Under the prairie skies of Saskatoon, a creative soul was born—determined to make it big in the world and working toward that goal every day.
Katie Tupper, a lover of music from a young age, found herself taking it more seriously in high school when her parents signed her up for piano lessons. These lessons fueled her love for making music. Now, Tupper is on a tour around the world and will be performing at Kingston’s Broom Factory on Sept. 15, hoping the event will provide a space for people to enjoy themselves and offer a break from the chaos of everyday life.
“I hope to build sonically a world that’s calming and comforting for people to listen to, that gives them a little bit of an escape from the craziness of life, and lyrically, just being able to make sense of the human experience,” Tupper said in an interview with The Journal.
Most of Tupper’s music has become a form of self-therapy, allowing her to write songs that reflect her life experiences. Music has evolved into a tool she can use to process her feelings in real-time. Listeners can expect to hear the raw emotions in her debut album set to release sometime in 2025, where she shines a light on things people often leave unsaid.
“I’m trying to say the things that people only say in their heads and don’t want to say out loud because they think they’re the only persons that have had that thought before, but every single person alive has had those thoughts,” Tupper explained.
Her songs often explore themes such as womanhood, the process of growing older, and her experience of growing up in the prairies. A prime example is her song “Women No,” which she wrote as a message to her younger self during a time when she was exploring her sexuality. Having come out later in her twenties, Tupper hopes the song “transcends time and space,” giving her younger self a push to embrace her truth earlier.
“That’s an important song for me, and I love playing it because I think either people sadly relate to it because they also had to come out later, or they haven’t come out yet—I think it also nice to be able to talk about being queer, so I think that’s probably one of my songs that holds a lot of sentimental value,” Tupper said.
Later this October, Tupper is set to release a new single titled, “Outside the Gate,” which she describes as one of the most vulnerable songs she’s written. The song portrays the emotional barriers people often face when trying to commit to someone, whether in a romantic relationship or a friendship. It highlights the inner struggle of wanting to connect yet finding themselves coming up with countless reasons why it might not work, emphasizing the complexities of fear and hesitation in relationships.
The fear and hesitation don’t have to be regarding a relationship—it may be about careers too. Sharing her advice with aspiring artists at Queen’s, she encourages students to by that fear by sharing their music whenever they can and using social media to promote their songs.
“We live in a world where you have access to the entire world online. So, post your TikTok’s, post your reels, find something that’s unique and special about either your voice, or your lyricism or your production and lean into that. Hone into your craft and share the bits of it while you’re doing all of that and then people will see you and fall in love with you,” Tupper said.
For Tupper, it still feels surreal that she’s living this dream. From her beginnings as a creative soul in the prairies to becoming a well-known musician touring the world, this journey seems almost unattainable. Yet, she’s steadily making her way up the ladder of success, driven by her ion every single day.
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