Katrina has been selected as an Artist To Watch as part of Clear Channel’s national NEW! Program!!!! This is big
Red Red Red Records artist Katrina has been selected as an Artist To Watch as part of Clear Channel’s national NEW! Program. Katrina and her debut single “Shame on Me” will now be featured on all Clear Channel websites
In collaboration with Grammy-winning producer/engineer Val Garay (James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt and Kim Carnes) and songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Bonnie Hayes (Bonnie Raitt, Cher, Natalie Cole) Katrina brings us her stunning debut album, In the Blink of an Eye on a very exciting new record label Red Red Records. It may have been simmering for a decade, but it was made in a flash. The phrase “in the blink of an eye” is from the song “Taken.”
As a child, Katrina appeared on the “American Idol” precursor “Star Search,” which was also a launching pad for Beyoncé, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Usher and Justin Timberlake, among other household names. Katrina won in the Junior Vocalist category, having appeared on the show eight times in a row and winning over Aaliyah. That visibility got her recognized by strangers, which she found startling. Though she was pursued by record companies thereafter, she declined their offers, recalling, “I just wanted to be a kid.”
She performed in her school choir, sang backup for friends’ bands and wrote her first song during college on the way to the library. “I just had this song stuck in my head,” she explains matter-of-factly. But music didn’t seem like a viable career option then. Instead of pursuing it, she finished college, went to law school, got a Masters in Entertainment and Media Law and did stints in criminal defense and workers’ compensation, and then saw Cher.
“I’ve always been a huge fan,” she says. “I went to see Cher in Las Vegas and walked out of that show in tears, saying, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’” Six weeks later she quit her job. She spent the next year writing songs on piano, exploring the blues, performing in clubs and learning how to play a ’63 Gibson SG. After a few false starts, she was introduced to Val Garay, who says he was drawn to Katrina by the distinctiveness of her voice, her “incredible” range and her “fearlessness” as a writer. A year after that fruitful first writing collaboration – a period during which Garay says he was “constantly amazed” – she finished recording her debut album. “It was one year to the day,” she marvels. |
