You might wonder where did this girl come from with her song, “Famous”? The song, while a joke, is only the beginning of British songstress Katy Tiz, trip up the charts.
The 24-year-old who takes her cues from the women rocked her world, Alicia Keys, Lauryn Hill, and Rihanna has been in the studio making her own music for her album that will be released this summer.
“I love what they stand for, the way they sing, how they have kept to their genre of music and stood by what they believed in,” says Katy. “I believe in what they sing. I believe it comes from them and I really respect that as well as loving what they do.”
The influences can definitely be heard in Katy’s own music which infuses pop, hip hop, rap and reggae into an edgy soulful melody.
Her first song was the cheeky “Famous,” about boyfriends who want to fuck her and get in the a-list places by name dropping her name because she’s famous, when she isn’t famous yet.
Dinah girls are in for a treat this Sunday, March 7 when Katy performs fresh songs never heard before from the studio at the Dinah’s Official Closing Party at Zozo Hotel (150 S. Indian Canyon Way, 760-325-9676, HotelZozo.com).
“Having the chance to take it quite quickly onto stage and seeing what everyone thinks of it, I can’t tell you, it’s amazing. I can’t wait,” says Katy.
“I’m so excited,” says Katy, who chatted up a Dinah regular during a road stop on her way to Las Vegas. “They were raving about how great it was and how positive the crowd are. [It] got me so excited all the way back to Vegas. I was like ahhh! I can’t wait.”
The Dinah will be an extra treat for Katy, who will be there with her family to celebrate her brother’s birthday.
Reluctant songstress
It’s hard to believe looking at Katy as she’s about to rocket up the charts today, but she was a reluctant singer pulling a Jim Morrison just a few years ago. While she never turned her back on the stage, as the famous 1960s Doors rocker did, whenever she performed with her older brother, George, providing the musical background, Katy would close her eyes throughout the performance. She did it to block everything out around her so she could focus on the music and feel safe, she says.
Performing at any and every venue they could, she slowly broke out of that habit, cutting her teeth in the harsh reality of the life of a working musician performing at “some terrible gigs and some fantastic gigs,” she says.
“It taught me my craft and it taught me the ups and downs,” says Katy, but most of all it took her out of her comfort zone. “I realized to achieve you have to leave your comfort zone and push your boundaries.”
Katy also had her eyes set on a different creative career path before music captured her heart.
A very dry wit, Katy originally wanted to follow in the footsteps of her first idol, Jim Carey, she says.
“I wanted to be like Jim Carey. I wanted to be an actor or actress so much and he was my idol. He still is. I love him to bits,” says Katy, but when she was 17 years old music caught her with its “buzz and excitement” that touched her deep within.
“I kind of stumbled upon it and I fell into it very quickly. It felt so natural to me,” says Katy, reminiscing about the moment she decided to go for it. “Music has always been a big part of my life, but now I live for music.”
A self-described “weird kid,” Katy recalls how music spoke to her during emotional moments from happiness to sadness in her youth and how she would listen to a song that touched her until she knew it inside and out.
“That’s what I want to get at with my music,” says Katy. “I would love for people to feel the way about music that I did when I was younger.”
“I want to tap into people’s everyday lives,” through her music she says. “I want people to relate their different stories to my songs individually. That would mean the world to me.”
The heart of the people
Katy realizes her fortune as she drifts from place to place.
“I live wherever my bags takes me,” says Katy joking about her lack of a home due to life on the road, “I’m officially a hobo.”
But she’s addicted to the road and most of all listening to people tell her their stories that may eventually make their way into Katy’s music.
“I love meeting new people. I love it,” she says. “I’m into finding out what people do, where do they come from, especially in America. I find that people travel more and they live in different places than where they original from [in America] and I love speaking to people about it. In England, it’s completely different.”
Some of Katy’s favorite American destinations are Miami, Portland, Ore., but the place that has really stolen her heart is Las Vegas.
“I have a terrible relationship with Vegas,” she says admitting that she will jump at any opportunity to go to the desert city. “It’s the worse boyfriend I’ve ever had in my life, but I’m in love with it.”
Yet, out of the corner of her eye she has Boston and Chicago, two places she hasn’t been to, in her sights, she says.
Catch up with Katy on her Facebook if not for seeing when she will be in your town next, simply for her raw, down-to-earth Brit humor.
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