At the young age of 19 years old, the gifted Natalie Kroh has established her craft and unique sound. Hailing from Los Angeles, Natalie currently attends Berklee College of Music in Boston. She puts pen to paper and gives the listeners a genuine look inside her life. Leaning towards elements of old school R&B, hip-hop and pop, Natalie fuses these genres with a trap vibe and creates explosive singles.
Natalie’s latest release titled “Thin Ice” is proof of her expert ability to fuse genres. Reminiscent of the smooth R&B sounds of the late 90’s and early 00’s, Natalie mixes in her own flare of hip-hop/trap to keep the track modern and alluring. Natalie’s polished vocals will blow you away. Her tone and singing ability is finely-calibrated beyond her years. “Thin Ice” is a track about Natalie experiences in love and life that anyone can relate to. Connecting with her listeners comes easy to Natalie with her emotive lyricism and effortless delivery. Raw authenticity and powerful energy is just a few of the things that have me addicted to “Thin Ice”. Natalie Kroh is an up and coming artist on her way to the top! We can’t wait to see what she delivers next.
Check out “Thin Ice” here and read more below in our exclusive interview!
Hi Natalie! Tell us more about your upbringing into music and how you got started?
Hi! Well, I’ve always been singing, ever since I was a little girl. I just happened to be lucky enough that my parents saw it was a passion and supported it for all these years. I was exposed to a lot of different music growing up (rock & roll from my dad, ‘80s and ‘90s pop/R&B from my mom, and a bunch of current alternative/indie artists from my big brother). I discovered that my passion lay in pop/R&B, especially contemporary R&B. But when I got really serious about pursuing a career as an artist, I was hooked up with a producer in LA through a mutual connection and I also decided to go to Berklee College of Music in Boston. And that’s where I ended up meeting Tomi Balogh, who produced “Thin Ice”!
Can you tell us about your experience at Berklee College of Music? How does going to Berklee help you grow as a rising artist?
Going to Berklee is one of the best opportunities I’ve ever gotten, and it’s invaluable to my journey of growing as an artist. I’m getting the college experience, which is always fun and exciting, while also doing my passion every day and being surrounded by other like-minded people. Berklee offers lots of classes that teach you how to manage many of the different aspects of the music industry, such as songwriting, production, marketing, music business, booking gigs, and more. And Berklee is so well-connected in the industry that they provide a bunch of unique opportunities for their students. But most importantly, the people you meet at Berklee, whether they’re students or faculty or alumni, are the real gems of Berklee. The alumni network is stellar, and most of what I’ve learned about artist development and creating music has been from talking to, jamming with, and collaborating with fellow students or faculty. There’s really nothing quite like going to music school, let alone Berklee.
What are some challenges you’ve faced as an up-and-coming artist? How have you overcome them?
I think the hardest thing is gaining traction. Nobody knows who I am except for friends and family, and no one is out there looking for “Natalie Kroh”. I have to put in the effort to make sure that people hear my music and my name, and that they get a hold of my social media handles. Of course, the most important part is having good music to start with. Music is obviously subjective, but knowing who your target audience is is really important in making sure your music is heard. Another way that I’m trying to get my name out there is just by performing live at open mics or gigs. At the moment, my priority is spreading my name and finding the people who my music reaches out to the most.
Can you tell us more about the meaning behind the lyrics in “Thin Ice”? What inspired this track?
So, I met my awesome producer Tomi Balogh while at Berklee, and we decided to collaborate. He sent me a (demo) beat for “Thin Ice” and I absolutely loved it, and got to work on writing the melody and lyrics. Regarding the lyrics, anyone who knows me well enough knows that I’m sassy as hell, but also very honest and straightforward. The lyrics are about a situation that I found myself in at the beginning of the school year – long story short, I was friends, and only friends, with this guy at the beginning of my freshman year at Berklee, and I was always hanging out with him because he was the closest friend I had in my new school. All these girls liked him but were jealous that he was hanging out with me all the time; so, they would be nice to me to my face, but would talk s*** about me behind my back. And when I heard Tomi’s dark R&B beat, I knew I had to pop off a bit. I had to let those girls know that they were walking on thin ice by being shady.
What’s next for you Natalie Kroh?!
At the moment, I’m working on some more original music! Mainly originals in the works, and a few collaborations too. I’m so incredibly excited because I’m working with such amazingly talented producers and musicians, and I can’t wait to finish these songs and have them released! I’m also going to start putting out more content in general on my social media pages and YouTube, such as covers and promo stuff for the new music. I’m not trying to be annoying but I swear, the new music that’s coming out is too good. Just too good.
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