Her Boston fans have been wondering whatever became of her after she moved down south last fall. Singer-songwriter-piano player Krysta Youngs moved out of Boston to pursue her Top 40 dreams in the city of Nashville. Not seeing many opportunities for independent, original artists in Boston, Youngs packed up her bags and left for Music City.
I wanted to do my own music, and when I was in Boston, I wasn’t really sure there was a giant outlet for that,” Youngs said. “I moved to Nashville because I’m a songwriter, and I thought Nashville was small enough that I could do what I do and get noticed pretty quickly.”
Youngs made her move five months ago. The singer had already made a lot of connections in the Music City, so moving from Boston to Nashville was a lot easier than moving from Boston to Los Angeles.
Nashville has been supportive. She has been co-writing with professionals. After an official from ASCAP listened to her material, he told her she’s good but her songs “aren’t ready yet.” The ASCAP official suggested she co-write. A day later, Youngs posted a notice on Nashville Networking, on Facebook, received many responses and she’s been doing nothing but co-writing for the last two weeks.
“You go into a room for three or four hours and you come out with a great song,” Youngs said. “Two days ago we went into a room and we did it just from scratch. A week before that I came up with a little chord progression from a verse, and we took that and we created a whole different song from where I was going.”
Young feels she’s in her own element, yet she still has a lot to learn. “I think you can get something creative from everybody you work with. I feel like I’m getting a lot of really great ideas and techniques from different people.”
This approach has taken Youngs in new directions. She just wrote a country song only days ago. “It’s called ‘This Ain’t Country Strong,’ which has nothing to do with movie. I like the diversity, being able to write different types of music.” She doesn’t necessarily want to write all of these songs for her own music career.
Youngs now desires to be a songwriter as much as a performer. She can’t imagine doing only one. Gigs have not come her way often in Nashville. At the end of March, Youngs will be in Austin, Texas performing at the Red Guerilla Music Festival near the South By Southwest Conference and Festival. She just got back from St. Louis, Missouri, where she attended the NACA conference, the National Association of College Activities, where she was trying to book college gigs. She is contemplating a tour of college gigs after hearing favorable interest. “My booking agent is great,” she said.
Youngs has also been talking to Bunim/Murray productions who places music on MTV and other networks. Six of her songs were blanket licensed for 11 TV shows. “This happened about three weeks ago,” Youngs said.
Connections are easily made when you’re in Nashville. Youngs had coffee just the other day with the songwriter who wrote “Private Eyes” for Hall & Oates. Even bigger names are approachable. “You can still call them,” she said, “even if they’re famous, which I find incredibly comforting. It’s a very supportive community down here.”
When Youngs arrived in Nashville, she did an online auction for a video she had made back in Boston. The proceeds went to Nashville’s Children Hospital. A local television program called Better Nashville played her video on the air for four minutes.
Youngs most memorable experience in Nashville so far was a co-writing session with Christopher Roberts at Warner Music. Inside Warner there different writing rooms and each room has a different scenery and décor to inspire a song. Seeing people making a living at that really inspired Youngs. “It was great,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
Nashville has an advantage over Boston in that music fans stay around longer than in Boston, a college town in which your fans base moves away every four years. “I loved living in Boston because I loved going to Berklee,” Youngs said. “Nashville’s different because you’re dealing with such a wide variety of musicians. But they’re all in one community. It doesn’t seem like they’re trying to compete with you. A lot of people are really trying to help you out. The mentality down south is very much a southern mentality compared to that of being up in Boston.”
Youngs said Boston wasn’t even competitive as much as busy. The hustling and bustling in the Hub leaves little time to sit down and write. She feels the community in Nashville helps shapes your success. “You’ve got a little bit more hope down here,” she said.
“I just don’t think Boston’s a music town,” Youngs continued, “and people may argue with me when I say that. I sang in a wedding band and a cover band, and Boston was great for that. People love that. They’ll pay you good money. For that type of musician or for a teacher it’s wonderful. For an independent artist, I don’t think it’s that great. The cost of living is very expensive. I pay $200 (a month) less down here having a three bedroom house than I did for a one bedroom apartment in Boston.”
She does appreciate the Hub as a learning experience she had to go through before she was ready to make the move to Nashville. “People knew who I was. I have a reputation, which is great,” she said. “I just wasn’t doing what I wanted to do. I didn’t feel like I was being really true to myself. I was performing a lot but it just wasn’t with my music.”
Youngs currently earns her living as an assistant to the owner of a P.R. company. Fliers, social network sites, and Photoshop are among her current duties. Although Youngs hasn’t played out yet in Nashville, she has gotten people to help her and listen to her music. She said the key thing is to go out a lot at night and have people see your face at clubs and coffee shops. “Nashville is all built on relationships, not on how great you are,” she said.
Youngs has been pursuing stardom since she was four, standing on her mother’s kitchen table singing into a toy microphone. “I’d like to be recognized for my music, and I’d like to be recognized for my other talents and my personality, and what I do, and have somebody pay me to be who I am,” she said. Youngs does some modeling on the side. She does her own makeup and wardrobe stuff for every single photo shoot she’s ever had. She also conceptualized the music videos she has performed in.
Youngs grew up listening to the Top 40 radio that her parents had constantly playing in the house. As a child, she wanted to be a part of the world she was hearing. Growing up in Grand Blanc, Michigan, there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for pop-rock. “It was very confusing growing up and it really wasn’t until I went to Berklee that I realized I could do all the things I’m doing now.” Youngs graduated with a Music Business degree.
Being a serious musicians never distracted her from her girly-girl side that wanted to be a model. She found a business called Model Mayhem that allowed her to pursue that dream as well. Young developed a cartoon introduction for her video “Love’s Garage Sale” and the video itself features her using her modeling skills to pose like an actress.
“I’m very dramatic by myself without any help so that tends to help with the camera,” she said. Sense of humor has also been important to her for a long time. She can suddenly riff on something that someone says or something that happens. It shows up in her recently video “Adventures In Nashville.”
For now, she wants to go back to working on her first album since 2008. Since her last CD, she’s been releasing singles. She was putting songs together for her upcoming appearance at the Red Guerilla Music Festival which takes place during the South By Southwest Conference and Festival. Her current work, she says, will result in a mix of One Republic and Kings Of Leon.