Radio 3’s Late Junction named Catherine Rudie as “one to watch for” in 2019 and on the strength of her debut album ‘The Möbius Kiss’, we believe they were spot-on. Raised in Sutherland on the North Coast of Scotland, Catherine now lives and works in London.
For the accompanying video to her first album single ‘London is Changing,’ (also our Song of the Day) director Hannah Lovell headed to Walthamstow Marshes, an area of land that is neither cityscape nor rural. Such fringe-lands can conjure up unusual feelings of displacement and, after reading Catherine’s words about the song and video below, those lands seem to perfectly represent those who are resisting the homogenous development and gentrification of a city. Catherine is no stranger to such struggles, her debut album ‘The Möbius Kiss’ was created in response to the twin losses of a long-term relationship and the dissolution of the creative world she had lived in for nearly a decade. As her home and studio were redeveloped into luxury flats and the related community of artists and musicians was broken up, she began to write songs which tried to make sense of the rapidly changing world she found herself in and which seemed to be rejecting her. We’re looking forward to exploring more, in the meantime feast your eyes and ears on ‘London is Calling’.
Catherine on ‘London is Changing’.
“Myself and the director Hannah Lovell took inspiration from old spaghetti westerns and Sergio Leone. The setting is Walthamstow Marshes which are a weird part of London… they are quite surreal – this small piece of countryside right in the heart of East London. The gold triangle is a motif I use a lot as a stage prop and in other videos. A couple of years ago I saw a very normal man in a suit and tie, carrying a brief case, walking through Kings Cross station wearing one on his head. I traced him through the internet and it turns out he wears one all the time to keep his thoughts clear. I very much admire people who have the courage to live differently and do what they believe in, even if they look strange to other people and so I use the triangle as a totem of that. Although the song is about the end of a relationship and how objects and places can bring back memories of lost love, I was also thinking about all the amazing people I know who have been forced out of London, as it becomes increasingly difficult and expensive to live here. I suppose at the end I’m building a weird shrine as an offering to them all!”
The Möbius Kiss will be released on 8th November 2019, distributed by Hudson Records
Find out more here:
https://www.catherinerudie.com