#124 Katrina Burgoyne
Katrina is an Australian singer songwriter who is chasing her dreams to be famous in the USA. She has faced so many challenges and grown a lot. one of the hardest times she shares as she was loosing her voice and running out of money she found a devotional and after never knowing anything about religion or God it entered her life at a time when she needed a sign and then found a doctor who graciously helped her through her medical issues so she could stay in Nashville. This conversation will have you on the edge of your seat hearing about just how life can be turned upside down in the best ways...
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Transcript
Rae Leigh: Welcome to a Songwriter Trysts with Katrina Burgoyne going, how are you?
Katrina Burgoyne: I'm good. Rae, how you? doing?
Rae Leigh: Good. I'm looking forward to learning more about you and your entire journey, because you have an incredible songwriting journey that, dates back to your grandparents. So I want to find out more about it.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah, I'm excited to be here.
Rae Leigh: Tell me where you're coming from at the moment, though.
Katrina Burgoyne: So I am, coming from a very summery Nashville, Tennessee, as you just said, how cold it was and the gold Coast there. I live in the USA now being here for four and a half years, trying to live the Nashville dream. And, yeah, it's still here. It's good to talk to an Aussie and here in Aussie accent, though, I tell you what
Rae Leigh: Well, I'll put it on a little bit more for you. But
Katrina Burgoyne: thanks pleased do.
Rae Leigh: when I was in, when I was in Nashville, people like, oh, so where from the UK are you from? And I'm like, I'm not for
Katrina Burgoyne: I get that. the
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Right. All right. So tell me, why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are, where you come from and how you got into songwriting.
Katrina Burgoyne: I've come from a small country town called Ganada news in new south Wales near it's like 45 minutes from Tamworth. For those of you who don't know reg Ganada is not to be mistaken with Canada.
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Katrina Burgoyne: and I grew up with both my grandparents. My both my grandfathers played music.
My grandfather was a violin player and he had played with the pit orchestras and Sydney with his mother who played the piano. And he ended up going on to playing like jazz ragtime sort of stuff on saxophone and clarinet. And then my poppy who's my mother's father. He sang country music.
So I would sit on his knee and he'd play country music. And like all the kids, the grandkids would play. All my cousins would be playing and like Papi would bring up the guitar and I would, I'll be mesmerized. I'm, Yeah.
He's. Pretty amazing. But him singing and music just, he was like the pied Piper for me.
And so from then I picked up the guitar. I picked up my brother's guitar when I was about 11 years old and started writing songs and it started There I went to the tomato festival, talent quest in Ganada and sang a song I wrote when I was 11 years old. And the the job. Became my guitar teacher.
And it was really from that summer, I, you know, it was like the next week the 10th country music festival was on. And I entered in all the talent quests. So it started studying.
Rae Leigh: There you go. Then appeal straight middle. Let him
Katrina Burgoyne: I actually just wrote a song.
Could it'll start in a hometown talking about, you know, we all have big dreams about doing all these amazing things. And sometimes we question if we could ever get there, if the dreams too big, but
Rae Leigh: Hm, imposter syndrome.
Katrina Burgoyne: yeah.
Every single person that has ever achieved something big, it all starts, you know, running track or, you know, playing tennis. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, absolutely.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah,
Rae Leigh: So your grandparents inspired you or your grandfathers, both of them on each side. And that kind of keeps you off. When did you actually write your first song? Was that when you were 11 at the talent quest?
Katrina Burgoyne: I was 11. I I,
actually was obsessed with Shania Twain.
Rae Leigh: Nice me too,
Katrina Burgoyne: loved so obsessed. Like I used to dream that I'd be her best friend one day. I still haven't questioned that.
Rae Leigh: working on it.
Katrina Burgoyne: Still working on being her best friend.
But yeah, so I picked up the guitar. I used to play piano. I've been playing piano since I was seven. And I noticed, I got given for Christmas. I shania Twain manuscript
Rae Leigh: Oh,
Katrina Burgoyne: right? Like where, like it. teaches you to play the parts on piano. And I noticed that they had good tacos written above music, the manuscript. And I was like, Oh, and it would teach you, like, it would be like the guitar chord. You kind of look at it, the guitar chord chart where you can, I'm sure you have play a C chord.
And I was like, oh, and I kind of, I don't think anyone showed me how to read it, or even, I just knew that was for the guitar and that if I put my fingers on those places, I could make it work. So I picked
Rae Leigh: like the strings with the little dots?
Those pictures.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. And so.
Yeah. So I thought I'd give it a crack. And I picked it up so quickly.
Like I just found such joy. And I think, I remember I tried to learn a really hard Shania Twain song, and then I thought, you know, I could just write a song. So I started writing my own. But I was always obsessed. Like as a little girl, I remember running around the house. I wasn't even in school at the time running around the house, just singing.
And my Nana said to Me What song is that? What song are you singing? And I go, I didn't know. I made it up and I'd always see music in my ears and my head and be singing along to the songs in my mind. And then I remember being, oh my gosh, it's funny. How, like, I always say that God or the universe kind of is guiding you from as long as you can remember.
And High chair or not a high chair, like the booster seats as a, in the back seat of a car. And I, I said to my dad, I said, I must have been like on the three years old, I said to my dad, I said, dad, I was really concerned about this. Cause it really bugged me. I said, dad, one day we're gonna run out of songs.
And he says, what? I said, we're gonna run out of songs one day. Yeah. Well, how do you figure that? And I said, there's only a certain amount in Alma. This is me explaining it as like I would have been on the three. Cause
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Yep.
Katrina Burgoyne: you know, I said there's only a certain amount of keys on like things. I don't know. I think I said keys, but what I was trying to say is there's only a certain amount of keys on a piano and there's only a certain combination you can have of them.
Like I could understand that as a kid And then, you know, I started writing my first song when I was about seven, but I actually really struggled reading and writing. I couldn't read or write. I was about 11. I was a bit of a late bloomer. And so I couldn't, I would write songs, but I could never remember them or put them down.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, I have I have a eight year old son and when he was about seven, he came down to be one day six mom I've got 22 songs. And I said, oh, where are they? He's like, what do you mean? I was like, well, Eli, they're not a song. Unless you've written them down. He goes, oh. And he walked away. And then a few days later he came to me.
He's like, mom, I've got four songs.
Katrina Burgoyne: That's awesome.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Do you need to write them down? Otherwise, if you don't remember them, how are you supposed to share them? Right.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. And I even think, like, I think back then, I finally, I had like a tape recorder, like think of these, like, you know, you've got those voice memo app. I use that every day and I think. I really think what it was. I hadn't actually written songs, but I had, you know, as a songwriter, I'm probably driving to Louisville, Kentucky, and I go, I pull out my phone, put my voice memo on it and I'm like, just driving down the highway.
You don't want to mean I'm making something up as I go.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: I think I've always done that you know, The beginnings, the birth of a song or a creation or an idea has
Rae Leigh: The idea is, yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: been with me since I was little. I just never knew how to recall it.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, so many. I mean, I learned the hard way. I think a lot of us do because we have these great ideas and we don't write them down. I'll have a, I have a voice note on our phone and then we forget. And it's like that instant regret of done I'll really liked whatever that was, but you have to let it go and just hope that maybe it'll come back to you one day, but I have so many voice notes on my phone that have the indicator clicking in the background.
I'll pull it out quickly when I've stopped at the lights, you know, something like that. So you can hear the car and the traffic in
the background, and I'm like, I've just got to get the idea out.
Katrina Burgoyne: the wind screen wipers on a rainy day.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Windscreen wipers or an indicator or something like that. But it's just the rawness of that, the idea.
And you've got to make sure you get down because it might not last in your head to your destination.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah.And even things like
I sometimes lay in bed and I'm the worst for this I'll lay in bed. And, oh my gosh. In my dreams, I've written so many hits songs. Like I've written songs and like have actually drained. That I had dreams a few times where I'm onstage and, but I'm actually, it's like, I'm looking at the person singing it.
Like I'm behind the person that's singing it and they're singing this song and it's so singable and I grow and I'm like listening to this hit song that I've written and it's such a singable solid. The chorus is super singable, like something
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: so simple. And I know it in my mind. But I can never, like, I might wake up in the morning.
I might wake up from the dream and go, oh, I'll remember that. Like, that's so easy. I'll remember. And I don't ever
wake up enough to recall it. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Oh, that must be so frustrating, but it's a part of the journey. Like there's something in there, you know, your subconscious or whatever
it is that just is constantly on isn't it.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah, absolutely.
Rae Leigh: Being a kid and being creative and writing songs and being in music is very encouraged until we get to a point usually in our late high school when everyone's like, okay, so how are you going to actually add money and make a living?
So how did that, how was that transition for you going actually, no, this is what I want to do to make a living.
Katrina Burgoyne: You know, I have the most say, Okay.
we're up to nine minute, 10 minutes on this. A little kind of, I always make jokes that like, talk to me for five minutes and I'll tell you.about my mother.
I got to 10 minutes that I have the most amazing mom. I know everyone thinks that they have the most amazing mum, but really I have the most amazing mom.
Rae Leigh: Okay. Swap you.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah,
well she is she's been one of those people. Yeah, You know, I'll tell her this crazy dream and I'll say, mom, this is what I would love to do someday. And maybe saying it as a thought of something, I would really love me sharing a secret with my mom saying this is something I would love to do one day, but like, I'm probably never going to be able to do that.
Like I've. So I have such a low self-esteem sometimes and doubt my ability. And she's always like, well, how are you going to do it? And I'll From being down on my dumps of thinking. And that's a dream that I'll never, ever reached to me going
what you think I could do. And then should go yet.
Ha. How would you do that? How you make that happen and I'd kind of go well, I like, for example, I remember I came home from Nashville and I had my money cause I spent everything to be over here for three months and move time with mom. And I said, mama, think I'm going to move to Nashville. And she goes, Yeah.
How are you going to do it?
What are you gonna do? How are you gonna make this happen? And she kind of reverse engineers that with me, she sits down with me and talks me through how I could possibly make it happen. And not just that. She also thinks that she believes in me cause I wouldn't be able to do
it. If my mum didn't tell me I could do it.
You know? I mean, I, Yeah.
And so, but you know that doesn't come without,
you know, the naysayers and the people that make you doubt yourself. I remember.
You know, our gosh singing country music going to high school. I would take my guitar to school. I was like attached to my guitar. I didn't want to go a day without like, I would carry it around all day, just so I could play it in the lunch break, you know, like I just loved it.
And you know, the, you know, those kids at school were like singing as a country song Katrina, like, and I think that's the Australian
way as well. If you get
Rae Leigh: Tall poppy syndrome,
Katrina Burgoyne: total poppy syndrome.
You can't get bigger than the hood. Cause if you get above the head, they got to cut you back down and make sure you stay humble.
Which I mean is a blessing and a curse, you know, I think frickin hell, I've been humbled so
much that it, you know, on a main like,
Rae Leigh: Being humbled is something we all have to go through.
Katrina Burgoyne: yeah,
but in saying that too, I do think, yeah. Like, yeah, I've just for the first time. Okay. Actually in a long time, decided that my goal would be, I would love to be. I would love to be the first Australian female artist to make an impact in the American country music scene in the last three
decades, since Olivia Newton, John, and she was the first, she was the one and only, and you know, for me to even say that out loud, like I've lost such confidence to say a goal out loud like that because I'm thinking 15 years old and sitting in maths and.
I was a bit naughty, like to be honest, I wasn't really focusing on mathematics and my math teacher smacked his hand on the desk and he says, what do you.
want to be when you leave school Katrina? And I said,
I want to move to Nashville and be country music singer. And
Rae Leigh: Okay.
Katrina Burgoyne: like the eye-rolls the people that tell me I could never do it.
The, you know, and like, it's like, you can take it for a little bit and like, you can laugh at It and go, well, I'll show you. You can only do that so much before you kind of go. Maybe, I just
shouldn't tell people that's what I want to do because they laugh
at
Rae Leigh: idea to protect your dreams. Yeah. I definitely, if there's a place to protect your dreams, but I also love the saying that if you believe you can, or you believe you
can't, you're probably right.
Katrina Burgoyne: Well, you know, I think about that you know, me I started telling everyone I was going to move to Nashville for sure. You know, on public, on social media. Like I moved out, I came out for three months and then I was 14 months saving at home and. They do say, I think it's like 70% of people that's like say their dreams to a friend or say their dreams on social media or say their dreams out loud basically.
And not keeping it to themselves actually achieve it. Whereas only 30% of people that keep it to them. I there's statistics that I'm recalling from memory, but I don't know if they're correct, but it's like, something like that where you have more chance of achieving a dream. If you tell someone because you're being held accountable.
Whereas if you don't tell anyone, you can go
yeah, but like make excuses.
Rae Leigh: You're only letting yourself down, but you have to believe in yourself somewhat as well. You have to have a certain level of dedication and belief in drive to even be able to
get past that.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah, absolutely. I, and I may not, I do struggle with believing in myself and that's where I think where my mum has stepped in for me, where it's just like, It's more like the more I do it. And the more I, for example, my artistry, I thought I'm just a songwriter. That's all I'll ever be non artists. Cause I'm just not that.
great.
Like, you know, and I tell myself that, but then I would, you know, I've the last 18 months I've been recording and releasing and doing all the things again. And the more I do it, the more I go,
I am an artist. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: absolutely. Yeah,
Yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. So it's just the more I do it, the more I believe it as well, you know? So it's, and it's you know, we've been producing content and trying to get up, you know, great music, videos and content.
So I can convince someone else to believe in me, but I never thought about it. Like, by doing this, I'm actually believing in myself, like even more like multi-family to walk into those rooms and say, Hey, I'm an artist and this is what I'm doing. Would you like, you know,
Would you like to be a part of this, you know, and Yeah.
Yeah.
Backing
myself,
Rae Leigh: Absolutely. And it's so important to be able to do that. And yeah, you just do it and don't think about it, you know, and that's
really easy to say,
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. I think we got, and I'm the worst for it? Oh my gosh. but,
like, just to get out of our own heads, like get out of our own units, do the fricking task, stop being a little whiny thing. And this is me being a little whiny thing. Like,
Rae Leigh: No.
Katrina Burgoyne: Face your fears and just get over yourself.
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Katrina Burgoyne: I said, that's why
I'm suffering such tough love on my own self.
Rae Leigh: no, but that's good. And like, when I, when we first started, cause I've got a really big family, I come from like the big fat Greek wedding type family, right. Like huge cousins and they're everywhere. And when I first started music, I think. I just went into it so naive and excited. I was like, you know, yeah, my family will at least support me.
Right. And I was having lunch shortly, like a bit, probably a year and a bit into it. And I was having lunch with a guy from a major label in Sydney and my friends. And so we were talking, I said, you know what? I've had more support and encouragement from complete strangers than I have from friends and family.
And he turned around to me and said it's not talked about a lot, but that's actually. Common and true for every artists across the world, doesn't matter how huge they are. They get more support and encouragement from complete strangers who don't know you personally, then the people that you know, knew you when you're in nappies.
And it's just hard to be able to. For on that side, it's hard to be able to see someone that you saw as a kid or growing up, you know, like the story of Jesus in the Bible. Like he wasn't accepted in his own home from the people that he grew up around. And it's like, it's the same people. It's really hard to change your opinion on someone when you've known them for so long.
And then they change. It's hard to be able to see that, you know, but it's also hard.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. You know, I totally can reflect on that even though like, my mom was totally there and supported and my Cole family, my mom, my auntie, my uncle totally supportive of me, but it's like, you know, the friends from school and the, those kinds of people, it's like, I'm kinda starting to see people come out of the woodworks and support me that.
Never used to support me, never believe me in me and saying, you know, I know her she's from my hometown. I went to school with this girl, you know, and it's kind of funny. I'll be like, man, if only you like told your 10 Facebook, if you told your a hundred Facebook friends that, you know, 10 years ago, it would have been probably I would have been, I might've got a here quicker, you know,
like it's
so interesting how that.
Rae Leigh: you got to believe in yourself first before anyone else will though. And you've obviously done that. Even if you doubt yourself, sometimes you, you believe in yourself more than you doubt yourself, and that's why you are where you are.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. That's true.
Rae Leigh: Tell me about the trip, because you talked about, you know, your dream of moving to Nashville, you're accountable because you told people, but you actually did it.
So tell us about that experience and moving it. Cause I'm sure there's a lot of people, me included. I'd love to like, I've been there, but I've not
taken the jump of moving there. That's
huge. How's it gone?
Katrina Burgoyne: Well, so first start is I look back at it and I think I honestly don't know how. I really don't like it, it was the hottest thing I've ever done in my life. Like, I, oh my gosh. Well, there's, it's kind of a lot of elements to that, but so basically I moved out here. I, well, I did the three months here.
First. I did the 90 days. Over here and I wanted to try it on. And by the end of that three-month trip, I had people publishes interested in me saying, you need to move here. I played the Bluebird cafe. I kind of did a lot of amazing.
Things. It was like, it was almost like someone from above was putting me in all the right rooms, surrounded by all the people that say, yes, you need to do this.
You need to do this. Right. And then I went home and I saved for 14 months and moved out here with three suitcases, a guitar. $15,000 American, by the time it converted. And also let's just sprinkle in there a huge ass debt. I came out here with $30,000 worth of
debt in Australia. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: not like student lanes though. It's like credit cards or
Katrina Burgoyne: Actually that doesn't include the student loans.
Rae Leigh: No one ever thinks about the student loans.
Katrina Burgoyne: yeah, no, I'm just like, oh, I'm sorry. That's what I did. And I thought if there was ever a time when I can't if I don't do this now, I'm never going to do this. I just had that little moment of bravery and I don't know how I did it, but I moved out. I bought myself some furniture and a little crappy cough for about four and a half thousand dollars.
And I thought, okay, 10, I ended up with $10,000 leftover and I thought $10,000 would get me through. Enough. I spent $10,000 on the three month trip, like with Uber's and stuff. And I thought, well, if Uber's cost me a fortune I, So I thought if I'm not using Uber, I could probably get that to last me at least three months, a
little more.We'll see how far I could stretch it.
Rae Leigh: Right.
Katrina Burgoyne: And I actually,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: yeah, so in my visa only allows me to make an income from music in the most competitive music in the world.
Rae Leigh: Thanks Faiza.
Katrina Burgoyne: I know, sorry, but thankfully two weeks in moving to Nashville my housemate and I was living with at the time she got offered a gig at this little place called the row in Midtown. And basically it's an hour. It's got a ma it's got a PA system there and there's a sound guy there. And every hour they changed. There's a new artist comes and they play purely for tips. So here I am, Willis Jaylene may,
Fresh off the boat, rocks up, plays this gig. And I
really connected with the person who was he's name is Mike.
He's an older guy who does the sound and. He had me that
every single night he gave me an hour spot every single night. And you know What the first gig I ever played for tips in one
hour, I made $300 American.
Rae Leigh: Oh, wow. That's incredible.
What a
Katrina Burgoyne: I think it was like, I think it was just special because
like,
there's a different culture in America.
Like in Australia that will kind of cheer you on sometimes I'll bag out. They're not going to leave you a tip, you know, cause it's just not in our culture to
Rae Leigh: We don't do tipping
now.
Katrina Burgoyne: But in America
they, and I think it might be in the south too, but they really pride themselves on if they can help someone.
So, sorry. That first tip, you know, those first tippers that night, like, you know, the first person who ever tipped me, the, you know, they, so when I first moved to town, I was playing this hour slot. I mean, I would always make about a hundred bucks to 150 bucks. So. I'd be, but I'll be working every single night, like put makeup on going out, but you know, it was kinda good.
Cause Nashville's like that. I didn't know anyone. I was making friends. I was at every single night except for this one hour. So I kind of started there and then I headed to meant this and started building a few shows in Memphis. And so to start getting on the outskirts of town instead of playing things as well.
So thankfully, somehow, and also too, I'm like, if the chips are down, I will. Hustle my butt off. So, Yeah.
I somehow made it happen. I don't know. I just, I got really lucky. I always had work and financially in getting work in the USA was never an issue for me, but 12 months into my trip into my move, I actually fell chronically ill.
And I had a. It started off and I always had sinus problems in Australia, but it started off with a sinus infection that
never went away for 18 months. and
Rae Leigh: your voice.
Katrina Burgoyne: yeah, so I would get laryngitis and lose my voice all the time. And it started off as like, you know, a weekend of missing gigs and. At once a month, it would flare up.
And I don't know why. I also think too stress had a lot to do with that. I was, when I first fell sick, I got stressed out. And not just that, I think too. I ended up changing friend groups after a year of being here. And I think that, you know, I'm pretty spiritual. So I think I think if you're in a town where everyone wants to be famous, do you know what I mean?
Like, this is a town where everyone moves here, get famous. You're going to encounter a lot of
narcissistic people. And so I.
And I actually became friends with people and it turned into being a bit of a, I needed to, for my own mental health, I just kind of removed myself and I never stood up for myself in the suit.
I never stood up for myself in this one particular situation. And I just removed myself gently. Cause I was kind of. want this
person to come burn my house down. It was a bit kind of like that. So I just removed myself from a situation as gently as I possibly could. And I never stood up for myself and spoke up for myself and I lost my voice and I thought that was so crazy.
And it kind of actually made me feel Americans for a little
bit. I just, I felt
Rae Leigh: guns. You have to be careful.
Katrina Burgoyne: I'm not afraid of the guns, but it was mostly just the toxic, the toxic ness of the situation where I was just like, I kind of messed with my head. I really thought like, you know, because Americans are so confident when they say things like they'll they confidently.
It's like the fake it till you make it a hundred percent that they will tell me like, Oh, my gosh, I'm going to get a publishing deal by July. And I'm like, geez, I wouldn't say that out loud to anyone just in case you
don't get it. That's a bit awkward. That's me being Australian. You don't want to
Maine, but Americans will tell you that they are the best.
I've had some people tell me that their profits, that they're going to get a Grammy by the year. Fricking 2016 and never happened, but like this things that, You know, I think when you're in a country so big, there's so much the percentage of mental health is still the same, but
it's just like, there's more people, right?
So. Yeah.
So, but anyway, so I kind of removed myself from this group and I was like, Okay. I just need to find my people. I found it so hard to find my people and to I, it was just, I lost my voice. Throughout this process. And I don't know if it was from that from not speaking up for myself.
But I do know that put a lot of stress in my life. Like I, I always so stressed out about and alone miserable in another country, trying to find where I belonged. And it was winter time too, and I get seasonal depression. So I just kinda kid, I just kinda heat away for a while and tried to find who I was and where I belonged.
And so, This sinus problem went on for 18 months, as I said, but the first six months of 2018, I would basically two weeks of every month, I wouldn't, wasn't
able to sing or even talk. It was like, hello,
Rae Leigh: Oh, wow.
Katrina Burgoyne: So I had to, I would try and sing through gigs. And, but I had to cancel. And, but thank God I had just beautiful people in my life.
Like the guy at the row, I would call him up and say, I'm so sorry. I got an art text him. I can't sing and he never canceled me. He never said, I'm not booking you again. Cause you all are always sick. Like I was so thankful to have people like that in my life that like genuinely cared about me and genuinely looked out for me.
So, but I, you know what I actually it was three 30 in the morning on, on a late night. Oh, early morning, I should say. And this was about in August or June, July of 2018.
Excuse me.
Rae Leigh: that's right.
Katrina Burgoyne: Hang on. Let
me stop
Rae Leigh: Can you grab some water?
Katrina Burgoyne: I got it. And so it was like a late night. Early morning, July, and I'm on the front of my dad and I'm crying.
I like, I felt pretty strong. I felt like I was a strong girl and I could get through anything and I could do this. I think at this point I had nothing. I had no, nothing left. Like I had pushed through six months of no income, like just barely making it scraping by I had $150 left to my name and I knew that I had to, I knew that I had to go see a doctor and I knew that.
I thought people kept telling me I needed to have a sinus operation. And I knew that meant coming home to Australia because I didn't have any health insurance over here and going through Medicare and the public health
system in Australia. And I
don't know what the waiting list would have
Rae Leigh: Which can be quite slow. Yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah.
So that was my Nashville dream gone anyway. So I ended up, I need, like, when I'm in moments like this, I will go through and
read, like I'm such a self-help junkie and
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Katrina Burgoyne: yeah. And like a motivational book, anything I can read to get me in a head space to fight, give it to me, I'll swing. And so, I bought this That was called a hundred days to brave and by an alpha code NF by the, her name's F downs.
And. I go to, so this will help me through it. I'll do this a hundred days to brave thing. Anyway, I open it up and it was a Christian devotional and I'd never seen it. Yeah.
I'd never seen a devotional before. And I always come from a spiritual aspect rather than a religious, you know, things have changed for me now I've sort of started learning the Bible and reading the Bible and doing all that as you do when you live in the south in America.
But
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: you know, at the
Rae Leigh: a Rite of passage.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. At the time,
it was like, oh, a daily devotional, this wasn't, I did two pages of it. And I'm like, this wasn't resonating with me. It wasn't doing what I wasn't
helping me like a needed help. You know what I mean?
It wasn't doing what I needed it to do. So I so I, because I also didn't have a relationship, but when I believed in God, but I didn't have a relationship with God at all.
Anyway, so it was 3, 8 30 in the morning and I'm calling dad and I'm like crying and I'm like, I don't, I never felt, you know, I had gone through depression and I know that like, looking back, I had everything within myself to get better with that. Like I had all the power to get better if I chose to just fight and take it on and just be persistent with it as I did when I got through depression.
But with this, it was like, I was helpless. I was like, my quality of life was me sleeping all day. And, or like, cause it was like chronic fatigue as well as like a constant head cold. I had a head cold for 18 months and having I would use like,
A steam mask thing all day so I could sing. Anyway, so I, it was three 30.
My dad said I'm crying, talking to dad. And he was saying, just keep swinging his crying. Isn't you're So, strong. You can do this. Don't stop swinging. Even when you think you can't swing anymore, he goes, prove yourself wrong. You've got it. And you got to one more swing and I. Got off the phone that morning, that night morning, whatever it was.
And I opened up this book, this Christian devotional book to a hundred days to brave. And in this book it says. Talked about the story of this girl. She felt a calling to pack up and move and sell everything. She was lived in Georgia and she said, I put everything in the trunk of the car and I headed north until I sold the iconic Batman building in the skyline of Nashville, Tennessee. And she said, it's not like I was moving from a small town, half a world away. I just said the next.
Oh, she put, I was scared, you know, she said, but I just said the next yes, did the next thing. And God created a life for me in Nashville that I couldn't have dreamed of. And our members sitting there and just crying and saying, well, that's the sign, that's the sign I needed.
And so I ended up doing this devotional book all the way through and I, I. Towards the end. It was almost the end of this book. And I, this one morning I was, I used to journal as well. I journal and I, this one morning I had $150 left to my name. It was in cash. I had no money in my bank account. I've never been this broke.
I had enough food to get through until I played my next gig. If I could sing the gig and I took this 150 bucks and I went to this ear nose, throat, doctor out of town.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: And the verse in this devotional said, you don't need a man. You don't need to rely on a man. You don't need a man in your life to protect you and keep you safe.
I'm going to keep you safe. And I remember driving to this clinic that morning. It was the most beautiful drive an hour out of town. And the countryside in Tennessee is just so beautiful. And I remember thinking. That's right. You know, I don't need to rely on anyone I just need to, and my relationship was always the universe.
I just need to trust that I'm going to be safe in this universe. And that day I met this doctor who looked at me and he did the test for $150 that I paid for, just to see if I had nodules on my voice. And he said, you don't have nodules. You've got laryngitis, chronic laryngitis. And he goes, let me do something.
Let me do some tests. Let me do some more tests. I'm not going to charge you. I just want to find out what why you're so sick. Like this day I was like this, I go down and they talk like, that's how I was. And he did allergy tests. He did these cat scans. He did everything. And he said to me,
I know your situation.
I know you don't have any health care, but I've just made a phone call and I want to donate an operation to you.
Rae Leigh: Whoa.
Katrina Burgoyne: And I must have looked like a stray dog that day. And I got in the car, it was 6:00 AM in the morning in Australia who, from soup, getting emotional thinking about it. And I just cried and I said, mom, he's gonna make me better.
And. You know, so 2019 for me was really fighting for survival. And I think you have to be, you know, I think about, I feel so blessed that I come from such a great home where, you know, my mom was so amazing, you know, I was so blessed to have come from a really great home. And I do think of all those kids who didn't have the same opportunity that I had in regards to just having love in there.
And I do think that you have to come from, you have to find safety before you can
find flight. You know, you can't fly unless you come from that safe space. And I think it wasn't really, until I met it, wasn't till I went through this until, and then I met my boyfriend like a few months later.
Rae Leigh: Cool.
Katrina Burgoyne: That I had safety over here before I could fly here.
And as strong as a strong and independent of a woman that I am, there was something within me that just deeply this I had, I felt like
traumatized really, to be honest from my
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Fair enough.
Katrina Burgoyne: So yeah, that's a
long story. That's a long version.
Rae Leigh: So, so what was the surgery, if you don't mind me asking him,
I'm
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. So he had he put a balloon, it's kind of like a balloon thing. And basically he ballooned up my passengers in my nasal passages. And then to be honest, that didn't actually, it wasn't working for me. It
Rae Leigh: Right.
Katrina Burgoyne: didn't work. So we actually went in for another operation where he actually completely claimed.
He kind of scraped out and carved out a lot of things in my sinus passage. So I have more now, the only problem is that now all that sinus passage is so big that it doesn't hold as much sinuses. So it always drips down the back. I have postnasal drip, I've got all the time now, which means that like, I've found this a drug called mucin Musinex in the USA, which I have every day.
And so, Yeah.
I mean, I. Am I, it goes through seasons where I don't need to take me to the next at the moment. Oh my gosh. It's been so bad lately, but it's not like I'm not losing my
voice over it.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Well, I'm really glad
Katrina Burgoyne: manageable.
Rae Leigh: you had that journey and that
there is a real Testament of faith of just believing. In yourself enough, like, I know you say you struggle with belief in, and even I appreciate you being honest and vulnerable about your depression and mental health issues, because it's something that a lot of us have, like on I've had my own, but it's something that can also be really shameful that we feel like if we share it, people will think less of us.
And if I'm honest, when someone shares that, I think so much more of them because I know for me, I know what that is.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: It takes such strength to push through the valleys. You know, someone told me once when I was going through a depressive moment that you don't stop in the valley and, or, you know, when you're going through hell, don't stop and have a picnic, you know, like when you're going through hell, you gotta keep going.
And otherwise you'll never get out of there. And. It can be so hard, but it takes absolute courage and strength to just keep going. And those moments when you just want to give up. And so I just want to say well done because,
We are really resilient as human beings, but you never know how resilient you are until you have to be.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. I actually wrote this song called tough girls, which kind of was inspiration for just that, you know, like, I always, and I always have to remind myself in these darkest times and the only way I can get through it, because like I do struggle with, I don't think I can do it. You know what I mean?
Like I have moments where I can, or I just want to give up. And I think one thing is my ego is probably a bit too proud that to give up, like for me to pack up and go home, like what it feel like. You know what I mean? Like that's in my mind, that's what I'm thinking. So like, I can't do that. That's not an option.
Everyone's going to laugh at me. I'm going to be a loser. you know what I mean? So like, I can't do that. I have no choice. I had to kind of keep fighting this thing. But so you know, my mom was a single mom and I, you know, there's this one line in tough girls that like I learned to be.
resilient when I was three years old.
And I used to watch my mum too. She, couldn't get a job in the town we lived in. And so she used so close. My mom had this great, has this great ability to make money out of whatever she can make money out of anything. Right. But to scale it and become a millionaire is something she's never mastered.I
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Katrina Burgoyne: She can go like, so for example, she's a really great, so us, so I'm a seamstress. I don't know what you call it. So she, actually, my little kids are within a small country town. She couldn't get a job anywhere. So while she was studying nursing, she actually sewed clothes that she would, she used to create the ma.
On the weekends. And so she would go and sell children's clothes at these markets because the only store that they had, Yeah.
They had four C's. I think it was the only children's store they had at a clothing store they had in the small town. So, and that pain I ran, you know? And so I look, and I look at, you know, the older I get, the more I look at my dad and I go, Oh, yeah, he's human.You know, I love my
Rae Leigh: We're all human.right?
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. Right. And I look at
Rae Leigh: Keith Urban's
human. So Nyah Twain. She's human.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. And I look at my mom and the things she's going through, and I think that's another reason why I was able to get through things like that. Cause a great way, man. When my mom was this age, she did this, like, this is nothing compared to what she went through. So I think that's kind of as like, I've got to kind of toughen up, otherwise I'm not my mother's daughter.
Rae Leigh: I want to ask you something and I need to keep going, because I've got another call after this, but that's okay. And I've, I really appreciate you sharing your story. It's very inspirational. I'm looking forward to sharing it with everyone else too, but.
Katrina Burgoyne: And I know I already stuck on that topic for a long time. I hope we got everything you needed.
Rae Leigh: Do you know what? I believe that everything is exactly the way it's meant to be all the time. So that's
Katrina Burgoyne: Okay.
Rae Leigh: Tell me what the best advice that you've ever been given.
Katrina Burgoyne: The best advice I've ever been given.is don't give up just because you don't hit it the first time around the second time around the 15th, the hundredth time, I think persistence is key for everything that you do.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Perfect. That's amazing. Okay. And if you could give one piece of advice to yourself when you were maybe that 15, 17 year old girl at high
school, what would you say?
Katrina Burgoyne: I would say that you're good enough.
Rae Leigh: Love it. Yeah, you are good enough. And that's such a hard thing that, you know, children have to be told. And it said that they have to be told that, but we all need to be told they don't mean,
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. You know, I look back through all day old videos of my son's trip to Nashville in 2019, I've always struggled.
data. I would never, I was, you know, we didn't have a lot of money. I always felt like I was the kid that the, you know, not the pretty girl with the ribbons and a hair and then nice school bag.
And I was just a little kid that would try and run along and keep up.
That'd be kind enough to talk to me So I mean, that probably wasn't what it really was, but in my head, that's what I think. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I look back at that little girl that I was with all the videos and as a different person, it's like, I look at this little girl and I go, wow.
She was doing it a couple of times. She took on, she was taken on the world, but at the time I didn't believe that I
could do it.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. If you could co-write I think I know what the answer is going to be with anyone in the world, dead or alive. Who would it be and why
Katrina Burgoyne: Oh, You know what I'm kind of on a case I've been fixed right
now. So I'd love to write with Keith Evan. Is that how you're going to say?
Rae Leigh: he's doing a bit of collaboration and I thought you were going to say Shania Twain.
Katrina Burgoyne: Oh yeah. I love Shanaya. Not, I think I like her cave. I mean, I would love to sit down and have a wine with Shanai official.
Rae Leigh: Okay. So wine with Shanaya, write a song with Keith and he has been doing a lot of clubs slightly. Hasn't I mean, he's the king of collaborations, right?
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. He's.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Awesome. Cool. So tell us what you're doing now. What's 2021 looking like for you? I know that you've just released a song songwriter in April and how's that going for you?
I love that song by the way. And it's very topical to what we're talking.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah, well, that's Like my hot right there. Like It's the most vulnerable song. It was pretty tough to write. I mean, emotional and proud. Like I had to kind of put a lot of pride away to share that song, but you know, it's funny. That sounds didn't really, it hasn't done very well. Like it hasn't really charted or anything, but it. That's my song, you know, I think like, as a songwriter artists that's who I am. And I'm so proud of that song. I think whoever finds it and wants to get to know
who I am. That's the song
to listen to that.
Thank you. I'm going to
be constantly and consistently releasing music. So, it's going to be a never ending stream of releases from here on out.
So, any support that anyone wants to give me, I would just love you forever. And. Yeah, I
just want to keep growing.
Rae Leigh: Are you ever going to come back to Australia and put on a show for
us?
Katrina Burgoyne: I would love to, honestly, I actually, I was meant to go home for Christmas last year, but. With the pandemic. I hadn't been home for two and a half years, but yes, absolutely. That's my goal. I wanted to be touring again when I get back up. I know I got a lot of listeners in Brisbane, so, I did play a show last time I was in Brizzy.
I don't know how many
people would come to my shows, but
Rae Leigh: we can collaborate. We'll put on a show together.
Katrina Burgoyne: let's do it. Perfect. So
Rae Leigh: host one here. You host one in Nashville. I'll come to you too.
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah. Perfect. Sounds correct.
Rae Leigh: All right. Is there anything else that you'd like to share before we finish up and thank you so much for, I'm going to put all of your description, your socials and your music. It's going to go on the description of the podcast and your website. Everyone's going to be able to find you on the blog and on the description. Is there anything else you'd like to say?
Katrina Burgoyne: all I could say? is. Be my friend. I would love to keep in touch with everyone. I've you can go to cause my last name. So how to spell my name's Katrina Burgoyne. For those of you, you didn't catch my name and we started, but you can find me@kbcountry.net. So super
Rae Leigh: Oh,
Katrina Burgoyne: have to write it down. Hey, b country.net.
Rae Leigh: KB then is that your
Katrina Burgoyne: Yeah, please do. Yeah. Yeah. I mean you could call me Kat, but, kB is easy to.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Yeah. Cool. All right. Well, we're going to follow you. We're going to stay in touch. We're going to support you and just be your home ground cheer squad over in
Katrina Burgoyne: I would love that I need some Aussies cheering me on that means a lot.
Rae Leigh: Oh, absolutely. And that's what we're here for. And I'm just looking forward to seeing what comes next, but I love songwriter. And I'm looking forward to everyone should go listen to that song, by the way, especially if you're listening to this podcast and you're probably a songwriter, so you'll get it.
But yeah, thank you so much for being so open and vulnerable, and I just appreciate you spending the time to share your story. Thank you.
Katrina Burgoyne: Thank you, Rae thanks for having me. You're such a sweetheart.
