Daily Inspiration: Meet Katya Urban

Today we’d like to introduce you to Katya Urban.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was born and raised in New York City, which greatly shaped my perspective on the world. I was surrounded by energy all the time — music, art, people, suffering, joy, love, pain, noise — all the things that make up the intensity of life, concentrated in one place. My dad showed me how to love and appreciate the city. When I got to high school, I started to find my creative voice amongst the sea of chaos. I started to edit videos and write songs. This led me to apply for and attend USC film school in LA. Despite immense gratitude and connections through this experience, I realized I wasn’t very interested in the commercial film industry and wanted to approach creating from a more artistic perspective than was encouraged in the program. I switched into the “Visual and Performing Arts Studies” program for the remainder of my degree. This was also when the pandemic hit and I took a year off of school. It was in this time that I realized I wanted to perform music ~ I started by asking restaurants in NYC if I could perform and I booked my first gig at The Groove near Washington Sq Park. It was a whole new world. When I went back to school, I felt called to continue this path and I printed nerdy posters that said “Looking for bandmates for shoegaze/alternative band” and posted them all over campus. I met with several guitarists, but I only had one drummer and one bassist contact me — Ed Graveline and Ben Ross, who I still perform with today. Nemo Lieu was briefly the guitarist in the band too. I went from knowing 3 chords on guitar to fully songwriting and fronting our band, ‘marguerite,’ which has now existed for over 3 years and is still going strong. The experience of playing in the band has taught me how to perform and how to collaborate / communicate through music. It has been one of the most consistent and fulfilling elements in my life throughout my early 20s, which has been full of constant change. In addition to writing and performing with marguerite, I also create ambient music and visual/installation/performance art. A lot of my work has to do with grief — personal, global and ancestral. I believe that as a society, we don’t have proper places to experience our grief in an ever-changing, overwhelming world, so I want to continue to use my music and art practice to tap into it.

My dad passed away a year and a half ago, which has made me especially attune to this need for grieving. I hope to honor him in all the music and art that I continue to make for the rest of my life, since he is the one who taught me how to love myself and others, and how to live honestly and humbly in everything that I do.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There have definitely been many challenges throughout my journey of finding my voice, which I am still on. Living in a culture that doesn’t encourage or value art in the way it does other more “practical” paths has definitely brought up self doubt in the past. I have had moments of disconnection with my deeper art practice, or losing sight of what really matters, which can also be disregulating.

It takes a lot of faith and trust to follow through with a vision and I’m grateful that in moments where I’ve lost that, I’ve had friends and collaborators around me help pick it back up.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a singer, songwriter and guitarist in LA-based band, ‘marguerite’. We’ve been playing together for 3 and a half years now and we have immersed ourselves deeply into the local DIY scene. I love the community aspect of music As well as writing and collaborating on music, I am also a performance artist and enjoy bringing this into shows that we play. Writing music is often the way that I digest my experiences.

I am also a visual / installation artist and am known for my childlike, whimsical style. I have created several sculptures, sound pieces and performance works that are centered around my roots in Eastern Europe and healing ancestral trauma. I believe that art is a way to break cycles and transmute grief and pain around us into something beautiful.

At the core of all my work is a quest to access collective memory and communal grief held within spaces. My art explores technology, vulnerability and connection and through that unlocks a collective consciousness and delves into shared experiences, memories and emotions. Through my work, I strive to evoke empathy, forging connections between individuals, their environments and the communities they inhabit.

This June, I will be presenting a sound and performance piece in alternative, Jewish Art Festival, FestivALT.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
My favorite childhood memories are of my dad walking my brother and me to school every single morning throughout elementary school. I remember how my brother and I would fight for my dads attention, asking endless questions as we walked through the streets of uptown Manhattan holding our dads hands. I remember asking for my brother and dad to swing me and saying “bread and butter” when we’d have to let go of our hands to make way for scaffolding or a pol.e. Those memories are bold in my head and provide a feeling of comfort.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.katyaurban.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/margueriteband/
• Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/katyaahhhh/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katya-urban-0233a2249/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@katyaurban7992

Image Credits
Bella Villa
Jenna Ross
Gabby Fiszman
Kelbin