kurt vile – and so she thinks

A chat with…Harkin

admin — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 18:00:46 +0000

After recently announcing her debut self-titled album, Harkin is sharing new single Up To Speed from the record, which is due out April 24th via Hand Mirror. Long a fan of Katie Harkin’s music, right from the days of Sky Larkin, I had a chat to find out more…

So you’ve been around a while, since your early days with Sky Larkin. Yet your self-titled album is your debut. Has it felt a long time coming?

It has! But I didn’t want to make any compromises, and I was making it in secret for such a long path of the gestation, so the record took its own natural path until it was done.

Why did you decide to set up via the label Hand Mirror, which will also have literary and event outputs, with your partner Kate Leah Hewet?

Culture has been emotional scaffolding for me my entire life, it has made the world porous and open. We want to now in turn be able to offer that scaffolding for others.

You wrote the album in a remote cottage in the Peak District. What did that offer you that travelling around the world didn’t?

It kept my ambition in check, the city fuels the ambition for the man made, to awed by the highest building. Whereas out in the peaks my sense of awe came from things I could never hope to replicate. I love touring but it was thrilling to be based somewhere that felt untameable.

What have you learned in your years in the music industry?

Hmmm, remember when to take a break! I’ve certainly run myself into the ground to the point of hospital visits before, not wise.

You have been a touring member of Sleater-Kinney, Wild Beasts, Flock of Dimes, and Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett. How is it different from being in your own band or performing for yourself?

It’s wonderful to be given the keys to wander around in someone else’s music, it’s been a great education as a self taught guitarist! I could’ve have asked for better teachers, I’m very grateful.

Sorry to mention it, but Covid-19. You’re obviously rescheduling gigs and changing plans at the moment. There are loads of free streams and great initiatives coming together. How do you think the coronavirus crisis will impact music in the long term?

The true magnitude of this global crisis is, at the time I write this, yet to reveal itself. So it’s hard to know how to answer this question. At this stage there are a lot of wealthy high profile artists streaming lots of performances for free , which is providing entertainment for people, but normalizing a culture of free content doesn’t help smaller working musicians. It’s tough, I click on those videos like everyone else! Also looking forward, in order to support artists we also have to support infrastructure, the small venues that foster culture are part of our ecosystem, we’re all connected.

Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile – Lotta Sea Lice

admin — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 07:31:46 +0000

Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, have joined forces to release Lotta Sea Lice, a collaboration as unique and creative. The album, as you might expect, is utterly unpredictable, yet feels strangely ‘right,’ as though the pair are just picking up a long running conversation. Unvarnished, there’s a real energy and humour to the work, ramped up a level with the help of their friends – Jim White of the Dirty Three, Stella Mozgawa from Warpaint and even Mick Harvey to play. From the jam of first single Over Everything to the bluesy Let It Go and delicate Continental Breakfast, it’s a varied piece that showcases their talent to the max. The album is released October 13th on Marathon Recordings.

St Tropez – Democracy

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 15:44:29 +0000

Following on from the release of their self-titled debut album last summer, Dutch garage outfit St. Tropez return with Democracy. A funk twang soon mingles with undulating melodies and deep bass lines, the muffled vocals singing lyrics that are less than subtle. Political challenges abound this year, and the band cover fear, hysteria, middle class bubbles, populism, debate, naivety, nationalism, hope, politics, immigration and democracy. All the fun stuff then. It’s all thrown out in a cocky fit of frustration, the artwork of cowboy suggestive of someone on a swaggering mission.

The first single from the quartet’s new EP Debate out 23^rd February, it’s been mixed and produced by Rob Schnapf whose former work with Beck, Fidlar and Kurt Vile is evident, alongside hints of Deerhunter’s rollicking Deerhunter.

Check then out in London on the 27 Feb at the Shacklewell Arms for a special EP release show.