KATE NASH: “I LOVE LIVERPOOL”

INTERVIEW | KATE NASH – SOUND CITY by Morgan Hermiston

At Liverpool’s Sound City this year, I got to chat with household name Kate Nash. This was a rare opportunity over the weekend, so I was ecstatic to be able to speak to her and I absolutely loved every moment of it. We discussed opposites in music tastes, musical influences, writing songs and a shared love for Sinéad O’Connor.

Music Diversity and Vibrant Venues

We began by chatting about general music taste, and accidentally coming across music that is now a staple. Kate started with, “Regina Spector. I remember seeing her at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival…not knowing her music and then being when she was a smaller artist too, so that was quite fun“. Kate continued, “Romy [Croft] from The xx opened up for me at my single launch in 2006. We became MySpace friends, and [she] was on the London gigging scene before The xx was a band, so that was really cool. Her solo stuff was really awesome. I know she does solo stuff again now, but that’s kind of cool to think about seeing her around London before The xx“.

Sound City was full of a diverse range of artists and bands. I was curious to know if there was anyone Kate has listened to that were polar opposites, whether sonically or through songwriting. “I grew up listening to Eminem and then Riot Grrrl Music, so that was very contradictory. I love listening to M.I.A, I love listening to Christy Moore, The Pogues, and then Jockstrap, Emmy the Great“. Concluding, Kate added, “my taste is quite eclectic, I think“.

Sticking with the various concepts of Sound City, we discussed grassroot venues. Sound City does an exceptional job at highlighting venues that we should frequent more, and with a career like hers, I wondered whether Kate had any venues she wanted to shine a spotlight on. “I think Moth Club in London recently got saved. It still needs protecting, but it was really important that they got saved“. She added, “The Brudnell Social Club in Leeds, I absolutely love. There’s so many great small venues. Thekla in Bristol, Rock City [in] Nottingham“.

Sinéad O’Connor and Activism

Kate Nash recently released her own rendition of Sinéad O’Connor’s ‘Famine‘. Speaking on the track’s significance, Kate began by saying, “I’m exploring my Irish heritage through my music at the moment and I was revisiting her catalogue when she died. ‘Famine’ just really stuck out as such an incredible, unique song where she gave me this history lesson that I didn’t get at school, and I didn’t get at home with dual nationality“. She added, “the more people that cover that song, the better, as long as you’re paying respect to the essence of the song, and educating people. Sinéad believed that education is where you can begin to heal“.

Activism and poignant work was also the topic of my next question. We chatted about artist and activist Tia O’Donnell and how Kate began working with her. “We’ve collaborated twice now. We did a protest at a festival last summer when support for Palestine Action became illegal. I wore a dress that said ‘what are your intentions here today?‘ which was a quote from the police that stopped a woman in Kent protesting. She had a sign that said ‘free Gaza‘“.

“Tia, I’m a fan of her work, I can’t remember when we found each other, but I just found her online and [we] had a few mutuals. I love her scrappiness, I love her reactivity, her creativity, her weirdness“. Kate added, “she’s half Irish, half Indian. She spends a lot of time in Scotland…grown up in London. I think we have similar influences but in completely different fields. She’s 10 years younger than me, and I just love that she reacts to things, and she’s so quick. When I texted her about my idea for the dress, she was like ‘I’m getting on my bike and I’m cycling to my studio now, I’m going to buy a dress‘. We just have a really similar attitude“.

Songwriting and Kate’s Sound City Set

Stephen Doherty from Fishing For A Compliment had a question for me to ask Kate about the panel she did before this interview. In the panel, she said she would rather write a song than post an angry letter online, and Stephen wanted to know how she maintains accuracy of what she wants to talk about in a shorter format, like a song. “I’ve always been able to get a lot of words in a song“. She talked about not sticking to a traditional format, similar to ‘Famine’. “I think that it’s almost rap, like speak singing, it’s an essay. I think if you mess with the format of what a song can be…there’s really no rules“.

Staying with the songwriting subject, I asked if there were any names that influenced her unique way of writing. “I’ve been influenced by so many things,” she said, “listening to Christy Moore, The Pogues, Dubliners, Willie Nelson, to The Beatles“. Kate continued with mentioning, “musicals, Sound of Music, Grease. I think musicals too, there’s this massive storytelling element“. “Then getting into my own weird sense of indie, weird, punk, The Buzzcocks, simplifying everything. Then rap music as well influences me because, like I said, you’re getting a lot across in rap music“.

We then spoke a little about what she was looking forward to in her set. She played the afternoon headliner slot on the Sunday. “I love Liverpool, I think Liverpool is always a good gig“. “I’m looking foward to seeing fans that I know come to my shows here, too. Last time I was here…there was this really sweet gay couple that got engaged during ‘I Hate Seagulls‘. I want to see them, I hope they’re going to be here“.

Kate Nash‘s latest single ‘Famine’ is out now – listen here.