Our interview flowed less like a traditional ‘question-and-answer’ paradigm and more like a casual conversation that travels along tangents, both parties digressing and returning to central themes around creativity, creation and change.
While a truly joyous experience as an interviewer, this does make the process of transcription terribly painful. Highlights include my struggles with Skype (“Microsoft makes you suffer!”, Kate agrees), that the ideal temperature for Brits is “tepid”, and Kate’s love of petrol stations (“I’ve just really been pining for service stations.”).
Having played in Luxembourg a few times before, either in their own right, as a support act or at small festivals, Kate is no stranger to the Grand Duchy.
Getting back into the groove has been a slow process though..
(KS) “The ride’s been slowly creaking into motion this month. I’ve had a couple of gigs in Switzerland, a gig in France, then this Friday we’ve got a gig in Luxembourg.
“And then after that we’re going to 4-5 festivals in the UK, and then September kicks in and it’s pretty much solid gigs until the beginning of October.
“That is going to be interesting, because I feel like these spread out gigs I’ve done so far this summer have really taken it out of me, and I wonder whether it’s because my touring muscles have withered away and I just need to build them back up again, or if it’s like when you cut something out of your diet to see what you’re allergic to.
“You bring it back in and you’re like ‘oh wow this gives me headaches’ but I mean, it doesn’t give me headaches but I’m noticing that it really takes it out of me, it takes a lot of energy. It’s interesting to see the effect it’s having.”
(IE) “Well I can see how the touring aspect – never staying in one place, constantly on the move, packing and unpacking and then repacking – is really draining. But then artists tend to receive a lot of energy from the shows and the crowds themselves, and as far as I understand, that’s been a real struggle for many musicians. How is that for you?”
(KS) “And I think that does offset that fatigue, but generally just for the duration of the gig. You’re getting this incredible nutrition, and yeah everyone knows there’s this exchange that everyone benefits from but then there is the kind of… hangover from this amazing, emotional experience.
“Your body and your mind still has to do something with it, process it. And because we’re not used to it, it affects us even more, having this incredible time with people, and then the morning after you’re like ‘oh I’m really tired now! What’s happened?’”
But of course, not everyone experiences being a musician the same way, nor does every musician draw energy from the same practices:
(KS) “It can’t all be for everyone, it’s true. Some people do not want to do gigs. And others only want to do gigs. And there’s more to it than that, isn’t it, it’s not just gigs or recording. There’s all the admin side, having to do be self-employed, having to deal with people…”
(IE) “People! Urgh! … But then again, you have had the chance to work with some brilliant people (cough, The National, cough), and obviously they all shape your music differently. How do you work towards choosing these people?”
(KS) “I usually don’t have an artistic vision upon embarking on an album or project or whatever. I’m someone who’s more inclined to work with people and chemistry. There are people I want to work with that I know good stuff will come out of that.
“Plus, there’s my band and they’re really important every time. It’s not like everything changes, they’re a constant in everything, and then other people come in and made it different and nice for everyone.
“Because it’s important for the band as well, that someone really great comes in and interacts with them, rather than someone who just comes in and… meets them all.”
We spend some time talking about past interviews, brain fog following the jab, and find ourselves discussing the positive interactions we’ve had with medical staff in the wake of the pandemic. This leads to an exercise in visualising different lives for ourselves, as Kate ponders retraining as a nurse or working in care homes.
(KS) “I definitely think about the possibilities that were in the past, but I guess in theory, there’s nothing too much stopping me now – part of me just thinks, if only I’d been brave enough to train to be in the circus, that would be really cool.
“But that’s not the character I have so I didn’t learn to be an acrobat after all… some of the happiest days of my life were being a cleaner! I loved that. Might do that again one day. What about you?”
In response, I – drawing on stereotypes – imagine life in computer programming and coding, a life that is straight-forward and no-nonsense. True, there would be fewer nuances and exploring complexities, but also less getting mired in the stickiness of emotions and the quagmire of grey areas.
(KS): “Yeah when people are sort of pragmatic and logical, and just like: this is like this, so I won’t do this. That would be really useful. […] I mean I think it’s hard to see all stuff that we’re benefitting from, from the personalities or brain types we have.”
As we wind back to her current life, as a musician, I ask Kate whether she ever had a “oh this is it! I’m doing this!” moments:
(KS) “I’ve had a few ‘I’m doing it’ moments. When I was younger, I secretly wanted music to be my main activity in life, but I never dared to say it out loud or I assume that I’d ever be able to live off it.
“Traditionally it’s the thing that doesn’t make any money, but miraculously, here I am, so far, managing! But I do wonder how long it’s going to last, and what I’ll have to do when this doesn’t pay the rent anymore.
But probably just every gig I have the ‘Ah! I’m doing it!’ feeling. […] Everything is just an ongoing thread really, I don’t know if there’s ever any sort of ‘arriving’. I just keep on chipping at it.”
Our gaze takes the future into focus. Does Kate have any plans about what she wants to do, creatively?
(KS) “I’m just trying to write at the moment. There’s people that I really want to do some projects with. I’m someone that is really bad at having a few plates spinning at once and I end up not tending to any of them properly. So I’d like to master that a little bit. There’s a few projects I want to do that aren’t necessarily song-writing based.”
I ask if it’s important for her to exercise another creative muscle in order to maintain that musical output.
(KS) “It definitely keeps me healthier and alive and that’s just what people do, they don’t only do one thing. And also, there’s the fact that music is what I would be doing anyway, that’s just what I need to do, it just so happens that it’s become my job.
“So it can be a bit of a confusing and complicated relationship with this form of nutrition that I need, that has also turned into this professional endeavour. So that can sometimes be an unhealthy relationship, so I need other relationships with other forms of creativity that don’t have this complicated tangle of, you know, other people that rely on my productivity for their income or their work.
“I have to think about that web when I think about This Is The Kit stuff. Thinking about other things helps me be a bit healthier and better. And even within, the muscles within the muscles, so to speak, where with This Is The Kit it’s song writing, there’s other music that can be made that isn’t that.
“It’s important for me to do, but it’s also important for me to be disciplined enough to define the time I dedicate to each thing.”
Kate goes on to talk about the other ways she stays creative: drawing, photography, pinhole photography – “I like building cameras and then taking pictures with them and developing them in my bathroom” (blew my mind) – and enjoying these things (“Hobbies, I think we call them!”, she laughs), without judgment.
We discussed creativity during lockdown, and Kate admitted that while she has been involved in projects, and collaborating long-distance with people from across the world, it hasn’t been the most ‘creatively productive’ time:
(KS) “I live in a relatively small flat with two other people. If I lived on my own it could have been an incredible year of like, solo spiritual musical creative retreat but because you’re still sharing space with others, it makes it a bit different.
“For me anyway, not everyone. It’s not been a super productive creative time, but I feel like there’s been a lot of germination, and growth. Stuff’s been happening but you can’t see it or measure it. […] I mean just the fact that I feel like a ridiculously different person than I was a year ago.
“I wonder if that happens every year anyway, like, ‘oh! Totally new all over again!’ but I do feel like I can see the ways in which this year has changed me.
“We have this perception that as children you’re sort of changing and growing and changing and growing, and as adults you sort of plateau, and then that’s it until old age. But I think it’s pretty constant, we’re changing as much as a child changes, but it’s less visible. We’re still learning and developing as much.”
As long as there is change, there is food for creativity. Please do go and see This Is The Kit this evening at the Rotondes – you won’t regret it!
