People's Republic of South Devon » Katie Marie: Not Bad For A Girl

Do you remember the first music that inspired you?

Katie Marie — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:50:08 +0000

Katie Marie Photo taken by Lisa (Indigo Blue Photography) and edited by Sandra (Soul Photography)

Here’s a question for you, can you remember the first ever song you played on an instrument? Or maybe the first album that really inspired you?

Well I had yet another nostalgic week when I was turning out some cupboards at home and came across these:

Oasis, Definatly Maybe; Radiohead, The Bends; and Alanis Moresette, Jagged Little Pill.

Which are the first ever music books I bought when I was a teenager and I’ve not seen them for a good 10 years or so and they brought back lots of memories.

When I first started out gigging and writing my own music these three albums meant everything to me: Oasis, Definatly Maybe; Radiohead, The Bends; and Alanis Moresette, Jagged Little Pill.

Most of the chord shapes I play on guitar today come from these three books and the albums themselves were such a massive inspiration to me.

I’ve often spoken about my first few years learning guitar and getting into recording. I was 16 and living in a mobile home and my first real recording set-up consisted of a Fostex four-track cassette recorder and a rather crappy vocal mic that had a wired-in jack lead (like those horrible mics you get with Karaoke machines). Instrumentation wise I had a beaten up drum kit that I found in a skip, a Kay Rickenbacker copy bass, a Yamaha keyboard and an Encore Les Paul copy electric guitar. Back in those days I used to play without a top E string and just used five strings. It’s funny because there’s many chords I play now where I leave the top string open, and it’s from the days when I thought it would be a good idea not to have it at all lol.

Recording drums was always a bit of a challenge, as when I had the kit set up the only way to get behind it was by going out the front door and clambering through a side window. I came across my Fostex a little while ago and there’s a few comedy moments where I hit the record button and you hear me running out the door and climbing through the window – thankfully I don’t have to endure that anymore!

I’m so very grateful for the amount of time I used to spend practising. I had a pretty fixed rehearsal regime that lasted around seven hours a day, and most nights I’d either be out gigging or having band practise. Everyday I’d do bass, drums, guitar, keys and vocals and had a set practise list for each one. It’s funny seeing people’s reactions when I tell them how often I use to play music. They always ask me ‘didn’t you ever go out? Or have a life outside of music?’ And I guess the answer is no, I didn’t have a life. I was a musical junkie and completely cool with that.

It’s really cool when I meet teenagers or young people now who are just starting out their own adventure into the world of music. I have to say that period of my life was by far the most exciting and rewarding. Everything was new and inspiring. I was like a musical sponge – I just wanted to watch and soak up everything I heard, then go home, grab a guitar and sit there until I could play it. I had a dream, and at that time it never felt as though it was very far away because I was completely naïve and had no idea what the music businesswas all about. But I guess it’s like that saying my Mother has often said to me…’where ignorance is bliss, tis folly to be wise’.

Don’t get me wrong, I adore what I do. It’s the bestest thing in the whole wide world. But as with the real world you experience set backs and blows that make you not quite as open as you once were. I’m certainly a lot wiser these days in many ways, but my enthusiasm back then was unstoppable and I’m so very grateful for all time I spent practising away. And if the internet had been around I would have been spending hours watching music vids on Youtube. Mind you, I’m actually very glad that Youtube, HD camcorders and the internet weren’t around back then – I’d die if anyone uploaded my first few gigs, as they were pretty awful!

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A trip down memory lane (via the Myspace layby)

Katie Marie — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:36:51 +0000

Katie Marie recalling a tour with the Reoffenders. Photo taken by Lisa (Indigo Blue Photography) and edited by Sandra (Soul Photography)

Brrrrrr! Bloomin’ ‘eke it’s cold! Having said that, I don’t think I can really complain about having to deal with -3°C temperatures in Devon when my brother is in living in Poznan where it’s currently -30°C… So, maybe it’s not so cold after all.

I’m happy to report that my ukulele playing is coming along really well and I’m managing to play my song all the way through with out the uke ending up down round my bottom. Happy days.

Last night I decided to have a bit of a nostalgic one and go through all my old Myspace blogs I used to write yonks ago (back when Myspace was good). So many amazing memories that made me laugh, cry, smile and frown. A lot of my blogs talked about me making a complete arse out of myself and I thought I’d share with you one of my favourites (which is dated September 14 2007… where did the time go?!). I wrote it when I was one tour in Cornwall with the lovely Reoffenders.

Enjoy

Thought I’d better blog about the Cornwall tour before I forget what happened (tis what happens when you get old see!).

I learnt that there’s a few things I do pretty good for a girl… and a few things I do very badly (probably because I’m a girl) and also that it doesn’t matter how many times I bare my legs to the sun they still seem to stay as white as Frosty the snowman!

The first day I arrived at the campsite in Watergate Bay and the rest of the gang were already there and set up and had very kindly set up my little tent. Horrah!

After I’d moved the entire contents of my car into my snazzy little tent, we departed to the first venue on our tour list which was a wicked little pub in Harlyn Bay. It was a proper surfy joint with lots of vids playing on screens all over the place. The peeps seemed really friendly and there were even a large group of kiddie winkles ranging between the ages of about 6-11 (they were there with their parents before you start wondering!) In the break I had one ask if they could have a go on my drum kit which of cause I didn’t mind at all, but you know what kids are like – if one has a go they all want a go! So I spent most of my break giving drum lessons. It was great fun tho’ and they were such a lovely group of kids who got a real kick out of playing. One lad in particular had a natural feel for it and was playing a simple 4/4 beat in about 30 seconds, so I really hope he’s going to be inspired enough to start playing!

After the gig I decided to be very rock and roll and head straight off to bed as I had been busking all day and I was completely cream crackered. The rest of the guys hung out at The Cliff Top Bar which, from what I could gather, was a little perch they’d found right by the beach.

The next day I got up nice and early as I was all excited about being so near such a beautiful beach.I’d brought my body board and surfing gear and was buzzing about catching some waves. I’d asked Heather about how to get to the beach the previous day.

‘Oh it’s really easy,’ she promised me. ‘All you need to do is go down the end of the site here, through that gate over the field, turn left then carry on down the path, head right head left…’

Then my brain started to drift as I was trying to remember all the instructions she was telling me, but hey, it surely can’t be that difficult to find your way down to the two-mile long beach which is right next to the campsite? So off I went with my body board to try and find the best route down.

After walking for around five minutes I was definitely getting close to the beach (which looked gorgeous from the costal path I was walking along). I remember in the back of my mind Heather mentioning somewhere in her directions about climbing down some rocks to get to the beach, and directly below me I spotted a guy down on the sand. He was all garbed up in his surfing gear and I could see a board – I looked down at the cliff and could see a little path running down the side where the grass had been trampled down – this must be the way!! So I started making my way through the grass (and brambles and other spiky plants). After about five minutes of clambering down, it started looking less and less likely that I was going the right way. And as I got near the bottom there was in fact a 12ft drop from where I was standing and where the beach was – plus there were really sharp unclimbable looking rocks and there was no way in the world I was going to make it down there…

Unfortunately for me the guy who I had spotted down on the sand had watched me walk all the way down (probably wondering what the bloody hell I was doing) and so I had to go with one of two options:

1) I start laughing and just say I was trying to make my way down to the beach and thought this was the best route

2) Just sit myself down and pretend that I really *did* mean to walk all the way down the cliff side to admire the view

The second option seemed like a really good idea at the time as I just couldn’t face letting the side down by being so stoopid. So I propped my board up against a rock, sat myself down and pretended to be really admiring the beautiful view. The guy on the sand just stood there and looked at me like I was completely mad.’Just get your board and walk away’ I kept shouting in my mind, and every time he turned around I was looking up the bank to make sure I could actually make my way back up again!

Eventually he shouted to me.

‘Hey are you alright?’

‘Yes! Of cause I am!!’ I calmly shouted back

‘You’re not stuck or anything are you??’ he asked me looking rather concerned.

‘No no no!!’ I laughed ‘I’m just admiring the lovely view’

‘Just turn around and walk away so I can get out of here,’I kept on saying in my mind. Eventually he started walking down towards the water – finally!! I grabbed my board and started climbing back up the way I had come. Every now and then I kept looking back as if to admire the view (just in case he or anyone else happened to be watching). Eventually I got back up to the top and was too knackered to walk any further never mind surf. I followed the coast path along and eventually got to the beach (which was gorgeous and well worth me making a tit out of myself for).

Anyways, after catching a few waves (or drowning in style) I started making my way back to the campsite (no I didn’t decide to clamber up or down any rock faces to get back). Everyone had all packed up their stuff and it was time for us to make our way to the next campsite which was in St Ives.

Forty minutes or so later we arrived in St Ives and set up camp. The campsite was really kewl with very posh toilets and shower cubicles. They also had a hoooge play area which was great for a bunch of kids like us. We were on the zip line for absoloutely ages trying to see how fast we could get some-one to go.

Then we thought we’d better start making tracks as we had a gig in Helston. Again we had lots of fun and there was a group of crazy dancing people who were great. We also got asked to sign a trainer which was slightly bizarre but hey ho!

Again I was knackered so I went straight to bed. The others weren’t far behind me as they were pretty knackered too. I was going to be up at 8am the next morning as I was planning a surprise busk outside More Restaurant as it was my brother’s last day working there.

So my alarm went of at 8am the next morning and I stumbled out of my sleeping bag and got all my busking gear together. I grabbed a take away breakfast from the campsite cafe on the way out (which was very nice indeed.). Two hours later I arrived at More and my bro seemed in pretty good spirits. I’m really gutted that he’s going but he seems happy about the change and is going off travelling in October which should be good.

I busked outside More for a few hours and popped into my parents before heading back off to St Ives.

When I arrived back at the campsite I had Heather rush over to me, looking very excited indeed.

‘We saw seals!! And dolphins!! They were swimming around right next to us!!’

I got to see the photos and videos and I was really gutted that I’d missed them, being an animal lover myself, but I was glad that the others had seen them and were really buzzing about it.

Shortly after it was once again time for us to depart…….as we were gigging at The Golden Lion in St.Ives. I was quite excited about not only playing, but driving Iggy (the van) back later ((yay!!))

We had another great gig and everyone really loved us. The rest of the band members were pretty merry by the end of the evening and I had great fun watching them do lots of silly things.

Time to return to the campsite. We all hung out in Heather and John’s tent and Heather made some amazing salad and cheese rolls which went down a treat.

So at about 3am I thought it time to head off to bed.

The next morning I didn’t wake up till 9.45am (I can’t remember the last time I slept in till that time as I usually have my living alarm clock Molly to get me up out of bed stupidly early!). I headed on over to the campsite cafe and ordered some breakfast. Bully was already up having a coffee so I sat with him for about an hour putting the world to rights.

Our last gig of the tour (owww) was in Perranporth and the venue was actually on the beach. After we’d set up I took a stroll and it was the closest I’ve been to being back in Australia. It was a beautiful beach with lots of chilled out peeps all surfing, swimming, chilling, walking and just generally enjoying the beach.

Had another great gig. My arms were starting to tell me that they needed a break tho!

Back to base camp and I grabbed another early night as I was busking outside More again the next morning.

I had a wicked time and couldn’t have been with a nicer group of people. Really looking forward to the next one!

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Who knew hand claps would become a pain in the bum?

Katie Marie — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:27:30 +0000

Katie Marie has had to sacrifice two guitars to get her latest album made.Photo taken by Lisa (Indigo Blue Photography) and edited by Sandra (Soul Photography)

Life feels as though it’s moving at about 300mph at the moment… it’s a bit like the old bus saying, everything seems to be happening all at once. But thankfully despite my rather lacking organisational skills I’m just about managing to keep up with it all.

The album plans are ticking along nicely. My tunes are being mastered, the album design work has all been sorted and the time is nearly here to put everything together into a real CD… exciting times. The down side to it all is that I’ve had to sell two of my beloved guitars in order to get enough dosh together to get the CDs made up (big sad face), but hopefully it’ll all be worth it in the long run, and to be honest I really can’t wait to see an actual album all made up and in my little mitts.

I did, however, have a slight issue with one of the tracks that featured hand claps. I really had no idea that recording hand claps would be such a pain in the bum. I mean, surely it’s just a case of plonking a microphone in front of your hands and clapping? Well, I discovered it isn’t quite that easy. I think that’s partly due to me having rather feeble sounding hand claps, as when I listened back to the recording my claps sounded a bit like ping-pong balls lol But thankfully with a bit of EQ-ing and compression I managed to get them sounding a little more realistic… phew.

Also coming together rather nicely is my Tea Total Tour. I’ve got oodles of dates all lined up now, check it out:

MAY:
3rd – Ironworks, Shropshire
5th – Acoustic Cafe, Carlton Theatre, Teignmouth
6th/7th – Bristol Folk Festival (Date TBC)
17th – Acoustic Cafe,Tavistock Wharf
18th – Eden Cafe, St Austell
19th – Miss Peapods, Penryn
25th – Boston Tea Party, Honiton
26th – Folking Live! Bracknell Arts Centre
JUNE
2nd – The Studio Lounge, Totnes
8th – Calstock Arts Centre, Cornwall
14th – B-Bar, Plymouth
23rd – Salisbury Arts Centre (Live Lunch Sessions)
30th – The Blue Bar, Porthtowen

Can’t wait to get out on the road.

Now that the album is pretty much sorted I’ve been hard at work rehearsing all the new tunes and arranging them for playing live.

The good thing about this CD is that all of the tracks are nice and sparsely arranged so translating them into a live situation hasn’t been too much of a headache. The most difficult thing I’ve had to contend with is playing the ukulele while standing up… as I’m extremely unfamiliar with it, and by the time I’ve finished the tune the uke seems to have slid down to my down by my belly button lol Hopefully with time and practise I’ll master it, otherwise I’ll end up looking rather silly.

Earlier this week I was chuffed to bits to find out that I’ll be going along to the Frankfurt Musikmesse in March. I was there last year and it was oodles of fun. Chris Woods and I jammed our little hearts out and dished up our usually funky flavours to the German peeps. Here’s a little clip of us on the Schlagwerk Stand last year:

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Rising with the lark for a jolly morning tune

Katie Marie — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:00:52 +0000

Katie Marie has finished her latest album! Photo taken by Lisa (Indigo Blue Photography) and edited by Sandra (Soul Photography)

If you’ve read any of my previous articles you’ll know that I’ve been working away writing and recording my third studio album… and Sunday was the deadline date I’d set myself to get all the audio and mixing finished.

For this album I’ve been writing the tunes as I go. This is because I wanted to try and create a CD that had a nice variety of music on there. So I looked at the list of songs I’d written and recorded each time and wrote according to what seemed to be missing.

I spent all day Saturday and Sunday finishing off mixing what I had already recorded and also writing and recording what I thought would be the last song for the album (which is called Staring at the Pieces). This is the only song on the CD that features a full drum kit set-up (all the others have cajon) and it’s been bloomin ages since I recorded a full kit (and boy it felt good!).

A friend of mine lent me a couple of rather tasty mics to have a play with over the weekend, the first one being a Rode NT4 which I discovered made an amazing overhead for the drums!

Katie Marie's nice and simple drum kit set up

This is my nice and simple drum kit set up. For the song Staring at the Pieces I wanted have a softer tone for the hi-hat so I used a cajon brush for my right hand and a normal stick for the snare.

The mic-ing set up was nice and easy too – just the Rode NT4 as an overhead, an AKG D112 for the kick and two SM57s top and bottom on the snare. Sounded really lovely.

The other mic I had to play with was a Neumann 103. It felt a little uncomfortable to sing into at first, as I didn’t like the way it was reacting to my vocals. But when I sat down to mix the track I couldn’t believe how my voice just seemed to slice through the mix like a knife and sound crystal clear. Amazing.

For most of the CD I’ve been relying heavily on the powers of the Rode NT1a and for the price it’s an incredible microphone. You can stick pretty much anything tin front of it and it will sound amazing… and put through my TLA compression unit it really sings.

Anyways, enough geeky microphone talk…

On Sunday night I was listening to all that I’d recorded and there seemed to be a lack of what I could only think of as… well… a jolly song lol. Not the sort of thing I write *that* often, but I did feel the CD was in need of a light hearted tune.

As some of you may or may not know, I’m working a ‘proper’ job at the moment between Monday and Friday (eeerg). So the only time I had left to write my jolly song and get it recorded was before and after work. I was up for the challenge and decided to get up at stupid o’clock the following morning to begin my mission… perhaps not the best time for me to write a jolly song, as I don’t do mornings at the best of times! But when it’s all in the name of music, it doesn’t seem quite so terrible.

I can see the moon! Why on earth am I awake?!

At 5am Monday morning I was in my little studio, armed with a mug of tea, pencil and paper and thesaurus. I thought into order to write an uptempo song I’d enlist the aid of my trusty Ukulele (called Kurtis) as lets face it, it’s pretty much impossible to write anything sad on a Ukulele!

Tara Takamine and Kurtis hanging out in the studio

As I mentioned before, uptempo tunes aren’t exactly my forte, so I though to help me really get into the ‘happy’ zone I’d write down a whole bunch of words that would hopefully sum up my tune. I wrote down stuff like ‘Sunny, bright, authentic, optimistic, witty’. This is a technique that I use quite often if I’m having trouble finding inspiration and it works wonders for getting my creative juices flowing.

Between 5am and 7.30am I managed to write lyrics and music for my jolly tune (yay!). Now it was time to take Molly for a walk and then head off to work and hope that I would feel with it enough to finish recording it after 5pm.

Thankfully the buzz of getting my new tune finished managed to get me through the day and I whizzed back to the studio to record all the bits and bobs for my jolly tune.

By 9.30pm it was all done and dusted. I listened to it with all the other tunes and thankfully I’m happy to report that my album is all finished up!

If you fancy taking a listen to some unmastered clips I’ve uploaded a little sneaky peek to Soundcloud.

Let me know what you think!

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Lots of music business means lots of smiles

Katie Marie — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:23:59 +0000

Lots of smiles for Katie Marie: Katie Marie Photo taken by Lisa (Indigo Blue Photography) and edited by Sandra (Soul Photography)

There’s absolutely heaps of good musical stuff happening at the moment… which = lots of Katie smiles.

The album is pretty much sorted now. Although I did have a minor dilemma last week, which was that I’d written a new tune and really wanted it to be on the album… but I wasn’t sure if I had time to get it recorded and mixed in time. But me being me, I’m always up for a challenge. So I got into the studio and began creating… and I’m happy to say that it paid off and I managed to get the extra track onto the album, horrah!

Katie Marie noodling in the studio

Sandra in Germany is working away on the design for the cover, back and booklet. What’s she’s done so far looks amazing. She’s using the beautiful painting that Amy Chudley created especially for the front cover and Sandra’s managed to take elements from the painting and dot them around here and there. Looks so great.

original painting by Amy Chudley for Katie Marie's album

I also managed to meet up with Amy earlier in the week and talk over some t-shirt design ideas. It was lots of fun thinking up quirky and original designs and I can’t wait for you guys to see what Amy’s working on.

As I mentioned last week, we’ve been organising a tour to promote the release of the CD. It’s going to be called the Tea Total Tour and is a tour of mostly tea and coffee houses, arts centres… that type of thing.

I’m amazed at the response I’ve had and it’s all coming together really nicely.

Here’s the dates thus far:

MAY
3rd – The Ironworks, Shropshire
5th – Carlton Theatre, Teignmouth (Acoustic Cafe)
12th – Germany, TBC
18th – Eden Cafe, St Austell
19th – Miss Peapods, Penryn
26th – Folking Live! Bracknell Arts Centre
JUNE
2nd - Studio Lounge, Totnes
23rd – Salisbury Arts Centre
30th – The Blue Bar, Porthtowen
JULY
8th – Poland, TBC

I’ve got lots more UK TBCs just waiting to be confirmed, so it’ll be a pretty action packed line up once completed.

We’re also working on some video ideas for a couple of the tracks from the album. One is a stop motion video for a song called It’s Alright. This is the first time I will have tried to do a video like this and judging by what I’ve seen other peeps do it does look like it’s going to be rather epic… but fun. I’m currently trying to create a story board for the whole song which is pretty full on but I’m hoping it’ll all come together ok and not look silly, lol

So yeah, lots going on… but it’s all good!

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2012 will be the year of tea

Katie Marie — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:37:34 +0000

Katie Marie will keep the tea brewing in 2012

Happy New Year peepsickles… hope you had a good Christmas filled with lots of stuff that made you smile

I had a wonderful time doing absolutely *nothing*… which is something I don’t get to do very often these days. I managed to overdose myself on oodles of movies. Not only did I have a Lord of the Rings-a-thon but also a Harry Potter-a-thon and about six other films in between.

But now, it’s time to get back to the drawing board. And there is plenty to be getting on with… oh yes.

My album is pretty much there (yay!) and it’s now time for me to hand over all my tracks to Mr Chris (a very clever chap at Audio Antics) who uses lots of fancy plug-ins and stuff to make my tunes sound super nice.

I’m also trying to organise a tour for May, which is a bit of a challenge to say the least and is pushing my already poor organisational skills to their limit. I came up with an idea to do a tour of mostly tea shops, cafes, coffee shops and arts centres and call it the Tea Total Tour.

I thought I’d be really limiting myself to where I’d be able to play but in actual fact I’ve had more interest than I expected (which is really rather handy). So it’s just a case of venue juggling and hoping that I can put something together that doesn’t involve me going from one end of the country to the other each night lol

Along with venue organising I need to get some new merch sorted for the tour. Thankfully Amy (who designed the cover for my new album) is up for helping me with some ideas I’ve got for new tees which will hopefully look pretty nifty.

So yeah. Lots to do… but it’s all good.

I’ve also been spending time deciding what this year’s resolution will be. It’s taken a few weeks of mulling over but I think I’m there…

2011 was a real weird one for me. In my personal world there were lots of really horrible things happening, and it seems to be the way with horrible things that they gang up on you all at the same time. My musical world, however, has been filled with so much good stuff and really positive goings on… but the whole year has been like being pulled in opposite directions 24/7.

As I mentioned earlier I decided over Crimbo to hide away the laptop and not go online at all (*gasp!*). I also spent pretty much 99.9% of my time doing not very much at all… and I actually had time to do stuff… which is pretty much unheard of in my world. I had time to go on super long dog walks, and read, and watch a ton of films. I even had time to make proper tea (as in using tea leaves) in a proper tea pot and actually had the time to let it brew. Silly little things, but in all honesty… if you don’t have the time to make a decent cup of tea, you don’t have the time to live!

So that’s my 2012 resolution… and you are my witness. I’ll let you know if I’ve managed to stick to it next week.

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Will music lead to fame and fortune? Maybe not, but it’s a wonderful journey!

Katie Marie — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 12:37:32 +0000

Katie Marie, on a successful musical journey. Photo taken by Lisa (Indigo Blue Photography) and edited by Sandra (Soul Photography)

In between doing oodles of musical type stuff, I’ve spent an awful lot of time this week partaking in lots of pondering. It doesn’t usually take much for me to drift off into various trails of thought, but this week I’ve been mulling over something that was said to me a few days ago.

I was having a chat with some-one I bumped into who I’ve not seen in ages. We were exchanging the usual pleasantries. You know, things like ‘how are you?’ ‘how’s so and so?’ etc. He then asked me about my music and how things were going. I said things were going well, it’s hard work but I wouldn’t be doing anything else. He then said something to me that kind of took me by surprise… ‘well, to be honest – I did think you would have made it by now and been rich and famous’.

I laughed and took his reply as a compliment… and said I could certainly do with the rich bit right now, lol.

When our conversation was over I was walking along the road thinking (probably a little too deeply) about what he’d said. I suppose there’s a part of me that feels that way too. Maybe I should have hit the big time by now. But if I’m being honest there have been many twists and turns in my life that have led me down different paths, none of which were the same paths I was following when I first decided to be a musician 20 odd years ago.

I began playing music when I was six years old and started gigging when I was 15. My plan was a very simple one. I was going to get signed. Period. It wasn’t a question of ‘if’, it WAS going to happen. And after that *everything* would be fine. I had absolutely no idea what getting signed meant or even what would happen once I was signed, but that was what was going to happen.

As I got older, the realities of what happened when people were signed wasn’t exactly what I thought they would be. I was offered a couple of contracts in my teens and none of them seemed… very… well… fair. I mean, they were offering… not very much… in exchange for… a whole lot from me.

A few years later I started working as a session musician for people who were signed to various-sized labels and I felt very grateful to be able to be on the outside of it all, as it seemed to controlling and so totally not me. I can remember the turning point was when I went along to a music conference. You know, the ones where lots of musical big wigs go along and sit on a panel offering their pearls of wisdom to the hordes of unsigned artists and songwriters desperately seeking a taste of the big time. I managed to book a meeting with one of the main A&R people there who ran a pretty big label in LA. She was really nice and certainly didn’t mind giving me her time.

I had put together a CD of what I thought were my best three songs. I played one of them to her, and after less than five seconds she started hitting the fast forward button. She did that about three times and then went: “N… no, you’re songwriting’s ok, I’ve heard a lot better. I need radio play, I need radio friendly. This ain’t it.” It wasn’t the reaction I was looking for, but I really appreciated her honesty and asked her what she though I could do to improve. “Well, the thing is…for a label my size to be interested in someone like you, you’d need to be shifting something like around 5,000 a year before we’d take you on.”

What?!

I sold over 1,000 copies of my previous album, which took a *heck* of a lot of work… and I thought that was a pretty good going for a small indie artist like me. But 5,000?

The thing is, if I was selling 5,000 copies of my album a year I would be EXTREMELY happy! Think about it, that’s not a bad living at all!

It got me thinking… if I was selling 5,000 copies of an album per year I’d be more than happy. And I wouldn’t need to then go to a label and have them take over something I’d put my heart and soul into building up, only to probably turn it into something I wasn’t happy with.

I guess life has made me realise that I don’t do music for the fame and fortune. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very aware that I am part of a business world and I need to have my head screwed on, but although I crave success, the same as every other hard-working musical person, the whole reason that I do music is because I HAVE to. For me it’s like breathing and eating. I simply can’t be without it. And even if no-one bought my CDs and no-one turned up to my gigs, I’d still be going out there and doing what I do, because I love it.

Which led me onto another trail of thought

I think a lot of us artistic types are guilty of not looking behind us once in a while and realising just how far we’ve come. It’s something I don’t do as often as I should. I spend waaaay too much time giving myself grief about all the things I haven’t done and I haven’t achieved. When the reality is that I have so much to be very proud of. I just need to stop once in a while and notice it.

I can remember the first ever Katie Marie website I put up online. I was 19. I had NO idea how to build a website. I didn’t know anyone who could build a website for me and the people I did know wanted shed loads of money, and at that time I barely had enough for food each week never mind a website! So, in the usual me fashion this didn’t stop me one bit. I hopped online and taught myself the basics of HTML. I then loaded up Notebook on my computer and began making a website all out of HTML code. It took me absolutely ages. And it looked really, really crappy. But it was my website and I was very proud of it. When it was up online I had a stats report each week
telling me when people had come to visit and at what time. I updated the website everyday and do you know how many people I had come to it every week? One, maybe two, three or four on a really good week. It was really depressing, but it somehow never seemed to dampen my enthusiasm.

It blows my mind now that I can upload a video, a photo, post something on Twitter… even write this article, and to know that you are sitting at your computer right now reading it is truly amazing. I have people who really, genuinely care about my music and it actually means something to them. I’ve not just gigged in the UK but I’ve visited other countries and met people who support me so much and this is really something I feel so very grateful for.

So to answer my friend, I guess I could say, you’re right. I’m not rich and famous. But the past few days realised that I’ve come a long way over the years and although it isn’t the big time, the journey that I have taken thus far as been a seriously beautiful one that I wouldn’t change for the world.

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Date for Katie Marie’s new album announced

PRSD — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:42:35 +0000

Katie Marie has been working on her new album. Photo taken by Lisa (Indigo Blue Photography) and edited by Sandra (Soul Photography)

This week has been filled with lots of plans for my new album which is finally starting to come together.

The official release date is (drum roll please…) **February 29, 2012**. For this release you’ll be able to pre-order the album. All who pre-order a CD will be entered into a competition to win an MP3 player loaded with the new album and also some other unreleased live and studio recordings. If you fancy checking it out, head on over to my website: www.funkeegirl.de

So that means I really need to get finished up recording in the studio so the promotional bits and bobs can begin!

I did have a lot of fun last week recording a new tune for the album called The Other Side. I had a really specific drum sound that I could hear in my little brain but had no idea how I was going to replicate it. Time for some experimenting!

I tried playing various snare drums and cajons and couldn’t get the right sort of sound with just a spot of EQ-ing. I decided that it probably needed some kind of effect, but I didn’t really know what that might be. Then it suddenly dawned on me, that lurking somewhere in the back of my studio was an old Korg Digital Reverb rack unit that has a really nice sounding reverse effect. I’ve kept it for years and years hoping that one day it would come in handy, now that day had finally arrived (horrah!).

I plugged it in, hooked it up to my ickle Spirit Folio desk and ran a Rode NT1a through it. I had a mess around with the reverse settings and managed to find something that sounded lovely and snappy.

Katie Marie's Spirit Folio desk

Next up was recording a bass drum part… oh no, hang on a minute, next up was taking Molly out for a stroll before she started getting grumpy…

Molly eager for a walk

…then it was time for more recording.

I decided to record the bass drum part separately as I had a specific sound in mind for that too. I used my faithful floor tom which I’ve used many times before for bass drum parts and it always sounds pretty nifty. For this song I wanted to have lots of attack and not so much drum sound. I used a Rode NT1a up high to hopefully pick up lots of attack from the skin and then whacked it for all it was worth.

After adding a few other little bits and bobs it was all wrapped up and finished (minus the vocals of course).

Here’s little sneaky clip if you fancy a listen, (it’s a rough mix with no vocals, but you get the general jist of it).

If you read last week’s article you’ll know that I had oodles of fun being part of a new Logarhythm promo video… and it’s now up online!. Check it out:

Logarhythm with Katie Marie from nickjamesgordon on Vimeo.

So I’ve got a few gigs to look forward to over the next few days. Later this evening I’m going to be supporting Sion Russell Jones at The Barrel House in Totnes and then Saturday I’ll be doing another gig with Sion at a wonderful vibey cafe called Miss Peapods in Cornwall, pop along if you’re free!

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Gigging, filming and recording albums…

Katie Marie — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:41:03 +0000

Katie Marie Photo taken by Lisa (Indigo Blue Photography) and edited by Sandra (Soul Photography)

It’s been a while since my previous article. But I promise it’s not because I’ve been just plain lazy – I’ve been running round like a loon, and I’m looking forward to telling you all about it. Grab yourself a cup of something nice and I’ll begin…

I’ve done a whole heap of gigs all over the place that have all been oodles of fun. Most of them feature in my latest vlog which is up online if you fancy taking a look:

And talking of videos… I had to head up to Exeter a few weeks ago to shoot a promo video for The Logarhythm stomp box. I’d been asked to demo the Logarhythm with a cajon in a kind of drum kit stylee. I had to put together a few simple but catchy beats that would hopefully demonstrate how well the stomp box and cajon work together, particularly for peeps who need a smaller alternative to a full kit (for acoustic gigs, radio shows or even practising at home).

It was so much fun and Nick Gordon (who was in charge of all the video-ing) is a easy going guy to work with. He also had a beautiful old room for us to do the filming that featured high ceilings, wooden floors and plain white walls. What I’ve seen so far looks great and I can’t wait for you guys to check it out.

Mr Nick editing the vid on fancy software

My new album is going really well and so far all the tracks are gelling really well together (thank God! lol). My mission was to make a CD that has a super raw and acoustic feel to it and my main worry was that all the songs would sound too samey. But as always I’m up for a challenge and I’m hoping I’ve managed to create something that’s varied and interesting for peeps to listen to (we’ll soon see!).

Recording beats in my little studio!

On the subject of recording, I was hanging out at one of my favouritest places last weekend… which was the beautiful Sawmills Studios in Cornwall. It’s such a special place in a completely unique location and I always feel very privileged when ever I pay a visit. The reason I was there was to record some bassy bits on Nicky Swann’s new album (which really is sounding mighty fine indeed… can’t wait to hear it all finished).

Sawmills studio taken by Lisa Robins @ Indigo Blue Photography

recording bassy bits at Sawmills, taken by Lisa Robins @ Indigo Blue Photograph

Next week I’ve got a few cool gigs coming up. I’ve got two with the hugely talented Sion Russel Jones who I supported at The Barrel House in Totnes a few months back. The first one is back at The Barrel House on December 1 and I’ll be supporting Sion again along with another duo and then a few days later, on December 3, Sion and I will be playing a gig at the wonderful Miss Peapod’s in Cornwall. Can’t wait..

I’ve also got some plans to upload a couple of cover songs that I’ve messed about with in my usual fashion so watch this space…

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Gig of a lifetime: supporting a musical hero

PRSD — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:41:17 +0000

Katie Marie: an epic five-hour journey to support an epic singer/songwriter

Picture this. You’ve been listening to a particular artist’s music since you began gigging and writing your own music. You own all their albums and their music is a big part of your life.

Now image that you’re going to be the support act at a gig on their UK tour. Sounds pretty cool right? Well, weirdly enough that exact scenario happened to me last Tuesday… it was totally amazing and well worth the rather epic five-hour drive there and back!

The artist in question is one of my fav singer/songwriters called Lynn Miles, whose music I’ve been listening to for the past 15 years or so.

I was stupidly excited at not only being able to see her play live but also be the support act too (yay!).

The gig was at a relatively new venue called The Ironworks in Shropshire. As I mentioned earlier it took us around five hours to drive up from Devon, but the sun was shining most of the way up and the traffic behaved itself.

The peeps at the Ironworks were all very friendly and I wandered up the stairs to dump my guitar and bags in the room where the gig was being held. It was a slightly surreal experience to open the door and see Lynn tuning up her guitar on a table by the stage.

I didn’t have any idea what Lynn would be like as a person, but she was such a wonderful character. A truly unique person who I really liked straight away. She has a extremely dry sense of humour and takes the piss out of pretty much everything (including herself).

As with all support slots, you have to accept that more often that not you are going to be ignored. And if the bar’s in another room then you’re more than likely going to be playing to yourself lol. But thankfully this wasn’t the case at all and everyone who came to see Lynn watched my set attentively which I very much appreciated.

Katie Marie at The Ironworks in Shropshire: supporting one of her favourite singer/songwriters

After I’d done my bit it was time to grab a drink and enjoy the rest of the night (woohoo!).

Lynn’s set was totally awesome. I couldn’t believe how crystal clear her voice was (bearing in mind this was her 16th gig in 18 days) and I don’t think I’ve ever heard some-one with so much control over their vocals.

Lynn Miles at The Ironworks in Shropshire: ‘Lynn’s set was totally awesome’

So yeah, a very memorable night that I wont forget for a while

If you read my last article then you’ll know that I had a couple of really cool gigs in Germany and Sandra has very kindly uploaded a load of videos from the Stuttgart gig. So if you fancy taking a look:

Red Light (with a surprise ending!)

Maybe (on the piano!)

My version of Another Day in Paradise using just vocal and cajon

David Gray – As I’m Leaving

Later tonight (Friday) I’ll be gigging with Nicky Swann at South Milton Village Hall. It’ll be another gig where I’ll have the best of both worlds (as I’m the support act and then I’m playing cajon & bass in her trio). So have a great weekend and pop along later if you’re free!

(image: Katie Marie Photo taken by Lisa (Indigo Blue Photography) and edited by Sandra (Soul Photography))

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New material, piano songs and Phil Collins

Katie Marie — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:02:50 +0000

Katie Marie: incorporating new material into her latest gigs in Germany

I’ve just got back from yet another extremely fun trip to Germany. This time around I had two gigs lined up. The few weeks leading up to it I’d been practising oodles and trying to arrange a set that incorporated new material, piano songs and some cajon playing!

Katie corner!

My doggy Molly was totally mortified about me leaving and having my parents look after her for the weekend…

…erm, not lol

Once we’d landed in Stuttgart we made the most of chilling out that evening before heading off to Leipzig early the next morning. It’s a bit of a trek to get to Liepzig from Stuttgart, but the weather was sweet (yeah) and Spikey did a super job of driving us around, which meant I could do lots of day dreaming and sleeping.

It may look warm, but when we got out that car it was only 8°! :-s

Tea break!

The streets of Liepzig…

We arrived nice and early for a soundcheck and had time to grab some pizza before my gig. I had decided to try playing a Phil Collins tune with just vocal and cajon. I’d never played it before and wasn’t too sure if it would work or not, particularly as I only knew the first verse, lol. So over dinner I wrote down the rest of the song and hoped I’d be able to pull it off! Thankfully it went really well and was loads of fun to play. If you fancy taken a listen Spikey recorded it on her iphone, see if you can spot the deliberate lyric mistake, lol. All the peeps at the Frauenkultur were so lovely and I had so much fun, thank you to all who came along! The next day we had to leave early again and head on back to Stuttgart for my second gig at a venue called the Weissenburg.

Katie Marie… Powered by fruit and crisps lol

It turned into another fun evening and everyone there was just as lovely. A really great night and once again thank you to all who where there!

Katie Marie performing in Germany

The next morning we recorded an interview for Sandra’s radio show (Vitam Amans which is on www.radio-positive-energie.de) as she’ll be doing a ‘Katie special’ in a few weeks time, will let you know exactly when to tune in. So now I’m back home again and missing Germany already… but tomorrow night I’ll be supporting one of my all time fav singer/songwriters Lynn Miles at The Ironworks in Shropshire, I can’t wait. I have to say a very big thank you to all the peeps in Germany who always take such good care of me when ever I’m there (Sandra, Spikey, Michi und Vio!), to all the peeps who booked me for a gig and also all the peeps who came along, hope to see you again soon image: Katie Marie Photo taken by Lisa (Indigo Blue Photography) and edited by Sandra (Soul Photography)

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Not much sleep but lots of music

Katie Marie — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:28:47 +0000

Katie Marie has been running around gigging – both in the South West and Heidelberg

Hope you had a good weekend and managed to enjoy some of the gorgeous hot weather that was floating around. My weekend was oodles of fun. Not much sleep but lots of music!

Before the crazy weekend kicked off I had a really good gig at a new music night in Frome called Acoustic Moon. It’s run by a super nice bunch of peeps who are not only highly organised but have a lovely PA set-up too. They run the evening once a month and have lots of really cool acts playing. I’ll have some video clips from the gig in my next Vlog, but if you’d like to find out more about Acoustic Moon check out their website.

Saturday night was Nicky Swann’s gig at Chagford Village Hall. I had the best of both worlds, as I was the support act as well as being the bass and cajon person in her trio.

I’d not been in Chagford VH before, but it’s certainly one the nicest village halls I’ve ever seen. It’s also got a lovely high ceiling with gorgeous acoustics (we just had to make sure we didn’t play too loud so that the room worked with us and not against us!).

All in all it was a super fun evening and we had a very appreciative audience to play to.

Lisa uploaded a vid from my set if you fancy having a listen:

Straight after the gig it was time for me to grab some sleep as the following afternoon I had a gig in Heidelberg (yes, Germany lol). One hour was all I had time for before I had to pack my things and head off to Heathrow Airport.

Being a country bumpkin I was a little scared about trying to navigate my way round Heathrow on my own. Once I got to the car park, however, I got chatting to an old guy at the bus stop. He must have been in his late 60s and was heading off to a train and crane fair in Holland. He knew Heathrow really well and not only showed me where all the different gates were but also made sure I knew how to get back out of the building again and also which bus stop to head for to get back to the car park (aah!). On the bus ride up to the airport he told me in immense detail about the specifications of his camera and also about all the different train fares he’d been to this year (rather him than me! lol).

Even though I’d only had an hour’s sleep I arrived in Germany feeling really excited about the gig. The weather was stupidly hot (even more stupidly hot than here) and inside the venue you just melted. My gig was in the afternoon and I was already pitying anyone who had decided to come and have a listen to what I was doing lol

There was a really lovely bunch of peeps who came in from the glorious sunshine to listen to me playing and it was a super fun gig that was well worth loosing sleep over.

If you fancy checking out some of my set Sandra very kindly uploaded a few vids, this is me covering Tina Dico’s Count to Ten:

Up next? Well, I’m back over to Germany again next weekend in fact – I’ve got a gig in Leipzig and then the following day I’ll be in Stuttgart. The Stuttgart gig I’m planning on playing a bit of piano, which is always scary for me as although it was the instrument that I began playing at six, I certainly don’t play regularly and really have not much idea what I’m doing lol. So as of today I’m going to be doing oodles of piano practise so I can hopefully blag my way through a few tunes.

Also looking forward to the October 18 as it’s my gig at The Ironworks in Shropshire where I’ll be supporting one of my fav singer/songwriters Lynn Miles (woohoo! Can’t wait).

Next week I’ll hopefully have a couple of audio clips for you to take a listen to as I’ll also be busy in the studio recording some new tunes. Until then have a wonderful week and enjoy the last remaining bits of sun while you can!

image: Katie Marie Photo taken by Lisa (Indigo Blue Photography) and edited by Sandra (Soul Photography)

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