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| Quote: Actress, musician Kate Voegele still hanging on for the rideht
By Steve Wildsmith
of The Daily Times Staff
At first, Kate Voegele was furious at her father.
Growing up in Ohio, the singer-songwriter and actress had always been artistic, as well as close to her dad -- an architecture major and a musician on the side. The two would paint together every weekend, and after learning to play the guitar after her freshman year of high school, the then-15-year-old tried her hand at songwriting.
Then her father went snooping through her room.
"Anything that was a creative challenge, I was always interested in, so after I learned to play the guitar, songwriting seemed like the next step," Voegele told The Daily Times this week. "I didn't think anyone was going to hear it -- I just started writing to deal with whatever was going on in my life. But my dad snuck into my room and listened to my stuff. He told me, 'This is really good,' but I was so mad. I said, 'You're my dad -- you broke into my room and listened to my songs; you might as well have read my diary!'
"But then he took my songs to work, and they fell into the hands of people who book shows around Cleveland, and they said, 'She's great -- let's get her on stage.' So all of the sudden, I wasn't mad anymore. I was just doing something that was therapeutic for me -- I didn't know other people would find it interesting."
By "other people," Voegele is referring to the fans who sent her debut album, "Don't Look Away," to No. 27 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart the week of its debut and as high as No. 8 on the iTunes albums chart. She's parlayed her success into a music career that had her performing on the Farm Aid stage with such luminaries as Willie Nelson and Dave Matthews back in 2004 and 2005, as well as an acting role on The CW drama "One Tree Hill."
Acting, as it turns out, has come almost as naturally as songwriting. What started out as a guest appearance has turned into a recurring role as Mia.
"My manager said, 'I want you to do this,' and I thought she was crazy, because I'm not an actress," Voegele said. "I was just floored that I got the role, but it's been a very artistic experience. In the studio as a musician, you can try different things with songs -- different vocal runs or tones or attitudes on a certain song and then piece it all together for something that really works.
"Acting is sort of the same way, and it's been really awesome to be in that whole world, never really been in before. I'll mainly always be a musician, but I love acting."
Overall, it's been a wild ride for the 20-year-old star, who went from partying in the crowd at a Dave Matthews concert to standing on the same stage with him in the span of six months -- all on the strength of those demos her father pilfered from her room.
"It's been absolutely a trip -- just insane," she said. "I didn't even really know what it meant to get signed -- I was just starting out and accidentally stumbled into all this stuff. That first time I felt like I had crossed the line between the audience and the stage was when I saw my name on the back of the Farm Aid T-shirt.
"Six months before, I was at a Dave Matthews concert in the rain with my friends, and he was this little stick way up there on stage. Then six months later, I was behind him at a press conference, making small talk. I was completely star-struck! I was just a girl from Cleveland, so it all was completely surreal."
Fortunately for Voegele, she had her father's guidance and a steady head on her shoulders to see her through. And the more she performed, the more she discovered within herself a soul that seems to transcend her young years.
Practically speaking, it's a matter of charging her lyrics with all the emotion and angst that a young girl feels. On a metaphysical level, however, it builds a bridge between her and her fans.
"People in high school would ask me, 'How do you come up with these songs? You sound like you have a lifetime of experience, but you're only 15,'" she said. "But when you're 15, it's the biggest deal in the world when things happen to you and you're experiencing them for the first time, and for me, songwriting was the most therapeutic way to deal with it. I always knew I wanted to do something artistic and have a job or career that I really felt like had a sense of purpose, and this was the most purposeful thing I can think of.
"When people approach me and tell me that my songs help them through this or that, I think it's awesome. I feel like that's my place -- to write something that people can relate to and be inspired by. I definitely hope to write music that speaks to a lot of different age groups and different people at different places in their lives."
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She's awesome.
But I really wish that I could go to her performances someday.
There's more. 
