This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
CMU Approved
Approved: Katie Gately
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 20 September 2016
Last featured here in the Approved column back in 2014, Katie Gately is finally getting around to releasing her debut album. ‘Color’ is due for release on 14 Oct through Tri Angle, and is pre-empted by new single ‘Lift’.
The track is satisfyingly unpredictable, each section morphing into another twisted take on pop – or, as she puts it, “every childish sonic instinct I’ve ever had combined”.
“I wanted to open the record densely, freely and quickly both as a warning and invitation”, she adds. “It’s the densest track I’ve ever made with 421 separate layers and incorporates a lot of my favourite sounds from childhood: fireworks, high-pitched screams, claps, smacks and stomps”.
On her songwriting and production technique, she continues: “It’s always about how much can I add before it just sounds too crazy. What’s the most obnoxious thing I can make the song do? How can I have it be just 49% obnoxious and 51% fun? I think there is a pretty consistent thread of wanting to honour both things – wanting to honour the aggressive, not pretty sounds, but then also singing and always including a melody to balance that”.
You want to know how all that pans out now, right? Listen to ‘Lift’ here:
Stay up to date with all of the artists featured in the CMU Approved column in 2016 by subscribing to our Spotify playlist.
