Erin Kirby is a small town girl with big dreams hailing from Atlanta. She’s working hard and rising quickly with her powerful voice and relatable lyrics. Earlier this year, she had the opportunity to compete on American Idol and made it to Hollywood week! Furthermore, she was labeled as “Best Local Singer/Songwriter” by Jebezel Magazine.
I had the opportunity to get to know Erin a little better and talk about her journey and her interests.
Who’s your dream artist to tour or collaborate with, and why?
I would say probably Ed Sheeran because I really want to write with him. I’ve seen on his movie that he always writes after touring, and I think that’s the coolest thing—so I’d love to tour with him because we’d get to write and have fun afterwards. Also, I think his voice is so cool.
I saw that you’re a huge activist/philanthropist and you volunteer with different organizations. Could you talk a little bit about that? And do you see a way you can connect your activism to your music or vice versa?
I first saw the idea of community service through the pageantry and I’ve always loved helping others. I had the opportunity to do more community service through pageants and I loved that.
And yes, I can connect the two through music. I feel like music heals people. When I was on American Idol, that was my statement of why I wanted to do that show. I feel like music touches people and heals people. It heals broken hearts and broken relationships and I wanted to do that through my music. And I feel like it is possible to do that through different charities or maybe donating half your show proceeds to charities.
Could you ever see yourself maybe writing about an experience that you encounter while volunteering and putting that into a song?
I think so, definitely. I’ve already seen many things that can go into songs. I did an anti-bullying tour and I sang Rise Up all throughout the tour and everybody loved it. I feel like that’s a really inspirational song. I saw hearts mending while we were teaching people about anti-bullying and I saw kids go up to one another and say “I’m sorry that I did this to you and I really hope that we can become friends” and that’s a song in itself that’s mending relationships that have been broken.
You’re based out of Atlanta, which is such a cool city. If you could move somewhere different though, where would it be?
I don’t know, I kinda love Georgia. I live in north Georgia. I love how I have the opportunity to go to the city and do my music or if I’m out of town, I can just come home to a peaceful area and look at all that is around us. I think that my dream place to move, if I ever do make it, is to Montana. It’s just so beautiful there. I’m really big into animals and I wanna have this huge farm and rescue all these animals so I feel like I could find some good land there and take care of some animals.
I noticed that you’re inspired by lots of pop artists. What kind of music did you grow up listening to?
I would say just about anything and everything. There was no specific genre. Definitely a lot of rock music, which is funny. My parents loved all the rock music so I grew up on that a lot.
Who are some of your favorite artists now?
Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Lewis Capaldi. A lot of the European male artists.
When you’re not volunteering or making music, what are some of your hobbies?
Doing community service. I find it fun. I love to see a change and obviously, I love spending time with my family as much as possible. You never know what’s gonna happen tomorrow so I wanna keep my loved ones very close. I also hang out with my band.
So you started music about 7 years ago. If you could go back and give yourself advice, what would it be?
I think I would say to write more. I always thought it was overrated to write at such a young age; but as I started writing, I learned that really was not true because I love writing music.
What inspires your writing?
I write a lot of my music based on stories that my friends tell me—whether it’s friendly relationships or other relationships. I wanna write stuff that’s relatable to everyone and I feel like, especially with my recent song Lying, I’ve heard a lot of people say “I feel like my boyfriend or girlfriend is lying or they’re doing something that they said they’re not.” You grow up learning to not lie to others and people do it a lot so I felt like that was a relatable song that I could write and people would enjoy.
What is your dream venue to play at in Atlanta or otherwise?
The Grammy’s stage. They said go big or go home and I’m not trying to go home!
The world has shifted a lot given COVID-19. How has it affected you and what have you done to adjust to the change?
Honestly, life has not changed too much other than trying to stay home as much as possible and doing online shows. I think it’s really cool to have the time to connect with my fans online from all over the world. I feel like there are so many things to do at home and you don’t realize what you have around you until you get the opportunity to sit down and see how great life is. Something that has really touched me is the thought of taking something that is so terrifying right now and giving it a positive spin by doing things with family and learning new things everyday.
Do you have any advice for musicians in quarantine right now and what they can do to stay productive in their music?
For me, writing, learning new songs to add in your sets, going live as much as possible to connect with fans. I’ve been duetting on Tik Tok with a lot of my other friends and singing with them.
Last but not least–and I think your fans are dying to know this one–Can we expect any new music soon?
Yes! I have a new song coming out next month so I’m very excited about that. It’s a different kind of music than what I’ve done before but it’s something that I’ve always wanted to put out so I’m very excited about it.
