Strength in finding your own voice: music and conversation with Katie Scullin

Katie Scullin, a Wisconsin-based musician, joins the Max Ink Radio team on the Civic Media Radio Network to share new songs, talk about the power of finding her voice, and how Women’s History Month is an opportunity for everyone to tell their story.

If you want to know more about Katie Scullin, just listen to her lyrics. The Wisconsin-based musician is refreshingly honest about finding power in her voice. She joined the Max Ink Radio Show for “Live in the Lair,” as this week’s featured guest for the hour-long in-studio concert and interview.

Listen to the complete “Live in the Lair” in-studio concert and interview podcast here. It includes some remarkably honest stories about the meanings behind her songs.

Scullin is also very revealing about the stories behind her words. She tells us about the song she called, Bloom.

“It was a hard time and I saw a little bud on the tree,” Scullin says. “The next day the bud looked a little different and it made me realize there’s something about change that can make everything ok. So I wrote a song about it.”

Scullin has been writing and performing as long as she can remember. It started when her parents, who are not musicians, brought a piano home.

“My brother, sister, and I all started to play,” Scullin says. “Then my brother started playing guitar, so I wanted to do that, too.”

By 2009, Scullin and her brother, D.J., formed a band called “Rivalry,” played the Emerging Artist Stage at Summerfest in Milwaukee, and won their first awards. Just ten years later, while forging a path to success on her own name and music, Scullin earned “Best of Madison.”

Yet she reveals, it hasn’t always been easy. And in an ode to Women’s History Month, Scullin believes this time opens the door to talk about some of her past struggles in the music business, as both an artist and a woman. She hopes her story helps someone else. 

“Oh, I’ve been through things as a female artist,” Scullin explains. “Being kind can be taken the wrong way, while standing up for myself can be misunderstood, too. It took a long time for me to navigate it and find a way to feel comfortable saying both yes and no. I just want women to stand up and be strong. Be a role model for other women. You do you, girl!” 

The rest of Scullin’s history includes a lot of shows across the country. But some of her favorite memories are from around the Badgers State, including going back to a time in the Park Falls area.

“I spent so much of my childhood in the Northwoods,” Scullin says. “My grandfather had land up there, and we’d run around in the woods and make up songs.”

Today, Scullin considers teaching young musicians, while also studying production and mastering techniques, her most rewarding efforts. It goes hand-in-hand with her life stories, put to music. And she has some new songs to reveal her latest chapter.  

“The song Clarity stems from a time when I had vocal issues,” Scullin explains. “I actually couldn’t sing for awhile and had to go through a process to find my voice and hear myself again. I had to learn how to feel I was strong enough to find my own direction. And I did.”

Listen to the complete interview and hear her music, including the stories behind the songs here; plus, Scullin shares a special cover song and it may surprise you! You’ll also enjoy her openness and insight throughout the conversation.

Max Ink Radio is live Saturdays from 6pm – midnight on your local Civic Media radio station. The show repeats on Sunday nights at the same time.

Want to be considered as a “Live in the Lair” guest or have your music features on Max Ink Radio? Find all the information on the website.

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