Working at a restaurant through college, she would’ve never expected to be playing in one of Tampa’s biggest music festivals. But for Kaylee Marie, she will be playing this Saturday at the Gasparilla Music Festival (GMF).
“I’m super excited,” Marie said. “I honestly cannot believe that it just happened out of nowhere.”
She was discovered working at a local restaurant near the University of South Florida (USF), where she goes to school.
Marie has loved music since she could write, so this opportunity is a dream come true.
“When I was younger, I’d write songs all the time, but they weren’t anything special because I was young, but I did start writing more seriously in high school,” Marie said.
Since then, she has been writing whenever she gets inspiration, she says that as soon as she gets an idea she just starts writing.
“Music has just always been a part of my life. But I did teach myself how to play guitar and stuff when I was in high school because I figured if I really wanted to do music, I’d have to have a way to accompany myself,” Marie said.
Although she has been writing since she was a little girl, this is the first time she will be performing in a festival and one of the first times she has ever performed in front of people.
“My first-ever gig was actually in December,” Marie said. “I’ve always performed in the USF acapella group or I’ve just sung in front of people, but I’ve never had a paid gig until December. This is the first time that I’m in a real music festival.”
Marie sings wherever she can, but her favorite genre to sing is country.
“I grew up moving around the South a lot, I actually used to live in Georgia,” Marie said. “I literally always heard country music, and everyone favors my voice when I’m playing country.”
She is inspired by Fleetwood Mac, Sheryl Crow, Dixie Chicks and anything more oldies. Her setlist will be a mix of originals and covers.
“I’m doing probably 5 songs,” Marie said. ” I think I’ll probably do one original song and the rest covers, just so that the people watching can sing along. But when I do covers, I like to put a twist on it. It doesn’t sound the exact same because I change it up.”
She will be performing on Saturday, Feb. 17 on one of the acoustic stages at GMF from 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., so make sure to check her out.
Senior Staff Writer Grace Shafer contributed to this article.
