Captain A - New Years Tide

“Captain A is topical electro-psychedelic folk music carved out of the expansive boglands and beaches of donegal, on the north-left coast of Ireland.” The musical musings of Eoghan Holland have been something I’ve been unaware of until about a month ago when I think Mumblin Deaf Ro mentioned him on Jim’s Blog. I’ve only sunk my teeth/ears into his ‘Guerrilla Love Songs’ and it’s great. In places there’s beautiful crooning folky vocals a la Cohen and in others, the vocals and melodies that accompany them jump to something akin to Tom Waits circa ‘Raindogs’ or ‘Franks Wild Years’. In saying that, it’s impossible to pin Captain A down to one particular sound.

Similar to some of Ireland’s other underground musical mischief makers, Captain A’s albums are available to download for free.

Guerrilla Love Songs (zip)

Yellowback (zip)

Katie Kim

New album Twelve is receiving deserved plaudits, but singer Katie O’Sullivan has had to survive computer viruses and the ruination of three years’ work to get here. Ciarán Gaynor hears of how she picked herself up again.

Katie Kim’s singer Katie Sullivan is moving to Canada soon and plans to work on a new album when she gets there. I ask her what prompted this decision to move. “To be honest, I really just want to wake up in a different space every morning and be around a few new faces, walk down different streets, sit in different cafes and bars and play in different venues… Not to take anything away from what’s going on in Ireland at the moment and especially Waterford, because I’ve never been more excited about the music that’s bleeding out of this country right now. There’s so much happening and the majority of it is all really, really good and daring and special.” There are some bands who feature in the pages of Analogue, and on the website, with alarming regularity. It transpires that Katie is mates with most of them. “Bands like Percolator, Ugly Megan, You’re Only Massive, Saviours Of Space, Deaf Animal Orchestra, Ilya K, Dinosaur Petshop and us, are all living within a 5 minute radius of each other”, she tells me, “and we’re all helping each other out. The atmosphere is so good right now that I’m changing my own mind about going [to Canada] as I speak.” Nothing can persuade her to stay, the mere whiff of an American accent and she’s off. “We did a gig with Two Gallants a few months ago and even hearing the sound technician’s American accent made me feel…different or something. I dunno. I suppose I’m kind of looking for a muse, and Canada has always stuck out to me.”

Last year, 50 tracks (three years of work) were accidentally erased when Katie’s computer failed. I ask her how she dealt with that crisis. “Yeah, that was a bitch. I drank quite a bit through that period. I really can’t think about it too much. I got a small computer virus and the guy I brought it into to fix just wiped everything. I could barely hear the words “don’t you have back-ups?” through the rage and the tears. It was my first computer, and it had the first song I ever recorded myself and nostalgic stuff like that.” I could probably be releasing my 6th album by now if I had back-ups…” The woman sounds crestfallen, but soon perks up again: “I believe things all work out and I’m happy with this album being the first release. The real kick in the teeth about that whole thing was that I left a great music course in college and used the money to start home recording. When all the stuff I did was trashed I took it as some divine sign or something…” It’s like God wasn’t happy with the demos. If only He would step in more often, vetoing the embarrassing first efforts our less imaginative musicians. Katie has heaps of imagination – even the “influences” section on her MySpace page reads like a surrealist poem (e.g. “wicker stringed high pitch glam metal” etc). I ask her if she’s worried about being pigeonholed in some way? “Hmmmmn… I don’t think so. I just find it difficult to stick a genre on it you know?” Yes, because I suppose that’s the music journalist’s job. “I work in a record store part-time too and I’ve really never gotten any better at describing music…” Shouldn’t be an obstacle to becoming a music journalist, but sorry, carry on. “I just like it or I don’t.” Phew! Dangerously close to “Well-I-Just-Make-Music-For-Myself-And-If-Anyone-Else-Likes-It-It’s-A-Bonus” territory there. Katie continues, “I know the MySpace description is a tad over zealous, but way too many people influence me everyday so I couldn’t name a select few. I like ‘surrealist poem’ though. ‘Surrealist poem music’.”

The album “Twelve” sounds very good at 3 o’clock in the morning - very “ambient”. I wonder to what extent does Katie think her music benefits from the context in which it is heard? It appears she has given this some thought: “When I gave a few copies of the album to friends, I did tell them to stick it on in the car if they’re driving late at night or sitting with a glass of wine, or going to bed. Hopefully not to bore them to sleep or anything but I think it’s a good sign when you can fall asleep to something and for it not to impose on you. Certain places and times of the day and moods all affect how it sounds. For example, I really wouldn’t get the same shudder in my bones if I was listening to Atlas Sound or something at 9.30 in the morning, as I would at 2am. It goes well with the night. Also, I’m completely nocturnal and listening to Donal Dineen every night might have something to do with it too.”

I’ve just been reading Lucy O’Brien’s book “She Bop”, which is about the history of women in rock and pop. Is it difficult to be female in the music industry? “The old ‘hard done by woman’ issue? I don’t know. I just do what I do and if people like it, that’s even better.” Hurrah! “It might be different if I was in a metal band or something, but really I can’t imagine what the songs would sound like if a guy was singing them. Also, a lot of people still think ‘singer-songwriter’ straight away when I say I make music so I suppose it’s still there a little bit, but really there’s so many women in music that are getting attention right now that you can kind of wave goodbye [to the idea that women have it tough in the music biz].” She sounds quite confident in saying this. “I haven’t really experienced barriers. It might have been harder back in the record company heyday, when people needed an image…” At Analogue we get a lot of press releases from Irish artists who claim they “just want to get their music out there” which seems to me to be a very unambitious thing to aim for. Is it really that difficult to get heard in Ireland? What sort of problems has Katie encountered in that regard? “Maybe bands and artists just don’t know what to do. They know they want to make music and tour it and not have to work the day job, but there are so many bands around right now and a lot of them don’t have a clue how to ‘sell’ themselves. They don’t know what to do with it once they have it on a disc. I certainly didn’t before I met John Haggis. I realise that most of the music on my album isn’t going to get on prime time radio. We’ve been doing loads of gigs and though not every one is packed, the people there really get into it and are really responsive. So really, everything’s going at a nice, cool pace. Like I said before, I’m loving Ireland at the moment - perfect time for me to leave!” I ask how she came to meet John Haggis? “John kind of managed (Katie’s previous band) Dae Kim. He had set up Sofa Records with a friend in Cork and they put out our first album Matador. Then he set up Granny It’s OK To Experiment and they’re helping me put out Twelve. I can safely say that I had a hand in turning him to the drums and I’m so proud that he’s one of the key members of Katie Kim now. He’s released four albums and they’re all exceptional. I can’t say enough really. I don’t think this album would have ever been released if not for him.”

It’s surprising how many people seem to see being in an alternative, “edgy” band with a cult following as a career opportunity. Yet when they manage to achieve this aim, they’ll often complain about it. When I hear a musician bemoan the trappings of fame, when The Streets or Radiohead tell us that being famous causes them to suffer from a sort of crippling existential ennui, I thank God that nurses and mortuary attendants don’t release concept albums. Thankfully, Katie is chipper and sounds happy with her lot; but what would she do if she didn’t have the band? “I would transform radio, beef it up! I do a two-hour slot on Beat FM sometimes and I love it. I really want to get into [radio] over in Canada too. Otherwise, I’d be a goat herder in France or something.” I ask whether she prefers recording or playing live: “I’m only really discovering the joys of playing live. I love recording though. You can get lost for hours with the headphones on, although at the moment my cantankerous neighbours have been unwilling to accommodate me with this.” Those bastards. Should people dance to Katie Kim’s music? “Hahaha. If they like. I’m sure they’d get some funny looks though. I’d love to get a group of tribal dancers for the live gigs. That’d be amazing.”

Katie doesn’t have a “message for her fans”, but she does have a request: “If anyone can help me find a home in Toronto that’d be great…” Note to self: we should have a small ads section in Analogue. Think of the possibilities.

The vinyl version of Twelve is available by request. Contact Katie Kim at their MySpace page for details.

Katie Plays support to David Kitt at the Button Factory on Wednesday 17th December.

Tags: 12", irish, katie kim, underground, vinyl, waterford