Natalie Prass

“Music is all I've ever done.”

“We still have so far to go as a country. People don't like to listen to women or take orders from them. I feel that a lot as a woman playing music.”

“There are a lot more variables with festivals than just playing in a venue.”

“I try as hard as I can to write from a personal place and be genuine.”

“When I was growing up, my dad would always be playing Motown around the house. He loved Stevie Wonder and the Supremes and got me into Dionne Warwick. It was the best music I'd ever heard. It was just that extremely deep, human, thought-out stream of ideas. You can always hear something new when you listen to that music.”

“If you want to be a songwriter, you've got to obsess over it.”

“Music is what makes you feel joyful and makes me feel like I'm not alone. It's everything.”

“It's an artist's choice to speak up about social issues, but I think it's really important, and my favorite artists have spoken out.”

“Break-up albums are the best kind.”

“My dad gave me the 'Introducing Dionne Warwick' album when I was, like, 14. It was the first time I'd heard Burt Bacharach's songwriting and her voice, and it rocked my world. She's such a great singer and communicator. It really helped me shape my own style.”

“I've always been very driven and am also very stubborn.”

“There came a point when I was thinking, 'I'm now 26, 27, working on music every day, but I'm not making, like, a lot of money. What's happening? I guess I'll just start making dog clothes.'”

“I'm a real musician's musician: I get really geeky on chords and arrangements.”

“I had a fairy shrine in my room, and I went to fairy LARPing camp, and I played Dungeons and Dragons in the woods.”

“When I made dog sweaters, as goofy as that was, I made this product, and people could buy it, and I got money immediately. Music was just this ethereal land of maybe, a lot of waiting and waiting. You live your life around hoping you get a five-thousand-dollar royalty check that usually doesn't come.”

“Gospel talks about life's struggles, but you always feel like it recognizes these struggles and that you can overcome them.”

“I had to do so much self-searching and self-work and learning how to navigate in a world that seemed very mean.”

“Women are against women, and men are against women. Like, women have to rise above so much to get ahead. I feel guilty that sometimes I hate being a woman. I hate it because there's so much weight on your shoulders at all times. Maybe I'm just really sensitive.”

“I think it's just my personality, or maybe just because I've been playing music for so long and working so hard at it, that I don't expect anything from it anymore. I just do my work and then hope that it works out.”

“Nashville has pushed me to improve constantly as few other places could, and I'm grateful for that.”