Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristen Knight.
Kristen, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was born in Miami Florida, as a child, I grew up very poor in Hialeah I lived with my mother in a small apartment and then I would grow up with my grandmother in a small apartment when I was about six years old my mother opened a number of dance schools I was dancing professionally since the age of two my mother owned Dance schools in Hialeah Miami Lakes Pembroke Pines and West Palm Beach so I grew up every single day in a dance school I would go to school and then leave school and go straight to the dance school and be there from 3 o’clock in the afternoon until 10 o’clock at night.
I started doing choreography and teaching dance classes at the age of 15. I dropped out of high school at the age of 16 to pursue working and dancing in our schools full-time. I went ahead and got a high school diploma through a quick kind of high school program and decided that I would try to go to college and I made it through one semester of college and I was extremely unhappy and I looked at myself in the mirror and I didn’t see myself pursuing this route, so I then dropped out of college. I started working at restaurants in Miami Beach and I became a waitress I would grab customers from their tables and bring them around to the back alley and sing for them I just knew somehow that working in Miami Beach as a waitress I would be able to meet a lot of people and so every time I’ve met someone who seemed they were like in the music industry then I would tell them you know I’m a singer I mean I really want to sing and things like that and I eventually did meet someone and I was signed to Ricky Martin’s a record label at the age of 21.
We wrote an album and the album was shelved by the record label and never got off that shelf. After years of singing and dancing in night clubs for the biggest DJs around the world, I never actually thought me as an artist would be a DJ. I decided I wanted to go back to school to learn how to produce music so I found a school that had a crash course on Ableton it was nine-month course on music production in Ableton and through that I found Djing and I fell in love and then Djing just like took off.
Next thing I know I’m gigging every weekend I had bookings like five days a week and I was actually in a really toxic relationship at the time so I felt like I had all this opportunity and I wasn’t available to take it or In many ways I wasn’t allowed to take all these opportunities so my relationship was holding me back from growing as a person emotionally and careerwise so I decided to leave that relationship and as soon as I removed myself from the negativity my career just started to move very quickly within a year of removing myself from the toxic environment I was starting to tour all around the world, my first international gig at that point I had been in Mexico and then I played in Singapore I’ve played in Dubai Ibiza Thailand Japan South America All over Europe the UK Canada I literally all of a sudden has all these opportunities just came flooding in and it’s been an absolutely amazing experience to see the whole world right now we’re all stuck in our houses with COVID-19 and I don’t know when I’m going to go back on tour right now I’m working on an album and I’m working on releasing new music and I hope to be on the road soon on being able to travel the world and play music and do what I love has been the biggest blessing I really couldn’t imagine my life any other way.
Has it been a smooth road?
This is a really tough question I’ve absolutely had tons of struggles and lessons along this journey every time I have a failure or a bump in the road I always see it as an opportunity to realize what my failure was or what is the lesson in this moment I’ve learned that it’s impossible to please everyone and people are always going to have an opinion of you especially as a woman in the music industry It’s important to you always have your guard up and protect yourself not everyone has your best interest at heart and you have to be really smart and capable of understanding people and their motives.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
Well being an international DJ a mother and a woman and an artist they all come with their own accomplishments the music industry can be really quick-paced and really cutthroat and everyone has an image of what they believe you should be I find it very valuable being true to myself and unique to my beliefs are it can be easy to allow people and their opinions into your craft or your work and let fear drive you every time I’ve been deterred or had an obstacle put in my place I’ve always found a way to climb it or get around it the reality is I just love music and I love what I do and I love connecting with people and I love meeting new people and traveling around the world and with all the stress and pressure that comes with life if playing a couple hours of my music for complete strangers brings a little bit of happiness into their life that brings me joy all on its own and it’s my way of giving back.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Well right now the future of my industry is really shaky with COVID-19 All festivals and major night clubs have been closed and a lot of these festivals and these night clubs won’t make it and someone will eventually will get back to normal but we’re looking a couple years before I can go back to touring within 5 to 10 years I still have a lot of time and like I said I’m working on an album and I have a lot of music that I am about to release so you have that to look forward to
Contact Info:
- Email: tour@kristenknight.com, www.kristenknight@gmail.com
- Instagram: Kristenknight
- Facebook: Kristenknight
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