Did you love Part I of our interview with Fanta model/dancer, former Disney movie surfer and hip-hop back-up dancer Katerina Graham? Well we’ve got Part II here for you. Hear more from Katerina about her career and the advice she’d give those trying to make it in the biz.
RelateMag: Did you do your Fanta campaign and continue your presence as a Fanta girl while in school?
Katerina: I’m still under Fanta, [though] they started a whole new campaign. At the time, I was really into music because I was backup dancing for people and I wanted to be an artist so bad, but I didn’t have a producer. No one would take me at the time. This was right when the music industry really started to not do well, all this piracy started to happen. I was like, “Well, no one’s going to give a [chance] to an unknown little girl that doesn’t have a record deal.” I took the money I had made from all the shows I had been doing, and I bought my own equipment and I taught myself. I realized I didn’t know how to mix records, and then I went to engineering school to mix the records. I was grateful to the owner of MI that he let me go in there because I hadn’t graduated from high school yet. I think I was [one of the only ones] he had let into the school without a high school diploma.
RelateMag: Was engineering school full-time?
Katerina: It was pretty full-time. They had classes I would take in the morning, and they would be all day. Sometimes, I’d have auditions or I’d be shooting and I’d have to switch to a night class. I would go from set to school. I would do a Fanta trip and then come back and be right in engineering school with the boys. It was a very odd life. It’s very hard. Especially now, it’s even more so. Now I’m doing music more than I was doing before. I’m doing “Vampire Diaries,” and then we’ll have these long set days, and after set I’m going straight to the recording studio or straight to do a show. It’s like two completely different people.
RelateMag: What have been your leading roles?
Katerina: I shot a film called “Boogie Town” with the writer and director of “You Got Served,” but I don’t know what the status is on that film. But if that comes out, that would be my biggest role. But as of this time in my life, “Vampire Diaries” is definitely my biggest.
RelateMag: What advice would give to teen girls regarding commitment and multitasking?
Katerina: I have a 14-year-old sister. The advice I give to her or to any of her friends or my friends or the readers of your magazine is to just believe in yourself. The friends you have now might not be the same friends you have in 30 years from now, in 2 years, next week. But don’t give into peer pressure or feeling like you have to do something in the moment, like you have to do a drug or you have to have sex with this boy. I think I’ve been able to get to the point, with my focus and the place I’m at mentally and in my work life, is because I did it sort of under pressure. I didn’t say, “Oh I give up. I can’t do this.” I never gave up. I never gave into peer pressure. I never did a drug. I said, “This is what I want to do, this is who I want to be.” If that person doesn’t like me for it, well, it doesn’t matter because I love me and my mom loves me and I’m good to go. I think that’s the best advice I could give. Because I don’t think there are enough young girls telling other girls, “You don’t have to do what other people are doing.” Make your own trail. You know?
RelateMag: Describe your new album. What is the overall meaning behind the title and personal meaning to you?
Katerina: The album hasn’t been titled yet because it’s still being recorded. It will probably be recording into next February/March. The whole album is going to encompass being strong and being a strong woman. It’s going to have a lot of creativity, like a mix of high fashion versus, like, an Alice in Wonderland where you enter a whole new world type of thing. It’s kind of wild, but semi-Gwen Stafani, “funkyish,” very visual package. That’s the goal. Anything fierce…attitude and tongue-in-cheek stuff is kind of the direction of the album.
RelateMag: Do you plan to continue working with choreography and creating your own for your album?
Katerina: I have some great choreographers that work on my shows for me, [so] I kind of like to sit back. I like to choreograph for other people, but I think for me, because I spend so much time with my music, it’s the same reason I don’t mix my own vocals, but can mix other people’s. It’s nice to step back and see what other people would do with your music, especially choreographers, because that’s just what they do. I’m known to let go of the reigns and just go for it. If there’s any move that I see for a specific lyric, I’ll throw my two cents in, but as a whole I like to give that role to someone one else. Like my friends- because that’s all they do, like me being an actor or an artist.
RelateMag: Do you plan on continuing both acting, modeling and singing?
Katerina: That’s something I don’t really want to say. It’s not that I’m not sure, but there just might be specific people rooting for me acting-wise and some rooting for me singing-wise. Ultimately, I wouldn’t mind doing both and doing both well, but at some point in my life, certain things are going to have to take a main focus. Right now, for the next six months, “Vampire Diaries” has to take a main focus. I don’t have time to do anything else. I don’t have time to go on tour, I’m on set. And when I do music, my acting is going to have to take a back seat because I’ll have no time to do anything else. I’m not even going have the brain space to think about acting [then.]
RelateMag: Are you on set every day?
Katerina: I mean, every day. Just these episodes we’re shooting now- we have these crazy hours, like crazy over ten-hour days. You go home, you wake up, and you’re back on set. You know, it’s very hard. But sometimes, you have breaks when you’re on set. You’re not shooting scenes. So I’ll go back in my trailer and work on some music and get creative.
RelateMag: I see you speak four languages. Did you develop those skills as a kid or over time?
Katerina: My mom is Jewish, so she put in me Hebrew school, so I learned Hebrew that way. And she also, before that, had put me in a [French] school, and I learned French that way. And my father also speaks fluent French. When I would go visit him, there was this boy I totally had a crush on, the ski instructor at the local beach. I was 14, and I was totally in love. And I was like, “How am I gonna be able to speak to this boy?” I wound up taking Portuguese lessons so I could actually talk to him. And Spanish I had to learn for Fanta. I told them I spoke Spanish, but I figured they just wanted minimal, but then they actually had me do interviews in Spanish.
RelateMag: How does that knowledge of culture and different languages influence you as an artist?
Katerina: The whole point of me doing music and acting is not so people will say, “Oh she’s like famous.” No. I want to be able to reach people. I want to be able to create work that people will understand no matter what country they’re in. I want to visit their countries and be able to explain the character, the story. I want to communicate to different cultures. In music, I want to do a song in Spanish or a song in French. If it’s something that can help reach more people, I’m gonna do it.
RelateMag: Is there anything else you want to share with our Relate girls?
Katerina: This is the first time I’ve really been out there as an actress, and CW promotes their shows so well that when people see Bonnie, they might think I’m exactly like her. As long as they know they’re two very different people. I will do everything I can for the fans to capture the essence of Bonnie, but just to know I have my own vision of my life [being a separate person.] Other than that, I [advise] just for girls to stay strong.
To catch the first part of the interview click here.
