Kate Voegele wants to be friends with her fans.
The pop-rock musician and "One árvore Hill" actress, 22, keeps them up-to-date via the Web. She has a MySpace page (Interscope's MySpace Records released her CD "A Fine Mess," in May) and maintains a blog at katevoegele.com. And on Twitter, she relates to fãs mais like a person than a product.
One tweet reads: "Annapolis is one of my new favorito cities EVER...had some serious crabcakes and ice cream last night." Voegele performs Friday night at Rash Field with Uncle Kracker and Bel Air native Julienne Irwin, 16, an "America's Got Talent" finalist. In a recent phone conversation, Voegele's Midwestern charm and effervescent personality thwarted any sense of burgeoning celebrity.
Question: Which do you prefer? Performing música or acting?
Answer: They're both creative challenges for me, but I'll always be a musician. I can't imagine my life without it. Acting's been fun, because it's new. My role on "One árvore Hill's" been my first real atuação gig, aside from my high school musical. It was "Once Upon a Mattress," and I was in the chorus.
Question: As far as acting, are there any projects in the works besides "One árvore Hill"?
Answer: I'm hoping to do mais acting. I've fallen in amor with it. Anything that challenges me creatively, I am just so curious about.
Question: On your Twitter feed Aug. 11, you posted, "Played an open mic night in a dive bar for the first time in 5 years." What's that all about?
Answer: I was in Wilmington, [N.C.,] shooting for "One árvore Hill," and one of my friends from the show hosts an open-mic night at this little dive bar. She was like, "Please come out and play a song." ... I went over and played for maybe 40 drunk people, and it was awesome. Not that there's ever any pressure, because I amor performing live, but it was a totally different thing than playing my own headlining apresentação, show, gig for 800 people.
Question: Did those 40 drunk people recognize you?
Answer: Besides the ones that were super-drunk, yeah. People who live in Wilmington know we shoot "One árvore Hill" there. Everybody was so chill. That's what I amor about that little town. People aren't crazy and starstruck.
Question: What kind of interactions do you have with fãs on Twitter?
Answer: I just got a camera phone, so I've begun taking pictures of things. This girl who's adorable and a really big fã sent me two dozen rosas the other night, and it was just amazing. All I have to do is snap a picture of it, and say, "Thanks so much for these flowers. You're the greatest." And everyone can see it, and for her it's a cool thing that she sees that I appreciate it. That's one of the things I amor about Twitter. When people follow you, you realize, "I can show my fãs who I am outside of my music." Instead of promoting myself, it's great to just say, "Hey, guys, I'm hanging out at Panera with some chicken noodle soup."
Question: Julienne Irwin is opening before you. What were you doing musically when you were 16?
Answer: I think it's cool she's playing this apresentação, show, gig at 16. When I was 16, that was about the time I was starting. I started playing violão, guitarra when I was 15, and started composição literária songs my sophomore ano of high school. I think it was the most fun time, because I didn't know you could have a shot at this being a kid from a small suburb of the Midwest. I thought you had to be related to famous people and be friends with people in Hollywood. ... Things were unfolding for me very quickly, so I was playing side stage shows for Counting Crows and John Mayer and all these people I was idolizing. Discovering it all in a grass-roots way was so much fun for me. Hopefully, she's having as much fun with it as I did.
Question: Do you have any conselhos for her?
Answer: My biggest advice, and it sounds cliche, but just don't be discouraged. There are so many times somebody who is a jerk who doesn't get it is going to tell you that you can't do it.
Question: You're headed to europa soon?
Answer: I am really excited. I have never been for work or play. All my friends went and studied abroad in college, so I'm like, "I've got to go to Europe!" mais importantly, I'm getting messages every dia from fãs in France, the U.K., Germany and all over europa that are like, "When are you touring here?"
Question: If you have time to do anything besides perform and tour, what do you hope to do while you're there?
Answer: I want to take pictures in front of all the typical stuff. But I also hope to stumble upon some cool, unexpected things. I will definitely be tweeting. Definitely.
The pop-rock musician and "One árvore Hill" actress, 22, keeps them up-to-date via the Web. She has a MySpace page (Interscope's MySpace Records released her CD "A Fine Mess," in May) and maintains a blog at katevoegele.com. And on Twitter, she relates to fãs mais like a person than a product.
One tweet reads: "Annapolis is one of my new favorito cities EVER...had some serious crabcakes and ice cream last night." Voegele performs Friday night at Rash Field with Uncle Kracker and Bel Air native Julienne Irwin, 16, an "America's Got Talent" finalist. In a recent phone conversation, Voegele's Midwestern charm and effervescent personality thwarted any sense of burgeoning celebrity.
Question: Which do you prefer? Performing música or acting?
Answer: They're both creative challenges for me, but I'll always be a musician. I can't imagine my life without it. Acting's been fun, because it's new. My role on "One árvore Hill's" been my first real atuação gig, aside from my high school musical. It was "Once Upon a Mattress," and I was in the chorus.
Question: As far as acting, are there any projects in the works besides "One árvore Hill"?
Answer: I'm hoping to do mais acting. I've fallen in amor with it. Anything that challenges me creatively, I am just so curious about.
Question: On your Twitter feed Aug. 11, you posted, "Played an open mic night in a dive bar for the first time in 5 years." What's that all about?
Answer: I was in Wilmington, [N.C.,] shooting for "One árvore Hill," and one of my friends from the show hosts an open-mic night at this little dive bar. She was like, "Please come out and play a song." ... I went over and played for maybe 40 drunk people, and it was awesome. Not that there's ever any pressure, because I amor performing live, but it was a totally different thing than playing my own headlining apresentação, show, gig for 800 people.
Question: Did those 40 drunk people recognize you?
Answer: Besides the ones that were super-drunk, yeah. People who live in Wilmington know we shoot "One árvore Hill" there. Everybody was so chill. That's what I amor about that little town. People aren't crazy and starstruck.
Question: What kind of interactions do you have with fãs on Twitter?
Answer: I just got a camera phone, so I've begun taking pictures of things. This girl who's adorable and a really big fã sent me two dozen rosas the other night, and it was just amazing. All I have to do is snap a picture of it, and say, "Thanks so much for these flowers. You're the greatest." And everyone can see it, and for her it's a cool thing that she sees that I appreciate it. That's one of the things I amor about Twitter. When people follow you, you realize, "I can show my fãs who I am outside of my music." Instead of promoting myself, it's great to just say, "Hey, guys, I'm hanging out at Panera with some chicken noodle soup."
Question: Julienne Irwin is opening before you. What were you doing musically when you were 16?
Answer: I think it's cool she's playing this apresentação, show, gig at 16. When I was 16, that was about the time I was starting. I started playing violão, guitarra when I was 15, and started composição literária songs my sophomore ano of high school. I think it was the most fun time, because I didn't know you could have a shot at this being a kid from a small suburb of the Midwest. I thought you had to be related to famous people and be friends with people in Hollywood. ... Things were unfolding for me very quickly, so I was playing side stage shows for Counting Crows and John Mayer and all these people I was idolizing. Discovering it all in a grass-roots way was so much fun for me. Hopefully, she's having as much fun with it as I did.
Question: Do you have any conselhos for her?
Answer: My biggest advice, and it sounds cliche, but just don't be discouraged. There are so many times somebody who is a jerk who doesn't get it is going to tell you that you can't do it.
Question: You're headed to europa soon?
Answer: I am really excited. I have never been for work or play. All my friends went and studied abroad in college, so I'm like, "I've got to go to Europe!" mais importantly, I'm getting messages every dia from fãs in France, the U.K., Germany and all over europa that are like, "When are you touring here?"
Question: If you have time to do anything besides perform and tour, what do you hope to do while you're there?
Answer: I want to take pictures in front of all the typical stuff. But I also hope to stumble upon some cool, unexpected things. I will definitely be tweeting. Definitely.
