Singer/songwriter Kat Quinn came to New York, intent on making a living as a performing songwriter. Shortly after arriving, her shows began winning praise for her warm, sensitive vocals, easy-going charisma, and sharp, straight from the heart songwriting, with lyrics marked by a winning combination of poetry and plainspoken language. She has an uncanny ability to instantly draw listeners into her singular worldview.

 

Kat Quinn grew up in Marblehead, MA, a historic port town north of Boston known as the birthplace of the US Navy. Quinn didn't think about a career in music until college, but grew up playing piano, switching to drums and percussion in high school. She played in marching, concert and jazz bands, "I got a guitar when I was 15 and taught myself to play, mostly singer/songwriter stuff. I took a few lessons, but focused more on learning songs I liked to sing, than working on becoming a great guitarist. I wrote my first song in college, when I was upset over a boy. The song just kind of fell out of me. After that, I started writing all the time. My voice teacher sent my demo to an artist in LA, who saw some potential in the songs. That was the turning point."

 

Quinn didn't study music at Notre Dame; she majored in Spanish Literature and Peace Studies, with a minor in Latin American studies. She spent a lot of time in Latin America and got a grant to travel to Ecuador to write songs about immigration. "My project involved gathering the stories of children who had been left behind by parents that had emigrated to other countries in search of work. My studies were a round-about way to get to songwriting, but I think they have given me a different perspective as a songwriter."

 

Since relocating to New York, she's been pursuing her songwriting career fulltime. She licensed a song to Happily After, a film by John Klein. The soundtrack won a Gold Medal for Excellence at the Park City Film Festival. The University of Notre Dame included another song, "Luck and Angels," on a two CD set that includes recordings from Regis Philbin, Cathy Richardson, Father Ted Hesburgh and the O¹Neill Brothers. Both Kat and her song, "What Love Feels Like," were featured in an ad for an iPhone App called VoxBox. And in March of 2013, she had the opportunity to compete in the Battle of the Instant Songwriters on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, in which she was given a song title and then had to write a song in less an hour, and perform it live on the show. Her song was called "Clouds Are People Too."