Kate Nash

Interviewed By: Chris DePaul

Date: 2008-08-01

Kate Nash and I have a very similar story: We both have picture-perfect auburn hair; our national currencies are both adorned by Queen Elizabeth’s head; and at the youthful age of twenty we both had debilitating injuries to our legs. Our differences lay in the details; I spent my recovery time cursing GT racers and catching up on Dawson’s Creek episodes, while Kate spent her recovery time recording songs that would later be endorsed by Lily Allen and have her put atop of the British music charts. I don’t regret a thing…

Kate Nash’s debut album, Made of Bricks, was released in the UK August 2007 and in the US January 2008. Her lyrics paint vivid scenes about “dickhead” boyfriends and drunken friends, making the listener feel as though they are part of her arguments and her romance.

This script-like writing style likely had something to do with her performing arts background and her love for reading plays. Kate says that during the time when she was writing the album she was reading a lot plays by authors like Shakespeare, David Hare, and Martin Crimp.

“It was really weird, I use to read books all the time at school, and then I went to college where I did a theatre course. I got into the habit of only buying plays. I have found it very difficult to start reading books again,” says Kate. “I started again by reading Nick Hornby, who I find really easy to read – I really liked How to Be Good. I pick it up on Christmas Day. I hadn’t read for ages and I felt really bad about it, because I don’t like not reading, because it makes me feel stupid.”

Before Kate removed herself from reading fiction, a few of her favourite books included The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, Tim Burton’s The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories, and George’s Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl. She recently began reading We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. Kate describes: “It is intense – it is about a boy who kills, just before his sixteenth birthday, seven of his fellow students and is visited by his mom in prison. It is written only through letters from his mother to her estranged husband.”

Some of the non-fiction Kate reads includes political history books, particularly those written by Norman Low, and books that analyze old scenes and movements. “I’ve got this really cool book called Riot Grrrl: Revolution Girl Style Now!. It is really good – loads of cool artwork and loads of posters from gigs and it tells you all about the scene. It is a good way to find out about music and stuff…find out about loads of other bands and see if you like them.”

Lyrics are not the only thing that Kate enjoys writing. “I’ve got a fanzine called My Ignorant Youth which I love doing. It is really DIY and old school. Anything I don’t know what to do with I can put in there. I can also get my friends who I think are really good or have something to say to write stuff.” In My Ignorant Youth - found at gigs and independent record shops she enjoys - you can find poetry, monologues and scripts Kate has written.

So what is next for the young artist? A potential publication at the end of the year, filled with artwork, poems and stories, and a world tour this summer. Once that is done, she says she plans on reading Virginia Axline’s Dibs in Search of Self.

These Artists Liked the Same Books As Kate Nash:

Los Campesinos!

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Links:
http://www.katenash.co.uk