Kate Vogel Experiences Rebirth from Heartache in “Broke Up On My Birthday”

A refreshing take on heartbreak, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Kate Vogel has once again enchanted us with her musical prowess, but this time with a twist. Her latest release, "Broke Up On My Birthday," is a delightful, tongue-in-cheek track that transforms a universally unpleasant experience into a bubbly, infectious anthem. Known for her healing artistry, Vogel has made a name for herself by blending honesty with hopefulness in her songs. This new single marks a significant shift in her musical journey, embracing a celebration of resilience and friendship over heartache.

In "Broke Up On My Birthday," Vogel turns the narrative of a painful breakup on its head. Rather than dwelling on the sorrow of ending a relationship, she chooses to focus on the silver lining: the friends who rallied around her to create a joyous celebration out of a sad situation. This song is a testament to her ability to find light in the darkest moments, a theme that has always resonated in her music but is now expressed with a more buoyant, carefree energy.

Vogel has long been admired for her ability to heal through music. Her songs have provided solace and inspiration to many, addressing themes of love, loss, and recovery with a sincerity that is both relatable and comforting. "Broke Up On My Birthday" is a natural progression in this journey. It highlights her growth as an artist who can now not only acknowledge pain but also celebrate the strength and joy that can arise from it.

At its core, this song is a tribute to the power of friendship. It's a reminder that our friends often see us through our toughest times and can turn our worst days into some of our best memories. By rethrowing her birthday party, Vogel’s friends helped her reclaim her special day and create new, happier associations. 

Vogel offers us a refreshing and joyful take on heartache. “Broke Up On My Birthday” is a song that celebrates resilience, friendship and the power of a good party to heal our wounds. As she continues to evolve as an artist, Vogel remains a beacon of honesty, now with a more playful and infectious energy.

[UNPUBLISHED]: Thank you for sitting down and talking to Unpublished Magazine. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar yet, what inspires your artistic style and creative persona?

[KATE]: I'm heavily influenced by the peacefulness of nature. The birthday song that I’m releasing has a different tone than my previous work which is why I’m excited to put that one out, because my last album and a lot of my music has come from very dark, cathartic places. And this one, something bad happened but immediately, we turned it around and made it into something good, something fun. The whole birthday song is about my friends lifting me up when something bad happens. I get a lot of inspiration from my friends.

[UNPUBLISHED]: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?

[KATE]: I dream for my listeners to be in the type of space that I have felt from other artists when I've gone to other artists’ music to lift my mood, or to validate me that I'm not alone or bring healing. With my entire next project, I want to be completely authentic, vulnerable, open, honest and accurate. Originally this album was supposed to be an EP and it only had happy songs on it. It didn't capture me as a person and it wasn't an accurate reflection of what's happened in these past few years. There has been heartbreak and healing and I needed to add more songs to the collection to make it a full, authentic picture of my inner life.

[UNPUBLISHED]: You just released your single “Broke Up On My Birthday” and there’s a noticeable shift in tone from your previous work. What inspired this change in your musical direction and what is the inspiration behind the single?

[KATE]: This is actually the first song that I've put out that I've co-written. My whole last album was completely written by myself, and sometimes you need your friends to help bring out the fun sides of you. I knew that I didn't want to write a sad breakup record. I wanted to write about the ability to bounce back from something sad happening and how your friends carry you through and it just naturally happened. I got broken up with on my birthday and it was really devastating. I went out to my parents’ house because it was so hard, and then my friends flew to Joshua Tree to write for me for this next album. We showed up at an Airbnb and there were banners, streamers and balloons all over. It was so special. That was a month after I got broken up with on my birthday, so we just did it again and we had a party. We really were cooking bacon and making coffee in the kitchen and were in the hot tub under the stars. My best friends came down and drove down from LA with their dog and we just had another party.

[UNPUBLISHED]: How has the transition been with co-writing with a group of women compared to self-producing your entire last record?

[KATE]: It was amazing because your friends can bring out the best in you. They were able to help me tap into and capture an energy that is harder for me when I write alone. When you write alone, it's easier to write about the sad stuff and they validated me that I am a kind and happy person. I wanted some healthy songs that I can dance to and listening back to my last record, it's very difficult for me because it's trauma, after pain, after pain, and and I wanted to take a bad situation and make it empowering for how many girls have had something happen to them on their birthday or holiday.

[UNPUBLISHED]: Your music has been described as a blend of honesty and hopefulness. How do you see “Broke Up On My Birthday” contributing to this blend?

[KATE]: It's an honest song about what really happened, and it's hopeful because if you don't like something in life, you can start over and do it over again whenever you want. It's never too late to start over. As long as you're breathing, there's another chance to make a change and try again. I hope that anybody that's had something bad happen to them knows that you can just do it over again. When life hands you lemons, make lemon birthday cake with chocolate icing.

[UNPUBLISHED]: “Broke Up On My Birthday” is one of the first songs you’ve released since your Someone I’m Proud Of record in 2021. How has your sound evolved since the last full body of work and what creative choices did you make to convey this artistic growth?

[KATE]: I had an interesting path. I quit my job in January 2020 to be a full time musician. COVID happened and I felt pressure to lean back on my day job for financial support because I wasn't an established artist. That led me to move across the country and let go of music for a few years. I moved to LA and worked in corporate finance, and you can only suppress who you are for so long. It never stopped me from writing lyrics on the back of Excel spreadsheets and going to the bathroom and recording a melody on my phone and picking up a guitar on my lunch break. I realized who I truly am and have always been a songwriter and I don't know who I was trying to impress by working in corporate. I've grown a lot in realizing how important it is to be yourself. I've been going full force with this album that comes out in September. So many people have come to support me. I have a team of people around me that believed in me, and before, it was me doing everything by myself. Now I have people that support me which is incredible. Thematically, I wanted to branch out by bringing other co-writers in to capture my full personality. It was great to write more happy songs like birthday and my next single. I'm less depressed. I'm not in that space anymore. I hope that will also give hope and healing to people who feel stuck in a time of their life. I'm very happy with my life and I feel so lucky to be healed. I want to show people that listen to “Reasons To Stay” –  which is my my song about my experience with suicide – I want them to know because that's what I was searching for, somebody who made it through and didn't struggle with it their whole life. 

[UNPUBLISHED]: I would love to hear anything you would love to share about the upcoming record. What can listeners expect from this new era of music?

[KATE]: We're planning a lot of visuals for a lot of the songs. The birthday song comes first and that's what kicked it off. Then my next single is about happy coincidences in life that you could have never predicted what happened. You don't know what's going to happen in the future and then amazing coincidences happen in the universe. Then I talk about heartbreak. I really love somebody and we couldn't work it out when we just weren't compatible. I talk about my experience with being in the music industry at 16 years old in a vulnerable song and we're planning a video for that one that I'm really excited about. Then there's a female empowerment song. There's a song about how I moved out west to California for not the right reasons and then moving home to Tennessee. It's about coming home to my roots. At the end of the record, there’s a song called “Light at the End of the Tunnel” and it’s a reminder that everything will be okay. I'm so grateful for all the people who are working on this project with me that believe in the songs the way that I do. I feel so lucky to be able to do this.

[UNPUBLISHED]: What is the best environment to listen to the record in?

[KATE]: I love to get high and listen to my record. I do it weekly, if not daily, because I have my best inspiration come to me in that state. I listen to it because it helps me connect to what the words are saying. I definitely think you should be prepared to experience three different emotions when you're listening to the record. 

[UNPUBLISHED]: What messages, emotions or story do you hope listeners can take away from your upcoming record?

[KATE]: It's so important to be yourself and to realize there's nobody on this earth cool enough to try to impress by being anything other than yourself. You only have one life. If you think you're too late, just do it because time is going to pass anyway. So whatever that is in your heart that you dream of doing, you're still going to get older either way, so you might as well do it. My biggest dream for this record is that somebody out there can hear a song and it brings them the type of healing that I feel when I listen to my favorite artists and I scream and sing their words in my car at full blast volume. I hope that somebody can be like, ‘is she inside my head?’ That would be the ultimate dream of an artist is to be able to connect with people like that.

[UNPUBLISHED]: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Unpublished Magazine?

[KATE]: I'm just so excited. This has been my dream since I was 14 years old. I always wanted to be an artist and make music. I've been in the creating process right now. The next phase is sharing it and connecting with people and the experience is going to be amazing. The pre-saves for the song already have come across from Argentina, the U.K and Poland. The next few singles will come out and then the album comes out in the late summer. And of course, I'm already working on the next album so that's what to expect.

For upcoming music releases and updates, you can follow Kate Vogel on Instagram. Stream “Broke Up On My Birthday” out on all digital platforms now.