When Krissy Booth walks on stage she has only her keyboard, an interface and a microphone in front of her. Unlike many local musicians, Booth does not rely on a band to back her up, but rather filmed visuals that project on screen behind her.
Booth is a solo electronic and indie artist who graduated from MSU in summer 2014 with a degree in media and information and a concentration in video production.
Booth is using her video production background to help set her apart from other musicians by filming video songs on her upcoming eight-track album.
“I think that with live performing you can do a lot of cool things and there is unlimited stuff you can do,” Booth said. “I think we are all capable of doing more. I am trying to do some live video with some of my performances if I have the space to do it with a projector.”
Booth’s live show consists of an interface that allows her to have live loops, samples and effects. It also includes her keyboard and Ableton. Booth said she would compare her electronic sound to artists that include St. Vincent, Grimes and Björk and she was inspired by Beyonce’s album “Lemonade.”
“I play everything through my keyboard, 99 percent of this album is recorded with internal sounds from that,” Booth said. “There are only two songs that have guitar at all on them.”
Booth’s next show will be held at Mac’s Bar in Lansing on Feb. 4.
Booth said she was inspired by her professors at MSU, including Lisa Whiting-Dobson and Jeff Wray.
“MSU has a great resource of people,” Booth said. “Everybody that I have filmed with has actually been a female filmmaker that I was a student with at State. I kind of tried to work a lot with just talented people in general. I looked back and I was like, ‘Wow, I didn’t mean to make this a just women only project, but it turned into that and I am very excited about it.’”
Growing up, Booth said some of her inspirations were David Bowie and Prince. She said her mom would play Mariah Carey and Cher and that inspired her to take vocal lessons.
“Mariah Carey was classically trained and operatically trained so I was like, ‘Cool, maybe if I do that I will know more stuff,’” Booth said. “I took singing lessons from classical music and at the end of high school I was like, ‘Shoot, if I go down this road I am going to be an opera singer and all I am going to be able to do is opera at people and it’s not what I want to do at all.’”
Booth said she has always had a passion for music, but has struggled to find common ground between playing music and finding a career path. Booth said she found inspiration through her mom’s baby grand piano, which she taught herself how to play.
Booth currently makes videos for a career by filming wedding videos and edits videos for Speedcast Productions. She said despite the struggle of being an aspiring musician, she will keep pursuing music.
“I tried many times to not be a music person, but I couldn’t not be,” Booth said. “You will think of ideas for songs and it’s an outlet and it has always been my dream.”
Jazz studies senior Dakota Peterson played a show with Booth last spring.
“She is doing something very advanced in terms of the scene here in Lansing and East Lansing,” Peterson said. “It is not what everybody is used to hearing at least in the area here. It is like singer-songwriter music, metal, punk, rock and then the hip-hop scene, but you don’t get that kind of experimental electronic music. And not only that, but a solo act that is a girl.”
Booth hopes to release her album sometime within the year.
