“Just another pretty face,” Katherine Schell is not. The 20-year-old Loyola University student has the looks, but this girl’s got grit, smarts and depth to back them up. The songs on her debut album, Emptier Streets, which debuts March 23, aren’t rooted in teen heartbreak, although she’s had some of that too. Katherine derives her unique blues-infused rock style from her childhood in industrial Bay City, MI, her experiences as a highly competitive athlete and most notably the trauma of dealing with her younger brother’s illness.
When her brother, Greg, was diagnosed with Leukemia in 1999, Katherine turned to song-writing and piano to vent her emotions. She developed a soulful, eclectic style that expressed both anguish and hope; both dreams and fears.“My music is very abstract so it can relate to a lot of different experiences that people have,” Katherine, 20, says. “It could be anything.”
Since she launched her music career with her band, The Emergency, Katherine has concentrated on giving back. Katherine returned to her roots in December when she played a benefit show at the Michigan Theater to raise $10,000 for Special Days, a Detroit-area summer camp for kids with cancer. On Jan. 23, Katherine headlined a benefit concert for Northwestern University’s Dance Marathon, the largest student-run philanthropy in the country. “I know I’m touching people in a way I’ve been touched with other artists before,” Katherine says.
But Katherine’s philanthropic bent is backed by some hard-hitting musical chops. She won VH1’s International Song of the Year Award last year for her song, "Rest Assured," and recorded Emptier Streets at the famed Chicago Recording Studio. Katherine just finished a West Coast ski resort tour to promote the album, and will be playing gigs in Chicago, Texas and on the East Coast.
For more information, visit their website: http://www.katherineschell.com
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