Happy new year! We wanted to start off 2016 with a future Women in Entertainment feature on a young artist who has already achieved much in her career, Katie Costello, singer, songwriter, label maker and new world advocate.
Costello began writing songs in her bedroom on a digital piano at age 13, and soon thereafter began performing them at various clubs in Los Angeles, where this writer first heard her. Although not yet out of high school, she was becoming disillusioned by the homogeneity and insulated nature of Southern California’s suburban world. Consequently, when she turned 18, Costello moved to New York City’s Lower East Side to seek diversity, inspiration, and fulfillment of her dream of making art and music in the creative heart of the Big Apple.
Costello dropped her first full length album, Kaleidoscope Machine, at the age of 17, leading to her “discovery” by legendary DJ Nic Harcourt of the trendsetting public radio station KCRW. Harcourt had featured her on his show “Today’s Top Tune,” and had this to say about our future superstar: “It’s good to know what one wants to be when one grows up. At 17, Hermosa Beach resident Katie Costello is making her path clear.”
Upon moving to New York, Costello decided against going to college so that she could pursue her art and music full-time. She has performed, composed, produced, and collaborated on many records, including her own discography, comprised of two full-length albums (Kaleidoscope Machine, Lamplight) and five EPs (The City In Me, Follow Your Every Beat, Impossible Things, Universal Spread of Compassionate Wisdom, Rebel Pop Singer Songwriter); as well as numerous singles, including her latest, “New World.” Her artistry has continued to evolve with every new release, while always staying true to her mantra: classic songwriting, authentic musicality featuring piano and guitar, raw emotion, and honest lyrics.
When she’s not songwriting, recording, and performing, she’s practicing yoga and meditation at Bodhisattva Yoga in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which keeps her looking, feeling, and creating at her best. She credits the studio’s founder, Vivekan, as a constant source of inspiration and motivation behind her music. In fact, she and Vivekan founded REBEL POP Records, which now serves as the home for Costello’s musical catalog.
Her music has been featured in various television shows, including Private Practice, Pretty Little Liars, Switched at Birth, Vampire Diaries, One Tree Hill, 90210, Home and Away, and Rookie Blue, as well as on such films as Bgrooklyn Brothers Beat the Best, Craigslist Joe, Never and others. In addition, Costello is a
contributing songwriter on many other artists’ projects. Her music has also been featured in such prominent publications as Vogue, Teen Vogue, Marie Claire, BlackBook, Paste and Billboard, to name a few.
You can find a review of her current release, Rebel Pop Songwriter, by clicking here. For more information about this future superstar, check out her website and her Facebook page, follow her on Twitter and Instagram, and definitely subscribe to her YouTube channel.
