Interview RSS The Exclusive MP3.com
Interview Podcast

Two years ago, Kate Nash, then 18 years old, was dealing with a rash of misfortune.

Soon after learning that she had not been admitted to a prestigious drama academy, she fell down a flight of stairs at her home and broke her foot.

Needing something to occupy her while she healed, Nash began writing songs on a guitar, recorded them onto her computer, and uploaded them to MySpace.

Flash forward two years, and Nash is in the midst of a headlining US tour in support of her acclaimed debut album, Made of Bricks. She spoke to MP3.com about her narrative style of songwriting, the recent attention paid to female singers coming out of the UK, and the furor over Jay-Z's inclusion as the headliner at this year's Glastonbury festival.

MP3.com: Hey, Kate. Kate Nash: Hello? Hi. How you doing? This is Jim Welte at MP3.com. How are you? I'm doing just fine. How are you? Good, thanks. Just doing a bit of shopping in Atlanta. You know how it is. Yeah, you're kicking off the NME Awards tour there tonight, right? Oh, actually, it's actually my tour. But it's just sponsored by them. Right. So it starts in Atlanta tonight, and you just did a little shopping. That sounds like fun. Yeah. I really like Atlanta. I've never been here before. Yeah, it's a very cool city. So I wanted to start with the song "D***head." Would you say that you're meeting more or less of them now that you are a professional musician and you're in the music business? Oh, definitely more. That was a bit of a loaded question, I know. That's OK. The industry's full of them and there are so many annoying people. Everywhere. Yeah. I guess that's just part and parcel of the music business being a business. Yeah, and life in general, you know. Right. Exactly. So you have a knack for packing all sorts of imagery and narrative and different levels of emotions into songs. I'm wondering, are you like that as a person or just as a songwriter? If you're having a conversation with a friend, are you coming at them with so much different stuff all at once? Or is it more that comes out when you write songs and not otherwise? I guess that I'm quite good with--I don't know, actually. In school, I was always good at sorting out problems and stuff between people and talking to people about how they feel and stuff. But I hold things in myself a little bit, sometimes for a while, but it always comes out because I believe in that. If you're upset, you've got to share it and you've got to say if something's wrong. You shouldn't just take crap off people and keep it tucked away. Right. Exactly. And there's got to be a certain level of catharsis that occurs when you're able to get it all out, whether it's on paper or out loud. Yeah. Yeah. So Made of Bricks came out. Yeah, definitely. It's, like, oh my god, the relief you feel once you've actually shared something with someone. It's amazing. You feel really bad. I'm sure you've done that. Right. It's like literally like opening up the floodgate kind of a thing. Yeah, definitely. Oh my god. Letting it all flow. Yeah. And then you're like, "Oh god." Even if you're really scared about telling someone how you feel, you should do it because you feel much better after you've done it. Right. And then you can patch it all up if necessary at some point. Yeah. You've got to let people know that's what you're thinking. Absolutely. Made of Bricks came out here in the US in January. Have you had time at all to work on new tracks? You've been sitting on some of these tracks for a while, some of them as far back as 2006. Are you already working on new stuff, or are you focused entirely on spreading the word about this album first? Oh, no. I'm writing new stuff. Definitely writing new stuff. I think it's really important just to keep your mind fresh and interested. You get bored to death of doing the same stuff all the time. We're doing new stuff in the [live] set as well. Oh, cool. OK. Before you made this first record, you fell down a flight of stairs and broke your foot, and that was the beginning of a lot of this process for you. How do you top that this next time around? I'm going to get someone to push me off a very small cliff and hope I don't die. Hopefully. Yeah. Hopefully it doesn't require any sort of bodily injury this next time around. Yeah, hopefully not. Do you think that you will largely stick to the narrative style of songwriting? Is that what you feel most comfortable doing? Or is that just what you did a lot of in the beginning here? What, narrative? Yeah, I really like that style. Hold on one second. Guys, smile. OK, that wasn't a good picture. Take it again. It's coming out really blurry. Can you change it? Is it.

Yeah, sorry, I'm doing a tour thing and taking a picture in a vintage shop. The boys are wearing these amazing jackets, which they're going to buy or I'm going to buy them for them because I really love them.

Bandmate: You must lend me the money.

OK. Because they look amazing in these old-school prom suit jackets. One is baby blue and one is bright green. They're really cool. Right on. So you feel most comfortable with the narrative style and you feel like you're able to get it out easily in that style. Yeah. But I don't know, that might change. I want to experiment with different styles and different ways of writing and stuff all the time. So that could change, definitely. OK. You're touring this spring and then you're doing some festivals dates in the summertime, right? Yeah. And you're doing Glastonbury, correct? I think you did it last year, too. Yeah, I did festivals last year as well. It was really fun. I don't know if you've had a chance to follow any of this, but there's been a lot of talk in the last couple of days or so about Glastonbury and whether or not it's a good fit to have a rapper at the top as the headliner. Oh, Jay-Z? Yeah. Yeah, there has been a lot of talk actually about that, hasn't there? The most recent one was that Noel Gallagher of Oasis came out and said that he thinks it's absolutely not right, that it's not a good fit and that he wouldn't go if Jay-Z was the headliner. I think that's a dumb thing to say. I think that's a really dumb thing to say. It's childish. You know what I mean? Yeah. I wanted to ask you specifically because part of the reason that the folks at Glastonbury picked Jay-Z was that they want to continue to reach the young audience. And that's where you fit in. Obviously, you think that he is a good fit and that that's a ridiculous thing to say. I don't really know. I can't really say. I guess it is weird that they've got someone like Jay-Z as the headlining act. They always have other bands. I thought they were going to get Led Zeppelin or something. But I don't really know. I don't think it's fair to say, "I'm not going to go because Jay-Z's playing." You don't know. He might put on an amazing show. You might not like his stuff but he might put on an amazing show. Right. Exactly. As you know, there's been a lot of talk in the past year or so about this wave of British female singers, whether it's yourself, Lily, Amy Winehouse, Adele, all these people. Do you think that it's primarily just a coincidence? Were we just not paying close enough attention before? Or do you really believe there is this new wave of female talent in the UK? I think there has always been female talent everywhere. But we do live in a sexist society. Absolutely, yeah. That that has a lot to do with it. It's really good that there's a time and place for them now. People seem to have the time for girls more. And it's like this wave of strong female singers. I believe in revolutions and change and movements and stuff, so I'm looking for that really. From your perspective, it's not about the supply, it's about the demand--whether there's a demand out there for it. It just so happens that right now fans have a taste for that. Girls are getting fed up with being told that they have to be really thin and really beautiful to be happy and liked. They're being told, "This is what beauty is like. Here's how to get it. Here's how to look good and here's how to please a man. And that's your step to happiness." And I think that's f***ed up. That's a good perspective on it. That's why I wanted to ask you about it because every time there's one of these big trends, it's always easy to think that it's just coming from a place of, "Oh, there's all these new people out there at the same time." When, in fact, there are always these people out there. It's just a question of whether we're paying attention, whether the people are interested in buying it. And, mostly, whether the labels are interested in supporting it. Yeah. Definitely. Lastly, I wanted to ask what the rest of your year looks like. Obviously, like we said, you have this tour right now with some festival dates coming up in the summertime. Are you going to be on the road for much of the year? Yeah, I am on the road. I've been on the road for a long time really since January. And even before that I was in Europe at Christmas and doing my UK tour. So I've been on the road for a while. OK. And you're going to try to take some time in the fall to sit down and finish some of these newer songs you've been working on? Yeah, that's what I'd like to do. I'd like to get a house as well and get a studio and see my friends again. Have a normal life for a few minutes. Yeah, have a normal life. Yeah, have cups of tea. Go out in the evening. Watch films. Go to exhibitions and watch TV. Those are the sorts of things that allow you to refresh your creative juices and whatnot, right? Oh, god, yeah, that's right. The only way you can write is by doing stuff. Right. Exactly. Well, I very much appreciate you taking the time to speak with me. Good luck on this tour. Thanks. And we look forward to seeing you here in San Francisco. Thanks a lot.