Mike Kota. Photo by Morgan Winston. 

Mike Kota Wants You to Believe

The singer talks with COPY about branching out on her own, relying on her friends to ground her, and music as a vessel for healing.

By Naava Guaraca

11.04.2024

Mike Kota is an emerging musician from Minneapolis, MN. On November 18, 2024, she will play her first NYC show at Purgatory in Brooklyn. Listen to her 2023 EP Turning a Corner here.

The below conversation between Kota and COPY’s Naava Guaraca has been edited and condensed for length and clarity. 

Naava: Have you always been a songwriter or did you start in response to something particular?

Mike: I’ve been writing songs since I was very young, but not in a songwriter way. I think the earliest, most embarrassing memory, but it's true, I think, is Miley Cyrus singing “Jolene.” I was like, Oh my god, me too. I'm seven, and I was like, let me write a song. And I just remember trying to write something similar to that on the piano, but otherwise it wasn't serious till high school.

N: Was there something in high school that you started writing songs about?

M: Not really. I always was writing love songs, which pissed me off, because that was like—come on, let's be more than that. But it was really my friends that I met in my freshman year of high school that kicked it off.

N: You were also in a band, Good Luck Finding Iris, prior to making solo music. When did that band start? What was the process of being in that band, writing music for yourself and others, and then taking that and making it into a solo project afterwards?

M: I met them towards the end of my high school years. They were crucial to my growth as a musician, because I felt like I was the worst player on the team in terms of actual musicianship. My guitarist taught me my first bar chord, but a lot of it was them just being great friends and believing in each other and pushing each other. That lasted for a little while, and then logistically, it wasn't working out. It was time to start my own project.

N: I'm curious about your experience growing up in Minnesota, going to LA for college, and then coming back to Minnesota. Did you feel like there was a specific reason why you chose to come back? Do you feel like your experience of, and relationship to, geography influences the way that you write?

M: Yeah, LA was cool. I feel like I didn't really experience it because I lived on campus. I did two years of film school there, then I transferred to Columbia College Chicago to do some audio design and production/music business stuff. And then I finally dropped out. But again, I didn't really get to experience Chicago because COVID happened in my second semester and I also didn't really get to build a lot of community. But I came back to Minneapolis because it's a place that knew me from Good Luck Finding Iris. My family's here, I have a lot of friends here and a network here. I love the Minneapolis music scene as a place for musicians to grow and begin, because it's very encouraging and accepting.

N: I love that idea of coming back to the place where your community knows you. And I feel like there's a misconception sometimes of artists wanting to break out of that, and feeling like they need to leave or experience something new in order to grow. There's something so special in choosing to stay where you are, and forcing yourself to change and grow within a space that already knows a certain version of you.

M: Totally.

N: Your music has so many themes of faith and belief. Did you grow up with religion?

M: Yeah, I was dragged to church… or bribed with cookies. I don't fuck with organized religion. But I do think faith is necessary for our human experience, and I have so much more faith than I ever did as a kid who was force-fed a specific religion that I did not agree with, and therefore kind of forced me to reject all religion.

N: That's such a common thing that's “of our generation.” I feel like so many of my peers are in a similar boat, where we're out of our parents’ homes, able to think for ourselves, and trying to grapple with this relationship to faith and to belief. What kinds of rituals, practices and faith systems do you engage with?

M: Meditation, affirmations. I think life is as magical as you make it out to be. I think you assign meaning to the things that happen to you. I totally believe in neuroplasticity, and I think everyone is stronger than they think they are, or know themselves to be. And there's something about the law of assumption, the law of attraction. I don't really know what I believe. I think I'm always learning, but what has gotten me through is a lot of self work, inner work, shadow work, whatever you want to call it.

N: I was really struck by the ending of “Little Tugs” where you repeat the line, “I've got you, baby, you're enough.” I feel like that kind of exists as an affirmation within the music to both the listener and to yourself. What do you do to stay grounded? What exists in your life that helps you to remind yourself that you're enough?

M: I think it's our responsibility to be in control of our thinking as much as we can. I think that's what's changed in my songwriting—being more aware of how music and lyrics can become these mantras or spells. That's a responsibility on myself to write music with intention, so that if I'm forced to practice it and then perform it, I'm saying good things about myself and believing good things, or saying comforting things. So music has become this healing thing for me. And then, of course, when I think about other people as I release music, hopefully I'm releasing stuff that helps people get through shit or helps them believe in themselves or whatever.

N: That's amazing. Another one of the things that I really noticed when listening intently to your lyrics was this idea of uncertainty about yourself and the way that you feel, but choosing to share the discomfort anyway and work through it live with yourself and with the listener. In “Corner,” you say, “I don't really want to talk about it. I just keep putting it off and doubt my right to feel the things I do,” which is a sentiment that I really relate to, and that I feel like so many can relate to. What does your writing process look like from start to finish as you work through describing the way that you feel and then eventually setting it to music?

M: I write a bunch of random one-liners in my Notes app. But usually it kind of happens together, where I am messing around on guitar, find something, start singing things, and then I don't really know how it happens. I sit down and then suddenly I'm moving in my chair, and we're just going down the path and looping back. And it's a rant. It's a very scattered puzzle for me to put together, but it happens more often than not as guitar and lyrics at the same time.

N: I really relate, especially to the one-liners in your Notes app and writing something haphazardly in the moment but then allowing it to just grow with its energy over time.

M: Things have to marinate for a second. There have been really cool experiences where I've had a verse that I wrote, and a chorus, and then I waited like three months and finally picked the song back up again and wrote the second verse in a matter of 15 seconds. It just fell out of me. I was stuck there, and then I had to live my life, and then I figured it out.

N: So much of being an artist is just playing a waiting game and hoping that the other half of the circle draws itself at some point.

M: That's a great way to describe it.

Turning a Corner EP

N: You crowdfunded to record Turning a Corner. Asking your community to help support you is an act of vulnerability that really reminds me of a lot of lyrics on the EP, especially when you're questioning whether or not to rely on others. I'm also somebody who finds it really difficult to ask for help when I need it, especially as somebody who makes art and is kind of always in this place of wanting to serve others, but also serve myself. I'm curious about that process and how you overcome the self doubt that sets in when you turn to your community for help.

M: I would not have done a crowdfunding thing if I had had a single team member around me, because they would have given me the belief or encouragement that we're going to figure it out. But it was very, very empowering to see how fast my community showed up for me. So it was scary, but also I was like, I've seen other people do this. It's not that weird, and I know people believe in me, so the least I can do is try and any amount will help. I think it would be so cool if you believed in me, and then 10 years from now you get to say, “I funded that.” 

N: I have gleaned from your online presence that you love playing these songs, especially in public places, whether it's on a stage or in a park or in your home—curious how these songs have continued to live with you in the year since releasing Turning a Corner.

M: “Little Tugs,” I knew, was for my inner child. It's a healing song, and I love it. It's very sweet and makes me feel a certain way. But only after playing it live did I realize how effective it is for me. I like to play that early on in the set because it calms my nerves down so much. “Corner” has connected with a lot of people—I can't believe the things that they send me in my DMs sometimes, and that's the coolest thing ever. I love that song so much. It's so empowering to me because of the chorus being this silver lining. But it's the coolest thing ever to hear how it touches other people or affects them or helps them.

N: Something I noticed while scrolling through your TikTok is the way that you maintain this joyful, buoyant outlook towards life and towards the process of making music. How do you feel like your persona online relates to the life that you're living offline, with yourself?

M: It is really nice to hear that that's the perception. I feel like I cannot understand what I am because I am who I am. I have not understood how to understand myself as a person on the Internet. I understand that we're trying to create a brand, and I want to be as true to myself as possible. However, anything I do or put out on the internet will only be a clip that is so far from my totality.

N: That's a great answer. It's just one of those things that I'm curious about—how other people are responding to this new way of living that we've all gotten trapped in, or have decided we're gonna go along with. The Turning a Corner EP art is really special; it feels very personal, like it's hinting at this larger building of a world that is to come. And it sort of feels like these four songs are a little glimpse into that. As you move forward and start to make more music, do you see yourself expanding the world of this EP, or do you see yourself deviating and going a different direction?

M: I want to be in many genres. And I think I'll just keep making music that sounds good to me, whether or not it sounds like the same four songs that Turning a Corner was. I want to sing on house music as a top liner. I want to have my bossa nova era, jazz singer-type era. And then I'll also continue to make whatever music comes out of me, which will sound like Turning a Corner. But I’ll keep expanding no matter what. So we'll see.

N: What is it that you're looking at/reading/listening to? What is it that you feel is inspiring you right now?

M: Right now, I've been not consuming a lot because I'm in the recording process. My friends are my biggest influences, and that's how it really started, when I was in high school. It's the same friends—Lutalo, who was in my band Good Luck Finding Iris, and my friend Josephine. It's really awesome and such an honor to be friends with them and to be close enough where they're showing me things that they're working on, and I get that inspiration and little jealous energy, like, holy shit, you're so good. And I know you, and you're not this pedestal-idolized-version, but you're just like me, and I can also create something of that quality in my own way, too.

N: What have they been working on that you've been excited about?

M: Lutalo just released his debut album, which is amazing. And then Josephine, she's been working on a couple singles, but also has a project out, which was amazing. We went on a little tour in May together, and it was really cool to see her with a full band.

N: Do you have a preference on how you enjoy playing live?

M: No, it's awesome in different ways. My bandmates are so wicked talented, and it's an honor to play with them. There's also something to be said about the flow that I have when it's me and my guitar and everything is coming from me. It feels like I'm on my internal tempo, and that's magical. Playing on tours and stuff, it is more marketable or easier to play as a solo support act.

N: I wanted to ask you about your experience opening for Hozier—what was that like, getting to open for somebody who you admire and look up to?

M: That was the coolest thing that ever happened to me. It was epic. It was an opportunity to step into the type of opportunities that I want to be confident in. I've never played for a crowd that big. So when I got on stage and I saw all the lights and the people—1,500 people, which is not that huge in comparison to what I hope to do one day—it was like, oh shit, this is my new normal. I was consciously thinking to myself, this isn't scary. This is my new normal now.

N: I feel like epic is the right word. It's hard to be able to steel yourself to approach a situation like that and get on stage and still be able to exude the confidence needed in order to continue an ongoing manifestation of what you want. I love that by putting out a TikTok into the world you got to have this experience. And I think that's another one of those things where the internet is such a weird place—it asks a lot of you sometimes, but then sometimes it pays out in a weird way. I know that you've never kind of embarked on a full length tour of your own. Is that something that you are hoping to do soon, or eventually?

M: Absolutely, but I don't know anybody. I see a lot of my friends go on tours—they’ve got a team or they’re buddies with these people. I'm not antisocial, I'm just a little bit isolated.

N: Well, you're playing your first ever New York show in a couple of weeks—November 18 at Purgatory. What do you feel like you're most excited about as you prepare to share your music with a new audience?

M: When I went on my first little tour, it was so epic. Granted, it was like one or three people max that drove out to see me, but it's the coolest thing ever to get to perform for somebody who I've never met, but they know my music. I think I make a good impression, or I do a decent job performing. It's just an honor to play for somebody who really appreciates it.



Buy a ticket to see Mike play Purgatory in NYC on November 18th. You won’t want to miss it.