Latest / The Scene Projects / McKenna Faith Winters: Rising Star, Songwriting, and Navigating the Music Industry

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McKenna Faith Winters: Rising Star, Songwriting, and Navigating the Music Industry · The Scene Projects

• 0:02
  Welcome into a very exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:04
  I'm your host Bubba Starts, and with me today is McKenna Faith Winters.
• 0:07
  McKenna, welcome to the show.
• 0:09
  Yeah.
• 0:09
  Thanks for having me.
• 0:10
  It's a pleasure.
• 0:12
  Just getting to know each other off camera a little bit here.
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  And I said, you know what?
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  Let's just do it live.
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  So why don't you go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself, and then we'll get into all
• 0:22
  the fun stuff that you're up to.
• 0:24
  Yeah.
• 0:24
  So my name is McKenna Faith Winters.
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  I'm a 17 year old country recording artist.
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  I've been recording in Nashville for the last couple years.
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  I've got 13 songs out right now.
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  My last one came out about a week and a half ago or so, and it's really been growing from
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  there.
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  I've got tons of shows going on and more songs coming out and more being recorded.
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  So, yeah, it's been a lot of fun.
• 0:48
  That's awesome.
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  I wish I was that far along in my music career at 17, but I was still learning how to play.
• 0:55
  Yeah.
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  Well, I can't even play the guitar.
• 0:57
  I can a little bit.
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  We're getting there, but I don't musically wise, I'm I've never really grew up.
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  Like, my family, they never did anything musically, so, it's a learning process.
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  So mostly singer songwriter then?
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  You're writing your own songs?
• 1:11
  Yes.
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  I am starting to write my own songs.
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  Yeah.
• 1:14
  Awesome.
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  So how did you kinda get into the the music business then?
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  You're still a very young lady.
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  So Yeah.
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  So I've always loved music.
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  Singing in the car as a little girl.
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  And then COVID hit, and my parents and I love singing.
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  And my dad was like, hey.
• 1:30
  Let's just start posting videos.
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  So we kinda made a little fancy room in my house for music and stuff.
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  And I started posting videos during COVID, and it really has been growing from there.
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  How fun.
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  Way to take advantage of that time that time at home, and I'm sure you were probably out of
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  school.
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  And Yes.
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  Mom and dad are going crazy going she won't stop singing all over the house.
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  Yeah.
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  We gotta make something out of this.
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  So how cool.
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  And now look at you.
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  You're you're recording in Nashville and and all kinds of fun stuff.
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  So where are you from, McKenna, without obviously being too specific?
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  I'm from the Rockford area of Illinois.
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  It's Northern Illinois.
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  So, yeah, almost in Wisconsin.
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  But yeah.
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  Okay.
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  Hey.
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  I I I know the area well.
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  So my family grew up in the South Suburbs of Chicago, Romeoville.
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  So we would go through Rock Ford driving through, and and I passed through there, oh,
• 2:23
  not too long ago on tour myself.
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  So Yeah.
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  Know the area well.
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  Love that.
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  Are you having, a lot of success, obviously, finding gigs out there?
• 2:34
  Yeah.
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  Talk about some of the struggles you face as someone who doesn't play, you know, doesn't
• 2:39
  play an instrument necessarily yourself.
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  Are you always touring with say a guitar player or something?
• 2:45
  Yeah.
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  I am.
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  It it took a while, but I found people that have become my family stuff.
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  They've really helped me out as young artists.
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  Another struggle I've had is I feel like a lot of places are like, oh my god.
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  She's only 17.
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  Like, she's probably not like, they never seen me before.
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  You know?
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  So it's sometimes hard to book gigs and stuff and shows.
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  But I think I'm starting to prove myself around here.
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  So yeah.
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  That doesn't stop with age.
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  Yeah.
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  People will will always kinda doubt you until you build up that resume, till you can go,
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  well, this is all the stuff that I've already done.
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  So get used to that for a few more years, but you are rising rapidly.
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  So you have guitar player.
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  You say you have a band.
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  You have all these band shows coming director of the band as well, or is one of these people
• 3:33
  that have now become family to you, do they kind of assume that role?
• 3:38
  I think they mostly assume the role.
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  I mean, my dad's also kind of my manager too.
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  He does a lot of the booking gigs and finding places to play.
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  He also does a lot of my social media sometimes too to help me out because I'm still in school
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  and all that.
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  So yeah.
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  Well, huge shout out to dad for helping his little girl in the music industry.
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  I think most fathers that have a daughter that want to go into music are probably just trying
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  to talk him out of it completely.
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  Right.
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  No.
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  He's always grown up loving music too, so I think it's a lot that he loves too.
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  Do you feel like you're kind of or that he rather is kinda living vicariously through your
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  situation?
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  I think so.
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  Yeah.
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  He just, he loves doing it.
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  He loves, doing the traveling and talking to people, and he loves the music part of it too.
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  That's awesome.
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  So my dad, used to be in my band, but it was less of, like, supporting my son as was much
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  more like my dad still wanted to party and be a rock star.
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  So I'm very, very proud of of your dad for for doing that.
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  It's not easy always, especially if you wanted to maybe have that dream but never got the
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  chance to kind of step aside and to put anyone else up, you know, especially a a daughter or,
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  you know, a son in my case.
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  But, commendable.
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  So, shout out to you, dad.
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  You're probably in the background list.
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  He just he just photobombed us in the mirror.
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  I'm gonna let him know that.
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  So that's awesome.
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  So you got new songs coming out.
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  You just released the new one a week and a half ago, you said.
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  What?
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  I mean, you you say country, but country is such a broad term these.
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  Yeah.
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  What kind of, I don't know, necessarily subgenre, but describe your music for me a
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  little bit.
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  It's very it's very pop country, I would say.
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  Yeah.
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  I've always grown up loving country music and pop and same, so it's kind of a great mixture
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  for me.
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  I've also a lot of people say that I have a good pop voice and country voice, so it kinda
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  just works out.
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  But that's mostly my music.
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  I've got a couple of them are more poppy than country, but it's still a great vibe to have.
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  So
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  Yeah.
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  It's really hard to put a thumb on any musical genre these days anyway.
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  Give us a couple of comps just for our listeners that haven't heard you yet.
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  What what would be some comparable artists out there for you?
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  I'd say Kelsey Ballerini, Averyana.
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  Those are my two main that I've always listened to and grown up.
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  Averyana, she's amazing.
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  I've seen her in concert a few times now, but she's a person that I wanna be like and grow up
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  to someday.
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  So
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  You have started writing your own music now.
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  Talk about some of the, you know, the exciting points of your budding songwriting career now
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  on top of singing.
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  Yeah.
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  It's really a learning process.
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  I'm still young, so learning how to put things together.
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  And I also my producer's in Nashville, so he's been helping me out a lot with that too and
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  just teaching me the ways.
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  I write with a lot of people in Nashville.
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  Mostly been co writing for right now, but it's great to they help me learn a lot.
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  So.
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  Right.
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  And that's exactly what it is.
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  It's a it's a place to learn until you can stand on your own and feel like you're very
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  confident.
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  And I think not having an instrument that you're relying on to help you to kind of
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  coordinate melodies and different things like that, it probably makes it a little tougher as
• 7:10
  well.
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  You know, for me, I started writing poetry maybe at 12, 13 years old and then got a guitar
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  at 13, 14, and it was like, oh, these things are perfectly aligned with each other, and it
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  it just kind of came naturally to me.
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  But I understand that it's not always not always the case.
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  Some people come to this with different talents.
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  So fantastic.
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  How do you like working in Nashville?
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  It's great.
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  I love the place.
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  We wanna move there soon.
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  So after I graduate, that's our plan.
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  It's an amazing place.
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  It's the people down there are just so much different.
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  It's easy to, like, become friends with people.
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  It's amazing.
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  Yes.
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  And the only, you know, the only thing that could kind of give anyone pause is that, one,
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  it's getting more and more expensive to live in Nashville.
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  Right.
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  And two, that you don't really make a ton of money playing gigs down there.
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  So I have some good friends of mine that live in the Minneapolis area, and he's a you know,
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  signed to a development deal or or some kind of distribution deal.
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  So he works in Nashville quite a bit, but they spend a lot of time, you know, either driving
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  down there or flying down to spend, you know, three, four days and then coming home and
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  finding that as, like, the trade off because most of his gigs are in that Minneapolis area.
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  You've spent twenty years or, you know, ten years building up this repertoire of gigs.
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  It's really hard to uproot that and move away.
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  Might be different for someone who maybe doesn't have all the experience, but talk about
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  your scene in in that Rockford area.
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  Are there a lot of gigs for someone like you around in that Illinois Wisconsin border?
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  I mean, obviously, a lot of small town pubs and and things like that around, but is there
• 8:55
  places for you to go out and play and and maybe make a little bit more than tips?
• 8:59
  Yeah.
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  So our Rockford area, like Illinois, we have a lot of musical talent here.
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  It's been it's been easy to get to know people and get to booking here, but I would I get paid
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  pretty good for that.
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  It's not as much as people probably in other places, but it's more than tips and stuff.
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  So I actually do get paid from a lot of the bars or festivals that I'm gonna be playing in
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  this summer.
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  But yeah.
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  So the new album, did you print CDs for it and everything?
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  Or
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  It's not an album.
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  I'm releasing singles right now, but I have I have CDs as for my six songs that I have out,
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  but the rest we haven't done anything with yet.
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  But I plan my own as, like, my focus right now.
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  It's kinda it's getting a lot of streams, actually.
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  I've got, I've gained about 5,000 Spotify listeners in the last week and a half or so.
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  Holy cow.
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  Yeah.
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  It's growing a lot.
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  Can you teach me?
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  That's, you know, my music career to to some extent has taken a a a backseat this last, oh,
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  just over a year we've been doing the podcast because I find so much more value in my day to
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  day having these kind of conversations and, putting that out there as my as my content.
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  Right?
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  It it than just kind of putting my songs out there.
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  And I feel it's a little less demoralizing when nobody's listening to the podcast for whatever
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  reason.
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  Yeah.
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  But we're hitting our stride here too.
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  We just passed a 150,000 views on YouTube.
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  That's great.
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  Yeah.
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  I mean, we were at a few thousand at the April, and then things just started to move straight
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  up.
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  So I'm sure you're kinda feeling that rush too where it's like, oh my god.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  5,000 new people in a week listening to your music.
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  That's incredible.
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  Did you get any kind of playlist placement, or is this just kind of an organic thing where
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  It is.
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  Your song is resonating?
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  Yeah.
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  I I have gotten some playlist it's been added to.
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  Sometimes it's random, but there has been a few.
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  That's I I'm so out of it.
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  I started to dip into it when I was releasing a couple singles in '23 and '24, and it was just
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  like, man, I'd I'm just not I'm not into it because I don't I'm 39.
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  I just turned 39, McKenna.
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  So I'm much further along in my career Yeah.
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  Than you are.
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  And getting attention for a song that I wrote twenty years ago, right, when I was a
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  completely different human being, it just didn't really ring for me.
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  But, you know, thankfully for me, you know, and extremely grateful to have found podcasting and
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  to have an idea like the scene projects that is about building a community.
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  It's not about me getting famous, you know, talking and being Joe Rogan.
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  It's about me supporting young artists like McKenna Faith Winters and having them on at the
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  beginning of their careers to, you know, educate a little bit, but also share your art
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  with the world.
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  We do songwriter showcases.
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  We have, you know, now a mixtape playlist that we're building as well to to just get our
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  artists out there.
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  We won an award recently for content creator of the year from the Midwest Country Music
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  Organization, which if you're not a member, I would highly suggest that, and I'll get you
• 12:22
  some info when we when we get off here.
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  But it's it's about community.
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  And it sounds like you got some great people around you that have been really supportive of
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  that, you know, starting obviously with dad being behind you every step of the way here.
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  What is what's your goal for the next year?
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  I'm assuming that you're graduating next year or do you okay.
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  I'm a You're you're you'll be a senior.
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  And so what's kind of the goals for the next twelve months to obviously, you can't, you
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  know, go on full fledged tours and and leave just yet, But what what does the next twelve
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  months look like for you, McKenna?
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  Kind of like you said, like building a community, get building people that follow
• 13:06
  along and are just your fans and are there for you.
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  That's a big part of being a small artist is the people that are there have been your number
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  one fan since the start.
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  Also, I mean, booking more gigs as much as possible, it's a big thing to do.
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  Playing live, playing original music for people, which I have a festival that's just for
• 13:27
  that that I'll be playing in July July or, I think, August.
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  I'm not exactly sure the date.
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  But building community is the biggest part that you can do for a young artist, helping me grow.
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  And yeah.
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  I also I did forget to mention this.
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  I got nominated for, I think, three Josie Awards down in Nashville for the independent
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  artist.
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  It's hosted at the Grand Ole Opry this year, so I will be going to that in November.
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  That's fantastic.
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  I got quite a few friends.
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  I'll send you a list of people you need to go introduce yourself to while you're down
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  there.
• 14:01
  Cool.
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  Most of them Midwest Country Music Organization members as well.
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  That is a, a a big part of our world was finding that community and then building our
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  own community.
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  We started the Midwest Original Music Organization for the simple fact that most of
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  my world is not in the country world.
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  I was kind of a rock artist, but I have a lot of friends that are in hip hop and other
• 14:23
  genres.
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  And I wanted to kinda open a a a community to all musicians and all kinds of songwriters.
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  So, yeah, we we'd love to have you as part of that community as well and to just continue to
• 14:36
  watch you grow.
• 14:39
  Yeah.
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  Thank you.
• 14:40
  And I am a part of that, actually.
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  Okay.
• 14:42
  Fantastic.
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  Yeah.
• 14:43
  You know what?
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  I I do so many of these interviews now.
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  I've lost track.
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  Last year, everyone I interviewed was MCMI.
• 14:50
  Yeah.
• 14:50
  Right?
• 14:50
  Yeah.
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  And now it's become like, oh, wow.
• 14:53
  These tentacles have gone up.
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  I don't even know I don't know any of these names on the on the interview list anymore, and
• 14:59
  it's a beautiful thing.
• 15:00
  So I will be watching for your name and our breakout artist for our award show next year,
• 15:06
  and you have already gotten my vote, McKenna.
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  So kudos to you.
• 15:11
  Keep it up.
• 15:12
  Go ahead and plug all your stuff for me before I let you get out of here.
• 15:16
  Yeah.
• 15:16
  So you guys can find me on McKenna Faith Winter's music, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook.
• 15:22
  Those are my three main.
• 15:23
  TikTok's my biggest one right now.
• 15:25
  But, yeah, mckennafaithwinter's music.
• 15:28
  Well, McKenna, thank you so much for joining the show today, and thanks for being part of
• 15:32
  the scene.
• 15:33
  Yeah.
• 15:33
  Thank you for having me.