Artist Interviews

Q&A: Katy B

By | Published on Tuesday 12 April 2011

Katy B

A graduate of the BRIT school, and later Goldsmiths University, south London-born singing siren Kathleen Brien began performing under the name Baby Katy, forging a reputation on the local dubstep and garage scene with a handful of revelatory live shows. In 2008 she lent her vocals to DJ NG’s ‘Tell Me’, going on to ditch the Baby Katy pseudonym in favour of her present Katy B moniker.

Having notched up collaborations with The Count & Sinden and Magnetic Man, Katy turned to another former cohort in Rinse FM DJ Geeneus to promote her breakthrough single ‘Katy On A Mission’. A forerunner of the subsequent wave of underground-to-mainstream dubstep crossovers, the Benga-produced song became the lead track on Katy’s debut solo album ‘On A Mission’, which came out earlier this month. Ms Dynamite guested on second single ‘Lights On’, with follow up ‘Broken Record’ garnering her further chart success.

Currently in the midst of a UK headline tour, whose next port of call is at Oxford’s O2 Academy on 29 Apr, we caught up with Katy to ask our Same Six Questions.

Q1 How did you start out making music?

I had always loved music, I started learning the piano when I was six and started stealing Alicia Keys chord sequences when I was about thirteen, writing my own melodies and lyrics over the top. When I was sixteen, I realised music was what I wanted to do with my life so I started working with producers. My first track was with a friend’s brother, it got played on pirate radio and that’s how I started working with Rinse FM’s Geeneus and Zinc and started working on an album.

Q2 What inspired your latest album?
The sounds of London clubs and pirate radio, and being a young woman in London.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
Because I work closely with producers who make instrumental music too, I usually get given a template of a track and whatever emotion the beat draws out of me I write about.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Definitely Jill Scott as a songwriter. She is incredible, her words are so beautifully written.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
I wouldn’t say anything, I’d just let them listen.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
My main ambition for this album is that people can connect with it, and it gives them the same feeling that I get when I’m listening to something that inspires me.

MORE>> www.rinse.fm/katyb/



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