Kara Rollin’s aesthetic is a little bit of Altar’d State mixed with boho chic undertones. Her color palate varies from oranges to soft pinks, and her hair color can be everything in between (she just has one of those faces, you know?) Coincidentally, or maybe not so, whatever Kara decides to wear that day always looks ever so effortless against the beige of a guitar. “I taught myself guitar when I was 10, but started singing and playing piano when I was 4,” Kara tells me. Fast forward to 15 years of age, Kara was accepted to NESA, a prestigious performing arts school in San Antonio. A year after that, Kara placed second in her school’s talent show, then the two years after that, placed first. It all adds up to an impressive timeline of achievements that leaves people wondering if there’s at least one thing Kara’s terrible at. “Math.” Kara answers me and, thankfully for us, she continues. “And athletics. I’m really not athletic.”
Luckily, she has a back up plan. She gives me a self titled CD, the covering looking very much like Kara Rollins- a cute but earthy cardboard slip with an outline of a pink heart at the corner. Inside are various songs written by Kara that are all catchy, sweet and clever. My favorite is “Brick by Brick”, a song that sounds a bit like early Taylor Swift but without all the angst. It can be found on her Youtube Channel, which she tells me “is slowly but surely growing.” I ask her how many views her channel has and she assures me it’s not very popular, though our definitions of “popular” seem to be bit different. The channel has nearly over 5,000 views, so she’s either humble or, maybe, she really is bad at math. She chuckles at the mention of her channel, saying the past 2 years have been busy working on new songs that she hopes will be uploaded soon.
One of the new songs, “Get Where You Are,” was recently performed by Kara when she was a musical guest for Longhorn Latenight, UT’s very own, live-streaming version of SNL. Soon thereafter her performance could be found on the UT’s Campus snapchat story, much to Kara’s excitement. “I’ve made it!” Kara jokingly screamed to me as her thumb held down a 10 second preview of her song. After her performance ended, a crowd of people swarmed, asking her how long she’s been singing, what her major was, what she wants to do with her life. In her light peach shrug, and this time sporting dirty blonde hair, Kara answered enthusiastically just as she answered me.
“Kara, what do you want to do with your life?”
“I’ll go wherever God takes me!”
Kara’s channel can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/user/kararoll16/videos
Kara Rollins’ Music Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KaraRollinsMusic
Longhorn LateNight Performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0ErQDFgU3A&app=desktop