By Maddy Bacon~

Kristen Nodell is someone that you could call a Jill of All Trades. She’s a film major here at Penn State University Park, plays guitar, tenor and alto saxophone, piano, ukulele and is attempting to learn bass to broaden her horizons. She’s also considering a minor in either Music Technology or Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management. As a youngster, she played basketball, diving, ran track, and played ultimate frisbee casually after school but claims she wasn’t very good at them.

Music has always been a part of Kristen’s life: “I’ve always kinda just sung around my house.” However, music gained a more significant role during her junior year of high school, just down the road at State College Area High School where she was in the Rock Ensemble class for her junior and senior years. Here, Nodell and classmates played classic and modern rock songs together. Sometimes, she would also sub in for other bands in high school and perform with them.

Eventually, people started asking Kristen where they could find her music, so she added her work to Soundcloud. Since creating and sharing her original music, she has collaborated with another State College-bred band called TV Dinners, and multiple fellow State High graduates and Penn State students to make a Christmas album.

Kristen records her songs from her iPhone’s Voice Memos mechanism and says the songs are of “very low production.” Her SoundCloud headline is “poor quality but hey i got alotta heart!” so naturally, I chose a song to see if this was a fair statement. I started with her rendition of “Papa Gene’s Blues.” Poor quality, not so much. Alotta heart? Yes.

She’s got quite a few performances under her belt now, singing at Arts Fest and at Webster’s Downtown. In fact, she is currently trying to form a girl band, if you so happen to be in search of the same thing– in particular she is looking for a drummer who owns drums.

Kristen considers music to be therapeutic. “A lot is just for me. I love performing,” she says. Kristen explains that she will sit down sometimes, play chord progressions and say things that she doesn’t even know she’s feeling. This makes her feel more creative. “I feel more me.”

She listed her biggest musical influences as Joni Mitchell, The Beatles, Crosby, Stills & Nash (“I love their harmonies”) Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, and Zooey Deschanel’s She & Him. Kristen connects with Zooey Deschanel the most because of her tendency to take an old song and put a spin on it to make it her own. “I love her Christmas album so that’s why I made a Christmas album,” she says.  

Keeping in mind that Nodell is a film major, I was interested in what her favorite film would be. I learned that her favorite film is “Wet Hot American Summer” starring Elizabeth Banks, Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, and Bradley Cooper “before they hit it big.” As a child, Kristen had neighbors star as actors in productions that she would write.

Kristen’s appreciation for the creative arts is admirable and the positivity she exudes is contagious. It was a pleasure to meet another Penn State artist and have the opportunity to feature her work. 

Check out Kristen’s music on Soundcloud.