Taylor Swift Followed After Kristy Coote On American Radio

When asked whether she's ever heard one of her own songs played on the radio, Kristy Coote confirms she has, before clarifying, "It was actually an American radio station". "I had it on the internet radio and I was just listening to it live for hours," she continues. "And I thought, 'It's gotta come on soon,' and then all of a sudden it came on! And I was just jumping up and down like a little kid." Coote's parents were with her at the time to share this proud moment and the Australian singer-songwriter enthuses, "And then straight after, Taylor Swift was on and I went, 'HELLO!' [Laughs disbelievingly] I was so excited!"

"Then straight after, Taylor Swift was on and I went, 'HELLO!'"

Her latest single Free Wind scored Stateside radioplay, but Coote explains good fortune didn't just blow in out of nowhere. "I've been going to the States now for about ten years and that started with me just visiting through a singer-songwriter friend in Tamworth," she recalls. Coote stayed with this friend's friends in America, and she adds, "I've been going back every year, 'cause they're like my second family over there." On her forthcoming, Mike Flanders-produced album Favourite Thing, Coote enlightens, "It was actually finished last January so it's really been sitting there for a while". She agrees that sitting on finished material can be frustrating then points out, "But I do get the whole, you know, having to market it strategically and put it into place… You've only got one shot and you have to give it all you've got and listen to the professionals."

As thrilled as she is by the "traction and interviews" she's been getting in the States, Coote stresses, "The most exciting thing is coming back here. After slogging away in Australia for the past 15 years and now being able to say, 'Okay, cool. I'm gonna give it my best shot here on my own soil'." We discuss how difficult it is for Australian artists to make it in this country without first getting the thumbs up overseas and Coote laments, "We're such an Americanised country, aren't we?"

While perusing Coote's Facebook page as part of our research, we couldn't help noticing a photo of her sporting a spectacular multi-coloured mullet wig. Coote cracks up, "You should be looking at the music page, Bryget! Not that one. Yeah, that was at my cousin's birthday in Orange. It was an '80s theme and of course I had to get up there and sing for them and whatever on the back of some type of a van thing; it was pretty cold, but it was fun [laughs]. They had a professional band but, no matter what, if you get up there and you're gonna sing and you're at a party — you still don't drink; you've gotta prepare yourself, it doesn't matter where you are. You don't wanna sound like an old, you know, drunken woman who's…" Trying to do karaoke? "Yes, karaoke!" Coote then recalls that the drummer in the backing band that played at her cousin's birthday party also plays "for The McClymonts, the country band".