The Trout]

El Salvador. Were you born in the States or were you born in El Salvador?

[Angie K]

In El Salvador.

[The Trout]

Okay. And how old were you when you came to America?

[Angie K]

I was 11.

[The Trout]

Okay, so you've been here, had you already learned how to speak English?

[Angie K]

Yeah, I spoke them both growing up.

[The Trout]

Okay, so because I think, you know, and I did read something about your bio, your parents were involved with country music a lot, and that's probably what got you turned on to it, obviously. I like the things about people that are unique, and yours is unique from the standpoint, obviously your background, your cultural background is different, but more important to me is like all the things you did to try to make it, like I saw where you worked on a cruise ship for a while, Oh yeah, that was really fun. So what did, tell me a little bit of what was the gig like there?

What did you, were you just doing a solo act? Were you joining somebody?

[Angie K]

Yeah, it was really fun actually. So I had only played like dive bars before that point, and I told them I knew 300 songs, I knew like 50. And I like went to Guitar Center, I took out my first credit card, got my first real guitar when I got that job, and I like showed up not thinking there'd be more than one ship.

So I even go try to get on the wrong ship at first, and then finally got on the right ship, and I get on, and like it went from like working minimum wage, working really hard trying to figure out how to, you know, just to make rent, to like rent's covered, food's done, someone makes your bed every other day, like it was like insane, and all I had to do was work four hours, work quote-unquote, and I just had to like party with people that were vacationing. It was really fun, and I like, I still, I would take it tomorrow if I had a long enough block where I could just block it off and go on a cruise ship, but I always have some kind of show I want to stay in the States for, but I honestly, I really give a lot, that was my big break, I would say, is that.

[The Trout]

Well, and the great thing about it is you're around people all the time. You know, it's kind of like these blues cruises, and people go on those, you know, they get asked to go on a cruise like that where you're the artist with the other artists. But the thing about it is when you're famous, so to speak, and you go on something like that, you can't be down, you can't be off, because when people see you out of your room, you've got to be friendly and, you know, dressed up.

You can't look like you just rolled out of bed because they want to talk to you. So I imagine when you're doing the cruise thing, people see you, then they come up and they start talking to you, and you have all the people that can visit with you.

[Angie K]

Yeah, no, I still, a lot of them are still the people that come to my shows today.

[The Trout]

That's what I was going to ask you. I was going to ask you, people that you met then are still coming to your shows.

[Angie K]

Yeah, no, they're still coming.

[The Trout]

And that's, you know, sometimes you make lifelong friends in this thing, you know, it's kind of weird, and they just stay with you through your whole career. How many, I noticed that you're playing, I noticed, I was looking at one of your videos, I think it's the latest one. Oh, the tiny desk thing.

Tell me about that. I see a lot of people doing that. Tell me what that's about.

I've seen people do it, but what is it? The NPR contacts you and says, I want you to do a tiny desk thing, or how does that work?

[Angie K]

No, it's just, it's a contest. Well, it's really, the NPR tiny desk is like a segment, a radio segment, where they bring in really big artists, like Justin Timberlake level artists come in, and they do a stripped live version of their songs. And it's funny because they'll cram all these people in, and there's a tiny desk there, and that's how they record it.

And so it just became the NPR tiny desk show, or whatever, segment. And so then they one day decided to do a contest for like an unsigned artist, like out there, put your music out there and use, like enter in, and then it was like exploded, I guess. And what's really cool about it is it's a contest, and there's a winner, but it really, it's about like enjoying the fact that I get to discover a lot of new artists kind of doing that, you know?

[The Trout]

Where does it take place?

[Angie K]

It's, I mean, it's an online contest.

[The Trout]

Oh. Yeah. No, what I mean, when you went and performed with the other two people, where did you go to do that?

[Angie K]

We record, I just recorded that.

[The Trout]

Oh, so you did it on your own?

[Angie K]

Yeah.

[The Trout]

Oh, okay. Because I've seen some of the ones, the big names come in, and I'm going, why are they all crammed into this little bitty office or something like that?

[Angie K]

It's kind of like the vibe of the whole thing, yeah.

[The Trout]

Okay, yeah, yeah. And did I get to, and I noticed, were you playing a Martin in that? I think you were playing a Martin.

Were you playing a Martin?

[Angie K]

Yeah, that was, I think, probably my Road Series or D15. I don't know which one I used for that, but yeah.

[The Trout]

So you mentioned earlier, you used your money to buy a really good guitar. What did you buy when you got your cruise money?

[Angie K]

Oh, it wasn't a great guitar. It was a guitar that had an electric pickup because up to that point, I didn't have one. And so that one was a Seagull, which I think are a great value for the money.

And I used that Seagull for a long time. The electronics kind of tended to go bad a little bit, but I was in this salty air every day. So it doesn't really do any favors electronics.

Right now, I'm actually really enjoying the new Yamaha series. It's a FSX3. I feel like it sounds like a $4,000 Martin and it's like a $1,200 guitar, but that's what I'm obsessed with right now.

[The Trout]

Is it a standard buy? I mean, it's not a smaller one like for just for recording. It's like a big standard acoustic size, right?

When you just talked about.

[Angie K]

You can get two, there's two different versions of it. There's like a smaller body and then there's a proper dreadnought. But honestly, the sound, I don't know why, usually like with a Martin, you can tell a massive difference between the sound just unplugged, whether it's a bigger body or a smaller body.

On these ones, the difference, you could barely hear it. It's pretty impressive.

[The Trout]

Yeah, I have a Takamine that it's not really for playing. It's smaller. But I bought it because the actually somebody else bought it for me and they said it was a guitar show.

And he says, hey, do you want to try this guitar? But the pickups are so good on it. They sound so sweet when you plug it in that I used to play that all the time live.

I do occasionally use it for recording, but just sit down and play it. I have other ones to do that, but I mean, that's, you know, but I had a friend, this years ago, had a friend in college that had a Martin and that's when I fell in love with him. I go, oh my God, now I know why everybody plays these things that are 60 or 80 or 100 years old.

Now they're still playing Martins. A lot of people, they're very warm. And other people like Taylor, which is kind of the same up there at the same time.

You're getting ready to release a new tune pretty soon. I was reading. Is that, am I making that up in my head?

[Angie K]

No, no, no, so I just released the third single from this upcoming record.

[The Trout]

Okay.

[Angie K]

And then the full record comes out June 26th.

[The Trout]

And what was the tune called? The one you just released?

[Angie K]

Contigo.

[The Trout]

Contigo, okay. And what's the album called?

[Angie K]

Whiskey and Hemingway.

[The Trout]

Okay, I did see that. I did see that. Are you doing all, I know you work with the PR firm, but do you have other people that can book you across wherever you want to go?

I mean, do you have to do a lot of stuff on your own, like social media? Do you have to do a lot of that or you have other people can help you out?

[Angie K]

Yeah, I mean, I'm an independent artist. So I do a lot of things on my own, but I've been doing it for a long time. So it's not, the hard part is creating.

Everything else isn't, it's just logistics.

[The Trout]

Well, I think the hardest thing, people don't understand. When I talk to artists, they're independent, which I do a lot. And you're out every day and you're, let's say you're walking down the street, oh, hey, we're getting ready to do a gig in whatever town.

You have to do it and then edit it and do all that stuff and upload it. It takes time and it takes work to do that.

[Angie K]

Yeah, I mean, well, it's a job.

[The Trout]

It's a job.

[Angie K]

Yeah.

[The Trout]

So what are your plans to support the album?

[Angie K]

Well, like what's my marketing plan?

[The Trout]

Well, no, no, no. So how many songs on the album? Have you got all the songs recorded that's gonna be on the album?

[Angie K]

Yeah.

[The Trout]

Okay. So you're releasing, which everybody does now, singles at a time. And when will you be finished releasing all the ones that are on the album?

[Angie K]

So this will be my fourth single and then the full album comes out June 26th.

[The Trout]

Okay. Yeah.

[Angie K]

I just put out the third single and then the full album comes out with the focus track that would be the fourth technical single.

[The Trout]

Are you doing any vinyl? A lot of people are doing vinyl now.

[Angie K]

Yeah, I love vinyl.

[The Trout]

And any CDs? I know they're big over in Europe still.

[Angie K]

Yeah, no, I still do CDs.

[The Trout]

Where do you... You're on tour. I mean, are you going to do a summer tour?

I guess is what I'm asking. I know you just got through saying you don't have time to do it. You must be doing a tour.

I didn't look to see where you're touring. I usually go to everybody's tour page. That's all you do?

Yeah, that's most of it. Do you do it a lot in Nashville or you try to go different places? I assume you travel a lot.

[Angie K]

Yeah, no, I mostly play outside of Nashville, I would say.

[The Trout]

Okay. And I noticed that you had quite a few followers. So you've built...

I mean, you've been doing it for a while. I understand that. And you're building up your fan base.

Do you get people to come up to you that travel a long ways to come to see you? And they'll say, I'm from Spokane or I'm from Bangor, Maine or wherever.

[Angie K]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's part of it. I mean, I just played a sold out show in El Salvador and like 20% of the crowd flew in from the United States to see me.

So yeah, it was pretty fun.

[The Trout]

Well, and I did see where you started the Country Latin Association. Is there enough artists to be involved in that in Nashville?

[Angie K]

There's too many.

[The Trout]

Really?

[Angie K]

Oh, yeah. There's just an overwhelming amount. I don't know why they're not more in the same algorithm as all the other artists, but that was why I started.

I was like, there's so many. It's crazy.

[The Trout]

Well, and I think the thing about it is you can get together and talk about what it's like and you're kind of a cultural thing. And then you blend what you're doing with your music. You got kind of that life, like the one you just mentioned, the song.

And everybody else is struggling and you kind of have a club there where you can talk about it. Because the fact is, people don't, at least I don't think of Latin artists in Nashville. It's not one of the things, but like you said, there's a lot.

But a lot of them could be not famous. I mean, good Lord, there's so many people that play in Nashville that could be anything and you never know.

[Angie K]

Yeah, the fifth highest selling country artist is a regional Mexican artist. His name is Karin Leon and he's on the charts. But just because we haven't heard of him doesn't mean he's not extraordinarily successful.

So it's more just like, I don't know, just people like different things. You don't know if you like it unless you see it. So that's the beauty of having a place where people are gathering and supporting each other is that we become a louder voice altogether.

And then you kind of break through these walls that kind of existed for no reason to start with. And then everybody's all of a sudden watching the same thing. I always say like the difference between something impossible and something obvious is just somebody doing it.

[The Trout]

Well, I've always said that people like you, maybe people are bigots and they're racist about who they listen to. I just listen to music. The name is secondary to me or where they're from.

I don't really care. Aren't you going on a tour this fall opening up for somebody?

[Angie K]

Yeah, a couple of people, yeah.

[The Trout]

Were you doing something with the Brooks and Dunn or who did I see that you were?

[Angie K]

Yeah, that's one of them. I'm on their tour.

[The Trout]

And how many dates do you get to go with them?

[Angie K]

I'm doing three dates, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, and Moline, Illinois.

[The Trout]

OK, my hometown, Kansas City before I moved back to Texas. How do you get a gig like that? Just curious.

[Angie K]

You know, it's I always tell everybody the same thing. It's like you just stay in the game and you get lucky. It's really it's really how it works, you know.

And I mean, the story is long. It's a bunch of like random connections. And then it all came together the right way.

[The Trout]

Well, and a lot of it, too, anymore, I've asked people that if you want to open for a show, sometimes they just want money up front. You know, it used to be if you got to open, that was great because you were at the B or the C Act. But now it's become more and more people.

I shouldn't say more and more. Quite a few people I talk to, oh, yeah, they'll let you open if you give them the money to open for them.

[Angie K]

So I mean, there's more a label deal thing. People with labels can sometimes do that. Yeah.

[The Trout]

Well, this is this is have you have you toured with them before?

[Angie K]

No.

[The Trout]

And I'm always curious, how do they do? They just tell you how much time you have and you just put your own set together. That's pretty much what happens.

[Angie K]

Yeah, it's pretty free. It's pretty nice. Yeah.

[The Trout]

And I've been around for a while. And who else have you been on tour with? I know she had some of the big names that you worked with.

[Angie K]

Yeah. Jake was probably the first one. Jake Owen.

He was amazing. He took me on. He did a tour of ballparks around the country.

It was really fun, but that was my first one. It was really cool because I knew a lot of his team. So it felt like a family on the road.

So I got really lucky that I had such a friendly first artist to tour with like that. That was really fun.

[The Trout]

Well, it's kind of like when you were on The Voice, you get to hang around with first off, you get to see a TV show that's a big production and you get to see all the money getting spent on this. Then you get to hang around the people that are there. I mean, at least you get to meet them.

And then I'm sure when you were on the team, they take you in and they try to help you, which I assume would help you the rest of your career listening to those people because they're all famous. They may not be your genre, but they still know how to do what they need to do. And Blake's one of those people that everybody says he's a nice guy.

It's kind of like everybody tells me that they meet Vince Gill. Vince Gill is a nice guy. He's not pretentious.

They say he's good to be around. But I think that's just the country atmosphere in general, that it has that nice attitude about it. And I learned that when I was in Muscle Shows about four years ago recording.

And my friend was showing me all the people that were there and the guy that I was doing some recording, he had written a lot of famous songs at his studio. He was a producer. And then I got to meet a lot of them.

And I went, these are all nice. Of course, I'm from the South, which of course makes a difference too. But it was like, oh, OK, this is the way it is.

And I think that's when I learned that you're not competing with anybody. You're competing with yourself. And everybody else is trying to do the same.

Yeah, some people are at the 1% level, but they have to still keep going too. Let's talk a little bit about your songwriting process. Are you a guitar player writing songs?

Are you a piano player? I'm just curious. I'm interested how people start out the process.

[Angie K]

I try to start things in different ways. I would say most of the time now, I kind of have like a really long titles and idea list on my phone, like the notes. So usually at the beginning of a session, because I'm the artist in the room, I always think it's really important to come up with at least three or four really good ideas for specifically for the people in that room.

And that cuts down a lot on the amount of writes I have to do. I feel like I can get really good songs I want on my records with less writes because I'm really intentional about every write. Like I asked specific people for a reason, depending on what I'm trying to create that day.

So I always have a lot of ideas and we usually start off with that. Sometimes when I'm kind of wanting to do something a little more funky or inspired, I'll stay off the instrument because I think that my mind can create more freely without the constraints of playing. But I would say it's like 50-50.

Sometimes I get excited and I just grab the guitar and you start laying it down, you know?

[The Trout]

I try to tell people that if they ask how the songwriting process is, nobody understands it. Even artists, we don't understand. It's just like you get these ideas, you know, and start putting things together.

And when you're finished recording everything, you go, I don't know how that came from, you know, from wherever you want to believe it comes from. It's a gift or whatever. And you just put it down.

And I think I always tell people the hardest thing for an artist is when they go in and try it, you hear all this stuff and I'm sure you want to hear everything in your head and trying to tell everybody in the room what you want to convey it. Which by the way, the tiny disc that I watched, the gentleman that was playing guitar, he was a great guitar player.

[Angie K]

One of the best, one of the best in the city without a question. His name is Luke Nyas.

[The Trout]

He was, who was the drummer?

[Angie K]

That was Megan Jane.

[The Trout]

Okay. Because when he started out and come from Texas and Hispanic, and I've written some songs that are kind of Spanish-like and I heard his little ditty at the beginning on, oh, he's done this a lot. I mean, he knows what he's doing.

He's a great, great player. So when you go on tour, do you take a band with you?

[Angie K]

Depends on the show.

[The Trout]

And do you like playing with a band most of the time or not?

[Angie K]

Yeah, it just depends. I mean, I'm a musician first. So like I kind of, I just enjoy any kind of gig that has a little bit of a challenge to it is something that I just, I really like.

I like building sets. I like, if I have the challenge of just being acoustic up there, maybe using a loop pedal, trying different things. And like, I like the challenge of it all.

And I like, when I have the band, I like to do specific things too. So it's like, any chance I have to get up on stage is a fun day for me.

[The Trout]

One of the things I've always admired about people is when if you can walk on stage with acoustic guitar, and that's it, and hold the interest of everybody. I like that. I love seeing that when people do that.

[Angie K]

Yeah, same goes for a song. Like if a song can't hold its own acoustic, it could be better.

[The Trout]

True. And do you have people now that, because you've been doing it for a while, come up and ask you for, they know your songs, they sing with you yet? Have they been doing that before?

[Angie K]

Oh, yeah.

[The Trout]

I think that's one of the most wonderful things to hear. People sing a song, you're out there playing, and people start singing the song back. And you're like...

[Angie K]

No, no greater gift.

[The Trout]

No, no. And I guess it's okay. People like it that much.

They're singing with it because they know they've listened to it for a few times. Do you have any desire to eventually be on a big label? Or you kind of see yourself being an independent for a long time, or for the rest of your career?

[Angie K]

Oh, I mean, I think it's like asking if I'd ever want a loan. It's like, well, if I need one, that sounds like an incredible offer. But it depends on the terms of the deal.

You know, like there's a million different kinds of label deals.

[Speaker 3]

Yeah.

[Angie K]

And at the end of the day, it just depends on if you find a partner that has the same vision you do and believes that they can help you get there. And if you have that, I think it's the greatest thing in the world. But finding someone that really aligns with your vision, that's the hard part.

[The Trout]

Yeah. Well, that's very difficult because labels want to change people. I've never understood that, but they have their idea.

And I don't think there's any A&R people that go out and listen to people anymore. I just think they watch TikTok or they watch Instagram. And their philosophy is, well, when you have a million people following you, call us.

We'll talk to you. And it's like, well, if I have a lot of me, why do I need you? I mean, it's nice to have the money behind you.

But then you're in this situation. I mean, there's always some pluses and minuses of being independent. And I think what's happened in the industry because of digital recording and streaming has forced people to become more independent so they can.

And the fact that since you can't sell a product per se except merch, you have to do it to get out. You have to be on tour all the time, like you said. You're doing it because if you're not, you don't make any money.

And it doesn't matter if you're a big name or not. If you're not on tour, you're not making any money. And, you know, I mean, unless you've got a catalog of music, obviously.

[Angie K]

I think there's a lot of ways to to do it. And I don't think I don't. I really strongly kind of don't believe in any.

Here's an example. Right now, everyone else is chasing virality when the real question should be the puzzle we should be solving is how do I not need to go viral?

[Speaker 3]

Mm hmm.

[Angie K]

And I feel like I solved that by really hyper serving my community. And that's why I'm able to sell out shows and get people through the door. And and I just I don't have to stress if I go viral, that's wonderful.

And I post every day and I still do all those things. But if it gets 12 views, I'm just as happy. So I think that when people feel really unhappy with the way things change, I always just try to reframe the question.

It's like, well, maybe you're working on this puzzle so hard to go viral when the puzzle should be, how do I engineer my life to not have to and still make a lot of money and play music?

[The Trout]

That's that's very smart.

[Angie K]

Yeah. Or if it's like I tell artists all the time, like, if you don't like to go on the road, you can solve that, but you can't solve it backwards. You know, you can't solve it like.

I don't know, like deciding if you believe the truth is you have to be on the road, you're never going to solve the problem for the life you actually want. You know, and I think there's ways to do that. It's just you got to be creative.

And what's really beautiful right now is even though we maybe don't have. You know, a lot of things we used to, we do have access to people. And if you focus too hard on the people you don't have in front of you, you lose the ones that you do.

And it's like I it's like if you really focus on the people in front of you, what you have in front of you and work with that every day and grow that and never stop paying attention to that, you can build whatever life you want. Like one of my favorite books I read was The Art of Asking. And in it, she said something like, if you love people, they'll give you everything.

And I think that's beautiful. But if you love someone, you have to give them everything. You know, so it's like it's two ways.

You can't expect the world from a community that you give nothing to, you know.

[The Trout]

I like your philosophy because everybody wants to go viral, but nobody knows how. They know how, but they don't have the money to do it.

[Angie K]

I mean, you know, the how is just consistency. And you have to release expectation to be consistent, because if like you post every day for a year and nothing happens, you're going to stop. But if you post every day for a year and focus on the people, the one view that turned into a $10 album sale, it turned into a $100 VIP ticket.

If you focus on that, you're going to stay consistent. But if you focus only on the only barometric success is 20 million views on a video, you're going to stop. And like that's what I said, like the key to success isn't the math.

It's staying in the game and then you get lucky. But the staying in the game is really freaking hard sometimes because you have to believe it's possible. And when you do the same thing over and over again, you have to take a step back and have to think like, is there a way I can do this smarter?

I always say like, nobody cares how hard you work. Work smart. Like I wish I had heard that when I was younger, because I thought like, oh, I'm just going to work so hard.

Like the world isn't a meritocracy. And thank goodness it isn't, because the reality is we were born with so much privilege living in this country. Like the fact that I am in the city that makes country music and I didn't have to, I didn't need a passport to do it.

You know, like I live here. I'm from here. Like there's so much that was given to me.

So like already I'm ahead of the game. So like you have to be able to access gratitude to stay in the game. And if you can't access it, there's too many things that can go wrong that we can focus on that will get you out of the game.

And the truth is like the mental ability to see things as a new problem that's exciting to solve. That's not just like success. That's happiness, you know?

[The Trout]

Yeah.

[Angie K]

For me, at least.

[The Trout]

I can see why your fan base likes you so much.

[Angie K]

I like them. We party together. That's why I don't like to do the, you know, city, city, city.

I like to have a show and then the day before do a big meetup and the day after have like, I don't know, like tell them my favorite restaurants I've tried so far. Like I like to make it so that people can meet each other and hang out because it's like I don't like the city, city, city model. I think it's boring.

I don't want to just like show up and only see the inside of the back of an amphitheater. That's so boring, you know?

[The Trout]

And then when do you go on tour with Brooks and Dunn? Is it in the fall?

[Angie K]

Yeah, that's in the fall. Yeah, no, everything's done. I finished the record and it's coming out June 26th.

[The Trout]

And so and how many albums have you done?

[Angie K]

This is my fifth record.

[The Trout]

Okay. How do you feel about it?

[Angie K]

I love it. I'm really excited about it. It's fun to get the songs out because there's always a quite a wait after you get the song done in the studio and mixed and mastered.

And so by the time it comes out, you're really excited to share it.

[The Trout]

Do you believe that you've gotten better every album?

[Angie K]

Yeah, in different ways though, because I always want to challenge myself in different ways. So like this record, I decided I wanted to handpick the players. I had Hop from Zac Brown Band produce and I had him mentor me too so that for the next record, I'm able to produce for the first time on my own.

So I learned a lot of different things. I didn't want to overdub anything. That was my big challenge on this one.

I didn't want to overdub any music. Of course, I was going to do the vocals on another session. But I did force that so that I would spend a lot more time charting and organizing and knowing what I was going to tell the players and talking about mood, talking about crescendo, decrescendo, stops, beats, behind the beats and kind of stuff like that.

And yeah, it forced me to be a lot more organized and a lot more intentional. And it was great. But it was also the first time I'd done that.

I take it and it's the same as the mechanic in me of like, OK, now I've got these tools in my toolbox. I can't wait to see what I can make now.

[The Trout]

You sound like a very organized person.

[Angie K]

I wish you could see my studio right now.

[The Trout]

Well, that's different. That's always different.

[Angie K]

So many instruments just strewn about.

[The Trout]

Oh, no, that's not. That's different. Who do you think you'd take after more?

Your mom or your dad?

[Angie K]

Honestly, both like I definitely as stubborn as my mom. And my dad definitely has a great decision making ability. And I appreciate that about him.

Yeah, no, I have a really good family. And I think the older I get, the more grateful I am that I had parents that showed up and cared, even though this was not their first choice in my in career for me. They always supported me.

[The Trout]

I wish you much success as you continue your career. OK.

[Angie K]

Thank you so much. I appreciate you.

[The Trout]

Have a good afternoon. You take care. All right.

See you. Bye bye.

Thank you for listening www.TheTroutShow.com