Interview and video: Oklahoma singer-songwriter Kat Lock releases coronavirus quarantine album 'an existence'

A version of this story appears in Friday's Weekend Life section of The Oklahoman.

Life changes: Norman singer-songwriter Kat Lock turns personal turmoil into 'an existence'

Kat Lock already was grappling with a series of personal upheavals - a major breakup, a life-changing diagnosis, the grounding of a fledgling career - when the coronavirus pandemic arrived in Oklahoma.

With her newly identified health condition putting her in the high-risk category, the potentially deadly virus landed the Norman singer-songwriter in self-quarantine and pushed her deeper into self-reflection.

"I'm a Scorpio. It's kind of what we do is take the worst situations we're thrown in and we come out the other side better for it. I think that's all life is: a series of getting better through (expletive) situations that you're thrown in. I do get a lot of music out of it. Every bad breakup I've been through I got a good song out of it," she said.

With so many significant life changes, the independent musician was able to release this month her latest album, "an existence," a seven-track solo collection that has her tapping into her deepest roots, from her longtime admiration of Fiona Apple to her childhood spent performing with Norman's Sooner Theatre.

"My mom has a piano, and I was staying there and really playing and kind of embracing my roots and my inner music theater kid. I did musicals my entire life until I was 19, and I started just really playing the piano and really working on that and writing new stuff," Lock said.

"It's usually two years after I write a song before it's done and then it's been played live for a while and then it's been recorded and then it's released. And I just thought, 'I don't want to have to do that for everything. I just want to get it out if I feel so moved to do it."

Solo project

Lock, 24, was settling into a new lineup for her band - bassist Matt Ellis, guitarist David Rey and drummer Bill Boyd - and they were working on a follow up to last year's EP when the pandemic sent them all sheltering at home.

"We're working on more full-band music. I just haven't seen them for three months. We had just gotten a new drummer. We played one show with our new drummer. Then, he got us a new practice space and we went and decorated it. And then the next day it was like, lockdown. We had all of this momentum going," she said.

When she started writing during her self-quarantine, Lock said she initially sent the new songs to her bandmates. But she ultimately decided they were a better fit for a solo project.

"I kind of thought, 'We had such a good thing going, we had such a good vibe and an energy locked down, that I don't want to mess with it.' This is its own idea and its own creation ... so I thought that this would kind of take (on) its own life," she said in a recent phone interview.

After working with local rapper and producer lonemoon on the song "Ruin My Life," which was featured on the hip-hop artist's February album "Valentine," Lock said she was inspired to give her new collection of songs a quick turnaround. So, she asked the producer also known as Luna Starley for advice.

"She's way more legit than me. ... I wrote all of the songs in just a couple of days, and I was like, 'I should release an album, and I should learn some self-production and just do it.' So, I reached out to her, asking her like, 'What should I buy? What should I download for self-production? What do I need?' And she was like, 'I'll just do it,'" Lock said.

Creativity in crisis

Although she eventually accepted lonemoon's offer to produce "an existence," Lock said she initially turned it down because her recent medical diagnosis makes her high-risk for COVID-19. Ultimately, she and lonemoon recorded "an existence" just the two of them in only four sessions in the producer's apartment.

At the end of 2019, Lock said she was just graduating from massage therapy school and had a job lined up when she suffered an arm injury. She eventually was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a disease that weakens the connective tissues of the body. Since there's no cure and the syndrome makes all her joints loose and weak, she had to give up on becoming a massage therapist.

She also went through a bad breakup just before the pandemic reached Oklahoma, leaving her without her potential life partner, her job, her health and much of her support system.

"I was at what I thought was rock bottom. But out of that, actually, I learned a lot about how much I did enjoy alone time. I was learning how to turn the TV off and just sit with my thoughts and enjoy myself ... and not be distracted," she said. "I feel like everyone's going through some sort of spiritual journey or at least an emotional one, especially since everyone's, for the most part, stuck at home and having to deal with themselves."

The cover of "an existence" pictures Lock as a naked toddler sitting at her mother's piano. Not only did she write many of her new songs on that same piano, she said her mother, Kim Cline, also put her to work handling the curbside orders at her Kendall's Restaurant in Noble.

"She has been a rock for me in this time," Lock said.

The seven peppy tracks on her "an existence" range from "Y'all," countrified reminder that people are worth more than her personal brand, to "My Dog," a playful ode to her beloved new pup Sherman. Songs like "My Greatest Fear," "The Hunt" and "Sick" lay bare her recent struggles.

"It's definitely scary - and in a way that I didn't think about it ... until it was already done. I just wrote these songs and I know what they're about. ... At some point to me, it just becomes a good song," she said. "It kind of wasn't until after it was like, 'All right, it's all happening' ... that I was like, 'Oh, yeah, I'm just telling the world and they can hear it.' It's scary, but I don't think I care. I think I've passed a point of caring. And I think I hit a point where ... I think being vulnerable is cool and I think people who can't do it are lame and boring."

For more information on Lock's music, go to www.facebook.com/katlockproject.

-BAM

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