Since catching attention in the Notts scene back in 2019, Katie Keddie’s delicate sound has been gathering praise. She’s been stunning audiences on stages across the city and this month sees her first headline show. We had a chat to meet her…
Hey Katie! We love the new tunes and are buzzing to have you here, are you looking forward to the show?
Yes, so so excited (also kinda scared in a good way). It is my first full band show and first headline show too so it is a big one for me!
Last month you released your Alaska Sadness EP, is that something that’s been in the works for a long time or is it a more a recent creative endeavour?
This EP is kind of a collection of all of the first songs I ever wrote, so the band and I have been working on them since before lockdown – they’ve been a long time coming! We recorded in a beautiful mill in Wales back in March 2021, so it feels really lovely to have them out in the world now.
The photos from the recording sessions look amazing! What was it like recording the EP, was there a lot of room to experiment?
It was an actual dream – the location was incredible, the people were incredible and it was just so much fun. We all get on really well so I think that means we are able to experiment/ express ourselves fully with each other. Some nights we ended up recording bongos at 2am and I think that kind of sums up the whole experience haha.
What do you look at as points of inspiration when writing music and how do you go about translating that into a song? Everyone’s process is so different.
I find listening to other people’s music super inspirational. I love seeing how people experience similar things but convey them in completely different ways. For my own songs, I usually just start with a small idea, a word or phrase or something someone has said to me and then build it from there into something I can record a rough demo of, then show it to the band and create the whole song.
Alaska Sadness is quite a visceral collection of songs, do you think it’s important that music be used as some form of emotional outlet?
I used to definitely think so because I had never really written at all before the ones on the EP, so I had a lot to get off my chest. I feel a bit freer now to just write about whatever I feel like, even if it is something that seems really small or insignificant because they are the kinds of songs I connect with most. I 100% still use writing as an outlet, I just think the end product sounds a little less gloomy now haha.
Lastly what can we expect to see from you over the next year? See you soon and good luck with the show!
Hopefully lots of nice things, after the show in June I am playing Splendour which should be amazing. I was also away recording in February, so I have my second EP ready to release towards the end of summer which is really exciting
Catch Katie Keddie here at The Bodega on the 17th June. Tickets available now.