Up-and-coming singer Kate Peytavin focuses on infusing her soft yet radiant personality into her craft. She has always had a passion for music, with her mother noting to her that, "When you were little I could always tell you were awake because I could hear you singing."

The eighteen-year-old Louisiana native has already grown her platform to over a million followers on TikTok. Over the last year, she has collaborated with Rami Yacoub, who has notably worked with artists such as Beyonce, Charli XCX, and Selena Gomez, on the creation of her singles. We caught up with Kate at her press conference organized by 1824 and Capitol Records to learn more about her latest tracks "whole heart black" and "killing time" as well as her artistic background.

How did you know you wanted to pursue music?

I did not know that I wanted to do music at first. I was making songs over Zoom with people in LA. And that was very hard for me. It's hard to have a connection with people just talking to them over a screen. And then when I actually came out to LA for the first time, I spent a week out here just making music every single day. And I absolutely fell in love with it! There was such a difference in the songs.

I loved working with the people and actually on my plane ride home I was crying because I don't when I will get to do this again. I don't want to go back to Louisiana, I want to keep making music here with these awesome collaborators and kind of like tell the story. It felt so hard to do that in Louisiana. I realized how much I was going to miss it and so in the airport, I was like this is what I want to do, I want to pursue this.

What is the songwriting process like for you?

It honestly depends. I normally like to start with chords and the chords will oftentimes strike an idea. I will start to play around with melodies and then I start writing. But sometimes I will have a concept first and I'll build the chords around it. It honestly just depends on what my ideas are and who I am working with.

I honestly didn't know that people did in-person sessions cause it was in the mid of Covid that I really got into music making. I thought everyone did it on Zoom and that was just the way of doing it. And then someone was like, 'Yo! When are you going to come out to LA?' I was like, 'What for?' It does make it much more convenient.

How do you know when a song is done?

Sometimes it's hard because once you've listened to a song so so many times, it's like you kind of get used to it. A lot of times I have to send it to people and say like, 'What do you think of this? Is there anything you'd change?' And so once I get that thumbs up from people, like 'Yeah, this is perfect,' then I really know.

How do you feel like you have evolved from he start of your career to now releasing "whole heart black?"

Well just in the studio I feel like it's so much easier for me to open up and let go and kind of put it all out there. And experiment. Before I was very scared to experiment. I had this down tempo thing going for me, I knew had to do it and how to do it well. But I felt too comfortable. I needed to try something different. Once I started experimenting for the first time, I realized it was so much more beneficial for me and exciting. There are so many new avenues to write and story tell whenever you're experimenting so much.

What was your favorite moment making "whole heart black?"

When I made the mistake. I switched these lyrics around and I realized that I liked it so much better that way. Normally, I am so hard on myself for the mistakes that I make but I think this mistake was very beautiful. I am so thankful that it happened because it's my favorite part of the song.

What role does "whole heart black" play in your overall discography and what do you want listeners to take away from it?

"whole heart black" is just a piece in like the big puzzle. It's about wanting something that you shouldn't have, but you do it anyways because it feels good in the moment. So, I think there is a lot of learning to be done, but it is a very valid emotion and feeling that, like I said, a lot of people get suppressed for having. I want my listeners to listen and know that it's okay.

Can you tell us about the recording process for "killing time?"

The whole thing on the chorus, whenever it gets all shaky like that, was totally an afterthought. We wrote the song and we were like, 'I want something about this to feel different, something kind of fresh.' So after I recorded it, we were playing around with production, and then I can't remember who mentioned it, but they were like, 'We should try something really shaky on the chorus.' I fell in love with that. I was like, 'Yes, absolutely. Lets amplify this. I really like that idea.' It was honestly just an afterthought.

What inspired you for the visualizer for "killing time?"

I think it was very important to me that it had a very vintage feel to it. I am a very big fan of Pinterest so I do a lot of scrolling on there and making mood boards. I loved a lot of pictures where it looked like it was taken a long time ago. It's the people that are just bored out of their minds. I made sure that I used like a very very old house. I was asking around, 'Do you know anybody that has a really really old house that I can take these pictures in?' I wanted it to be on film. I spent a lot of time finding the right stylist because I wanted outfits to come together. I wanted it to look so much like the Pinterest board that I made for "killing time" because I feel like the song itself has such a vintage feel. I wanted to capture that as much as possible.

How do you want for people to connect with your overall music?

I really like how dramatic my music is. I make it a point to be dramatic because whenever I'm going through times say like a breakup, or anything hard, what I want to do is I want to live in the moment. I don't want to suppress like a lot of people tell you to do. They say, 'Just push it aside and distract yourself.' But what helps me heal is feeling it and living in the moment. I want people that are going through that to listen to my songs and really help to take in the moment instead of pushing it aside.

We had so much fun getting to know Kate and are excited to see what else she has in store for the rest of the year. For more information about her work check out:

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Thank you so much to 1824 for the invite. To learn more about them check out:

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