ENTERTAINING SC: Kylie Hinze — From Stage Fright to Stage Front
Her laugh and smile are infectious. Her upbeat attitude and enthusiasm make it almost impossible for you not to be in a good mood when you’re around her.
Kylie Hinze may be a 14 year old rising high school sophomore, but she’s driven to go past the typical extracurricular activities. Instead of class president or homecoming queen, she’s thinking about record deals and Grammy awards.
We had an opportunity to sit down with Kylie and her mom/manager Lori shortly after the biggest night so far in Kylie’s young career – opening for Colbie Callait and Gavin DeGraw.
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You’re extremely talented. I didn’t preface that with “For fourteen, you’re extremely talented.” You’re extremely talented for any age. When did you know that this was the direction that you wanted to go?
KYLIE: When I was in sixth grade. Because I started writing songs when I was eight and I was playing piano when I was six, so it’s always been in my blood, I guess, and my parents would sing us to sleep and stuff. But in sixth grade, I did my school talent show and after I got off the stage, first I was like super nervous but then once I got on the stage I just had a great time. Afterwards, I was like, “Mom, I want to do this.”
What was the reaction when you said “Mom, I want to do this?”
LORI: Yeah, we were okay with that. She had already been always singing. I was the youth director at church and she would sing in the choir and everybody was like, “Lori, oh my gosh, you’ve got to hear Kylie.” And I’m like, “Hear her what?” She just stood out from everybody else. So then they wanted her to do a solo but because she was very shy, we had to be in the other room…
KYLIE: I was so shy, so shy.
LORI: Nobody believes it now because…nobody believes it now.
KYLIE: I wouldn’t even sing for them. I’d make them go in the other room and turn their back away from the direction I was in.
LORI: So, when they said that at church they wanted her to sing a solo at Christmas, I said, “Well, you ask her, I’m not.” And they did and she did it and she had people in tears afterwards. She was like, “Why are they crying?” thinking it was bad. You were what? Eight or nine? You were nine.
KYLIE: I was very nervous until after sixth grade.
LORI: Tears of joy so we were…we just believed in her.
KYLIE: Want to hear an even funnier story?
Yes.
KYLIE: First time I went into the studio, it was for a contest and like now I sing all the time, I sing in front of people. I cried for a straight hour before I would ever go up to the mic, and I made my dad sing into the mic before I did because I was so nervous.
Because your nerves were so shot.
LORI: My husband took her and he’s like…I’m like, “Are y’all done yet, text me.” And he’s like, “Kylie won’t go, she’s crying.” So yeah, he had to do it. The recording guy got her going.
So you pretty much turned it into karaoke night.
LORI: But then she got going…
KYLIE: Then I after I got it going and ever since then it’s been…
LORI: Once she did something once, she kind of got over her fear.
At your age, it is almost impossible to do what you want to do without a supportive family structure. From your standpoint, how has support gone and how important is it for you to be where you are now and where that’s going to take you down the road.
KYLIE: Like I 100% believe I would not be at the point where I am today if I did have supportive parents. Because my mom is like my mom but she’s also my manager so she keeps me in line but she gets me lots of shows and she’s just good with researching social media and internet stuff. She just gets it on the ball and I get to do all these cool things. Then my dad and my brother, they’re always there to support me. And my brother, if I’m ever like stressed out or like nervous or something, he just like makes me laugh and it’s always good to have him there to like lighten the mood. And I just…I would not be able to do this without them because they do support me so much and they’re a big part of everything that I do.
Do you two have any headbutting contests, or is everything pretty smooth sailing?
LORI: Everything’s pretty good, other than sometimes she says I’m like a drill sergeant. Just reminding her of things because she is that creative spirit who doesn’t…
KYLIE: I don’t have a good time scheduling. I just go on or I do whatever. I do music for hours and hours or I’ll be doing something and she’ll be like, “You have to do this now.” And I’ll say, “Don’t let me schedule my music time. I need to do this for me.”
LORI: I’m like, “Okay, we have homework to do. Oh, and you need to take a shower. And oh, it’s 11:00 and you need to go to bed.” So she’s not very time…she gets that from her dad. Her dad is an artist. I’m more organized — keeping everybody on track.
And those two complement each other. They’re necessary because you can’t do one without the other, at least and be successful.
LORI: And that’s just not her forte so we just tell her, “You just focus on the music.”
KYLIE: And also, I am in school, and I have…there’s a lot of time that she has that she can email people on my behalf like if I want to do something, she can talk to them about it while I’m in school or something because I literally don’t have that time or communicate with them like she can.
LORI: I mean, I run everything by her. I’ll text her…like one weekend the Drive (Greenville’s Single A Baseball team) called wanting her to play, and it was after the big show and I’m afraid she’s going to be tired, but I said let me ask Kylie. I said, “Do you want to sing Sunday or Monday?” And she goes “I’ll do it Sunday not Monday,” because Monday we just wanted to chill so I emailed them that Kylie will do it Sunday because they were in a bind. I run everything by her.
KYLIE: It’s neat that people ask me to come do things.
Now, you got to open for Gavin DeGraw and Colby Callait, which is an amazing opportunity. I don’t care if you’re 14 or 40. When you got the phone call, how’d you get ready for the show? How did your nerves go? You weren’t just in studio this time. You opened a stage show for Gavin DeGraw and Colbie Callait.
KYLIE: When my mom sent me the text that I get to open up in school, I was like…like I didn’t believe it. I was first “Is this for real?” Because a guy in my school got on my phone and changed his number to my mom’s number and whatever, so he texted me. He was like “John Mayer wants to do a song with you.” I was like this is not my mom, like, hello. Because I had seen the earlier messages and I know this isn’t my mom. So I was like “Nice try.” But then she really did text me and it was, “Colbie Caillat and Gavin DeGraw. You’re getting to open for them.”
LORI: Her text back was, “What? Really?”
That’s really huge.
KYLIE: So I was like…it didn’t sing in until probably the day of, actually. And just like every day, I would practice my set list, which was seven songs and it got cut down to six. But I just would run through my set list every single day, multiple times working on every little detail and stuff like that. And then the day of, well, leading up to that week of, I had like interviews with the news and stuff like that so that was a lot of fun. I got to get out of school.
So that’s a big bonus.
KYLIE: Oh, yes. If I have to choose between school or music, it’s music. So I did lots of news interviews, and that morning I went and did one actually at Freedom Weekend Aloft, at the Charter Amphitheater, and I got to up in a hot air balloon so that was fun. It was tethered, so I wasn’t too scared. Then we came back home, and we kind of like chilled. I’m a big reader, so I just read, calming myself or whatever. Then I started…I actually stayed in my clothes I had on that day. I’m going into details. You probably don’t care about my clothes but (She grins and laughs.)…oh, and earlier that week, I got my nails done to match my outfits so I had to do that. But then I got ready and went there. I’m not talking about nerves yet but…so then I packed my stuff and went to the venue, and I had this little trailer. It was so cool. Backstage, I had a trailer, and we did the sound check and I was pretty calm, but then, you know, before the show, I got really nervous. I usually don’t get nervous for shows, now, but I think just because it hit me that “Oh my gosh. I’m opening up for Colbie Callait and Gavin DeGraw in front of all these people. Almost in my backyard. Whoa.” So I did get probably more nervous than I had ever gotten for any of my shows, but then I went out on the stage and I just had a lot of fun. I enjoy every part of music so I enjoy recording and writing the songs, but live performances are so much like adrenaline and stuff so it was really neat when the crowd would interact. And then afterwards, I signed autographs for an hour, around an hour, a little over an hour.
LORI: I mean we had a line. My sister was helping with the merch (merchandise) and she was like, “Is this line for Kylie?” And it was.
That’s awesome.
KYLIE: It’s really cool.
Now, to be the opener, did you get any feedback from Gavin or Colbie?
KYLIE: Yeah, I did. I first felt like, ”Where are they?” because they were already in their trailers or whatever. But I did. I got to talk to Gavin, and he was really sweet, and I got to talk to Colbie, and they were both really nice people, and like very down to earth. They did get to come out and see a little bit of my show so they were like, “Wow. Great job. Thank you for opening up for us.” So they were just really complimentary and nice and really good like down-to-earth people. And I got to spend a lot of time with their band members because they are off in their trailers or doing meet-and-greet or something like that getting ready for their shows later that night but I did get to spend a lot of time with their band and they were really cool.
LORI: She was talking with the band. I was like “Okay, we need to get home.” I was tired, she was not.”
There is that adrenaline that just kind of keeps you going.
LORI: And I had it too. She was definitely…
How long before you came down? Or are you down yet?
KYLIE: I woke up that morning smiling.
LORI: She did, I woke her up and she was beaming still. Oh, you said, first thing, remember? “Gavin followed me last night.”
KYLIE: Yeah, he followed me on Twitter and so did his band members.
You’ve got 5000 friends on your personal page. You’ve got to expand that, what are you going to?
LORI: Yeah, we’re trying to push everybody to the fan page. We’ve learned from some other artists that once you fill up on the personal, that’s…
KYLIE: But that’s kind of a good thing. It’s a good thing that I filled up to 5000 because now, when I get friend requests, I can say “Hey, go like my music page.” That’ll help out.
LORI: So we’re having to push everybody there now because right now I’ve got a bunch of friend requests.
How’s that transition going?
LORI: They’re going up. You have to keep constantly telling them, you just have to keep on that.
You’re singing voice is much older than your speaking voice. You do sound older than your fourteen years, but you’re able to mix it with a sound that speaks to that younger audience. Who do you hope is listening to your music, and how do you want people to perceive you?
KYLIE: Everyone. I think my main audience is people my age and younger — girls and boys, too. And so I definitely…I write my songs, whatever comes to me. Then I work that in…I think the songs, because I pull from everything around me and experiences that happen to me or things that I hear that happened to other people. I write about very real things people my age and younger can listen to. I enjoy playing my music, and I want other people to enjoy my music. You know, like you’re driving down the road in the summer and you have like that…you hear that song on the radio. You’re like “Turn it up,” and you jam out in your car. That’s what I want my music to do for other people.
How do you want people to see you?
KYLIE: As a person? I want…I’m not a very like sketchy person, so I want people to see me for me, for who I am so I try to put myself in all of my music and all of the things I do because if I don’t act myself, what’s the point? You know? What you see is what you get. This is me.
- Follow Kylie on Twitter at @kyliehinze.
- Follow Kylie on Facebook HERE.
- Visit Kylie online HERE.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
