Q&A: Katie Schecter Masters the Art of Letting Go in New Single “Pay It No Mind”
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
Photography Credit: CJ Harvey
IN A GENTLE YET POWERFUL MANTRA – Nashville-based singer-songwriter Katie Schecter has released her latest single and accompanying music video, “Pay It No Mind,” an anthem of calm amidst the chaos. Both a personal mantra and a universal reminder, the track encapsulates her philosophy of letting go of life’s minor frustrations. As Schecter explains, “it’s not about ignoring all things unfavorable and living in a bubble of ignorance…it’s about saving your energy for when it really counts, for the stuff that really matters.”
With its groovy rhythm and soul-soaked vibe, “Pay It No Mind” draws inspiration from Schecter’s impromptu writing session behind a drum kit. Reflecting on the moment of creation, she shares, “that’s not my typical approach to writing, but I’d been listening to Bill Withers’ ‘Use Me Up’ on repeat just after he had passed. I was pretending I was James Gadson and ended up landing on a groove that felt right. I sang aloud to the beat and put chords to it afterward.” This organic, groove-driven process shines through in the song’s infectious energy and rhythmic pulse.
The production of the track is a testament to her collaborative artistry with her husband and creative partner, Nick Bockrath, lead guitarist of the rock band Cage The Elephant. Bockrath’s seasoned musicianship adds depth and polish to the single, while Schecter’s raw vocals and honest lyricism anchor it with authenticity.
The accompanying music video captures the song’s carefree spirit, visually amplifying its themes of resilience and mindfulness. Schecter’s soulful presence and the track’s easygoing yet empowering vibe are sure to resonate with listeners navigating life’s challenges.
“Pay It No Mind” is an invitation to pause, reflect, and choose what deserves our energy. Its upbeat groove and candid lyrics offer a refreshing perspective on the pressures of everyday life, resonating with anyone who’s felt weighed down by the small stuff. “Pay It No Mind” is a mantra we could all stand to embrace — a reminder that life’s beauty often lies in knowing when to let go.
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?
KATIE: It depends on where I'm at in life, like for this particular song, Bill Withers had just passed away, and I was listening to the song. I was trying to live inside the recording and hope that it manifested something within me that would birth something new and maybe somewhat in the realm of cool as that song. Generally speaking, other music is very inspiring to me. I find that when I'm not hungry to listen to new things, I have very little to say myself. I always stay filling my cup with either new music or music that I just haven't heard before. I find it really important to the process of staying inspired, just always trying to be excited about something new. I feel the same way with reading books and watching good movies and always trying to keep that inspiration cup full.
LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?
KATIE: That also depends on what I'm working on, because I think that the beautiful thing about music and art in general is that there's no wrong reaction and there's no wrong emotional response. I always joke about how with comedians, they have it really tough because the whole idea is to elicit some sort of laughter. But with music, there's a little bit more leeway and more freedom. You could write a song that makes everyone cry or if you make everyone smile, you've done good. I do feel like with this latest music that I've been creating, I really wanted for people to feel embraced and I wanted to touch on things that all of us as human beings can relate to, because I feel like things have just gotten increasingly more polarized. I'm not saying I agree with everyone's perspective, but I do think remembering that we're all just humans and there are things that actually link us all together. Of course, we have differences and differences in perspective, but at the end of the day, there are things that we all have in common, and I wanted to give everyone's ears a hug, like a hug for your eardrums. We all feel joy. We all feel fear. I’m trying to bring us all down to the same baseline and hope that music can unify us all, rather than drive a wedge between us further.
LUNA: You have released your newest single “Pay It No Mind” and this is your first release since your Bad for Business record in 2020. I love how this marks an exciting new era of music for you. What is the inspiration behind the single and what themes and emotions do you explore?
KATIE: I feel like the song and the message of the song is not sweating the small stuff, and prioritizing what really matters versus what doesn't really matter so much. I feel like the world is very noisy right now, for lack of a better word, and letting certain things kind of roll off of you. I personally get stressed by lots of things, and so it was sort of almost like talking to myself, like certain things you just have to let go of and save it up. Don't get stressed out by a cloud. Once it's really storming, you're going to need that energy.
LUNA: “Pay It No Mind” serves as a personal mantra for you. Can you share how this philosophy has shaped your outlook on life and music?
KATIE: I always joke about the idea that I have too much time to think. You could find things that push your buttons all day, every day, like you could find things that piss you off or upset you or make you fearful. I feel like more and more today, it's all in your face at all times. I feel that talking to my peers, that's not an uncommon thing. It's almost crazy how many people feel that way. When I set intentions to have a day that doesn't look like that, it always feels better than when I lean into that other track. It's all easier said than done. It's just a mind over matter type of thing, and just do the things that make you feel good and try to pass that energy on. That's my whole vibe these days. I have a two year old, so I don't have as much time to think, and I don't have as much time to do things for myself that necessarily make me feel good and on track, so when I do get the time, I want to be intentional.
LUNA: Can you walk us through the creative process for “Pay It No Mind?” How did the song evolve from the initial idea to the final version?
KATIE: We used to live in a place where we had a studio in our basement. This was before I was a mom, and we called our old studio stoner heaven. My husband and I were in a creative, inspired state. It was actually during the end of the pandemic, and I was really obsessed with practicing playing drums, like trying to be at all remotely good at drums, which I'm still not good at, but I'm never going to stop. I was trying to play the beat that Bill Withers has, and I wasn't doing it. I just kept practicing and then I started singing, almost riffing over that. I had the song written in its entirety, and I recorded that to a voice note, and then I put chords to it, after which are just blues chords. It was cool because it was sort of untethered in a sense. Whatever was in my head and my heart just came out. It wasn't sticking to a form or sticking to a structure that was already laid out for me. I'm lucky because I get to record properly with some of the best musicians ever. When we took the demo to New York to record it with our friends Nick Movshon and Homer Steinweiss, it just came alive and it sounded the way that I really wanted it to sound that my drumming vocabulary didn't necessarily achieve.
LUNA: The music video is just as intentional as the song itself. What is the inspiration behind the video and how was your experience filming it?
KATIE: I don't really know why or where, but I saw this video by Jorgen Leth of Andy Warhol eating a cheeseburger sitting at a table and I just saved it. I don't know why this is so weird and simple and just bizarre and awesome. I actually saw a Warhol exhibit at the Whitney in New York years ago. I remember them playing that video there and thinking it was so cool. I just loved how simple and cheeky it was, and it left a lot of room for interpretation for the viewer. I wanted to make something like that, where it's just almost so simple that it's dumb, but in a way that almost makes it more complicated.
LUNA: How does “Pay It No Mind” fit within the larger narrative of your music — does it hint at a particular direction or theme we can expect from you moving forward?
KATIE: I feel like my record before this one was a little bit more tortured, like it was a lot more me, still figuring out who I was, where I stood with certain things. This album is more like it's okay, everything's going to be okay. That is literally the lyric from “Pay It No Mind.” I do feel like a lot of the songs that hopefully will be on this next record fall into a similar vein of like, it's not mid-flight. It's the landing and being okay with the chaos rather than being in it. I'm just trying to maintain that peace throughout all that's going on right now.
LUNA: How do you feel your sound and songwriting have evolved since Bad for Business?
KATIE: My last record I made with a producer named Ben Baptie and my husband, and Ben brought us to New York to work with this rhythm section, and that was one of the best creative experiences I've ever had. They were like, ‘when are we making another?’ I had a track in my brain and was wondering how it is going to sound when they get their hands on it. That definitely informed my style of writing a little bit more and knowing what it might sound like once they played on it helped me focus on the types of songs I wanted to write. In terms of the subject matter, just being in a very different space in my own personal life. I recorded most of the album with my baby in my belly, which was really cool and she has made a record already, and she's only two and a half. Coming from the place of being a mama and not some young, tortured soul anymore, I'm in a place of comfort and a place of warmth and love.
LUNA: Did you revisit anything from your Bad for Business era while creating this new music, or was it a completely fresh start?
KATIE: It felt like a fresh start to be honest. That record was really important for my creative growth, because I feel like at first, I had no thoughts at all, just no preconceived anything. I was just making music just to make it. That was when I first moved to Nashville, and I've just been here, watching other people at it, on their grind, seeing how certain things go, seeing how a record can sound versus how it appears live, getting to play songs live and see what makes people feel or what moves people. It's just all been a learning experience, and I feel like I am not the type of person where I'm very precious and sentimental. I record everything, either sonically or in my journal. I save scraps. I'm a total hoarder of memories and sentiments. I'm so proud that I've done everything I have because it's led me to now.
LUNA: What are you most excited for listeners to experience from this new era of music?
KATIE: You just hope that it makes people feel good and understood. I want people to turn it on and feel cool. I'm obsessed with listening to old music and old records, and my husband and I are constantly just looking for new things that never had really enough light shed on them. I'm focused on this idea of what we're going to leave behind when we pass someday and evaporate, because that's the whole reason I got into being creative anyway, is this concept of someone finding this journal and that'll speak to something in them or inspire them to journal themselves. That's where I'm at with this, with making music and recording, and it's just to leave a legacy and try to make people feel good.
LUNA: 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 Luna?
KATIE: The rest of the year is probably going to be pretty chill because it's almost holidays, which I hope I lean into just being peaceful and relaxing, because I don't do that very well. I'm already writing my next album, so I never really stop, but I want to hopefully put this record out sometime in the next year and make some really cool visuals to go along with it and make things that I feel proud of that I'll look back on in five years and 10 years from now. It's like a personal journal. There's this desire for lots of people to dig it, but you can't really control that, so I'm focusing inward instead of outward, and just hoping that I roll it out in a way that feels in line with my creative standards.
