Meet Demps
A Nashville artist, a long mutual admiration, and the questions we’d been saving for the right day.
By Brittany Hartwell, co-founder of Molly Green
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The first time Katie tagged us, I remember thinking: this girl is so fun, so herself. Mid-laugh, mid-sentence, posting our pieces because she actually liked them — not because anyone asked. Which is, obviously, our favorite kind of tag.
We’ve watched Demps build her world in this city for years now, from the early posts through the music, the festivals, the red carpets, the rooms she’s started commanding. She gravitates toward pieces with some edge to them: something that could read polished but has a little tension underneath. Not precious. Not overly done. She picks up a piece and immediately knows whether it’s right for her.
What she feels like: she calls her own music “country soul grunge” — and that phrase does more work than a paragraph could. You hear it in her sound and you see it in how she dresses. The look she trusts is the one that doesn’t pick a lane, because she doesn’t either.
So we sat down with her — between an outfit change and a coffee at the kitchen counter — to ask what she thinks about all of it. The clothes. The style. The way she puts an outfit together. Where she’s going. Who she’s becoming.
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Q: Some people are born knowing what they want to wear. Others spend years trying on identities until something clicks. Where do you fall — was your style something you found, or something you built?
She didn’t hesitate on this one. She’s been figuring it out out loud her whole life.
I think personally it’s something that I built — going through different transitions in life, like finding who you are as a mother, or as an artist. It just depends on the mood for that day. If I’m sad I’m gonna wear neutral dark colors. If I’m happy I’m gonna wear the brightest colors that day.
When it comes to finding my style, I think it’s just all about: what am I trying to say? I wasn’t born with the sense, but I was always into fashion growing up in my mom’s closet. It’s almost like — what kind of personality you’re gonna put on today, to go with your aura.
Q: Describe the outfit that makes you feel most like yourself walking out the door. Pieces, fit, the whole thing — paint us the picture.
The answer came out like she was already wearing it.
Baggy jeans. Could be high waist or low rise — but I love a low-rise baggy jean. A pair of sneakers, like Dunks. A flannel with a tee under. And a bunch of chunky jewelry. Gold rings, sometimes my grills too.
Q: Style icons — do you have them? People, decades, energies? Or is your taste something you’ve made up entirely on your own?
This is where she named the thing she’s been chasing.
I mix modern with ’90s grunge. Even when I’m doing shows, I love doing country ’90s grunge. Baggy jeans, leather, a fitted tank — and then just adding more personality with chunky jewelry.
Q: You’ve called your style “country soul grunge.” That phrase did something to us. Where did it come from — and what do those three words actually mean to you?
She lit up on this one. The story poured out.
Born and raised in Plant City, Florida — strawberry fields. So country, barefoot. My childhood was barefoot, growing up in strawberry fields and orange groves. Country songs write themselves out there.
And then being a ’90s kid, growing up with a variety of different music and styles — I always leaned more alternative rock. Blink-182. I always loved the baggy jeans, the flannel, the rat’s nest hair.
Most people think ’90s country means the tight Levi’s, the belt buckle, the wife beater. But mine is: throw a cowboy hat on, with the baggy jeans and the flannel and a boot. That’s what country soul grunge is to me.
Q: Your music and the way you dress feel like they live in the same world. Does what you wear shape the music — or does the music shape what you wear?
The chicken or the egg question. She had an answer.
Honestly, I think the outfit comes first. Even when I go to write a song, again — it depends on the mood that day. If I’m dressing sad, I’m gonna write a sad song that day. But if I’m in my full Demps gear — my everyday ’90s country grunge — I’m writing a fucking banger. I feel good, I’m confident, we’re gonna go in. That’s how I wrote Bitch On Wine.
I think the outfit comes first. But it’s also all the same source code. It’s all one full recipe. Nobody else can create it — you have to create it. Whatever you’re comfortable with.
Some people are scared to go outside the box, and I’m like — have fun. It either clicks or it doesn’t. Just go ahead.
Q: Big year ahead. What are you chasing — and what would make this summer feel like a win?
Short, fast, exactly what we wanted.
Top 10 on iTunes again — like I did last year — while wearing a Molly Green outfit.
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There’s something about sitting with someone you’ve admired from a distance and realizing the distance was never really there. Katie shows up the same way she answers a question — easygoing, playful, like the best friend you’ve known your whole life. She’s the kind of person you feel comfortable around five minutes in. Encouraging. Funny. Living out loud and sharing it as she goes.
She has so many sides to her, and she lets all of them show. Musician. Mother. Free spirit. Fashionista — because style matters to her the way it matters to all of us. She’s not performing any of it.
In between