Q&A: Katelyn Tarver Talks New Single “Starting to Scare Me,” How She Creates Songs, Upcoming Projects & More
WITH GUT-WRENCHINGLY HONEST LYRICS AND HER GRACEFUL VOICE — Katelyn Tarver delivers her brand new single, “Starting to Scare Me.” With a few works already under her belt, including several EPs and an album, Subject to Change, Tarver expands on her artistry by creating a song so raw and relatable that it proves she is a force to be reckoned with in the music industry.
Starting off young, Tarver began to fulfill her dreams of being an artist in her small hometown in Georgia, participating in local competitions. She eventually landed a spot on American Juniors, which then led to her move out to LA, where she continued her journey. Tarver landed some acting gigs, but her heart was always with music and songwriting. Her writing success skyrocketed when a song she co-wrote, “Crazy Stupid Love” by Cheryl Cole, became an instant hit on the charts in 2014. Running on that momentum, Tarver got into the studio with producer Ludwig Görranson to create her own very first single, “Weekend Millionaire,” which later helped inspire her EP Tired Eyes.
In her brand new track, “Starting to Scare Me,” Tarver is on a journey of self-reflection. Noticing everything about herself, including the negative tendencies that are difficult to break out from. Although she’s exposing these habits, she’s shamelessly indulging in them as she sings in the song, “’Cause feeling something’s better than nothing” and “I’d rip my heart out to feel something.” Lyrically, Tarver is brutally vulnerable and genuine with the emotions she's putting on paper. She effortlessly puts into words what most of us feel but are either too afraid to admit or don’t have the confidence to mutter aloud. As a listener, Tarver’s words are reassuring and validating, knowing that no one is alone in this journey of trying to heal. It is never linear — there will be days of relapses, and it's all a part of the ride. But simply being self-aware of the “bad” things about you is only a step forward closer to where you want to be.
Along with this unfiltered message provided by Tarver’s genius songwriting, the sound and production of “Starting to Scare Me” is flawless and clean, all thanks to producer Chad Copelin. The light strumming of the guitar and soft drums throughout the song are not distracting and only highlight Tarver’s smooth vocals shining through. Once we get to the pre-chorus, the instruments pick up, pairing perfectly with every verse as she’s entirely in her head, “Maybe I should care, Maybe I should stop… Have I lost my mind?” finishing off by stating, “I’m still me, but barely / I’m starting to scare me.”
The partnership between the music and lyrics is complementary to the other, making it a song that feels jam-packed with emotions yet still contained to showcase a wonderfully vulnerable song.
Continue reading below to find out more about Tarver, her musical and lyrical technique, as well as some exciting news in the works.
LUNA: Alright, so first thing’s first: How are you? I heard you just got back from a little tour. How was that?
TARVER: I did! It was good. I think my last tour was in September of last year or … November, when I went over to the UK. So it's been a minute since I've been on the road, and I kind of got used to being home. So … it was a little bit of whiplash, being like, “Oh, yeah. Playing places.” And of course it's like, I sit at home for months. Totally healthy and fine. And then three days on the road … I have a cold, I'm losing my voice, I'm so weak, but I need to work my road stamina back up a little bit.
LUNA: Thank you for being here, being that you were on the road. Congrats on the new single, “Starting to Scare Me.” How do you feel about its upcoming release?
TARVER: Excited. I mean, it was one of the later songs I wrote in this batch of songs. So it feels newer to me, which is always kind of fun to be able to put out a song that's a little more, you know, kind of recent in its creation. So I'm looking forward to it. It's one of my favorites. I like it a lot.
LUNA: The song is very killer — I’ve had it on repeat.
TARVER: Thanks!
LUNA: Let's talk about it. How did this all come about? What lit the spark to get the song going?
TARVER: I wrote it with my producer, Chad Copelin, and this girl Riley Beater, who I wrote a couple of the other songs on the upcoming album with… I had a lot of songs about this self-reflection journey … like, looking inward, looking back into my past, like … trying to sort of make sense of my life and who I am, who I want to be. You know, kind of all those types of things. And I think what I felt like I was missing within this batch of songs was … sometimes — or most of the time — that process is not linear. It's like you kind of have these moments where you have clarity and you're like, “Well, maybe this is why I do this.” And I can start to work on that. And that works for a minute.
But then you have moments where you're just kind of discovering all these new things about yourself. And it's exciting, but it's also kind of terrifying because you're just like, “I don't know this part of me.” And what's going to happen? I don't know, I think for me personally … I wanted to sort of represent that part of, I guess, healing — if you want to call it that — where we're sort of messy and scary. And you're … maybe wanting to indulge in unhealthy behavior because it's hard to do the right thing. So I feel like I just really wanted to kind of capture how dark that could feel sometimes.
LUNA: And it’s very relatable, for sure!
TARVER: I don't know, it's just a very real part of it to me and something that I have experienced. And so I kind of wanted to show that side of it in a song. I was really excited when we sort of found the words for it.
LUNA: That's good! So, to kind of piggyback on what you just talked about, lyrically, the song is very blunt and honest, which is such a valuable trait as a singer-songwriter. Like that verse in the song where you say, “choosing the pain” because you'd rather feel anything — even if it's bad — than not feel anything at all.
TARVER: Right.
LUNA: Is it easy for you to be honest in your songwriting?
TARVER: You know, I feel like a lot of times... I guess I'll say yes — in the moment when I'm writing. I'm so in it, and I'm like, “This is the truth.” And what's the point? If I'm not telling the truth, I get so amped up on the process of it and it feels so cathartic … and like, “Yeah, this is important.” And then time goes by and everyone's like, “We love this song — we're gonna put it out.” And then I'm like, “Wait wait wait, actually [I] wish I hadn’t been that honest” because I don't want to talk.
I think there can be that backlash. But I think ultimately the feeling … I had to just come back to is … what I connect with [and] what I appreciate in art. And [with] people who make art … that honesty and that blunt honesty … just saying things that … we're all sort of feeling in one way or another … it's so powerful when people do that, for me as a person. So I think what brings me back to … continuing to push myself, to be honest, is wanting to be that. When I hear a song, watch a movie or a show, or hear a line of dialogue, [a] lyric that … I connect with, I'm so thankful that [the] artist was honest and brave enough to be honest. Yeah, it inspires me to want to do the same.
LUNA: For sure! So there's so much to like about the single, such as your vocals. I honestly grew up watching Nickelodeon so I know who you are. But I never knew that you had that voice. Like, it's amazing. Did you always know you wanted to pursue music, or was it something that was kind of on the back burner?
TARVER: For me, music has always been kind of my personal front-runner — I have always been really passionate about it. I've always loved to sing. I did this show when I was 13 called American Juniors. It was like American Idol for kids. It was this singing competition show. So that's kind of how I got into all of this to start with, which was, you know, a singing competition. So after that, I was like, “Great — I want to pursue music, I want to sing, I want to do this. I want to do this!” And then along the way I started acting and got Big Time Rush and did a couple other shows. But … music has always been something that I'm pursuing and trying to break into. And I think [in] the past few years I've focused more heavily on it. So I guess the answer is yeah, I always knew I wanted to do music.
LUNA: Do you look back on that part of your life as a good part of your life that you cherish? Or is it just like, “Ugh, I did that” and maybe it was a bad part of your life that you want to push away as much as possible?
TARVER: The Nickelodeon show?
LUNA: Yeah.
TARVER: Honestly, I genuinely cherish it. It was a great experience. I love the guys — it was such a fun intro to living in LA. I just look back and see how lucky I am and how lucky I was to have that experience, because it couldn't have been a more supportive cast and crew. I went onto that set [as such a] beginner — I barely knew how to stand on a mark. I was so inexperienced.
I learned so much … It was the best, to be a part of something like that and to now have some distance from it and see how much people loved it… There's so much nostalgia around it. The guys are back touring … I don’t know, I think it's really special — it was a really special time of life. And it was really special thing to be a part of.
LUNA: That's good! Usually you hear people say things like, “Nah, I'm embarrassed” or state that it was a dark part of their life or something. So it's good that it was very positive.
TARVER: I know, I know — I'm really really grateful I dodged that version of it. Because I think, yeah, it can easily become that. Luckily, it was not that for me. So I'm grateful.
LUNA: For sure. So when creating a song — and we can use the new single as an example — what comes first? Do you begin to work on lyrics? Do you figure out the sound production, or do you just like brainstorming ideas as it comes along and just make sure that it works?
TARVER: Most of the songs, this time around — including [“Starting to Scare Me”] were lyrics first. I would get up and try to do either something like a walk in the morning or write stuff down in the morning as sort of this way to get stuff out of my brain. Because I think, creatively, the first thing when you wake up is sort of like this magical time where you're not fully awake yet. And your brain is maybe still in the subconscious. I'm trying to get as much of that as possible before it gets rotted by TikTok.
So a lot of the lyrics for “Starting to Scare Me” I just wrote down, kind of like free writing. Like, I'm exploring the sort of angry, rage-filled emotions and just kind of [writing] the lyrics down … and [I] took those lyrics into the session. From there, we sort of built the song and the music around, you know, “What kind of emotion is this evoking? And how do we kind of want to present these words?” So, yeah, we sort of built the song around the lyrics. And that's how a lot of them went this time around. I find myself starting more and more with lyrics first, as I kind of get more comfortable with myself as a songwriter.
LUNA: Is that something you usually do, like when you're in a stump, lyrically or musically? Do you just like to go out into nature and go for walks and stuff?
TARVER: Walks are so underrated! Yeah, a lot of times I can keep myself from writing something or trying something because I don't have it fully formed yet or I don't know exactly what it is. So I'm like, “I don't know, I don't know.” But I've started to just try and combat that by dumping everything out. And usually there's like, a through line in … Kind of what I feel like is disconnected. Once I get it out, I kind of see how it's more connected. And I'm able to kind of make sense of it a little more once it's out [of] my head.
LUNA: Lastly I know you have several EPs, singles, and an album out. Is “What Makes Life Good” and “Starting to Scare Me” building up to a new project?
TARVER: Yes, they are. They definitely are there. It's a new project. So there's a lot more songs to come.
LUNA: That's exciting! Any other news that you want to share?
TARVER: Yeah, we're announcing a tour! [We’re doing it] the same day as the song is released, so I'd love to obviously promote that as much as possible. Really excited about that. It's my first true headline tour. It'll be a US tour, [as well as] the UK and Europe.
LUNA: Wow, that's impressive!
TARVER: I'm really nervous and excited and looking forward to that. So that'll be in September and November of this year, so buy tickets to my tour!
LUNA: I would definitely love to go! Thank you so much for your time!
TARVER: Thank you so much for the good questions and the good chat! I appreciate it.
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