Committed To The Music And Dancing With Her Dreams
By Belinda Trotter James
Can you remember when you
got your first big break in life? Was it
a dream job or getting a date with your crush.
What were you doing in the year 2011?
Well, for Katlynn Simone Smith that was the year she landed the role as Brittnay
Pitts on the hit BET sitcom, The Game.
Most of Katlynn’s fans know her from television however, she is also a
singer. In my exclusive interview,
Katlynn reveals what is was like growing up in Texas, getting two big breaks in
LA and living her dream…
Sometimes living your
dream means you have to work on your birthday.
Katlynn’s birthday happens to be the day before Halloween, but instead
of being out partying with the world in costumes, Katlynn will be doing something
else. "I actually will be working on my birthday," says Katlynn. “Yes,
I will be in the ATL working”. Don’t feel sorry for the birthday girl because she
is probably living out her birthday wish to do exactly what she was born to do
and that’s sing. "A lot of people say that sucks, but I think it's pretty cool”,
explains Katlynn. “I will have a cake
and it will be nice”.
If you’re wondering which
came first… the singing or the acting,
Katlynn reveals, “The singing came first and the acting came by chance. The
acting was kind of like a bridge to get me out of my shyness. My mom didn't
know what to do and she said, ‘Hey let's try this out,” and I fell in love with
it as well.”
Katlynn fell so deep in
love with acting that she was able to land the role as Megan on the sitcom, The
First Family. "The day I moved out to LA I went to an auditioned and I got
it!” explains Katlynn. “That doesn't happen a lot. Things don't usually
move that fast, but it was definitely a good sign."
Katlynn is right things
don't usually move that quickly. Her first big break in acting was for The
Game. Her father read about the audition
for The Game in LA. They flew to LA
for the day to audition and came right back to Houston. It took months before she heard that she did get
the part. "While I was working on The Game, I was still living in Houston. I moved to LA a few weeks
before my 18th birthday,” explained Katlynn.
As Katlynn explained earlier, the
day she moved out to LA was when she auditioned for The First Family and nailed it! “That was the first time I had
actually moved to LA on my own and it was scary. My family helped me move
and my mother stayed for about two months to make sure I was okay. Then she
said, ‘I got to go back to work. Please
be careful and please be safe’. She comes to visit me every month to make sure
I'm okay. Sometimes she even comes unannounced to make sure I'm being good”. We
both laughed.
I don't know about Katlynn,
but I didn’t want my mother to see what I was up to at 18. Having an unexpected
visit from my mom would not be cool. However, Katlynn did not mind at all. "I love it, I love it and she just left
today,” says Katlynn. “I was getting kind of lonely so I was glad that she
surprised me with a visit”.
In both The Game and The
First Family she plays a daughter character. So I asked her which character is
closest to her own personality? "They both are weirdoes’ in a way,”
begins Katlynn. “With Brittany I understand where she's coming
from, but she is very spoiled and she does react not necessarily how I would
react in situations. If you watch the show, especially this season that's
coming out, you will begin to see a change in her attitude and I feel like
maybe I can see her in myself a little bit more as far as the way she's
handling things now. She's not necessarily being that rude person anymore
that just wants everything to be terrible for everybody. She's just being a
normal human being and letting things go like the divorce and whatever other
issues she's had with from the other characters on the show”.
“On The First Family I definitely guess I am kind of a nerd,” admits
Katlynn. I get told that I'm kind of chilled because I do have a shy side about
me. I guess I am a nerd because I love watching sci-fi movies and reading
books. I guess that's the only thing I can relate to that character. They are
both very different from me”.
Katlynn grew up in Houston,
Texas and she said that she loved it.
"I think I took it for granted though because in the last four
years of high school I kept saying I can't wait to go to LA, I can't wait to go
to LA and I kept saying it because of the things that I was into not because I
just had to get away,” explains Katlynn.
“Little did I know I could have stayed because I was still living at
home while taping The Game. It
was just that flying back-and-forth was a lot,” says Katlynn. "I
just really wanted to be in the middle of it all. Now that I am out here I love
the weather, I love that I can do what I do out here, but I definitely miss the
little things of being home like certain types of food. I need some barbecue
and crawfish every once in a while. That would be nice. You can't get that out in
LA and I definitely miss being around my family”.
Katlynn went to the High School
for the Performing and Visual Arts which
I'm sure was an amazing experience. I shared with Katlynn that I went to
Fashion Industries High School in New York City and it was the best four years
of my life. These types of schools are wonderful because it give you a jump-start to
think about what you want to do for the rest of your life as a career. I'm sure
Katlynn had the same experience performing and doing what she loves in school.
"Yeah before my freshman year started I was homeschooled. I was
really into the acting and singing so I really couldn't go to public school. I
was homeschooled my whole life by my mother, but I knew I wanted to go to the High
School for the Performing and Visual
Arts because my idol Beyoncé went there and I just knew that this thing was
going to happen. I knew which high
school I wanted to go to and I knew which college I wanted to attend. I just knew which steps I wanted to take at
an early age."
Sheesh! Most kids don't
figure that out until a year before it's time to go to high school, but Katlynn
had been preparing for this for years. "For some reason I think it was
because I was homeschooled,” says Katlynn. “I had doubts about going to that high school
every time I had an audition. I thought maybe they wouldn’t have a football team,
maybe they wouldn’t have the dances and all that other stuff I'm going to be
missing out on and would not be able to experience, but now I laugh at the fact
that I was even second-guessing because those were definitely the best
days and the best school ever. I told everybody if they have anything to
do with the arts, this school has a fashion department, music, dance and you
will love it there." Katlynn also describes lunchtime as being straight
out of the movie “Fame”.
For those of you who have
never seen the movie “Fame” Katlynn describes what happens everyday around
lunchtime... "So people don't believe me when I say this, but there were
many times that... I'm not promoting this, but I would not eat lunch because
they would blast the music in the lunchroom and we would dance in the middle of
the lunchroom. People would be dancing on the lunch tables, the stairs…
everywhere! We would have a dance party
every single day. It was hard to eat
your lunch because we didn't have hours for lunch. We had a certain time and we had to go right
back to class." By the way if
you're wondering about the food, the school lunch was good, but dancing was
better.
I'm thinking that Katlynn just
started her career at high school however, she has been acting for a long time
and where she lives there is a big theater community. Katlynn would be in
rehearsals for plays that would take place during the week and on the weekends. This was one of the reasons why she was
homeschooled. It was definitely a big commitment to participate in the
theater. "It was hard to do school and be fully committed to being
in a play. My mom was very capable of teaching me. She's an anesthesiologist
and I definitely trusted her, but she was definitely harder on me than other
teachers. It was a good and bad thing
because she was going to make sure that I knew things and I do know a lot of things
that I don't think I would have necessarily known had I gone to public school;
she made sure of that.”
Her singing career has
definitely taking off with her single, “Beautiful
Lie” which was played on an episode of The Game. Katlynn wrote the song with Grammy nominated
producer/songwriter Cedric “Dabenchwarma” Smith. “That was actually my first single and it was
awesome. I really got into that track and I think when people listen to
the track they really get into it because it's just so true and they actually
can relate to it because I was writing from things I was actually feeling or
heard my friends going through some things at that time. So it was definitely a
nice track to do. "Dancing With My Girls" is my newest single
and it was a one-day shoot and at the end of the day we decided to do all the
dance scenes. Everyone was starting to get tired and the ground was a little wet
however, we pulled it together and got it all done. I'm so thankful for everybody
that was a part of that production because everybody put in 100%. The director
said, ‘I don't want anything but the best’.” The best is exactly what she got with this
single when she wrote it with Grammy nominated songwriters Michaela Shiloh,
Christopher “Chrishan” Dotson, Kyle Christopher Coleman, Erika J Culter, Josh
Adam and music production from Grammy nominated producer Yonnie.
“Let Me Go” is the first
single she attempted to do when she started working with her manager Danny Jones
of the 3 Sixty Music Group. “We got
together with a producer out in Houston and when we heard the track, it sounded
really dope so I decided to put my voice on it and people loved it,” says
Katlynn. “I went on a little tour in LA
and people really gravitated to the song. It was like opening up the doors so
people could see that I am a singer.”
Since Katlynn has been in
LA, the concentration is now on getting out an album. She has been working with different writers
and producers. "I have recorded a lot, but now we have to decide putting
the best of the best on the EP and making sure that it's exactly what people
want to hear. I really want to make something relatable and that is timeless,”
explains Katlynn. I want people to be
able to dance or just sit down and listen so that their day can be better. Even
if it's a sad song, anytime someone is talking about something
you're going through it feels good because you feel like you’re not the
only one. So now it's just a process of eliminating and adding right now, but
we're definitely working on the EP.”
Katlynn has worked with
some major producers and being a youngster to the industry it could be a little
intimidating… "It was a little intimidating, but when I was working with
Cedric, I felt really relaxed and comfortable because I look at him like a big
brother because he is easy to approach and when I started working with him it
was a one-on-one thing,” explains Katlynn.
“I did not have a room full of people who were all meeting you at once
and waiting to see what you can do. When I came to LA it was different
because I was working with people who’s name I heard before and I'm thinking to
myself that I have to step up my game.”
She goes on to say that producers
would invite people to the sessions and there would be all these other writers who
have worked with all these producers so of course, it would be a little
intimidating. “I felt a little scared about the writing part because I felt my
writing wouldn't be on par and then with my singing I felt, ‘Oh my, these
people have worked with Brandy and Beyoncé and oh my goodness...’ I talked to
my dad about it and he always said, “If you mess up, mess up loud and mess up
believing in it. So that's what I'm going
to do from now on. I'm going in there believing in it and knowing what I’m
doing is what I can do.”
When writing a song the
average person may think that you can listen to the track at your leisure and
think of the words to go with it. However, that is not how the world of the songwriter
works. "When I first came out here I thought that’s how it worked as
well,” says Katlynn. “I would ask if they could send me the track and I could
write at home and come back, but that's not how it works. However, I really do like the process because
it's more genuine when you are right there and you just do it. Usually
you will hear a couple of different tracks and we'll just put our hands in the
air and say, ‘This is the track we want to write to.’ I think the process is
better that way instead of just getting one track and you have to stick with
it. Listening to a bunch of tracks and getting the one that feels good to
you; that's the one you pick and usually the melody just comes naturally and
based on how the music sounds you know what to write about.... When you hear
the melody you will know if it sounds like a dance song or sounds like a love
song or a ‘No boy, I don't want you anymore’ song. Is not that
hard."
Not hard! That sounds like
major pressure to just come up with words to a melody on the spot with the
producer and his posse watching every move you make. What happens if you get
writer's block? "Yes that definitely happens and it is scary the
first couple of times, but you get used to it because it’s not necessarily
like a freestyle rap,” says Katlynn. “Now I don't know if I could ever do that.
So many great rappers are out here in LA who have to come up with these
clever things instantly.”
With all the pressure of
being a singer, songwriter and actress, she actually finds time to go to
college. "I’ve been taking classes pretty slow because of everything I'm
working on however, I should be finishing my sophomore year after the holidays. My major is in theater and political science.
I’ve always been interested in journalism, but then I ended up changing
it to political science,” explains Katlynn. “I figured it's better to know what you're
talking about. I want to know exactly what the world is going through and be able
to talk about it.”
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dancing-with-my-girls-single/id923097412
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