Kate Voegele wants to be friends with her fans.
The pop-rock musician and "One Tree Hill" actress, 22, keeps them up-to-date via the Web. She has a MySpace page (Interscope's MySpace Records released her CD "A Fine Mess," in May) and maintains a blog at katevoegele.com. And on Twitter, she relates to fans more like a person than a product.
One tweet reads: "Annapolis is one of my new favorite cities EVER...had some serious crabcakes and ice cream last night." Voegele performs Friday night at Rash Field with Uncle Kracker and Bel Air native Julienne Irwin, 16, an "America's Got Talent" finalist. In a recent phone conversation, Voegele's Midwestern charm and effervescent personality thwarted any sense of burgeoning celebrity.
Question: Which do you prefer? Performing music or acting?
Answer: They're both creative challenges for me, but I'll always be a musician. I can't imagine my life without it. Acting's been fun, because it's new. My role on "One Tree Hill's" been my first real acting gig, aside from my high school musical. It was "Once Upon a Mattress," and I was in the chorus.
Question: As far as acting, are there any projects in the works besides "One Tree Hill"?
Answer: I'm hoping to do more acting. I've fallen in love with it. Anything that challenges me creatively, I am just so curious about.
Question: On your Twitter feed Aug. 11, you posted, "Played an open mic night in a dive bar for the first time in 5 years." What's that all about?
Answer: I was in Wilmington, [N.C.,] shooting for "One Tree Hill," and one of my friends from the show hosts an open-mic night at this little dive bar. She was like, "Please come out and play a song." ... I went over and played for maybe 40 drunk people, and it was awesome. Not that there's ever any pressure, because I love performing live, but it was a totally different thing than playing my own headlining gig for 800 people.
Question: Did those 40 drunk people recognize you?
Answer: Besides the ones that were super-drunk, yeah. People who live in Wilmington know we shoot "One Tree Hill" there. Everybody was so chill. That's what I love about that little town. People aren't crazy and starstruck.
Question: What kind of interactions do you have with fans on Twitter?
Answer: I just got a camera phone, so I've begun taking pictures of things. This girl who's adorable and a really big fan sent me two dozen roses the other night, and it was just amazing. All I have to do is snap a picture of it, and say, "Thanks so much for these flowers. You're the greatest." And everyone can see it, and for her it's a cool thing that she sees that I appreciate it. That's one of the things I love about Twitter. When people follow you, you realize, "I can show my fans who I am outside of my music." Instead of promoting myself, it's great to just say, "Hey, guys, I'm hanging out at Panera with some chicken noodle soup."
Question: Julienne Irwin is opening before you. What were you doing musically when you were 16?
Answer: I think it's cool she's playing this gig at 16. When I was 16, that was about the time I was starting. I started playing guitar when I was 15, and started writing songs my sophomore year of high school. I think it was the most fun time, because I didn't know you could have a shot at this being a kid from a small suburb of the Midwest. I thought you had to be related to famous people and be friends with people in Hollywood. ... Things were unfolding for me very quickly, so I was playing side stage shows for Counting Crows and John Mayer and all these people I was idolizing. Discovering it all in a grass-roots way was so much fun for me. Hopefully, she's having as much fun with it as I did.
Question: Do you have any advice for her?
Answer: My biggest advice, and it sounds cliche, but just don't be discouraged. There are so many times somebody who is a jerk who doesn't get it is going to tell you that you can't do it.
Question: You're headed to Europe soon?
Answer: I am really excited. I have never been for work or play. All my friends went and studied abroad in college, so I'm like, "I've got to go to Europe!" More importantly, I'm getting messages every day from fans in France, the U.K., Germany and all over Europe that are like, "When are you touring here?"
Question: If you have time to do anything besides perform and tour, what do you hope to do while you're there?
Answer: I want to take pictures in front of all the typical stuff. But I also hope to stumble upon some cool, unexpected things. I will definitely be tweeting. Definitely.
The pop-rock musician and "One Tree Hill" actress, 22, keeps them up-to-date via the Web. She has a MySpace page (Interscope's MySpace Records released her CD "A Fine Mess," in May) and maintains a blog at katevoegele.com. And on Twitter, she relates to fans more like a person than a product.
One tweet reads: "Annapolis is one of my new favorite cities EVER...had some serious crabcakes and ice cream last night." Voegele performs Friday night at Rash Field with Uncle Kracker and Bel Air native Julienne Irwin, 16, an "America's Got Talent" finalist. In a recent phone conversation, Voegele's Midwestern charm and effervescent personality thwarted any sense of burgeoning celebrity.
Question: Which do you prefer? Performing music or acting?
Answer: They're both creative challenges for me, but I'll always be a musician. I can't imagine my life without it. Acting's been fun, because it's new. My role on "One Tree Hill's" been my first real acting gig, aside from my high school musical. It was "Once Upon a Mattress," and I was in the chorus.
Question: As far as acting, are there any projects in the works besides "One Tree Hill"?
Answer: I'm hoping to do more acting. I've fallen in love with it. Anything that challenges me creatively, I am just so curious about.
Question: On your Twitter feed Aug. 11, you posted, "Played an open mic night in a dive bar for the first time in 5 years." What's that all about?
Answer: I was in Wilmington, [N.C.,] shooting for "One Tree Hill," and one of my friends from the show hosts an open-mic night at this little dive bar. She was like, "Please come out and play a song." ... I went over and played for maybe 40 drunk people, and it was awesome. Not that there's ever any pressure, because I love performing live, but it was a totally different thing than playing my own headlining gig for 800 people.
Question: Did those 40 drunk people recognize you?
Answer: Besides the ones that were super-drunk, yeah. People who live in Wilmington know we shoot "One Tree Hill" there. Everybody was so chill. That's what I love about that little town. People aren't crazy and starstruck.
Question: What kind of interactions do you have with fans on Twitter?
Answer: I just got a camera phone, so I've begun taking pictures of things. This girl who's adorable and a really big fan sent me two dozen roses the other night, and it was just amazing. All I have to do is snap a picture of it, and say, "Thanks so much for these flowers. You're the greatest." And everyone can see it, and for her it's a cool thing that she sees that I appreciate it. That's one of the things I love about Twitter. When people follow you, you realize, "I can show my fans who I am outside of my music." Instead of promoting myself, it's great to just say, "Hey, guys, I'm hanging out at Panera with some chicken noodle soup."
Question: Julienne Irwin is opening before you. What were you doing musically when you were 16?
Answer: I think it's cool she's playing this gig at 16. When I was 16, that was about the time I was starting. I started playing guitar when I was 15, and started writing songs my sophomore year of high school. I think it was the most fun time, because I didn't know you could have a shot at this being a kid from a small suburb of the Midwest. I thought you had to be related to famous people and be friends with people in Hollywood. ... Things were unfolding for me very quickly, so I was playing side stage shows for Counting Crows and John Mayer and all these people I was idolizing. Discovering it all in a grass-roots way was so much fun for me. Hopefully, she's having as much fun with it as I did.
Question: Do you have any advice for her?
Answer: My biggest advice, and it sounds cliche, but just don't be discouraged. There are so many times somebody who is a jerk who doesn't get it is going to tell you that you can't do it.
Question: You're headed to Europe soon?
Answer: I am really excited. I have never been for work or play. All my friends went and studied abroad in college, so I'm like, "I've got to go to Europe!" More importantly, I'm getting messages every day from fans in France, the U.K., Germany and all over Europe that are like, "When are you touring here?"
Question: If you have time to do anything besides perform and tour, what do you hope to do while you're there?
Answer: I want to take pictures in front of all the typical stuff. But I also hope to stumble upon some cool, unexpected things. I will definitely be tweeting. Definitely.
