Looking for a tour bus full of catchy new bops to add to your warm weather playlists? Look no further than Indie Pop Artist Marielle Kraft. You would never believe that merely four years ago, this rising singer/songwriter was teaching English to 80 sixth graders, a career she took a giant leap from to pursue her music-centric dreams full-time. Fully equipped with catchy melodies, raw emotion and relatable lyrics, Marielle showcases her engaging and memorable songs in her latest EP Heartspace, which features two of my favorite MK songs “Shrink” and “I Kissed A Boy.”
Not to mention, the self-taught Rhode Island natives’ latest single “Owe My Ex” will have you confident and reminiscent of past relationships and will instantly reform your view of your breakup journey to the next best thing. Her down-to-earth tone and experience not only inspires others, but has had a noticeable impact on her listeners through the outpouring of support through her social media, and live shows across the United States.
Fandomize had the pleasure of speaking with Marielle at length about her recent tour on both the West and East coast, as well as her inspiration for ditching her full-time teaching career to pursue her commitment to music.
Without further ado… Marielle Kraft!
MCKENZIE MORRELL: First off, how has the tour been going? What has been your favorite stop?
MARIELLE KRAFT: I haven’t ever toured out west. I feel like every single night out there, all ten shows were just so exciting and so new. Specifically, I was shocked by how fun Spokane was. I had heard a lot about Seattle, and Portland, and Northern California before I headed over there because those are the exciting spots people love to visit but Spokane pleasantly surprised me with how open armed their people were. The energy was so big of the crowd. That was definitely a pleasant surprise. I loved every single spot and I feel like I saw every single season over the span of ten days while traveling through the west.
@mariellekraft that last line of this verse hits so hard live 🤌 come scream it with me #singersongwriter #indieartist #concert #shrink #growth #breakup #movingon #mariellekraft ♬ Shrink – Marielle Kraft
MM: How do you prepare for that? Do you just pack for all the seasons just in case?
MK: Yeah basically. You can only check the weather so far ahead. I didn’t know there were going to be two major blizzards while we were over there. I didn’t wear any of my shorter t-shirts and shorter shirts. It was all turtlenecks and long sleeves. But thankfully I packed a variety.
MM: Well that’s good. That you planned ahead and you weren’t freezing to death. Obviously you guys also headed to the East Coast. What places were you super excited to visit that you haven’t gone before or toured there?
MK: I’m super familiar with the East Coast because that’s where I built my listenership for the last few years. But I had never performed in Northern Jersey before.
MM: It must be nice to be home before getting back out there again this year. What’s the first thing you did when you got back home?
MK: With my shoes on – I literally just laid on the couch. I hung my shoes over the edge but I laid for probably thirty minutes, still had my coat on, didn’t even unpack my suitcase. I just laid on my couch in silence. And then I got up and started getting myself together. But I think I was just go go go for so long without any down time that I just needed thirty minutes to do absolutely nothing.
MM: To just exist. Sometimes you gotta do that. What goes on behind the scenes in terms of setting up the tour dates and the venues. Can you talk a little bit about the leg work that goes into that? Are you the only person who is doing that? Is there somebody that’s helping you?
MK: I have a booking agent. His name is Ben and we’ve been working together since the start of my career and have really grown together. Ben and I scheme months out, sometimes a year out. We’ll scheme about what parts of the country we want to hit this year, what size rooms do you want to play, do you want to play full band or solo, how long do you want to leave home, that kind of thing. Then once we have our broad game plan we start to fill in those opportunities. Predominantly Ben will be the one to reach out to venues and see if we can book a route. For the opening spot this time for Roaming Tom, since I’d worked with them in the past and had a relationship, I was the one who reached out to them like “hey y’all, not sure if you’ve picked an opener for this leg of your tour but I would be so stoked to join you especially since I’ve never been out West. Let me know if you’re down.” And they basically were like “let’s do it.” That was a really cool opportunity just through already having experience with them and building that rapport. It’s a team effort with me and Ben. It’s a lot of me booking an itinerary making sure I have hotels, flights, making sure I have someone on the road with me especially for the longer stretches so I’ll book Tour Managers and order all the merch and make every piece fit together.
MM: You basically do everything and it all works out, right?
MK: Most of the time. As long as you have a plan.
MM: You have to be organized obviously to stay on top of all that and keep everything straight. How do you stay connected with your friends and any relationships you may have while you’re on the road? Do you have things you schedule out or do you just on whims try to connect with people?
MK: It’s really just trying to find time, typically when I’m traveling to the venues to fit in a conversation, a phone call, whatever it may be, with my support system. Often because I’m still doing every job while I’m on the road, I’m pretty much on every moment of the day, all the time. It’s hard to find hours of the day to be elsewhere mentally and emotionally. But I try to fit it in any time that I can.
@mariellekraft who knew you could be this HAPPY 🥲 #postbreakup #selflove #growth #newlove #travel #bestlife #taylorswift #wlw #glowup #singersongwriter ♬ Owe My Ex – Marielle Kraft
MM: I’m sure people are understanding of your time or lack thereof when you’re doing this six months out of the year.
MK: It just makes me really intentional when I’m home to reconnect with my community and friends and family because that time has become so precious because I am gone most of the year. That has made my time at home more fruitful instead of just “oh we can hang out whenever.” I’m very proactive in making those plans now.
MM: Definitely intentional and more quality over quantity. You obviously have a gift of storytelling with your songs and the music you’ve put out already. Of all the professions centered around writing, why did you gravitate towards music?
MK: I think because music was always how I felt most seen and connected to and heard from various artists growing up. It gave me access to feelings I couldn’t articulate. My best friend and I literally became best friends because of our obsession with Taylor Swift when we were twelve. That was the stem of our friendship. Music has always been powerful to me in my life. I grew up playing music in church and that was always a really emotional experience for weekly performances. I think I just translated that into my own stories.
MM: That’s amazing. Was there one song that you heard growing up that set off that lightbulb moment of you wanting to pursue this?
MK: That’s a good question. I don’t know. I don’t think it was one song. But I do think it was the Speak Now album that Taylor Swift put out. I think I was a sophomore maybe in high school, when that album came out. I remember what a big deal it was that she wrote every single song on that album. At the time, I was sixteen. I wasn’t really writing songs yet, professionally or anything like that. I was like “oh, of course she wrote all the songs, who else would write the songs?” But now, being in this industry full time and understanding how it’s so not the norm for artists to write alone on full projects, I’m really understanding the magnitude of Taylor choosing to be the central voice on her album when she was twenty years old and having the autonomy to tell that story with only her words. I think that just made me want to challenge myself to try to do the same. I really respect her choices in writing and holding on to her own narrative and it really motivates me to do the same.
MM: I hear there’s a lot of controversy within the Swiftie community surrounding being able to snag tickets– they’re super hard to come by, have you ever gotten a chance to see her perform?
MK: Yeah. I’ve been very blessed. I’ve seen her seven times. It has been the only thing I’ve saved money for in the last decade of my life. Just kidding. I saw her for the first time – I think I’m maybe one percent of the world able to say I saw Taylor Swift as an opener. My very first concert, when I was thirteen, I saw her open for Rascal Flatts. That was my first concert. I think she was eighteen. I’ve seen her every single tour since. I did go to war to get tickets for the Eras tour. And after eight hours, I came out victorious. But it was no small feat.
MM: Probably cost an arm and a leg with everything going on. I just saw the madness ensue.
MK: It was weird. The prices were so outrageous. I think because I’ve always paid between $150 and $200 for tickets for her shows, that’s what I’m used to so when they were a couple hundred dollars it didn’t phase me but when some went up to like a thousand I was like “okay, this is getting out of hand.” We settled for the couple hundred ones which is still going to be great.
MM: You lucked out. You used to be a sixth grade English teacher, is that correct? My sister is a fifth grade teacher. Was it difficult for you to switch gears from this full time teaching career to being a singer and a songwriter?
MK: It was definitely a shift. It was definitely a leap. It’s funny. I’ve recently started reflecting on it now that I’m 27 and I made the leap when I was 23. I’m looking back on it now, four years later and being like if I were now, five years into a teaching career and considering making a leap, I don’t think I’d be brave enough to do it knowing what I know now. Part of me is glad I had a little bit of blissful ignorance back then and was sort of just like “oh let’s do it, let’s go!” I think that really helped me. But when I left teaching I already had my booking agent with me on my team. We started from the ground up with each other. And he started booking me at really small gigs that were the first of three opening slots for maybe fifty people in different cities. Super low stakes, not really paying. I’d be lucky to break even some nights. But that made me so hungry and gave me at least a chance to start building my own experience, whether or not I was monetizing that. It was still giving me the experience I needed to know how to monetize that down the road. That helped soften the blow a little bit and I was playing gigs at bars to make actual paychecks during that bar. On the weekends I would play three to four cover gigs in two days, make my few hundred dollars, and then travel up the coast to play a few original shows during the week and then come back and do it again. It was a grind but it really makes me so grateful now that I am self-sustaining on fully original shows and tours and I’ve really built up my stamina to be able to do that.
MM: That’s amazing. I’m sure it was daunting to leave that stability of a teaching job to dive into the unknown of the music industry. Looking back on it now, do you think that uncertainty and the ups and downs of the industry and that lack of traditional structure, do you still believe it’s worth it and that it serves you and continues to serve you?
MK: Absolutely. And honestly, I think that the skills that I gained in getting my degree in education and teaching in a classroom full time really prepared me to be an indie artist and small business owner. When you’re running a classroom with eighty different students with eighty different needs every single day. I have to have so many things in order and be able to multitask and do a million different tasks every day and that’s similar to being an artist who has to run the admin side, the marketing side, the creative side, the performance side, fielding different social relationships and parasocial relationships. I think, unexpectedly I feel even more qualified to do that because of being a teacher so I’m really grateful for that experience and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I think that it definitely translates in a really positive way.
MM: Now you’re based in Nashville, correct. And how’s that experience been? Has it been what you expected? Did you always know you wanted to land there?
MK: I think I always had my sights on Nashville more as a pipe dream than a reality. Because growing up you know about all the people making music in LA, Nashville and New York. In 2019 which was the first real year of me doing music, I took a couple trips down here just to meet people and do a couple writer’s rounds in the corner of a dive. That trip was really intoxicating to me, being surrounded by people who were pursuing the same career in the same life phase that I was. It was so powerful and so motivating. Every time I come back I feel like I grew leaps and bounds. I knew that if I really wanted to take hold of my career and do what was best for it, I needed to move from the comfortability of the East Coast and try to start really pursuing it here in Nashville. I’ve been here for about two years. I love it so far. I’ve made friends and collaborators who have pushed me and made me so much better just in the two years I’ve been here. I also feel like the resources available to artists here are so valuable just in terms of my doctors and my vocal therapist knowing how my career works without me having to explain it, in itself is so worth being here.
@mariellekraft you ever run into an ex at a coffee shop one single time and then sing about it every night on stage? just me? ☕️ #concert #singersongwriter #livemusic #nyc #indieartist #secondcoffee #breakup #indiepop #mariellekraft ♬ Second Coffee – Marielle Kraft
MM: That’s worth way more than anything else. Many of your songs found traction on TikTok and other social media avenues. Was that a surprise for you? Do you have a favorite way to interact with fans or push content out?
MK: TikTok definitely came as a surprise to me. I didn’t really know how it worked. I just threw up a couple clips of me playing songs unedited in my bedroom and that’s what was resonating with my audience. Which was a relief to me because the way I like to best do my career on the road, playing in front of real people in a real room. To just be performing raw online and having people resonate with that was the greatest reception I could hope for. I do think I like just the pretty, authentic kind of unediting content. One, it’s really exhausting for me to over edit big blogs or vlogs or really creative, clever pieces of content that are hook-y. That to me feels contrived, especially because when I’m on the stage it’s impossible for me to re-create that. I feel like I’m giving people a false perception of what they’ll get from me in an actual show. I try to keep it as consistent as possible. I think it’s maybe young millennial of me to say but your classic Instagram stories of just “here’s a moment in my day on the road” is my favorite way to share my life because it’s in the moment, it’s not over thought. It’s temporary. It’s only up for twenty four hours and it allows me to feel like I have a consistent relationship with those who follow me, which I love.
MM: It’s amazing. In terms of online and TikTok/Instagram – there’s so many creators who over edit or put the expectation there that’s not achievable in real life and people assume that’s the reality. It’s nice to see that you put yourself out there and people still resonate with it.
MK: I think so too and that’s how my favorite artists interact online so I try to take inspiration from that.
MM: And I know it’s like choosing your favorite child as a parent but which of your songs is your favorite and you can not skip the question. You have to choose.
MK: Can I have a follow up question? Is it my favorite to perform or favorite recording or favorite that I’ve written. Because they’re different.
MM: Let’s say what is your favorite that you’ve written?
MK: Favorite that I’ve written that is also released is “I Kissed A Boy.” I think that is my favorite, most honest, scary release that I’ve ever done. Also it opened me up to this whole new audience of queer listeners who now see themselves in me and that feels really powerful and is a responsibility that I don’t take lightly and is really personal to me. Favorite to perform though is “Owe My Ex” which is my new single because it’s like so high energy and everyone screams it out and I don’t have the guitar on so I get to move around the stage. And with the full band, nothing feels as exciting as that one.
MM: That’s awesome. When you put your songs out and you have that vulnerability, what goes through your mind? Are you thinking that people will receive things well? What goes through your mind when you’re writing your song, when you’ve produced it, and when you’re putting it out?
MK: I think it changes through each of those stages. When I’m writing it I’m focused on doing justice to the story of my experience with it and making sure every word, every phrase is really true to how I feel about it and the story I want to be told. Then as I’m going through the release process and understanding which tone we want to take with the marketing, then I really try to focus on what’s going to be best received by my listeners. Because at that point, the song is starting to become much less mine and much more yours. I have to be really aware of how this is going to be best received. Then, when I’m in the room live, sometimes the live version is different than the recorded one because I want to create this time capsule of a moment in the concert. You know, what kind of emotion do I want them to feel? Do I want them to sing along with me? Or do I want it to be pin drop silent? Do I want the band to be in it or do I want it solo? And so it’s fun to create different versions of the same narrative that typically began with me and my guitar.
MM: I love about your music and the storytelling within it, that you still feel like – when I’m listening to the songs, I’ve been in a relationship for the last seven years so I haven’t been in a break up situation for a long time, but when I’m listening to those songs I’m like damn yeah I just want to tell my girlfriend hey let’s just break up for a bit so I can really feel this. But in the same sense, I still feel it even though I’m not going through it. If that makes sense.
MK: Listen, that’s how I have to channel anything that’s not a love song, is looking back at old photographs or old journal entries like put me back in this emotional space so I can do this story justice for people who are currently going through it. Because they were real at one time. But if I only write these pure love songs of how I feel right now, then I wouldn’t have much diversity in my catalog would I?
MM: You have to go through the rollercoaster of emotions that’s for sure so you can hit on everything. What is your dream collaboration if the sky’s the limit? Who would you want to work with?
MK: Oh wow. That’s an amazing question. This is sounding redundant but of course Taylor Swift because she’s the reason I write songs. But even on a smaller scale, I’m obsessed with the singer songwriter named JP Saxe. I think he’s so good at taking really complex feelings and making them so simple in his wording and lyricism. I think it would be amazing to write with him.
MM: Well we’ll put that out into the world and hopefully you get both your wishes in the coming time. Then I like to add my signature question to all of my interviews. It’s a little out of left field but are you ready for it?
MK: I am.
MM: If you were to construct a donut based on your personality, what kind of donut would it be and what toppings would be on it?
MK: I really love salty and sweet combinations so I think it would be maybe like a pretzel dough donut with maybe a layer of like peanut butter on top and also melted dark chocolate and some sea salt on top of it.
MM: That actually sounds good. What are two random facts that your fans might not know about you?
MK: Fact number one is that my very first instrument was the tuba, actually. I played the tuba in 5th grade band and then didn’t play after 5th grade. But that was my first instrument. It was bigger than I was. My second fun fact is probably that my two front teeth are fake. I got them knocked out. I played lacrosse in college and got them knocked out and now my two front teeth are fake.
MM: They couldn’t put them in some milk and save them for you?
MK: It was a pretty bad break. There was a lot of bonding. And then a couple years back I ended up getting veneers because the bonding keeps chipping. So they’re fully fake now.
MM: What are your three most overused emojis in your phone?
MK: The melting emoji. The guy who is smiling but also melting. I love that one. The one that is the two hands making a heart. I’m using that one a lot now instead of the actual heart emoji. I’ve transitioned to the hand heart. The third one is probably the twinkle emoji. I feel like any time I make an announcement or like to have a little pizzazz, I throw a little twinkle on there.
MM: And all the android users are just like “what is that?” I’m very anti-android. And my girlfriend has an android. It’s the worst thing in my life.
MK: You have green texts together?
MM: Yes, it’s the most horrible thing. We have to Skype instead of FaceTime which is the worst thing in the world. That’s going to be our downfall. Ha! Is there anything you’d like to add? How can people find you? Can we expect some new music in 2023? Let the people know what’s next?
MK: You can find me where you find anything by my name, Marielle Kraft. That includes social media, music, and the internet. I’m touring a ton this year. I’ll be back out West this fall which I’ll be announcing soon and also the midwest. New music is going to be on its way this Spring and Fall. The bops are going to keep on bopping. They’re coming.
@mariellekraft FRIENDS!!! #tour #concert #westcoast #california #oregon #washington #boise #slc #singersongwriter #singersongwriter #wwnf ♬ We Were Never Friends – Marielle Kraft
