Emerging, award-winning artist Karen Chisholm who some call “a force of nature” is quickly rising among Austin’s sea of singer-songwriting talent with original songs that range from addictive pop to dark, sensual blues to in-your-face rhythmic rock.  With a sweet, pure voice, haunting melodies, and radio sensible lyrics that live in your head, she mixes sugar with grit creating a sound uniquely her own.

Photo courtesy: Valerie Fremin  http://www.valeriefremin.com

Karen came to Tenlegs from the Butterfly Effect contest with her fantastic submission “Rhapsody” an animated short set to her song (make sure to check it out below!). We took some time to talk to Karen and get some of her thoughts about creativity:

TENLEGS:  Tell us how you came up with the idea for Rhapsody the song.  What was your inspiration?

KC:  One night, my husband and I were disagreeing about getting a new car.  Later that night I was remembering back to a time when we were young, head over heels in love and broke. We would have the best adventures just doing simple things like sitting on a park bench eating lunch. So I had this thought . . . “if we could go to the nearest star together, would it matter how we got there?” Hence the lyric “Take me to the nearest star, I don’t care which car we drive”. I started playing around with some sounds on the guitar, and the song sort of fell together in about 30 minutes.  It’s wins the award for having the least amount of lyrics of all of my songs. I am a little proud of that.

Tell us how you came up with the idea for the Rhapsody video.  Who did you work with?  How long did it take to put together?  Did you face any challenges along the way?

While I was writing the song, I had this vision of two lovers sitting on a park bench and the energy between them was so intense that just by merely being next to each other and talking, they could go on adventures in their mind. Almost as if they were really there. I had a vague idea of a park bench sort of lifting up off the ground. I started asking around town about who does animation. I was hoping to find a college student willing to take on a low budget project.  Before long, I had gotten the name Troy Campbell from several sources who became the Producer.  He was in Denmark at the time working on a project but we talked about the animation and he put me in touch with our Director Dano Johnson.  I originally was thinking little angel like wings but Dano had the idea of butterfly wings and I loved it! I have always been amazed by the beauty and delicate nature of butterfly wings. Truly a work of art.  We talked for several hours about some of my general ideas, but there were holes to be filled in.  After several days, Dano sent me the script and I fell immediately in love.  We originally had two adventure scenes, but because of budget constraints we shorted the length of the song and animation to just include the one adventure. I’ll never forget the goosebumps I felt when I first saw the boy upside down in the stratosphere at 2:05.  Goosebumps!  It was amazing to see it on the big screen at Raleigh studios in Hollywood. So many people commented that they got goosebumps in that scene.

We actually worked really fast on the project. It’s only three minutes long and Dano was in between two big projects so our biggest challenge was time. So we skipped the animatics for the most part and went straight to animation since we had such a great script. I sent pictures of my two children to the illustrator Cameron Petri.  Within a few days, I had received the first few sketches of the characters and buildings. I immediately fell in love with those big eyes. He captured the essence of my kids so perfectly, the characters immediately felt familiar to me. We worked so well together, there were very few adjustments. I think the whole process took a couple of months. I honestly can’t remember now. It was a painless process for me, I was thrilled with everything they sent me. They worked fast and were very professional.

You have both the music and the music video available on Tenlegs -which aspect did you like working on more:  the music or the video?

The first few times I played the song live, I knew I had written a great song.  The melody just resonates in your head. You can’t forget it. You could hear a pin drop when I would start the song and I could see that the audience was completely captivated by the melody and the end and the feeling it creates.  Then to watch producer Colin McDonald bring the song to life, and hear the beautifully written and performed strings by Brian Batch, was so rewarding and I feel so lucky to have experienced that time in the studio.   But, it was also so exhilarating to take the music and marry that with the cinemographic vision.  That vision only existed in my head and to describe it with words seemed limiting.  So to be able to get it out of your head and out there into the world it is somewhat like having a child.  No one can really explain to you how it feels until you actually do it yourself.  When I first read the script idea, I literally started crying because it touched me so much. Dano is a brilliant director.  I am so happy I had the chance to work with him.

Have you gotten feedback from any listeners?

It’s a favorite song at all my shows and I always get requests for it. Everyone loves it. In fact, Rhapsody has been placed in several independent films and even in an iPhone app called Dateventure.  It was also recently honored at the Hollywood Feel Good Film Festival. I am really proud of how well she has been received.

What is your next project we can look for?

Well, I am hoping to someday turn Rhapsody into a longer animated film with dialog. A 30 minute adventure that would appeal to tweenagers.  Funding of course will be our limitation. We also have talked about turning this video into a children’s book as well. I am a songwriter first, I would need help figuring out how to distribute a longer project.

In 2012, I have plans this year to release new singles every other month.  I am also in the process of writing the scripts for two more music videos we hope to release sometime this year.

What advice do you have for any independent artists out there?

Don’t give up for more than a few hours!  Sometimes I even set a timer when I am feeling discouraged. I give myself permission to feel the hits, you know.  It’s pretentious to act like it doesn’t hurt when you get rejected or you’ve had a really hard day on your project.   There are soooo many negative voices out there, so don’t waste your time with people who “don’t get you”. They aren’t your people. Any time you spend with them, is time you could be spending with the people who do get you.  Don’t EVER forget your fans and the people who believe in you, but you have to believe in yourself first. Don’t ever stop listening to that voice in you that wants to create. Work towards finding three or four voices who ALWAYS have constructive ideas for overcoming road blocks and have encouraging words to say.  What we want to do is really hard, not many dare to try.  Cut loose your ties from everyone in your life who is negative and seem to make you feel bad about yourself after you’ve had a conversation with them. I have wasted precious time and resources trying to please people who just can’t be pleased, or who are unhelpful, or jealous. They can bring you down, and its takes time to climb back up to being inspired again. Don’t let them steal your inspiration, it belongs to you. Hold on to it and guard it like gold. Be realistic too, you might have to keep your day job for a while. So take care of your body and stay focused.

You can find out more about Karen on her Tenlegs page and on her website.