Kara Hesse’s Album, Devil & The Dove — “absolute rebirth and reset, exploring identity, grief, perseverance, self-worth and what happens when you finally stop measuring yourself against other people’s expectations.”
Born in Wichita, Kansas. Raised in Boulder, Colorado. Growing up in a household filled with music and instruments, began singing and playing at a young age. Music style blends elements of soul, blues, rock, and Americana. How have you arrived at a sound that feels authentically yours rather than confined to a particular genre?
That’s a super compliment. In all transparency, for whatever reason, I have always had a tough time with comparisons. It’s just a natural thing that happens in my gut when I’m complimented to sound ‘like’ someone — and it is usually someone that is on everyone’s current radar, but there’s something in me that as I’m saying thank you, I’m wanting to run the other way and do something different.
I once came across an interview of Bono, saying this exact same thing and that made me realize that just as there are artists out there that want to be compared to their heroes, there are also artists that would rather pioneer their own sound. I think me fighting those comparisons all my life, while well-intended, has carved out whatever sound I now have.
As far as genres go, I don’t think of ‘sound’ as much in terms of what genre to fit in. I suppose when I’m in the studio and I want to dress the song a certain way, I lean into instruments that paint it into a feeling, like a pedal steel putting me on some backroad in the country or a mariachi trumpet putting me on a white sand beach in Mexico. I think if my voice has any of its own character, it’s simply because I studied from the greats and then went my own way with it.
You’ve mentioned that your dad used to bring you out to dive bars as a young child to sit in with local musicians. What did those late-night smoky rooms teach you about performance that a classroom or music school never could?
Goodness, I haven’t thought about those days in a while.
I think the greatest lesson I’ve pulled from those nights was how to really listen. Always a work in progress, but it was in those clubs that I realized it wasn’t about me. It was about the song and sharing it with everyone on stage. Anyone can learn a riff or lead or a solo and play it all over a song and maybe even wildly impress the audience. But the purpose of music for me deepened in those rooms and it taught me that space in music might almost be the most important thing.
Also, I may or may not have learned a little bit about the infamous devil that is the liquid courage. One night, he told me to hop up there and improvise on the keys with the blues cats. I had been learning my scales and had studied a bit of blues and rock ‘n roll piano enough to stumble through a solo if I had to, but I was just too afraid to take that step, when he turned to me and said, ‘take a lil sip of this. It’ll knock off the edge.’ While not a super dad award, it was a dear memory that shaped so much of my stage presence. Those nights embraced me in my greenery and allowed me to push through fear and hone my skills on stage, where perhaps I would’ve been too afraid to try.
Now in Seattle and Nashville. “One of my favorite parts of this journey are the impromptus that go on behind the scenes, the ones that remind us why we all chose music in the first place.” Critics have described your voice as a cross between Janis Joplin, Bonnie Raitt, and Sia. Which parts of those legendary artists do you feel living inside your own vocal style?
Alternatively to what I said earlier about comparisons, these ones do get me revved. True legends. It can only be a complement. It has shifted over the years, but I would say if I had to choose, Bonnie Raitt hands down. Janis comes out here and there. Maybe a little too much sometimes when I have something I have to get off my chest and I think Sia is a wonderful contemporary example. I love her so much. But Bonnie, she’s got that lived-in soul and sound that I can always just put on at home and never tire of.
You’ve shared stages with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Al Green. What is one lesson you learned just by watching them command an audience from the wings?
Well, to be honest, I may have been down in the Red Rocks tunnel during their set, doodling hearts on the wall with my daughter who was 4 at the time. Lol.
Better By Morning, debut self-released album. The title track can be heard on television shows like CBS’s Scorpion and DirecTV’s You Me Her. What was it like hearing your intimate story broadcast to millions of TV viewers?
That was a wild one. I don’t think I even knew it was happening until a friend sent me a video of it on their TV and I think it took a few days to set in. I eventually brought myself to watch the episode and was obviously just all smiles, ear to ear.
The second one off that record “I Know How To Love” that landed You Me Her was a little cherry on top — and I think that’s because the door was already open. And let’s just say the scene it was placed on might not be appropriate for the babies. Ha!
Sojourner, sophomore release that further developed your signature sound, drawing critical praise for its rich arrangements and songwriting depth. When you write about something deeply personal, how do you determine what to reveal and what to leave for the listener to interpret?
I don’t really write from that headspace. I always just try to write with an unbridled intention and follow the song as it spills out. I’ve never really been very conscious of what not to reveal. I don’t think an honest song would even allow that.
Years in the making, your new album, Devil & the Dove. An “absolute rebirth and reset, exploring identity, grief, perseverance, self-worth and what happens when you finally stop measuring yourself against other people’s expectations.” What does the album title represent?
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The title was actually pulled from a line off of Track 8 ‘You Can Have It All’ and it wasn’t actually my first choice of an album title, but it kept haunting me; the dichotomy of it and the reality that they both live inside us and in the world surrounding us. As I was experiencing the album as a whole, going on long walks listening start to finish, the title just seemed to wrap itself around the stories and it felt like a fair and honest name.
“Goodbye Past Life.” A farewell to what was. A welcome to what’s next. “Truth is people that know me often ask me why I don’t share more of my personal life as an artist and it’s because I much prefer to be a light to others.” Is there something you are no longer willing to compromise in pursuit of a music career?
Mmm, the song isn’t really about my music career or any sort of compromise for it. What I meant was that everyone has enough heavy to carry and them knowing the details of my past wasn’t really important; simply that if you live and breathe, you’re bound to run into some sh*t and sometimes holding onto it does more damage. You just learn to walk alongside your experiences and try to learn from them. ‘Goodbye Past Life’ is simply acknowledging those truths, allowing them to live in your heart but not letting them take over or ‘compromise’ the choice of living a happy life.
The new single, “Vanity,” confronts the complicated relationship women have with beauty, aging and comparison, while asking where those beliefs begin. What does vanity mean to you personally, and what was the initial spark that inspired you to write this song?
Vanity is a natural part of our human condition, and it’s not just about women, and it’s not even really about aging as much as it is just understanding how deep beauty can go. Vanity, I find, — if it is the focus of someone’s life — can leave an emptiness in people and man do they miss out. Beauty is so layered and cultural standards of beauty can make it hard to keep that perspective. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but what we see is just one layer. Look beyond, and life just gets richer.
I am not sure where the initial spark began, as I’ve always battled with trying to understand this often vain world — not to mention being in the limelight all the time as a performer puts this silly pressure on myself to always look good — but I really felt the need to write it after seeing so much of it on social media and how it seemed to encourage the younger generations to seek attention that way. We are so young in our development with social media and it just felt like it was becoming the only thing that mattered to the younger generations before they even had a chance to discover who they are.
Stepping more fully into the producer role. Initially recorded with a polished pop-country approach but realized something wasn’t right. You slowed the production down and rebuilt “Vanity” around a single gut-string guitar — the same kind of instrument you first learned to write songs on. Music often acts as a mirror for the songwriter. Is this song an act of pointing the finger outward at the world, or was it a tough conversation you had with yourself in front of a mirror?
I started out thinking a pop-country dressing might be most appropriate — wanting the message to reach more of the masses, but one day I hated it and it felt contrived, so I stripped down the production to my first love, a nylon guitar. It just felt more special and intimate and definitely felt more true to me.
This song isn’t so much of an act of pointing the finger or a silent pep-talk to myself, but more just a simple observation — and a wish for people to know they are enough just the way they are.
Designing your handcrafted jewelry line, Roadworn Handmade. “Through it, I have discovered that even material things — like songs — can hold energy and bind us all together.” Raising funds for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and to help put more books into the hands of children. Having a little girl who couldn’t afford to buy your pieces, create her own line to sell at her school. Your line was born from boredom on the road and has become a creative outlet. Of all the jewelry you have ever designed, which single piece is your absolute favorite, and what is the story behind it?
Like songs and babies, I could never have a favorite. It’s more like, what’s my favorite of the season — or rather, what’s everyone else’s favorite.. ca-ching! Just kidding. I’m always getting bored and creating a new idea, purely for the fact that I get to learn a new technique or prove to myself I’m not plateauing out on creativity.
At the moment, I’m preparing to release a new collection I’m calling Golden Hour. Currently obsessed with the hues of early autumn and I have some really exciting new designs I’m about to drop that I’ve been fine tuning since last spring. I’ll be curious to see which ones are the favorite. I’ve also been branching out into clothes and trying to quickly learn how to sew. I have this pretty rad jacket that I’ve been assembling for a few years now for stagewear and let’s just say it is made up of some 500 crochet flowers. I just need to learn how to sew a silk lining inside for that final touch!
What’s ahead in 2027?
Really looking forward to finally getting over to Europe in April. We’ll be doing a little run of shows over there in the UK and if I get the chance, I just want to hop a train over to some veranda in Sicily and write a song in a vineyard.
We’re really hoping to get out on the road much more this next year and I’ve just recently scored my first agent so that should make things a little easier with all the hats I wear.
2027 will be a year of writing and hopefully a TON of touring, as I’m already starting to feel the floodgates open with a new body of work. I don’t like to look too much further ahead, besides a nice packed calendar of gigs, but I have a feeling it’s going to be a big one.
