| KATE NASH - Every Girl, A Slayer. |
| Written by Shahlin Graves |
| Friday, 04 March 2011 14:36 |
 English author Virginia Woolf wrote in her 1931 novel 'The Waves' that: "Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends, I to my own heart, I to seek among phrases and fragments something unbroken--I to whom there is not beauty enough in moon or tree; to whom the touch of one person with another is all..." There are very few things in life akin to true friendship - and the touch of a friend can significantly shape the world around you, be it the presence of appreciative company, un-birthday presents, or the sharing of secrets. KATE NASH's sophomore album 'My Best Friend Is You' encompasses all of the above within thirteen songs, that vivaciously experiment with everything from doo-wop pop influences, to a spoken word piece, grandiose instrumentation, and psychotic banshee-wails. Nash incorporates universal quotables into each and every lyrical line, dressing up polemics as comforting embraces shared from one kindred spirit to another. The album plays like pages torn out of female-kind's assorted diaries and candidly sounds off not unlike the thoughts that rattle around in one's head while you cross your fingers waiting for your best friend to answer their phone. The hallmark earnestness of Nash's songs is embraced by listeners with a true sense of companionship that very few of her songwriting peers can muster. And in person, Nash is every bit as genuinely heartfelt as you would expect from the stream-of-consciousness lyrics that she pens. We discuss a certain UK pop-starlet and whether her barely-clothed 'attack' against the double-standards of the music industry is ironic, or plain kitschy. Nash mulls it over: "Pop music sometimes has messages, it sometimes doesn't, and everybody's different. As a woman, you shouldn't be expected to be one-dimensional though..." Kate concludes that: "I guess she's allowed to be whoever she wants to be, if that's who she is. If that makes her feel comfortable then she should be allowed to behave that way." True feminism begins with being comfortable in one's own skin first, and both Nash and I agree upon that. Nash returned to Australia last month as an headlining act at Playground Weekender Festival, also playing a string of side-show dates [click HERE for our review] with a new backing band in tow: "I think it's really important to have a change every now and then and it can bring a freshness to the tour, and it's actually been really inspiring to tour with new people, and it's a new year so it's fresh." We caught up with Kate in-between resting her voice and the soundcheck for her Melbourne show...  COUP DE MAIN: First of all, I have this theory... The Cribs toured New Zealand last year, your usual drummer Elliott toured in Ladyhawke's backing band recently, therefore it would be logical to assume that you will finally return to New Zealand on your next album tour? KATE NASH: <laughs> I'd love to! I've been to New Zealand once on the Big Day Out tour and I really loved it. It's such a beautiful place, so hopefully yeah I will. I'll make an effort to come! I love New Zealand, it's such a natural, beautiful place. CDM: Before this Australian tour, you were in Los Angeles as the Women's Empowerment Ambassador for Music Unites. What does women's empowerment mean to you personally? KATE: It means supporting other females, young girls being encouraged, women being respected - being seen and respected as equal to men - being judged equally because I feel like that kind of doesn't happen. I feel like women, especially in music, aren't really given as much respect as men. Sexism really exists. People make jokes of it and think it's not really serious, but I think it really is serious. It really affects girls and their confidence levels and what they think they can and can't do. Statistically in the UK, there are so many fewer female composers than male songwriters and they're marketed in a way that - females are marketed in a way that they're these independent unique artists writing their own stuff, and they're not, because fourteen percent of PRS goes to women. Only fourteen percent! PRS is what you get if you're a songwriter and your music is played somewhere publicly, so that shows how many more men writers there are out there than female. There's unfair... I think the media put more pressure on women, especially in regards to the way they look and how they're supposed to behave. CDM: You've said that 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' was one of your first feminist role-models. I grew up with Buffy as well, which is why I find it sad that current female role-models in pop culture seem to lack sincerity and a sense of inspiration. Do you agree or disagree? KATE: I know what you mean, I would probably agree with that. Buffy was amazing, I loved it so much. I actually thought she was my real friend. <laughs> I don't know if that's maybe because we're a bit older and we're kind of growing out of that phase, but then I guess, there are always people that you latch onto that really inspire you. These days for me in the UK, it's gone a bit grotesque. There's a lot of over-sexed - they don't seem sincere, it just seems like a joke and they'll do anything to sell their music - there's no standards really, which is a bit depressing. CDM: You've described your music as "stories from the heart". Is that real-life honesty and relatibility really important to you? KATE: I think that's where you get a lot of... if something's raw, even if it's embarrassing or not necessarily something that you think you'd want to share with the world, if someone has done it, I think it can be really touching and relatable. And the more you relate to something or somebody speaks to you, it means more. I think that putting yourself out there like heart-on-sleeve, is really important. CDM: Songs like 'Kiss That Grrrl' and 'We Get On' are favourites among your fanbase because the stories of those songs lets listeners know that they're not alone in experiencing ugly feelings like jealousy. Is it nice to know that you have sent out these 'hugs' in song-form out into the world? KATE: That's really cute! It is really nice, it is. Some people get it and some people don't. I've been asked sometimes: "Oh, don't you think it goes against feminism to sing about jealousy?" I'm like: "Are you kidding? Are you not human?!" I think that admitting that you have sometimes crappy feelings... everybody is jealous... also, just because you have political beliefs or feminist beliefs, you don't have to like everybody, you don't have to like everything. Jealousy is not a nice feeling, I hate feeling jealous. But if you can admit it and laugh at yourself, then that's a good way of dealing with your feelings. 'Cuz if you're always pretending that you're not... I think it's really important to always own up to the things that you're not good at and the feelings that you have which are ugly, like you said. Just own up to it and then try and change it or deal with it. It's the only way that you can deal with it, is admitting it to yourself. CDM: One of the themes of 'My Best Friend Is You' seems to be trying to figure out where you stand in the world. Do you feel like you have a better sense of yourself now, than you did when you were touring your debut album, 'Made Of Bricks'? KATE: I'd say so yeah. I'd like to think that every few years that we all figure something out a little bit more, change, grow and develop. Learn something! The more you learn, I think the more you realise who you are and what you want and what you believe and what you want to be and where you want to end up. I think having had a little bit more time on this record, having had more life experience and toured the world loads, definitely helped me figure some stuff out and I feel like I'm doing that again on this record. CDM: Track ten on the album 'Later On', is quite self-reflective on human tendency to not want to own up to mistakes. Do you personally think that if you admit to making a mistake, it makes the mistake more forgivable? Or not at all? KATE: I have to say, more... it must be... Or maybe it doesn't really make it more or less forgivable, maybe it doesn't do either because it depends on what you've done. It depends on what it is. A lot of the time it will make it more forgivable, but if you've done something unforgivable then it doesn't really matter. But I believe in honesty. Sometimes though if we're being defensive, we tend to attack the other person that we've hurt. We're like "no! Urrrggghhh!!" - because we're ashamed of what we've done. Well that's what I tend to do, pass the guilt and then later you just feel like such an idiot. "Oh god, I need to..." - and then you have to decide to try and make up for it or just wallow in it, depending on what it is. CDM: 'I've Got A Secret' and 'Mansion Song' are huge outpourings of feeling. How do you manage to turn such raw emotions into two to three minute songs? KATE: Well, 'Mansion Song', I literally got on a plane and was so angry that it poured out of me. I was on the phone and writing it as a txt so I kind of feel like I puked it up. 'I've Got A Secret', I wrote that with intent. I wanted to write about these issues. I studied theatre for two years and then I've been in music circles, I have very open-minded friends, I kind of have like this liberal bubble I guess. I hadn't really thought about homophobia in a long time, and then people that were close to me were dealing with coming out and really worried about it - worried that people weren't going to speak to them and being judged. It really burst my bubble in that: "Oh god, I'd forgotten that actually the world still has these issues and there is homophobia..." It's important to talk to and support people in this position. I wrote it on drums, I just wanted to write a song on drums and I think that writing on different instruments inspires you in different ways even if you don't know how to play them - usually that's better, actually. I don't know how... I guess that's just the way that I deal with my feelings. CDM: Both songs touch on the judgmental nature of society - why are people so quick to judge? KATE: Ignorance and insecurities, I think. I think the world's biggest problems are insecurities, lack of communication and ignorance and greed. People are scared. People are generally xenophobic - they're scared of what's different. If you're ignorant as well as scared, then you might end up hating something that you're scared of. It's really sad, but I think it's cynicism - people don't know how to deal with stress and depression, so they're nasty to other people because it makes them feel better about themselves. Again, it's like the passing the guilt thing. If you're feeling shit about yourself then if you attack someone else, you're taking away the focus from yourself. HOW TO BE A BEST FRIEND - BY KATE NASH:      CDM: I went to your Sydney show on Wednesday, the red bow you wore on top of your head was amazing... KATE: Thank you! I can't believe it stayed on top of my head. I might wear it tonight again actually.  CDM: It was to great to see 'I Just Love You More' live. In the instance of songs like that, do you think that the live energy of a performance can be just as, if not more, important than the lyrics of a song? KATE: Especially songs like that! The lyrics are kind of like a mantra and dependent on how I'm feeling, they can mean anything. That kind of song is all about the music and the energy levels and exerting something. That's what I kind of enjoyed about doing this record. I feel like I had more of that kind of stuff to play with. It wasn't just about story-telling, it was about just expressing feelings. CDM: When you're performing a song as personal to you as 'I Hate Seagulls', does it bother you when the audience talks amongst themselves as they did in Sydney? KATE: <laughs> I don't really like telling people off at gigs, but I will ask everybody to be quiet and then wait for everybody to be quiet and do it. I understand that there's some people that are just there with their friends, so I try not to take it personally, but it depends on my mood. One time I was in this town in America, and this guy was really rude to my support band - this band called SUPERCUTE! Who are really young, like fourteen - people were just terribly rude, like really loud over their set. They're just three girls that play the ukulele and keyboard, and [the crowd were] shouting abuse at them, and some older guy threw a condom on-stage and was shouting weird stuff at them. I was so mad. They came off[-stage] and one of them was crying, I was like "fuck". I went on-stage, usually I have an intro, but I cut the intro-music and walked straight on and I was like: I just have to say, to anybody who has been rude to this band I am really angry with you. You're a real let-down. You have no guts. These people have got up on stage and tried to share something with you and you've been completely rude and I just have to say that I am really mad with you. Then I was like: to everybody else who didn't do that, I'm sorry it's put me in this mood but we'll try and have a good night anyway, but that was very rude and I can't let it go. So it depends how people... if someone is really rude, then I have to speak out about it. Like someone threw a glass once, like a beer at my friend Bree, who is this amazing singer. She's kind of crazy and weird and again it's that xenophobia thing, some people are like: whoah what's this I don't get it, so I'm going to be freaked out by it. Someone threw a beer at her and it was horrible. She was really cool, she dealt with it really well - I think she said something like: "Whoever threw that at me, I hope it was piss. I don't know why, but I hope it was piss..." - and did the set. Afterwards I went out in between change-over and went: who did that? Everyone was pointing to this girl and I was like: "You're a cow!" I had a go at them in front of everybody and she was like: <shocked expression>. I had to feel a little bit sorry for the girl, but I just think it's so disrespectful. Like, if I didn't like music that I was watching, I would never give the person abuse. I would just not watch it, leave, or have a drink. I wouldn't... I can't imagine the sort of person that you are to abuse somebody at a show, it's so rude, even if you hate what's going on. Even if I hate what's going on, I'd just leave! Just leave the show. CDM: Even if you have free tickets, I still don't understand why people go to the effort of attending if you don't want to watch and listen to music... KATE: People are crazy! CDM: Thank you for playing 'Model Behaviour' on this tour! Is "you don't have to suck dick to succeed" a mission statement of yours? KATE: Yeah! I wrote that after I went to an awards ceremony in the UK which was awful and full of hideously grotesque people with no values and celebrity bullshit. I was so mad. They were playing Nirvana as well and I was really pissed off, it was so gross because everyone thought they were so cool playing Nirvana: Nirvana would fucking hate you, Kurt Cobain would hate your guts. So I ended up setting off all the fire alarms in the building and running away. The next day I woke up and I was still really fuming and I just went straight into the studio and just recorded that song without even thinking about it and it became one of my favourite songs that I have. I've always loved punk music, so it was really cool to do my first punk song. I think it's true - I just don't think that you have to be a hideous person to do well. "You don't have to suck dick to succeed..." - I think it's probably one of the coolest things I've ever written. CDM: Borders filing for bankruptcy in the 'States is sort of a reflection on how our generation demands instant gratification. Do you find it disappointing how book reading has become somewhat of a novelty? Maybe someday people will listen to 'Do-Wah-Doo' and be unable to understand why you would want to read a book instead... KATE: Yeah! I saw someone on the plane the other day with a kindle... thing. I don't get how people want to read books on computers because it must be really bad for your eyes, for starters. I love the smell of books and I just like the whole experience of it. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I like that whole experience - it's the same as I like putting on a record or a CD and waiting for it to arrive or buying it and waiting to listen to it in full. I love reading books, I love the way they feel and getting through it. It's like an event! I don't fucking read on a fucking computer screen. It's weird. It's sad! What really blows my mind is that some people's music collections could be deleted!! <laughs> That's a really weird thought. CDM: Last time I talked to you in 2007, you told me about a bunch of short stories you'd written. I know that songs like 'You Were So Far Away' are based on short stories, but since your fanzine 'My Ignorant Youth' isn't in worldwide circulation, could you maybe see yourself publishing a book? KATE: I've been asked about it - again, recently - I have an idea for a children's story, which would be fun to do. I would love to do that! I really love doing the fanzine, I love doing that. I've got an Issue Three out and I'm doing an Issue Four for the next tour, so maybe I can send you one. I'd love to think that I could write a book, but at the moment it's not in me. But maybe one day. Maybe one day! CDM: What can you tell me about the double-album that you are supposedly working on? KATE: Everybody's said to me: "Oh so you've said that you're going to write a double album that's inspired by Beyonce?" It's not! I just said it really flippantly because I've got two really different ideas and I don't know which way to go yet, so maybe I'll just do a double album like Beyonce. Now everyone's like: "Oh you're making an album like Beyonce's?" But to be honest, I don't have any idea what the third record will be like. But I have started to get cravings, like in the past few days and even in the past week, I've started to crave wanting to get in the studio and [to] write some songs. I'm really excited about it.  |
