Conversations with Kate Hinote

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kate Hinote. 

Hi Kate, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
The short version of an introduction would be that I’m a mom, a wife, a Legal Secretary by day, and a musician whenever I can be. I haven’t always been all of those things, but I’ve always been singing. There are family tales of me standing atop a fold-out kitchen chair in my backyard at three years old, performing “Tomorrow” from Annie for my neighbors. I was in choir through school and did alright, getting solos and small opportunities to perform throughout; however, I didn’t really start performing until my early 20s when I was introduced to a local guitar player named Eva that was looking for someone to sing the songs she had written. We had a very brief pairing, less than a year, performing only a handful of shows as a duo.  When we tried to transition to a full band, she ultimately brought in a drummer I found entirely obnoxious, and we ended up parting ways. The details are a little blurry now, but I remember it as them firing me and taking the first song I’d ever written and recording it with another singer and then going on to become a pretty well-known heavier rock band that I never would have fit into in a music scene that I really had no experience with. I was young enough at the time that the wound was mostly superficial , but it was deep enough that it would be several years before I tried being a front woman again. 

Those years passed and my now husband, Tony Hamera, wanted to start a new project. At first, he wanted me to play keys, which I had some experience with, having taken lessons for a few years as a child and only being able to play things from memory, not able to read music well enough to consider myself a keyboard player. Ultimately, he ended up throwing an acoustic guitar chord progression at me and I wrote a song called “In Oceans” for what ended up being our first band, Ether Aura. That shoegaze/dreampop band was active from 2004-2008 and we released two full-length albums and an EP before morphing into The Blueflowers in 2009. The Blueflowers were very busy for years and are still active, though we don’t perform live as much these days (something I hope to change in 2023), and we have released five full-length albums and two EPs, including the latest “Time Didn’t Matter,” which was released in July 2022. 

I do enjoy the craft of songwriting, though it is a slow process for me, but I most love the actual act of singing and connecting with an audience through performing, so I began performing acoustic duo shows with The Blueflowers’ acoustic guitarist, David Johnson, pretty early on… I think in 2011. We added our Blueflowers bandmate, Erin Williams, to sing harmonies, and eventually the three of us started performing as Kate Hinote & The Disasters. The Disasters performed material I’d written for The Blueflowers, as well as some covers. We had really started gaining some momentum when Erin moved out of state in 2017. After Erin left, David and I went back to duo shows and kept at it for a while, but it wasn’t quite as satisfying as our disastrous Trio. 

I was about ready to throw in the towel on these acoustic shows when David mentioned he had bumped into multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, Matthew Parmenter, at a show, and Matthew offered to play violin with us. I was hesitant to bring a new person into my circle, but after a few months of more lackluster duo gigs, I agreed to give it a shot. Not long after that first rehearsal with Matthew in August 2019, I knew this trio was something I wanted to explore and take everywhere. The violin was like a second voice and Matthew’s creativity and gift for melody, as well as his absolute belief in my abilities as a singer, were real motivators for me. Three years later, the Kate Hinote Trio has a full-length album (2021’s “Near”), and we are working on the writing of our second album. In addition to our original material, the Trio is also performing material I co-wrote for The Blueflowers, as well as songs written by other Detroit songwriters and some retro and modern covers. We played 40 shows on our 2022 Tour and were incredibly fortunate for the experiences we were afforded, performing throughout Michigan and even venturing to Ohio and Kentucky. I can’t wait to see what 2023 has in store for us.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I don’t know that I’ve had a particularly tremendous struggle in the grand scheme of things or more so than other musicians; however, I’ve certainly always felt like an underdog in the scene I’ve been trying to build my name in for 15+ years. I’ve also dealt with my fair share of rejection and not getting opportunities that I’ve pursued. That part stings but doesn’t necessarily linger and is part of the work. Because I do some booking work on the side (for The Whitney in Midtown Detroit), I know that not every opportunity or room is right for every artist. 

The interpersonal stuff can get tricky in bands, though I recognize that bands evolve, and personalities and goals change for people, and that is natural and expected. I generally struggle with people leaving, as a result of some band-related situations. However,  I have come to realize that by allowing some to stay, I was also allowing them to hold me back, being held hostage by my own loyalties to people less interested or less invested or doing it for different reasons than I was or am. I do have regrets in that regard, certainly, but I try not to hang onto them. When you are playing with people that are friends and are basically donating their time to support you and deliver your music, it does feel like there’s only so much you can ask of them, certainly when everybody has day jobs that are actually paying their bills. It was only in the past couple of years that music has been any source of income for me, and I admire those that are able to go all in and do it for a living, no doubt. That’s a whole different animal.

I guess finding people entirely on the same page has been a bit of a challenge. While I want it to be fun for everyone, of course I do, I’m one of those people that if I’m going to do something, I take it very seriously and give it everything that I can. For me, just in life, if you’re going to do something, give it everything you’ve got and then some with what you are able to bring to the table. It can be difficult to keep resentments from building up sometimes when you feel like you take on the bulk of the business end of keeping a band going, but with my secretarial background, the business end of it comes pretty naturally to me and because it’s predominantly my name I’m promoting now, I do like to keep complete control over that end of things. I know I have been incredibly fortunate to play with some remarkably talented people, and the collaborations that have come out of it with songwriting, recording, performing, and opportunities for adventure, have been fulfilling, enlightening, humbling and wonderful. I think it is safe to say that most of my struggle is self-inflicted from my expectations of others and myself, an inability to be chill, and an epic time battle that is of my own making.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a singer and a songwriter. I’ve co-written dozens of songs and performed on other artists’ works throughout the last 20 years. The bands I have fronted or am currently fronting are Ether Aura, The Blueflowers, Sound of Eleven, and the Kate Hinote Trio. I have guested on recordings by Duende, Anthony Retka, Sick Jokes, and Imperial Ruin. Most of the work that I’ve contributed to has a moody vibe and there is often a darkness to the songs that I write. I have evolved over the years to write more than just break up songs, but most everything I write is grounded in my struggle with interpersonal relationships. One of my bandmates would say that my best asset is singing in tune, though I like to think that’s a minimum requirement if you are going to pursue singing in any capacity. I don’t claim to be a lyricist, though I have some lyrical nuggets that I am proud of. I would say what comes easiest to me with songwriting is melody and harmonies, though all of it is hard work for me and takes time.

I have always struggled fitting into the confines of genre and every time I am asked to label something I’ve done in these limited terms, it has been quite difficult. As a result, for the most part, I think my bands surprise people and offer something a bit different from what people are used to seeing/hearing. That’s the hope anyway, and that has been even more fulfilling this past year with the Kate Hinote Trio. It felt like we were often a pleasant surprise to people and, after several performances, I was happy to hear people comment that they liked that we were different. I don’t know if it’s the songs, the sounds, the delivery, our look, or all of it… but I don’t mind being different. In fact, I enjoy it. I need all the help I can get to stand out in an industry that it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so. 

Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Being a musician, or any sort of creative that puts their work out into the world to be consumed and ultimately judged, is generally a risk-taking endeavor, and I believe you have to have a no-fear attitude to get anywhere. Taking that risk is part of the process and seems required to grow and develop. Every time I reach out to a booker or venue seeking an opportunity to perform, I’m risking rejection. Even the non-response, of which there are more than the responses, feels like a micro rejection and those can build up over time, but I am a determined lady, and it hasn’t deterred me yet. Likewise, there are micro rejections to be felt through indifference or lack of engagement when I post about new work, or a show I’m particularly excited about, and people don’t seem to engage or show up. That is a side effect of pursuing this for me, but I absolutely feel the wins have outweighed the losses after all of this time… by a lot. I just book more shows in more cities so that I can find the ears that do want to hear us and support us and so I can connect with my bandmates and our audience through our performances. Even one person really engaging during any given performance can make the risk worthwhile.

While we played several wonderful and varied shows in the Metro Detroit area, a town with so many talented musicians that there are numerous shows every single night all over the area to compete with, we took many risks on the road this year, playing for strangers… and it was totally worth it nearly every time. I won’t lie, there were a couple of soul-crushing gigs on the road, but when you’re taking that risk with your best mates, you can still find the value in it, mostly in the journey. This past year was very fulfilling for me, an incredible journey with many rewarding experiences that I wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t taken many risks along the way, here and elsewhere. I enjoy that kind of risk-taking. Absolutely. 

Contact Info:

• Website: katehinote.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/katehinotemusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaT7Ma8-BX5kVNyK0zhIugQ
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/k8hinote
• Other: https://katehinotetrio.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits
Aubry Photo;
Lisa Folcarelli
Jansen; and Angela
Malisani Ward