BIOGRAPHY
Now wrapped up in what is turning out to be a meteoric rise to fame, including a top-two debut chart single and a number one debut album, Kate Nash is fast becoming the it-girl of the nation’s indie scene. But how did it happen and who is the girl behind the grooves?
Kate Nash was born in Dublin on July 6, 1987. Though acting became her main passion at high school, Kate's earliest introduction to culture came when she learned to play the bodhran – an Irish frame drum.
"My first musical experience was some folky music in Ireland. "We used to go and see ceilidh bands, people like Shannon Shannon. My mum was into all of them. My mum and dad just listened to lots of good music in the house and in the car. Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Carole King, a lot of folk, Van Morrison, Buddy Holly and Elvis, Johnny Cash, so loads of really good old artists and stuff. Then she introduced me to music like Janis Joplin and the Beatles and at 14/15 I was into garage and R 'n' B."
She later moved with her family to Harrow, in north west London and her musical education continued, as she learned to play the piano and got into more bands.
"Now I really love people like Regina Spektor, Feist and Joanna Newsom. Regina's is the most inspiring stuff, I really love it. She is so honest and everything that she was writing was what I was thinking."
Growing up, Kate attended St John Fisher Primary School until 1998 and then St Joan of Arc School in Rickmanswoth until 2003. It was a year earlier, aged 15, that other music talents were first put to the test when she was requried to write songs for her GCSE in music.
The results certainly did the trick. Then 16, Kate’s creativity earned a place on a two-year course at the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology on the other side of the Thames, in Croydon, south London.
But despite catching the song-writing bug, it was acting that remained her first passion and, as her college life approached its end, she set about looking for her next step.
"When I was young it was all about the music for me. I thought I was just going to do that at college. Then I just decided to do acting almost out of the blue and then it totally took over. It became everything I wanted and I only wanted to explore it further, get educated and get parts."
After leaving college aged 18, Kate took the bold decision to have a gap year before deciding what her next step would be. Amongst other locations, Kate travelled to Bristol - one of her favourite cities - to audition at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. The trial didn't go to plan and in March 2006, Kate got a rejection letter in the post. On the very same day, it was an odd piece of fate that, quite literally, set her on her way.
"I was on a gap year and I was auditioning for drama school and trying to be an actress and I didn't get into anywhere that I wanted to get into. I had one kind of fateful day when I got my rejection letter and [while at the cinema to watch Brokeback Mountain] I tripped down the stairs – literally all the way down - I hit the bottom and broke my foot. And then I had three weeks off of not being able to walk or get out of the house and so I really started taking my song writing more seriously."
She then decided to book a gig to showcase her material at her local bar in Harrow in April 2006.
"I got a job in River Island and I was really rubbish, so as I got my first gig, I was like, fuck that I'm not working, ever again. I handed flyers out and brought demos out. I went to open mics."
That show - and several following gigs in London - went well, and Kate followed them up by taking advantage of a fine piece of 21st-century technology, in Myspace.
"Myspace has been really important. I think it's just the tool of our generation. I just kind of put up four songs and it started with just friends and family, friends of friends."
Thanks to the website she gained widespread support for her material and even managed to find herself a manager and an engineer and keep in regular touch with what became the bands other two founder members, guitarist Jay Malhotra (guitarist who also records as Neely O'Hara and is in Fortress Forever!) and drummer Elliot Andrews, who once drummed for the Maccabees.
Among Kate's early supporters was fellow Londoner Lily Allen. In her blog, Allen described the singer as "the next big thing."
Kate released her debut single 'Caroline's A Victim' in February 2007, through independent record label Moshi Moshi.
The 7-inch vinyl release, which also included Birds, was limited to just 1,000 copies and attracted the attention of satellite music channels. It was so successful that in March 2007, Kate earned a record deal with Fiction Records, which is part of Polydor.
She then made further strides forward by filming the rather colourful and funny video for 'Foundations', directed by Kinga Burza.
More plaudits followed when an unknown rapper produced a song called LDN Is A Victim on MySpace in an apparent parody of Kate's matieral and the London scene at large.
Meanwhile, Kate gained more live experience by supporting Get Cape Wear Cape Fly on his UK tour and heading off on two of her own headline tours, which also took in the main summer festivals, including Glastonbury in June 2007.
One of the highlights of the surprise tour came at rush hour on a Friday night when the band's van broke down on the motorway outside Cardiff, prompting an SOS call to Radio One presenter Scott Mills. No sooner had Scott passed on an appeal for help to listeners, no fewer than five Good Samaritans had pulled up to get the band out of the jam and to the show on time.
The whirlwind week that started with Kate played to at least 1,000 fans on the Park Stage at Glastonbury ended with her grabbing second place in the UK charts with 'Foundations' - her debut CD single. She retained that placing a week later. In true Kate fashion, she announced to millions of Radio One listeners that she would be celebrating the chart placing ...with a simple game of Laserquest with close friends.
Kate followed up on that success with more live dates and festival appearances (joined on tour with talented violinist Mei-Ling), and putting the finishing touches to her debut album 'Made of Bricks', which was produced by Paul Epworth and was due to be released on September 10th, 2007. However, because of Kate's success with debut single 'Foundations' there was high public demand for the album, which resulted in the release date being bought forward 5 weeks to August 7th, 2007.
'Made of Bricks' was received with mixed reviews, The Independent describing it as being in "pole position for worst album of the year". However, despite its criticisms, 'Made of Bricks' reached the UK number one spot and stayed there for one week before being knocked down to number two by Elvis Presley's 'The King'.
In September 2007 Kate played two gigs in New York City, the first of which (at the Luna Lounge in Brooklyn) was free due to a problem with her U.S. Visa application. Rather than cancelling, she decided to make the gig free and fans were refunded for the tickets they had previously bought. Kate was met with much enthusiasm from her New York audience with 'Music Snobbery' reporting that Kate was a "compelling, and engaging performer" and that her songs "had a unique feel and emotion" to them. Kate’s second date was at Joe's Pub in lower Manhattan.
Kate's third single was upbeat, keys-driven corker, 'Mouthwash'. The song was released through Fiction Records on October 1st, 2007 and reached number 25 in the UK single's charts. Whilst not quite as immediate as its predecessor 'Mouthwash' received positive reviews from various newspapers, websites and magazines including 'Online Scene' which stated that 'Mouthwash' was a "brilliantly simple headrush of a pop song".
In a recent interview with 'Drowned in Sound', Kate stated that the lyrics to 'Mouthwash' were inspired, in part, by the conflict in Iraq. Finding empathy in the mundane, Kate claimed that she was inspired by a play to pen the lyrics.
"With 'Mouthwash' I read this play called Guardians about a female soldier who was pictured torturing Iraqis. There's a monologue from her and the one thing she says she couldn't get out of her head was these women buy toothpaste, like they're in a totally different world but they're the same as her. When you strip away everything from someone you have the same basic needs like brushing your teeth so this was saying don't judge me... it's a bit of a protest song really."
The video for 'Mouthwash' was filmed at the Bristol Hippodrome with the cast of the Starlight Express, who learned two new routines for the video. It featured Kate backstage at the theatre, and on stage playing the piano while the show went on around her. The video was directed by Kinga Burza, who also directed the videos for both 'Caroline's a Victim' and 'Foundations'.
On November 14th 2007, Kate Nash celebrated her debut album 'Made of Bricks' going platinum. Whilst playing a sold out show at Shepherd's Bush Empire the news broke that her album had passed the 300,000 sales mark after Fiction records conducted a massive sales check. The album currently sits as 2007's second best selling album.
In 2007 performed at the O2 Wireless Festival, the Isle of Wight Festival, the Electric Gardens, Glastonbury Festival and the Latitude Festival, and also played at the Carling Weekend, Oxygen and T in the Park, as well as other festivals. At the Carling Festival in Reading, she was able to draw a crowd that filled the Carling tent as well as stretch well beyond the tent's borders. She made her official TV performance debut on Later with Jools Holland, also appearing on "The Jack Daniel's Set", Popworld, The Friday Night Project, GMTV and This Morning during 2007.
Kate features on rapper Kano's album London Town, in a song titled 'Me & My Microphone'. She is also featured in the song 'Look What You’ve Done' from Lethal Bizzle's latest album, Back to Bizznizz.
Kate's fourth single, 'Pumpkin Soup', was released on December 17th, 2007 and reached No. 23 in the UK charts matching previous single 'Mouthwash'. The video for 'Pumpkin Soup' was directed by Kinga Burza once again and featured Kate in an over-sized novelty world inhabited by giant cats and bright colours. It was titled as by "Little Red Productions", a reference to the final track of the album, 'Little Red'. The video also featured Kate and a boy in a kissing booth, which reflected the chorus lyric "I just want your kiss boy," and main props included love hearts and bears. The character of "Boy" was played by Kate's real-life friend, photographer Wesley Goode.
On January 8th, 2008, 'Made of Bricks' was released in the USA where it debuted at #36 on the Billboard 200 with sales of 16,000 copies.
On the 19th February Kate won her first BRIT Award for 'Best British Female' at the 2008 BRIT Awards, beating the likes of Leona Lewis & Bat for Lashes. She described her winning the award as being "really amazing" and she described herself as being "really happy and excited" in a later interview with Radio One.
Kate was also nominated for an NME Award in February, 2008 where she also performed a set with Billy Bragg. Kate won 'Best Solo Artist' beating off the likes of Amy Winehouse and Jack Penate. In response to winning the award Kate stated that she was "genuinely very surprised".
On 24th February, 2007, Kate's fifth single 'Merry Happy' was released on Fiction Records. The record was limited to 1000 copies of each format which consisted of two 7" Vinyls and a CD. The single was the fourth and last song to be released from Kate's debut album 'Made of Bricks'.
In February, 2008 Kate won Best International Indie/Alternative solo artist at the NME Awards USA. She is currently nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary song (Foundations). The 32nd Ivor Novello Awards will be held on the 23rd May 2008 at the Grosvenor House Hotel.
Kate is currently working on her second album and has already written two songs entitled 'Paris' and 'Doo Wah Doo'. She also stated speaking to NME she had been inspired by The Supremes and has written a song called Cat Song in their honour. Kate is also touring the UK with dates for 2008 on sale now.
Thanks (so much) to Dale for parts of this biography.
