22/03/16
Kathryn Williams has 10 studio albums under her belt, has collaborated with some of the great and good from the music world, was nominated for a Mercury Prize, made a kids album inspired by punk music and runs song writing retreats. Somehow she’s also found time to spend three years crafting an album, Hypoxia, based on The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. She plays The Bicycle Shop this month, so I had a chat with her about frustrating customers in health food shops and wearing a parrot costume for one of her videos.
Your latest album Hypoxia came out of project you were working on writing songs inspired by Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. Did you feel like you ended up channelling her whilst writing and recording these songs?
I think I had to immerse myself in the book and I hadn’t read that book for years. I tried to understand her through her book and why she chose the characters and themes she did. Placing myself in her shoes was a big part of it, but also then living up to her writing and wanting to create something original that would represent her in a new way rather than the way in which she’s been marginalised as an icon, Ted Hughes’ wife who killed herself, all that teenage angst, the glamorous woman of the ‘60’s. I wanted to re-evaluate that, and it was three years of intensity and it’s not the easiest to perform live because you go back into those worlds and characters, but you have to do that or else what’s the fucking point!
Plath was a poet, author and mother – did you feel a natural affinity with her?
I got a commission from Durham Book Festival to write about Sylvia Plath. It was a big thing to take on and a daunting responsibility, and I didn’t want to feel like I was riding on the back of her genius and success, I just wanted to represent her well and consider the way she worked. I became like an actor getting into a role really, prophetically it then became emotionally very much about things that were happening in my own life so it became very poignant. It’s one of the most amazing projects because it wasn’t my idea to do this, it came from a writing commission and then followed two years of writing songs for the book and then going to the label and suggesting it as an album, which didn’t go down so well initially! But they did it, and lots of people have said they’ve re-evaluated her work as a result. I think it’s about time she got her proper dues away from the myth of her life.
How difficult was it to write songs on a theme, rather than freestyling it so to speak? Did it make it easier or harder?
Both! The commission was originally open, they just said anything about Sylvia Plath and I had to narrow it down to The Bell Jar. Once I’d come to that then it was like honing in to a single brick each time instead of trying to do the whole House! There was a purity to having to stay within the boundaries of the project which was amazing because it opens you up; I never would have written those songs those confinements and those pressures. It’s forever changed me, and for the better I think.
Which is the song from Hypoxia that means the most to you?
I tend to go for the smallest underdog, like most things in my life, so I have a soft spot in my heart for the song Beating Heart. It has a real stillness to it, and when I sing it I kind of do feel like I’m just opening myself up. It’s quite a vulnerable moment but something that I want to embrace at the same time to give the song the impact it should. It’s not all about being clever…fuck that shit! I want songs to move me or make me think about things I’ve never thought about before or feel connected to something else.
Can you remember the very first song you wrote that you were proud of?
I was in a band in school with my sister. We were called Yak Attack and wore pink tops and denim skirts and we wrote a song called If You’re Gonna Get Into My Life You’ve Gotta Get It Right. I don’t think anyone outside my school has ever heard that song! We were amazingly proud of it at the time, ha ha! I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned that before actually!
Your very first album was self recorded and cost a mere £80 to make. How do you feel your sound and voice have developed from back in 1999?
There’s like 16 years of life inside me and I was very timid and scared back then, I couldn’t have anyone in the studio with me, I was so nervous to perform in front of anyone. Then I was nominated for the Mercury prize and I messed up all of my chances really because I was so fearful. I didn’t do Jools Holland, I was booked do to TV spots and I got off the train at Peterborough ‘cos I was too scared to do it. At the height of my fame I couldn’t handle it; I didn’t feel I was good enough and I felt like someone was going to tell me I didn’t have the qualifications for the job. I was riddled with self doubt but carried on and have been really really lucky in my failings in that I’ve been able to have a hunger and continue to strive to keep making music. I feel like every album is a new beginning.
What were you doing for a job when you first considered making a career from music?
I did an art degree, then I was on the dole. I worked in a vegetarian cafe and then a shop because I realised I was a terrible waitress. I kept taking people’s food away when they’d just gone to the toilet! And I was terrible in the shop too. In a health food shop people are very particular about strange things like sugar and things, and they’d shout at me because there was sugar in orange juice that we had on the shelf. I had this terrible coping mechanism where I’d say I was just going to the store cupboard, which was just a door in the shop, and then I’d go in and just shout “FUCKING HELL!” really loud, so everyone could hear me, and then I’d come out saying “No, I’m sorry we don’t have what you want”. Basically, if I couldn’t do this job as a musician I don’t think I would be able to hold down a proper job!
Which of your albums thus far do you feel reflects the true Kathryn Williams?
I just had a meeting with my label about doing a Best Of, or a boxset of my work, ‘cos I’ve done ten solo albums and four other albums as well. I’m not sure how I would go about choosing the songs to represent me. It’s a bit like friends who move to a different city; you still know them and love them and when you see them nothing’s changed, but things do move on in your life. People seem to think Crown Electric is the best album I’ve done, and others say Hypoxia is the best one.
I wanted to ask about the album of kids songs you did with Anna Spencer from Delicate Vomit, The Crayonettes. How did that project come about?
We both had babies at a similar time and were being driven mad by the songs you end up listening to in the car or at home, nursery rhymes with lovely plummy mummies on. We wanted to listen to the Fall or The Stooges or The Velvet Underground or hip hop but knew the content of those might not be appropriate so we though we’d make an album inspired by those bands we loved but about brushing your teeth or about a hopping toad. It was a really fun project. Loads of people who are parents in the music world love that album.
I hear you are working with Michele Stodart on an album..how’s that going?
It’s good, we’re recording in May. It’s going to be an all star cast with amazing people, a feel good harmony record with us two singing together. Simon and Garfunkel meets The Beach Boys meets Big Star.
I love your videos, particularly Monday Morning. That looks like it must have been a real laugh to film?
It was actually terrifying but I can’t blame anyone other than myself. We were talking about doing a video and I was like oh man, I don’t know what to wear, so I asked if I could walk around in a parrot outfit? So then I had to walk around London in a parrot outfit!
You’ve been a part of several songwriting courses and retreats. Do you have some pithy advice for anyone out there who fancies giving it a try?
Yeah, do it! Anyone can write a song, and anyone who says they can’t is just trying to make themselves look more important!
Are you heading out to play some festivals this summer? Who would you like to catch playing live?
Yes, I’m doing quite a few literary festivals because it ties in with Hypoxia, and that’s really nice because you play to people with a nice big attention span! I’m a really big Laura Veirs fan. She’s just done an album with Neko Case and k.d. Lang, and I think they’re doing some festivals. Also Joanna Newsom. I’m not a massive festival fan though, it’s not where you see the best music although it is where you can discover music; I don’t think I’ve had my best musical experiences at festivals. I prefer the more intimate, smaller gigs personally. The big festivals are a pain to get in and out of and working a festival is very different to just being at one.
Kathryn Williams plays at The Bicycle Shop on April 27th. Tickets available from musicglue.com/dreams-music-promotion