An In Depth Interview with Kat Riggins!
Kat Riggins was born Katriva Tabitha Riggins in Miami, Florida on February 7, 1980. She grew up in a household where there was always background music. Because of the wide range of genres in her parents collection, Kat developed a love for all types of music from gospel and soul to country and rock and everything in between. “I can remember being in the car with my mom and sister singing along to Tracy Chapman one minute and Chuck Berry the next”, says Kat. However, even then, she was drawn to the smokey gritty sounds of artists like Bessie Smith,Sam Cooke, Nina Simone, Tina Turner, Denise LaSalle, Etta James, Ray Charles, Koko Taylor,Janis Joplin and the list goes on. She grew up singing in local programs, church events, and family gatherings with her sister and cousins.
At age 23 Kat landed a gig singing jazz and blues standards in a small lounge in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida with the accompaniment of only a piano player. Since then she has performed in clubs and Lounges all over South Florida and New Orleans. In 2011 Kat set out on an Asian and Middle Eastern tour with a top 40 cover band. She has performed for packed houses in Saigon, Bangkok, Beijing, Seoul, Abu Dhabi, Curacao, Belgium and Holland thus far, all the while finding ways to inject a bit of her bluesy swagger into the show.
Kat’s own musical style is a blend of the blues with hip hop, pop, rock and even country music. “It’s all related anyway”, she exclaims. Her goal is to introduce blues music to a mainstream audience by re introducing it to the world as Blues Fusion. She is inspired by young artists such as Janelle Monae, Karreim Riggins, SyncOpera and ZZ Ward who share in her passion to revive music from the vinyl days. “It’s about the raw emotion in every note”, Kat says. ” If I can move someone to feel what I feel when I sing a song, then it’s all worth it”. With her own band, Blues Revival, she travels the world with the intent to “wake up the blues one song at a time”!
Kat recorded her first EP “Seoul Music” independently, produced by Kameron Pearson and Terrell King while on tour in Seoul, South Korea. It is a compilation of blues covers and original songs she wrote dating as far back as 2008. Her blues- fusion album, “Lily Rose” was recorded independently in Miami, Florida with the help of producer James ” Boowie” Murphy. It includes favorites from Seoul Music along with some new entries to her song journal. Kat’s latest album, aptly named after her band “Blues Revival” is a clever mashup of gospel-blues, blues-rock, funky blues, contemporary and traditional blues, with BLUES being the operative word! With this and albums to come, Kat Riggins’s focus is to be a part of this musical revolution that aims to awaken the masses and introduce them to the sincerity behind blues music.
“I thank God that my passion is my purpose… That is to help preserve this endangered species called The Blues.” – Kat Riggins
“Support LIVE music, because if you don’t… eventually you’ll have to settle for youtube alone. It’s just NOT the same.”- Kat Riggins
