“Have you forgotten what we were like then / when we were still first rate / and the day came fat with an apple in its mouth” whispers Katherine Priddy over the opening crossfire of Eurydice. Deliberate like Joan Shelley, yet with the fluid weave of Brigid Mae Powers; the only thing more haunting than the Birmingham based songwriter’s crystalline voice is her lyrics. However, in this instance we find Katherine quoting Animals by Frank O’Hara. It would seem the New York poet’s allusions to heady yesterdays are not too far removed from Priddy’s own meditations on time and love though. Her stunning debut The Eternal Rocks Beneath (reviewed here) is a haze of nostalgia, cast in the shifting light of passing seasons. As the world around us continues to change at an alarming rate, we caught up with the rising talent to discuss the finer details of her songcraft, how she’s withstood the recent highs and lows, and why she should never be left alone with your mum’s finest china.
“When I listen to music, I hear the words first and foremost, before the melody,” Priddy begins. Perhaps we should expect as much from an English Literature graduate, but still, it’s compelling to hear how her creative process hangs on this love of language. She offers one of the most valuable insights into her thoughts around songwriting when discussing O’Hara’s book Lunch Poems: “I like the way he uses names, places and moments, and never explains them. So, you feel like you’re either looking at him through a window or walking behind him down the street for five minutes, capturing fragments of conversation. There’s something about that almost voyeuristic style that I really like. I think that’s what songs should be like, just a brief little insight into something. It doesn’t all have to be explained.”
Although she has a trad repertoire, Priddy’s been wholly embraced by the folk scene on the grounds of the remarkable strength of her originals. “I don’t necessarily sing traditional folk, but what I really like is how it’s often used to tell stories. It became a voice for either passing on a tale or a moral teaching and I think that has influenced the way I write” she says. Adopting this time-honoured form of storytelling, Priddy then applies some of the introspection songwriters like Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell are famed for. “[Drake] was a very important artist for me when I was younger. His lyrics are so heartfelt. I saw something the other day about how his songs are seen as very autobiographical, but I think he was often the observer, the shy man in the corner. His songs tell other people’s stories, just as much as they tell his own.” Of the latter, she says, “Joni paints incredible characters and moments that I find totally captivating. Cactus Tree (from Song to a Seagull) is one of my favourite songs. I just want to know the woman that the song’s about.”
Pressing Katherine further about writers that may have informed her debut, she reveals lines from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer are penned in her lyrics notebook. When I ask whether these novels might in some way be tied in with the transient elements of childhood she mentioned in her Indigo blog, she responds, “Possibly. A lot of the songs on the album have little images and moments that will mean something to me, but might be lost on someone else, but that’s the joy of writing music. For me, it’s always for myself, as well as for the audience. The blackbird for example, that starts and finishes the album, is the most evocative sound of childhood for me as it was always the last thing I’d hear before I went to bed in the summer and the first thing I’d hear when I woke up. Whenever I hear blackbirds on warm evenings, I am immediately transported back to my childhood bedroom (and my Hedwig pyjamas).”
It then comes as something of a surprise to learn Ring O’Roses, the record’s moodiest moment, is one of Priddy’s earliest songs; “It’s perhaps the oldest song on the album. Again, perhaps it ties into my love of mythology, fairy tales and nursery rhymes. There’s a real dark history to a lot of the stories and rhymes you learn as a child, even though you’re often not made aware of it at the time. Anyway, I just wanted to use something ever so slightly familiar and comfortable and take it out of context to make it a bit unsettling. Melody wise, I learnt guitar on my Dad’s guitar and one day I picked it up and he had it tuned down to DADGAD, so I started messing about and the Ring O’Roses melody came out.”
Priddy started performing in her late teens, playing support slots and the odd headline show, before moving to Brighton for university. “Again, I did quite a few gigs whilst I was there,” she recounts, “I supported Martin Carthy & Dave Swabrick, that was a really lovely gig. In fact, I actually choked onstage, mid-song and had to stop; you know when it’s not just a tickle, it’s a full-on choke. Then when Carthy & Swabrick went up, Dave did this really big dramatic fake cough and said ‘I think there must be something in the air up here tonight’ and gave me a little wink. So, that was very sweet of him.” There have been plenty of brushes with folk’s finest since, having opened for the likes of Vashti Bunyan, John Smith, The Chieftains and Richard Thompson, her time on tour with the latter being a real standout.
“The entire experience was amazing but one of the main things that stood out to me was how supportive the Irish audiences were. I mean I see music as a valid career, but you’re not always made to feel as though it is. But gigs in Galway and Cork, the audiences out there, they’re just so into live music. I’ve never fed off a crowd as I did on that tour. The queues for merch afterwards and the people who wanted to tell you who’s Aunty lives here, and where you can stay if you ever play a gig here. I was given money to go and get Fish & Chips after a gig! I absolutely loved touring Ireland and the fact that I was with Richard Thompson made it a hundred times more exciting.”
I’m sure much like many artists out there, Priddy’s keen to move the narrative away from the pandemic and these past fifteen months. However, distressing as it was, it did seem to reinforce the importance of artistic expression and community.
“When it all kind of went wrong and the diary was emptied it was obviously pretty devastating. I did a lot of head-in-hands, banana bread baking and gardening, all those things that people were doing. With the collaborations though it was a really unique opportunity where we were all suddenly sat at home, because normally artists have projects constantly on the go or they’re touring. You only see each other once or twice a year at festivals. So, it was really nice to see the music community pulling together and people working with each other in a way that we might not have been able to do otherwise.
The Nick Drake collab with Jon Wilks & co ended up doing quite well, so I don’t know I feel like there were some real positives to come out of it, to be honest. It felt like there was a real kind of golden period when the output was amazing and it was all very new and exciting, this idea of the live streams and split-screen collaborations. I think in a time when everyone was feeling very separated – I mean we were all literally locked in our houses – it was life-affirming to see musicians play together despite the new boundaries.”
No strangers to having to adapt under pressure, performers traded the thrill of in-person shows for delayed clapping emojis shared via chat windows. Surreal as it was at first for Priddy, something of that live spirit was spared. But this came with a new set of challenges.
“I suppose as more and more people started doing live streams and collaborations it became evident that there was a distinction between those who had all of the equipment and the know-how, and those who were in their bedroom doing the best with what they’ve got. So, I think there became a pressure to do really good live streams with high standard content. So, now we were not only musicians who had all lost their jobs but also musicians who had to learn how to edit videos and set up our own home recording studios. For me it was certainly a learning curve.”
It’s thanks to these performances that Priddy has won a fan base the world over. Though similar to the other musicians she’s spoken to, Katherine informs me she still battles with “chronic imposter syndrome.” However, the support she’s received from Cambridge Folk Festival, the Christian Raphael award, English Folk Expo and her mentor Stevie Smith has proven indispensable with helping her to cope this past year and has allayed many of these doubts.
Although she doesn’t want to get her hopes up just yet about the return of shows – “I don’t think I can bear the crushing disappointment” she laughs – Priddy admits, “gigs will be a huge help for all of our morale.” We discuss the benefit of events now pivoting to the idea of hybrid gigs, where you can purchase tickets to watch online or choose to attend in person. Her first show lined up with Folk East’s Blaxhall Sessions will be doing just this, as well as another date that must take precedence for Priddy: her live album launch from St Pauls on 25th June.
“It’ll be both live and a high-quality stream with the Northern Cowboys who are going to be filming it and doing the sound. So, we’ll get swanky multiple camera angles. I’ll be joined by George Boomsma, who’ll be providing harmonies and atmospheric guitar. I’m also hopefully going to be accompanied by Bartie Shirm who plays cello on the album. We’ve never actually played together publicly before, so it’s something quite new for the live launch.”
Last autumn Priddy also interviewed the inimitable Peggy Seeger, hoping to glean a little wisdom from the feminist folk icon. It would seem Seeger made a tremendous impression with her steadfast daily practice schedule, though one piece of guidance seemed to resonate in particular.
“Her main piece of advice was to collaborate with other people, because she said it was the best way to push yourself out of your comfort zone and free yourself from your box. So, I think that’s kind of an aim for me now. Get involved with other projects and get artists involved with my own, because after playing for a year in my bedroom I think it’s demonstrated how you need others to keep you motivated and inspired.”
One of the main highlights came when Seeger grumbled about Priddy smashing crockery in the video for Wolf. Priddy countered that she was actively trying to stick two fingers up to this ‘flower maiden’ stereotype that female singer/songwriters can sometimes be pigeonholed with. Wolf’s punk outburst amusingly ruffled a few Youtubers’ feathers, but Priddy isn’t afraid of this.
“I sometimes feel in the folk scene there’s an expectation as a female musician to go down the whole flowery dress, wandering through the fields, forest nymph vibe. I know that’s a broad statement but I have sometimes found that’s how you’re portrayed in reviews. That’s just not who I am. So, I’ve always been very keen when it comes to photo shoots and my artwork, to not kind of fall into that stereotype. There’s nothing wrong with it, I’m just not a delicate forest fairy. Even if my songs are quite soft and sweet sometimes, it doesn’t necessarily mean I have to be. I’d rather be seen as a businesswoman and a musician. It’s difficult enough already as a woman on the music scene. You have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously most of the time.”
Although folk appears one of the more inclusive genres, this inappropriate typecasting can still happen. But with artists like Priddy following in Seeger’s footsteps, objecting to gender discrimination and dismissing certain tropes, there’s hope. Josienne Clarke’s cliché confronting video for single Sit Out is but one recent example of the ways female artists are challenging prejudice off the back of exceptional songs. Like Seeger, Mitchell & Clarke, Katherine’s proven through her gift and graft, she’s here to stay and is willing to give just as good as she gets. The pandemic might have taken its toll, but it’s a testament to her that she’s achieved so much and is still pushing boundaries. Rest assured, with Priddy’s promise, that which once felt all-consuming will someday be a mere footnote in an illustrious career.
“It’s important to be true to yourself and not have to bend to fit into any of these clichés. I think everyone should always be trying to do their own thing in music because ultimately that’s what connects with fans as well. They want to know who you are; they don’t want an image, they want the real you.”
Pre-Order/Save The Eternal Rocks Beneath. Out 25 June on Navigator Records: https://smarturl.it/katherinepriddy
For more information including upcoming live dates visit: https://www.katherinepriddy.co.uk/
Signed CD Giveaway ‘The Eternal Rocks Beneath‘:
We have five signed copies of Katherine’s debut album to giveaway.
To enter simply email us here: info@klofmag.com. In your email include “Katherine Priddy” in the subject along with your name and address in the body of the message. Last entries by 10 am on Friday 18 June 2021.
*Terms & conditions apply:
- Only one entry per household.
- Five winners will be chosen at random on 18 June 2021.
- The winner will be informed soon thereafter.
- Your information will not be shared with any other parties other than the winner’s address details which will be forwarded to Navigator Records so the Signed CD can be sent to them.
Folk Radio UK’s full terms can be found here.