Terra Renae - From Doctoral Dreams to Soul-Pop Sensation

Terra Renae - Soul Pop Sensation

Meet Tara Renee, a soul pop powerhouse from Louisville, Kentucky, whose soulful voice and raw lyrics are taking the music world by storm. Originally a model and doctoral graduate, Tara rediscovered her passion for music during the pandemic. A Chance 2022 meeting with Grammy winner Macy Gray led to her debut album, All I Have, released in March 2025, with hits like Manifest It racking up over 300,000 streams.

Mentored by Gray and backed by producers like Meekle Blue and Dave Pensado, Tara recently returned from a European tour opening up for Macy Gray. Now get ready for an inspiring chat with this rising star, now here's the Trout with Tara. Are you ready to take control of your financial future? Meet David Smith, your trusted Edward Jones Financial Advisor.

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That's 4693721587. Your financial success starts here. What's your degree in? So I have a doctor of nursing practice.

Oh, okay. Is that like a nurse practitioner or is it like an RN? It is. So RN is typically a bachelor's degree.

A nurse practitioner can be a master's or a doctorate degree. So I'm a doctorally prepared family nurse practitioner. Okay.

And so one day you get your degree, where did you go to school? Um, I went to University of Louisville for my undergrad at University of Cincinnati for my master's and then I received my doctorate degree back at University of Louisville. And so one day you're going like, well, here, I'm going to be a nurse practitioner. I'm going to do this.

Oh, wait a minute. I think I'll be a musician. You know... So how did that happen? How did that come about? It is a really interesting story in that, you know, I've sang all my life.

I grew up in a Catholic school. I sang, I did choir, I did plays all growing up. And around the age of 13, there was a local competition in Louisville.

It was a singing competition and I made it to the finals. And when I flew to LA, the competition ended up being held in LA. And at that point in time, I didn't have any one-on-one vocal training other than just my play practice, my choir practice.

And all I took from those rehearsals was, oh, you have your song and you sing your song over and over and over again until it's perfect. You know, no vocal exercises, no technique, anything like that. You just over and over again.

And I have a rather big belty chesty voice. A lot of people would like to describe. And so I chose a very big, belty chesty song to really impress people with my 13 year old body.

Right. And, you know, what I didn't realize as a preteen is singing a big belty song over and over again is absolutely terrible for your vocal cords. And so, yep, you got it.

And so at that audition, I remember it was really traumatic, but I remember they wouldn't let my mother into the audition. And I remember when I sang, I just felt like nothing could come out. And I never quite understood that.

And I always took it as, oh, why am I here? And I stopped singing immediately after that competition. I never stepped back on stage. What was the song? It was Jessica Simpson, I Want to Love You Forever.

OK. Now we can say who? Jessica who? Anyway, go ahead. Yeah.

I want to love you forever. Thirteen year old me singing that way. Yeah.

And I remember after that, my mom said, well, what happened? What happened? I was like, I don't know. And honestly, I didn't have the answer for a really, really long time. I didn't know what to tell.

And, you know, I never auditioned for choir ever again. I never did any more plays after that. And I kind of turned to modeling because I was like, oh, well, that's a way for me to be on stage without me having to speak again.

I was so afraid of speaking or anything coming out of my mouth after that. And I lost my father at a really young age. I heard about that.

I understand that's difficult and on the wrong date. And a friend of mine, mother passed away the day before Christmas around that same time. You know, so every time Christmas comes around, it's so I understand.

Yeah, it's I'm grateful that enough time has passed now to where I feel healed, but it still stings a little, you know, if you think about it. But, you know, I think after that, my mom said, well, if we're not going to go balls to the wall with singing, you need to figure out what you're going to do. And academia is a safe route.

And you need to build yourself a safety net because you just don't know what the future holds. And I think your mom is from originally from the Philippines. Is that right? And the medical field was always a guaranteed no matter what, you always have a job.

It doesn't even matter what you do in the medical field. People are always going to be sick. Yes.

Will always be sick. And so she really instilled within me just to be independent and not to ever look at the future as depending on someone else. So I really took that to heart.

And I said, well, I'm going to go all the way. And but I always sang in private, always wrote in private, but I was always really scared to share that up until covid when I met my husband and who was a former musician. And I met him through the medical field.

And covid was very, very good to us because even us as medical professionals, we had a lot of fun. So you were you were practicing at that time. You were you were we were we were writing together.

Yeah. At that point in time, when he learned that I write and I and I sang, he said, well, I write music and I love music. I used to be a musician and we were dating at the time.

And we said, well, why don't we start creating some music together and just see what happens? And we loved it. We wrote every day of covid. And of course, I had the classic quarantine song.

Everybody else wrote, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's kind of where it all spiraled. We're like, you know, we really enjoy doing this together.

And I was in my doctorate degree at that point in time. And after I graduated, things were really starting to move with music at that point. And so it was sort of there was a pent up demand.

Yeah, it was. And so and that's why I decided I was like, you know, when I graduate, this is a really pivotal moment in my in my career and in just with who I am as a person. You have to make a choice.

And what do you want to do with that doctorate degree? Do you want to continue being a nurse practitioner, which already was practice with the masters? And my thought was, well, I can open my own business and my own clinic. Or maybe we take a chance on 13 year old Tara, who gave up on herself a long time ago because she's having a lot of fun writing right now. And I think we're kind of good at it.

And if all else fails, my license is active and well, we can always go back. But why don't I have to ask where were you living at the time? Louisville, Kentucky. So you're still living in Louisville.

OK. Yes. Yes.

Born and raised. Never left. Gotcha.

Yeah. And so. Yeah.

So I think this chapter, my third decade of life is really dedicated to me and kind of letting go of that safety net a little bit. So the one thing I think you have going for you is we have like three things going for you. But if something doesn't work, you have a degree.

That's right. I interviewed a couple of years ago, a musician out of Kansas City, and she was, I think, in the same type of business or something like that. She's a blues artist.

And she said, yeah, if it didn't work, I'll just go back to doing my job and I can do gigs on the side. Um, the other thing you have going for you is, um, the musical talent, which you've given. I've always said that people always come out.

Don't you go to muddy great guitar players? I said, as a gift, you just have to make it better. I mean, that's really what I've always said that, especially if you is you and your husband both write songs. You can't explain to people how songs come about.

You just can't. You can just say, well, I was sitting down and I thought it doesn't. And then when you finish and you've got like this album that you just released, you listen to it and you go, how did I come up with that stuff? I mean, you don't really know you don't, you try it.

And then I just, I go with it and go, okay, here it is. You know? Uh, and the third thing that gone for it is you're attractive, you know, not, not, not that that helps anymore, but it does make it easier. And I think also the type of music you do kind of lends itself to that.

Um, so you, you gave up a career, not really. Now let me ask you, cause I have friends that are lawyers. Uh, do you have to go in ever so often, like once a year to do continuing education or, I mean, like medical, you do, don't you? Yeah.

You have to keep your, yeah, your continue education credit. You got it. Um, and then one day you're walking down the street and look, Macy Gray goes up.

Hey, it's Tara. Oh, it's Macy. Hi, Macy.

Now you're going to love this one. So you know how I met Macy? No, I have no idea. This is okay.

So circa day 2022, my husband and I get married. We're already playing music. We have a whole bunch of demos at this point.

We created a whole album. And so where did you record in your house? Did you have your own stuff? In our living room. So you had your own DAW and all that stuff.

Okay. All right. Got it.

You got it. You know, uh, okay. So I'm going to backtrack just for a second.

Okay. Go ahead. The reason my husband and I, the conversation even popped up, it was two years into our relationship.

My husband owned a lot of studio equipment unbeknownst to me at the time. And he comes home. Of course, he's my boyfriend at this point.

And he comes home and he goes, gosh, what a sigh of relief. I just sold a whole bunch of studio equipment or actually he donated it. He donated the equipment.

And I looked at it and I was really disappointed. And he goes, now, why are you, hold on, why are you upset right now? And I said, well, you know, I know like we've been dating for two years, but I kind of told you, but I sing and write in my spare time. It's like kind of my therapy.

I have like a journal and like, it just, I've done it all my life, but I just don't tell anybody. And he's like, and I said, yeah, like, you know, it's just, you know, I was just waiting for the right time. And I was hoping that maybe one day possibly we could collaborate.

And he was like, Cause he's a guitarist, right? He's a guitarist. And he's a, he's a, everything is like, he can play the guitar. He can play the bass.

He can play the drums. He can play the piano. Obviously he can produce and, but any who.

And so he was like, okay, this is so interesting. So he bought like a very simple setup for our living room, just off of our laptop for us to record. That sound one night and after a bottle of wine, I sang Natalie and Berglia, Torn.

90s is my favorite. It's a great tune, by the way. Love that one.

And he was like, okay, maybe we'll do something with this. So let's try it's COVID. Why not? Right.

So anyway, so that's how that started. So anyways, we wrote a whole bunch of songs that year, flash forward to 2022, we get married. And what we told all of our friends was, you know, we don't want any tangible gifts.

What I really would love is just, you know, we live in a small condo. I can't no, no more things. Yeah.

But what we would love is just memories. If you call could take us out to dinner or let's go to the movies. Like, that's what we want.

I want permanent memories as our gifts. And one of our friends just so happens to be very good friends with Macy Gray. And he said, well, I tell you how that happens.

It's just, yeah, it's very, you just happen to be friends with me. Sure. He just randomly met her at a bar and complimented her on her coat.

And they really hit it off. He probably didn't even know who she was. You know, I'm pretty sure that he did not.

And he's only one to compliment people on their clothing. So anyway, you're in a situation now, but here's what I'm thinking is running through your mind. Okay.

This was a good friend of yours, right? Okay. You don't want to I'm just guessing. You're going like, man, he knows Macy Gray.

I know Macy Gray. I got stuff. I want to send Macy Gray, but I don't really want to ask him because that's kind of tacky of me saying, oh, by the way, I've got some music.

Can you make sure Macy Gray gets it? So how did that come to the next step? You know, the funny part is I did the exact opposite. I said, don't there. I was like, if this is a setup for you to tell her that we do whatever.

Did he know already that you'd been recording? Yes. He already knew. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

No, it was, it actually, he wanted to set up the meeting after our wedding because we got married in San Diego. And of course she's out in LA and he said, well, the only time that she would be available at the studio would be right after your wedding. And we thought the day after a seven day Indian wedding.

Okay. Yeah. We'll just, we're already out there.

Let's just go up to LA. We to LA. Oh my God.

Um, but even before I've, I've actually lost my voice at my wedding. Cause I sang at my wedding and we were partying like crazy. Right.

So I already lost it. And I deliberately told him and I was like, I do not want this to be a setup. Hey, cause I just, I don't want anybody to feel like I'm using them for any ulterior motive.

Right. Genuinely just wanted to meet her and like see a professional studio, but what a blessing, what a gift, how cool would that be to be? I literally told him, I was like, this is a setup. I was like, don't you dare.

And in addition, my goal, I was like, I do not have a voice sound like this. So if you try to get me to sing, I will embarrass myself. I was like, so don't you dare.

And the way that the singing thing came up was, um, Oh gosh, her, uh, Macy's producer produced Colby Calais. And during our conversation, when we, when we met in the studio, we started talking about Colby Calais. And I said, Oh my gosh, I grew up on Colby.

I know every one of the lyrics off of her first album. I just love it. And he goes, Oh my gosh, you know, bubbly.

And I was like, yes, I love bubbly. Who doesn't know bubbly? And he said, well, he's like, did you know, I actually co-wrote that song. And I said, no way.

And of course, stop it. Just stop it. Right.

And of course, Michael, my friend utilize that opportunity. I can't remember quite, but it was somewhere in that conversation. And she sings, she sings, I could have, I could have punched him so hard.

And of course, Michael blue, the producer said, Oh, he's like, well, you sing. He's like, well, he's like, you know, bubbly, would you like to sing it for me? And you know, that was a really pivotal moment in time because old Tara, who is traditionally very shy and introverted, and especially when it comes to singing in stage performance, old me would have said no, especially with a raspy voice. But in that point in time, you know, I was kind of off a high off my wedding too.

And I looked great. I was in a really cool Indian outfit. What are you going to lose? What are you going to lose? The worst thing you do? You have to lose.

That's basically just won't call you again. Okay. Yeah.

I was like, Oh, I was like, they'll never talk to me again. They probably aren't going to anyway. So, you know, you could, yes, or you could say no.

But if you say no, you know exactly what's going to happen. But if you say yes, maybe, maybe. And for some reason, do you know Michael blue said, Oh my gosh, he's like the tone in your voice right after we sang it.

And I said, now, Michael, I hate to disappoint you, but I've lost my voice. I do not sound like Macy Gray all the time. This is not, nobody sounds like Macy Gray.

So I was like, this raspy thing is just like a temporary addition. Right. And he said, well, he's like, do you have original songs that you've written? And I was like, yeah, I do.

And he said, would you like to play them for us? And I was like, Oh, okay, sure. Yes. And Praveen pulls a guitar off the wall and we start playing some of our demos for them.

And that's kind of how everything happened. That is a weird deal though. It's a weird deal.

Because it's like, let me, here's what's weird about it is you're just, you're like, Oh, Hey, I've got some stuff recorded. Oh no, no, no. Sit down and play right now.

I mean, and you're in a, you're in a room where you're in the studio and your husband whips the guitar out and it's like, okay, we're doing a solo act right in front these people that could change our lives. And you're like, what do I, okay, let's just go for it. Just go for it.

Because what, I mean, like the worst thing that happened is they go, well, well, you don't, you don't just don't worry. We'll be, we'll be in touch. Yeah.

And truly when they said that we would keep in touch after that, I thought that would be the last of our conversations. But honestly, I really do think there was, we just had so much fun with them at the studio that day. It was my birthday.

And we said, you know, we're going to go out to a bar. It's my birthday. And we just got married.

Nothing else. You got a memory. There's a song memory right there.

I mean, come on. And then, uh, Macy said, Oh, she's like, well, I haven't been to a bar in a while. And Michael blue said, I haven't been to a bar in a while either.

You know, he doesn't drink. And they said, can we come with you guys? And we, we said, yeah, you want to come with, Oh yes, yes, yes, yes. Please come and celebrate with us.

We would love that. What you didn't realize at that point, you had crossed the line and the line is a regular person to a musician. And that's when your life changed because if you hadn't taken it had this conversation with somebody the other day, everybody I talked to that tends to make it not necessarily be famous, but do well in the music industry always took a chance and always explained it to him.

Like not like driving down the road, 150 miles an hour, they took a chance in their life that paid off. Okay. And it usually, it pays off after years I've taken chances, but sometimes, you know, but it's, it's the one thing I've learned from talking and I've been fortunate to talk to some famous people.

Once you're in that group, you're in the group and, and you can't, I tell people this all the time. I've had some wonderful, I've had Grammy people on my show. I've had a lot of people on my show.

I can't turn into a fan boy, which is what you want to do. When you've got one of your favorite guitarists on the other side of the screen, you're like, Oh my God, I'm doing it. You can't do that.

Because at that point you're a fan, you became a musician. And that's where they realized it. And then the other part you realized is like, well, they're just like people like me too.

I mean, you, you, you forget that because we see people on the stage or hear them in our favorite listening types and don't realize that they have a life. Yeah. They go to the store, they eat, you know, I mean, it's stuff that you don't even think about because we're so attuned to that moment that you see them.

100%. But so you go out and have drinks. How long after that moment in time did they contact you and say, what, what, how did, what was the next thing that transpired to make it different for you? It was a couple of weeks, not very long, you know, Michael contacted us and actually he said, he said, so Praveen, he called Praveen.

I wish he was here. I'm hoping I'm communicating this. I was going to ask you if he was traveling with you.

Two weeks, right? It was two weeks, two weeks. Michael contacted him and he goes, so I have something really interesting. He's like, I've been talking to Macy about you guys.

And she kind of wants to help you guys with this project. And like the songs that we had already done. And we were like, well, what, because at the end of the bar that night, you know, we were only there for like an hour, but Michael Blue who said, okay, yeah, we'll keep, we'll keep in touch, keep in touch.

And then it was two weeks later when he said, well, he's because Macy continued to record there. And I guess he told her that he was interested in working with us. And she said, you know, she's like, I really like them, I guess.

And I, you know, see, let's see what we can do with them. Let's see if we can help them out. So I feel unbelievably blessed to have met her that day.

And yeah, just to have created a friendship. I think it's really the connection more than anything, but I guess she liked the song. What's the biggest surprise that you were not in the music industry? What's the biggest surprise that you've come across now that you've been doing this for a while? What's the one thing that kind of surprises you about the industry in general? Oh, goodness.

What's the biggest, biggest surprise? Interesting question, isn't it? It is an interesting question. The biggest surprise. Because you went from being a nurse practitioner to being a musician.

And it's a whole different, I mean, you're dealing with doctors, which is a completely different thing, different with different producers and record labels and people that are, you know, whatever. I would really say it's just understanding how a true produced song comes together. Oh, yeah.

Because Ravine and I originally started, it was just him and I on an acoustic guitar and a mic. And that's all it took. We could play out, all I would have to bring is myself.

And he all he would have to bring is his guitar. And when you start working on production, there is a whole lot that goes into it. And everyone has a different formula.

And everyone has an opinion. And a lot of times, all of those opinions are right. But a lot of times, you know, everything's negotiable, right? So I think, yeah, my biggest shock was how complex not only songwriting potentially can be, but the whole production of what really and truly goes into making a song, I think, will blow people's mind when they really get into the nitty gritty of it.

Where did you record the album that's just released? This was at Revolver Recordings out of, oh, gosh, where am I drawing a blank? Thousand Oaks. So you're in California. I go to the studio.

And how many people were involved with it, musician wise? Oh, musician wise, how many would you say, Ravine? Depends, probably five or five. Four or five musicians. Not that many.

Yeah, not that many. So here you are, Macy Gray, who has one of the most unique voices on the planet. She says, hey, I'm going on a little tour.

You want to go with me? Well, let me check my watch. Let's see what time. Oh, yeah, I think we're not busy anyway.

Now, this one, Rick, didn't really happen like that. It was the funniest thing. So but I didn't really take her seriously when when she said it.

She said, let's see. It was probably last August or so. And she said, you know, we're touring Europe next year.

You know, literally, why don't you all come with me? And we said. She's hearing. No, but we said, yes, of course.

Yeah, but it was a part of me that was I don't know. I don't know if it just works like that. Like, I don't know if you can just I don't know.

Yeah, it does work like that. And but I said, well, but you know what? Until I get confirmation, I'm going to prepare like heck until it happens. And even if it doesn't happen, I'm going to have a full blown ready set for whatever may come.

I was like, I'll sign up for other stuff if it doesn't happen. But it really put the fire under my to make sure that we had a really well put together set that I could take on any opportunity, even if maybe this didn't happen. But I'm very blessed to say that.

Oh, my God, it happened. What do you want to do now? I mean, you're getting a taste of the real world, because to me, touring can be grueling. You're not doing a lot of dates.

You're doing enough to keep it fun because you're I mean, you're in Europe. Your crowds are completely different than American crowds. I hear that from everybody tells me the same thing.

They appreciate people more. You're not traveling 12 hours to get to a place. You know, you're traveling three or four hours.

The venues are not nearly as big. But when this all ends, which it will, and you're sitting in your home going, did we just get off a tour? What do you see happening in your future? I mean, obviously, you're kind of supporting your music now. Mm hmm.

But this goes till August. When's the tour end? July? It's sometime during the summer. Yes.

So Macy ends her European tour. Let's see. I believe end of June, early July.

But then she'll start her American tour. I'm touring with her until about mid June. And my hopes are as much work as this was, we're having so much fun.

And it is just another extension of your art to put together a set. You know, my husband and I really joke about it that it's like we're putting on a play. Yes, it is.

A whole other extension of we love doing, we create a lot of music videos together. We love the music videos. We love the writing aspect.

I haven't seen it. Those are on your YouTube channel, I think. Yes, those are on YouTube.

Yeah, I watch most of the stuff. For some reason, I haven't seen any of those. And we always work on those together, you know, concepts, execution, what have you.

But I think performing is another extension of that. And, you know, I really love the set that we have. And it'll be so much fun.

Oh, gosh. And Matt, we're constantly thinking of, well, if we add this song, what are we going to do for that? How are we going to visualize that one? How are we going to make it exciting for the audience? And so I think I'm really excited to explore more of the live performance and, you know, creating something that's longer than an opening set and taking on any opportunities that we possibly can. How long do you get to play now? So we're doing about a 30-minute set.

30 minutes. OK. So you know the rule.

If you're going to make money in this business, you have to tour. And what's the other thing you got to have? Merch. That's exactly.

So that's the next thing. You'll have to get merch and then you'll have to sell it. Yeah, I have it.

Oh, you do? I have it. I got posters. I got QR codes.

I got social QR codes. I wish I would show you my setup. But we tried to play it like, you know, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

You can't really do it what you're doing now. I mean, you can, but you can't. Push it to the limit.

And let's just let's just see what happens, you know. And I'm very fortunate, too, that my husband, Praveen, has a lot of business knowledge. And so we're very much a team as far as I take care of the social and the marketing and the storylines.

But he's really not only behind the production. He's behind the admin in the business part. There you go.

So us together, like we're double timing it and double teaming it. All right. So I have to ask you this.

How's your Hindi coming along? You know, I smile a lot. And I find that that gets me through a lot of things. You know, you just smile and I smile and I smile some more.

And they just they like me.