{"id":4089,"date":"2023-04-01T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onthecoastpublications.com.au\/onthecoastfamilies\/?p=4089"},"modified":"2023-09-07T23:12:42","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T13:12:42","slug":"coffee-with-a-coastie-central-coast-families-courtney-keil-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onthecoastpublications.com.au\/onthecoastfamilies\/coffee-with-a-coastie-central-coast-families-courtney-keil-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Coffee with a Coastie – Dive into Courtney Keil’s Musical Journey from the Adelaide Hills to the Central Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Listen to the full interview here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to Coffee with a Coastie. We had the pleasure of chatting with Country singer and Central Coast local Courtney Keil. Courtney has hit the ground running since her debut release in 2020 of \u2018I Just Wanna Hold You\u2019 and has continued to release hit after hit. With the release of her debut album \u2018The Good Kind\u2019 we sat down to chat with Courtney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You were born on an Adelaide Hills deer farm and lived in both New Zealand and Melbourne before making your way to the Central Coast. What brought you to the Central Coast?<\/strong>
My music brought me here. I\u2019ve been lucky to live in Melbourne which was beautiful and Auckland when I was really little. Though it was when I came up to the Central Coast for the first time in early 2016, I think it was, that I fell in love with it, and knew that it was such an incredible place for music, especially country music. That I thought, oh, maybe I\u2019ll live here one day, and it took a few years, but I\u2019m here now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your first single \u2018I Just Wanna Hold You\u2019 was released at a time in 2020 when things weren\u2019t exactly normal and all of our borders were closed. What was the inspiration to push through and make this song come together?<\/strong>
Well, it was challenging and though probably the biggest thing was that I\u2019d quit my full time job in February 2020 to go full time into music in 2020 so I didn\u2019t really have a choice. When the pandemic hit, I was meant to be heading to Nashville to do some recording and writing. Then the trip got cancelled 48 hours before I was meant to be getting on the plane and within a week we were in lockdown. So, it was a bit of a rocky start to what was going to be my music year. But after the dust settled, I thought you know I\u2019ve got to do it either way. As that was the goal for the year, so thankfully I had incredible people around me to support me and encouraged me to keep going, like Central Coast native Rod McCormack, my producer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this time you created a post on Instagram captioned \u20183 things people have said to me as a musician during the pandemic\u2019 and one of your answers was \u2018people need music now more than ever\u2019. Was it this thought that helped inspire the release of your second single Hummingbird in 2021?<\/strong>
Yes, absolutely. I think Hummingbird came at a really important time with everything being so negative in the world. It\u2019s funny though, I didn\u2019t really like the song at first. When we were writing it, I thought it\u2019s a bit too cheery and chirpy. Which was very negative at the time of course. But once we finished the song and I got to start recording it, I thought actually I do like it and maybe that\u2019s the whole point of this song. To get people to look at the good, focus on the positives and spread love around. When at that time people were separated from loved ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your song \u2018The One\u2019 is about your grandparents, \u2018Lets Pretend\u2019 is a song about a vulnerable conversation with your mum and you have walked the Kokoda trail with your dad raising money for Beyond Blue. Your family obviously have a big and beautiful impact on you. Can you talk about the influence your parents have had on your music and on you as an individual outside of music?<\/strong>
Absolutely. I don\u2019t think I\u2019d be at this point in my career without them. I\u2019m so grateful to have such great support that I know not everyone has, especially musicians. Not every parent\u2019s dream is for their child to be a struggling musician in their early years. But they\u2019ve always been so lovely, and I owe a lot of where I am today to them. It means everything to have their support and belief in me, especially on the days where I\u2019m not really feeling it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You posted a photo showing you at 16 captioned, \u201816 year old me would be so amazed at how many cool things happen in the next 9 years\u2019. What\u2019s the coolest thing that has happened since that photo?<\/strong>
Wow. That\u2019s a tricky question. The overarching thing would probably be the fact that I am actually living my dream. At 16, I was hoping that I\u2019d be doing music full time and getting to tour and record. So the fact that I am doing it is amazing. But then within that, there\u2019s been some incredible moments. Like getting to sing the national anthem at Bathurst for the Supercars and getting to tour with Gina Jeffreys and Tania Kernaghan. I got to do some awesome shows with them at festivals. I have to pinch myself that I\u2019m actually getting to do this stuff. It\u2019s really special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thinking back, can you share what 16 year old you was like compared to now and if you could speak to 16 year old you, what advice would you give her?<\/strong>
Well at 16 I was still in school. I was being bullied. It was not a good time in my life. I hated school. I really did not feel like I fit in, mainly I think because I knew I wanted to pursue music and I felt like what am I doing here when I already know what I want do. Also, girls can be mean in their teen years. It was a very challenging time, but thankfully I had my music outside of school. I had my safe place to do the thing that I loved. So really, the advice I\u2019d say is just keep going. If I could go back and talk to myself, I\u2019d say don\u2019t worry about all the stuff that\u2019s going on. Don\u2019t worry about everything that is going on at school. It\u2019s all short term stuff in the scheme of things. When you are at that age, you feel like that\u2019s the be all and end all of everything, but it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What moment over the last 9 years has had the biggest impact on you and why?
<\/strong>The biggest thing would be working with Gina Jeffreys and having her in my corner supporting me. To have someone that actually knows what you\u2019re trying to do and knows what you\u2019re going through is really helpful. Having Gina mentor me over the last two and a half years has transformed everything. It\u2019s taught me to set goals and really plan ahead to what I want to do. Having someone to kind of hold your hand through the process because it can be a little daunting when you\u2019re trying to pave the way and do something new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the best piece of advice you have been given and who gave it to you?
<\/strong>Gina gave me great advice very early on. She said that as an artist you are like a jar of Vegemite. Some people like Vegemite, some people don\u2019t like Vegemite and that\u2019s just part of life. It was something like, you know, as a writer not everyone\u2019s going to love your song, that\u2019s just part of it. But a lot of people love Vegemite as well, some people like it a lot and lather it on some people only have a little bit and it\u2019s a bit like that with country music. Not everyone\u2019s going to have country music as every single song in their iTunes or Spotify library, but if there\u2019s a little slither in there, try and make sure it\u2019s you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, what advice would you give someone young that is starting to develop a passion for music but just sees the opportunity of making something of it so far away?<\/strong>
I think the big thing is listen to all music. If you can get a broad knowledge of music, it\u2019s going to help you a lot and can take you a long way in your music education. At the same time it\u2019s just sticking to it. Whether it\u2019s sitting down and writing a song or learning some stuff on piano, it\u2019s all those little steps that really end up being the big steps when you look back. It\u2019s spending time working on your craft even when you don\u2019t feel like any opportunities are coming. Then as much as I hate to say it, those piano scales or vocal scales, keep them up. You might hate them, I still do, but it\u2019s all the little things that make a difference in the long run. If it\u2019s your dream, you have to find a way to make it work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can check out Courtney Keil by visiting her website at courtneykeil.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listen to the full interview here Welcome to Coffee with a Coastie. We had the pleasure of chatting with Country singer and Central Coast local Courtney Keil. Courtney has hit…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sync_status":"","episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[116],"series":[170],"class_list":["post-4089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coffee-with-a-coastie","tag-article","series-on-the-coast-families"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/onthecoastpublications.com.au\/onthecoastfamilies\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/03\/Courtney-Keil-Podcast.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/onthecoastpublications.com.au\/onthecoastfamilies\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/onthecoastpublications.com.au\/onthecoastfamilies\/feed\/podcast\/on-the-coast-families","embedCode":"

Coffee with a Coastie – Dive into Courtney Keil’s Musical Journey from the Adelaide Hills to the Central Coast<\/a><\/blockquote>