Cedar City, Utah, seems a long way from California, but so was Minnesota and Texas, just some of the stops along the way for pianist, composer, singer Kori Linae Carothers. New Age music is also a bit of a distance from the Contemporary Instrumental music and electronic music that she is best known for and yet early on the music industry seemed to want to pigeonhole her as a New Age artist, nothing wrong with that genre, but that is not the essence of who she is. Complete loss of hearing in her left ear and now taking injections to treat spasmodic dysphonia, a condition she shares with two siblings, has not stopped her from continuing her music career.

From her home in California, Kori Linae Carothers sat down with us to talk about her life, her music and might we dare say a very interesting date years ago, that resulted in her marriage to her husband.

“We moved to Texas when I was 15 and that was really hard. I didn’t do change at that age. What was really interesting about that move was nobody cared where I came from. There was not this popularity contest that I had in Minnesota. We moved from Minneapolis to a very tiny farming community southwest of Minneapolis and it was one of the hardest moves that I ever had. People would tease me, because my hearing was crappy, and it just was not a good time for me. That is when I started writing music,” Kori Linae Carothers explains, continuing she says, “I was thirteen and fourteen when things really started to come to my head. Then we moved to Texas and things got much better for me. I lived in Dallas.”

Before we go any further, let’s go back, way back, “My dad’s mom played piano for the silent movies, and she would improv everything. She would provide the music throughout the whole movie.

My other grandmother, on my mother’s side, actually she is my great-grandmother. She was a very talented pianist in Salt Lake City. She was in demand to accompany people who performed. She was quite extraordinary.

I wish I could have talked to both of them more. I inherited my mother’s genealogy and I have been going through all of these papers. Who knew that these two women were very imbedded in the music scene where they lived.

My (paternal) grandmother acted in the Shakesperean festivals in southern Utah. She was on the board, to bring in the actors from Los Angeles or wherever. She was quite the woman. We did not get along at first, when I went to college up in Idaho. She was very bossy, and she drove me crazy. One day I just told her to leave me alone. She liked me after that,” she says.  

Then there was the influence of her parents’ record collection.

“My mother and dad collected records from South Pacific, a lot of Broadway plays, like State Fair, Oklahoma, and a lot of soundtracks such as West Side Story. They also had a lot of records from the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philadelphia Philharmonic. They had a lot of records with Leonard Bernstein conducting,” she recalls.

Ahh but there was another record wasn’t there?

She seems to delight in telling this story, “Yes! My grandfather sent me a Polka record. (she chuckles lightly) I remember telling my grandpa that I loved music, but I didn’t tell him what kind!”

Even though her sister was playing Pop music, it was the music of John Williams that drew Kori Linae Carothers in.

“Each piece created a story. All of the characters, Luke’s Theme, Princess Leia’s Theme. He was really tuned in well to that. My favorite happens to be The Imperial March, because by the time it is finished you know that there are a group of Stormtroopers marching towards you. The feelings that I had, just listening to that took me to the story every single time, even if I didn’t see the movie. I probably saw Star Wars ten times. Now that we have the Star Wars collection, I will do a stint. I am really glad that they (stayed) with John Williams to do the rest of the music. Man, that guy really influenced my writing,” she says very definitely.

As for the piano part of the story, “I was eight years old. My parents had this old upright player piano in our basement in Minnesota and I was listening to the Beatles one day and I started plunking out and she vocalizes “With A Little Help From My Friends.”

There is a story in my family that one day I was sitting at the piano and I was turned around facing the living room with my back was towards the piano. I started playing with my hands kind of behind me. (This writer suggests, “You were a Rock star at eight years old, to which she replies] I was! I would try all kinds of things to make it interesting. My parents told me that one time I was playing upside down, turned around and faced the other way. I was, how is that possible? I will have to check that out, because I think they were teasing me,” the more the elements of her backstory unfold the more delight Kori Linae Carothers appears to take as the memories arise.

The piano, was however, not her first instrument, “No it wasn’t. I started playing the flute and at the same time I was playing the flute and the piano. As time went on my friends told me that I should join a marching band, when I was in elementary school, so I decided to try it. I hated the teacher. He was sort of a military type of band teacher. He would yell at me all of the time. I was like, you know what, this is not worth it. I like my piano teachers a lot better than I like him. That is why I stopped playing the flute.

It was not enough of an accomplishment for her Elton John impersonations or whoever else was in vogue when she was a child, but she began writing songs at a young age too, not quite that young, but still quite young. She was just fourteen years old. Her first song was “The Lonely Road.”

“I had a friend Tammy and she wanted to write lyrics for my song, and I said okay go for it. I recorded the song in Dallas. It was with Stephen Arnold Music. They were just starting, and they are a huge conglomerate now. They do music production; they create clips for ESPN and NBC. 

There was a lot going on in my life when I started writing. I was in a really dark place, living in this stupid little town in Minnesota. I liked Minnesota, but not this town. This town was just horrible for me. We had ninth through twelfth grade in the school. I was in ninth grade when I started writing. This group of girls ditched me. I went to the bathroom and when I came out, they were gone. They didn’t want to talk to me anymore. It was really sad. It was one of those times, what did I do? Why did they do this to me? It hurt like hell, and I did not understand why they treated me like that. I was a good friend to them. I went through the emotions, and I started writing. “The Lonely Road,” was the first thing that I wrote,” she says.

When she was sixteen and after she recorded two songs in Dallas, one of which was “The Lonely Road,” she says, “I didn’t take my sweater off for about a week. The studio was such a fun experience for me.

I had it on a reel to reel (analog). It started to decay, so I sent it to Penguin Records and they (converted) it to digital. It has been stored away in the house where it is nice and cool, so it doesn’t disintegrate anymore. I am really glad I did that, because they told me it was starting to decay a bit and they were able to get the music off of (the tape). Listening to that brings back so many memories and when (I recorded those songs) is when I caught the bug to be a recording artist.”

We promised you an intriguing story about a date that Kori Linae Carothers once went on, so here is the buildup.

“I moved (to San Diego) during a pretty dark time in Texas. My company said move to San Diego or you don’t have a job. I said, okay I will move to San Diego, but I really didn’t want to. I ended up in a place called Rancho Bernardo which is north San Diego. It is a really nice area. I had a roommate that had been my roommate in Texas. She moved out here first.

I was in a very transitional space for myself in my head. I just wasn’t looking for anything permanent or for any type of relationship. One day in my church I was playing in the chapel, because my keyboard didn’t make it from Texas to San Diego. As I was playing my future husband pops in there and he was listening. He was talking to people and asking who is that girl? Do you know her? She is amazing. Is she a recording artist? He called me out of the blue and said, hey how would you like to go on a date with me? I was hold please. I was talking to my roommate, and I said, “do you know him? She said, yes, he is a really nice guy.’

He came and picked me up in this very bright mint Volkswagen and maybe a 1963 Volkswagen that he restored. He was wearing the rage at that time, these crazy jam pants. They had not been big in Texas yet, but they were big in California. He also was wearing sneakers and this extremely colorful shirt. He had this comb over going on and these really big glasses. I thought, oh, this is not going to be good. We ended up having the best time ever. It goes to show you cannot judge a book by its cover. He is smart, funny and we just had the best time. That is when we started dating.

While we were dating, my husband grabbed my hand in public and I am not a person who displays public affection. When he grabbed my hand, I was dude what are you doing? He goes, holding your hand and I said, but why? He went oh the human connection. I had no response to that,” she says, seemingly taking delight in the retelling of this story.

In 2004 Kori Linae Carothers recorded her first studio album, The Road Less Traveled, the titular song and album title inspired by the poem of the same name by poet Robert Frost.

“I composed it entirely on a Korg 88 keys synth musical station which I still have. It is to the left of me right now. It was all done electronically I did not do any piano work. I took it to a small studio called Sonic Wire Studios in Irvine California and I had a great time putting that together. It wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but it was a beginning. I loved it so much. I released it in August of 2004,” she says.

As for being inspired by Robert Frost’s poem, Kori Linae Carothers explains, “I really love the poem. I love all of his works. The title song was a nod to him. It is about how I got to California, because I never wanted to live here. There are too many people.

There is a funny story about that. My brother has always wanted to live here, and he ended up in Memphis, Tennessee. I am still here in California after thirty years.

There have been some really scary moments. I finally decided to embrace those opportunities and they took me to places where I never imagined. It has really been a wonderful experience.”

We asked about the physical challenges she has faced along the way.

“I have always known that I would eventually lose all of my hearing. I am going to start with my vocal chord issue, because that is what started first. I have always been partially deaf, and my left ear is completely gone. My right ear has done well. In 2007 and 2008 I started having a very gravelly voice. I thought it was just due to allergies. One day I was talking to my brother on the phone, and he said Kori, I think you have spasmodic dysphonia. I said I do not, this is just allergies. Go away and leave me alone. He has the worst vocal chord issue with spasmodic dysphonia.

Finally in 2013 I decided to go see a doctor, who is the head of that department at UCLA. He said yes you have spasmodic dysphonia. There is a vocal doctor I found here through the spasmodic dysphonia website. I started talking with him and he gave me a second opinion. Now I get injections right into my vocal chords. I am surprised I even have a voice to talk with you. The injections take care of the spazzing part of my nerves that are attached to my vocal chords. People have asked me if I am going to get surgery and I have said not until it is not so invasive. What is really weird is to have a brother and sister who have this vocal issue.”

Despite those challenges Kori Linae Carothers has found the strength to carry on, “I do believe in God, and I am very strong in that belief, because there have been many instances in life where he has pretty much protected me from really bad situations. If I didn’t have this treatment, I wouldn’t be able to talk. My hearing aid is connected to my cell phone, and I hear really well with it. It also connects to the PA system at church, so I can hear the speakers even if I am not sitting close to them.

This has really been hard, and I cried for probably a year. That may sound like I am exaggerating, and I am not. I still get teary eyed about it.

When I recorded Trillium (the album – released in 2009) I was just feeling confident enough to sing. When this happened, it was devastating to me. I picked myself up and God said you will be alright, and I was. I was fine.

I am going to be taking sign language this fall with my friend. I was contacted by St Mary’s School for the Deaf in Buffalo, New York a couple of weeks ago and I did a class with them. It was just amazing. The kids were asking me if I was going to learn ASL and I said oh yeah.”

This year Kori Linae Carothers’ record On A Cold Frosty Morning received Grammy Award consideration in the Contemporary Instrumental category. Finally, where it belongs! She refers to it as her favorite album.

This may come as somewhat of a surprise to some new fans of Kori Linae Carothers, but there is a unique, Avant-garde album in the works, an electronic one, but not just any electronic album.

“My husband is a software engineer and one day he was saying these terms that were software engineer speak. Then I came up with this idea, what the firmware said. It is interesting and it is going to be very nerdy. There were terms like binary, clock wiggles, bytes, hexadecimal, reboot, bits, raspberry pie etc. I started writing everything down, whenever he told me a term. I want to make an electronic album based on that. I am starting to work on it, and it is going to be a lot of fun,” she says.

This will be the third electronic album created by Kori Linae Carothers, the first being The Road Less Traveled. 

Vintage Photos:  right - paternal grandmother ; left - maternal great-grandmother

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This interview by Joe Montague  published April 20th, 2024 is protected by copyright © and is the property of Riveting Riffs Magazine All Rights Reserved.  All photos and artwork are the the property of  Kori Linae Carothers unless otherwise noted and all  are protected by copyright © All Rights Reserved. This interview may not be reproduced in print or on the internet or through any other means without the written permission of Riveting Riffs Magazine.