Meet Kylie Odetta | Songwriter & Voiceover Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kylie Odetta and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kylie, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
I went full time with my music career right after graduating high school at age 16. Being young and widely available, I filled my schedule to the brim with all things work related. I traveled nonstop, stayed up late recording in the studio, and was constantly working on something new and feeling guilty when I wasn’t. This kind of discipline and drive served me really well in making strides in my career but it served me really poorly in my social life and in my sustainable emotional health. I would go through cycles of pushing hard and then burning out and wanting to take a break from it all. 7 years later and I can happily say that I have a MUCH better work/life balance and am in a overall healthier state as a human being. I’ve learned how to say no, how to value rest and relationships, how to create boundaries, and how to live from a place of wholeness. With an unhurried soul and a better understanding of how I operate best, which came with age and self evaluation, I now view myself as someone connected to the bigger picture of what God is doing in the earth. I don’t have anything to prove but I do have beautiful art that I was made to create. Therefore, I work hard and I work excellently, but I do it in team and in an unhurried manner. The world tries to make it seem like you have to hustle and kill yourself or someone else is going to “take your spot”, I say that they can have “my spot” if it’s going to cost me what I value most: my health and my relationships. There is a better way to be an artist and it doesn’t have to look like allowing work to invade every second of you day and every inch of your mental space.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Whew. My art has transformed into a little bit of everything over the years. I started out writing songs when I was 8 years old and pursued that as a career from age 11 to now. (I’m 23). I have toured nationally, internationally, and played hundreds of shows, co-written with many wonderful people, and had the privilege of creating and releasing over 10 musical projects. I have a program called Dare to Dream that I take into middle and high schools where I speak on being bullied, overcoming that, and pursuing dreams from an early age. I was also able to speak at TEDxGreenville in 2020 on believing in dreams and why a lot of us don’t while presenting possible pathways to eradicate those doubts. In 2019 I began work as a freelance voiceover artist and have recorded voiceovers for companies such as Pepsi, Tinder, Amazon, and Dwell. I have faced so many ups and downs over the years, run head first into my passions and run the opposite direction for periods of time. I’ve recently embraced that I have multiple different calls on my life outside of being a musician and they are all creative and focused on bringing God’s beauty to light and empowering others to heal and thrive. It’s been an adventure of a lifetime and one that I feel is only getting started.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
So I live in Greenville. Here’s what we would do:

Take 2 cars, park 1 downtown and drive the other to TR.

Breakfast at Tandem Creperie in Travelers Rest [Chicken & Mushroom Crepe w/ House Made Kombucha]

Bike the Swamp Rabbit Trail into downtown Greenville
– Stop by Swamp Rabbit Cafe for a smoothie or pressed juice.

Lunch downtown at Passerelle’s Bistro on the Reedy River
– Walk the bridge afterwords

Ride back to TR and get other car.

Take a nap in Legacy Park / Shop on Main Street

Shower & change at whichever local hotel or AirBnB you’re staying at

Dinner at Juniper downtown Greenville

Drinks at Paloma on Main Street

Gelato at Luna Rosa’s on Main Street

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d love to dedicate my shoutout to my mom, dad, and brother. They have supported me in every way imaginable from day 1. Love you guys forever.

Website: kylieodetta.com

Instagram: instagram.com/kylieodetta

Youtube: youtube.com/lorihinze

Other: fiverr.com/kyliehinze

Image Credits
Cameron Budove Hinze, Angela Cox Zion