Kristy Coote’s story of finding success is not one that relies on chance or being in the right place at the right time.

Coote has spent the most part of the last ten years travelling between Australia and Nashville, networking and finding her feet in the US independent acoustic roots scene, while recording her forthcoming album Favourite Thing.

“Recording in Nashville was absolutely brilliant,” Coote says. “Mike Flanders was my awesome Australian producer – he’s based in Nashville and has been over there for some years, and I also co-wrote with a bunch of other Aussies, so the album was a collective Australian effort.

“I’ve been visiting Nashville for the past decade, and I started out going over there to just experience it and to put my feelers out to see music-wise who was over there. I was pretty green when I first started out going over there, but every time I went back I started being able to network a bit more and I ended up having a second family in Nashville. They took me in and hardly knew me, but then I started going over just to visit them, and that’s how I ended up meeting Mike Flanders.”

By the time Favourite Thing is released in Australia this May, almost 14 months will have passed since the end of recording sessions, but Coote still feels the same way about the album as she did in the studio. “I’m probably more excited about the album now than I was when I finished recording, because it has been so long between stages,” she says. “I’m also really excited to be able to give all of my fans a snippet of the album with my east coast tour in February.”

Joining Coote on this tour will be Tyrone Noonan, the man behind the early 2000s band George. “My booking agent manages Tyrone Noonan and he thought it would be a great idea to join together for my album launch tour,” explains Coote. “Tyrone and I met for the first time a few weeks back and we got on like a house on fire. He’ll be my special guest and we’ll end up singing a couple of songs together at the end of each show, but I can’t tell you what they are because it’s a surprise.”

Back when she was working towards a full-time career in the industry, Coote kept herself involved with music and songwriting as much as she could, and she credits this with giving her the drive to keep at it. Now she offers a piece of advice for aspiring musicians who are still waiting for that big break.

“Just stick with it. No matter what, it’s always going to be inside you that music is what you want to do. Unfortunately you have to keep your full-time job until those dreams become a reality. Keeping myself involved with music and songwriting a few times a week meant I was at least still involved with music in some kind of capacity and it kept me passionate.

“Even though I’ve been a singer-songwriter for 15 years, I’ve only been able to do it full-time in the last couple of years. I’ve set up my own record label and publishing company in these past few years and it takes such a long time to be able to do that, but it has to be the right time. It was such a good feeling to be able to focus solely on my music, and you’ve only got one life so you’ve got to be able to just go for your dreams.”

Kristy Coote’sFavourite Thing is out Friday May 13 through Maronte/The Orchard, and she’ll appear at The Vanguard, withTyrone Noonan, at Friday February 12.

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