Katy Steele Reflects On ‘Big Star’

Showcasing her talents as a creative chameleon with previous singles End Is Near and Feel So Bad, Katy Steele is forging ahead with the release of her second studio album Big Star which is out now. Quintessential Steele… upbeat, energetic, pop nostalgia. To coincide with the release Katy Steele will be heading out on a massive national tour next month including a stop in Adelaide at the Beer & BBQ Festival. This will be the first time fans get to witness the album in its entirety along with a few crowd-favourites. Katy talks to Hi Fi Way about the album and tour that starts next month.

After the last couple years were you a bit worried that you’d ever get there or get to a point where you would have a finished solo album?
It is such a hard thing to do completely by yourself, a whole record. It does take a lot of time and a lot of persistence and a lot of just hard work. I guess belief in yourself as well because it is a real solitary journey. There’s just so much that goes on behind the scenes that goes into it. It’s like doing a feature film, it’s in line with that, like doing a whole feature film by yourself. There’s just so many moving parts. Yeah.

Does it become a juggle with family and life commitments that it makes the overall result even more satisfying?
Yeah, it does. I feel pretty proud of ourselves to be honest because it is a huge achievement. The industry is just in a really weird spot. There’s a part of yourself that’s like, well, where do we all fit in? It’s constantly evolving and at the end of the day though for us it’s always just been about the songs and it always will be about just writing really what we think are good songs and they find their way to the top. The good songs always stick around when you’re working on such a body of work for such a long time.

Not knowing where the industry is at, do you think it is something that will sort itself out?
I don’t know because I’m not expert, but yeah, I’d say that it’s definitely only going to get more challenging. From a standpoint of financially, the only income that we get now are from shows really. If you’re lucky enough to get like a sync on an ad or something like that. Even stuff like that is getting harder to get. I feel pretty positive about things even with that stuff to the side. There’s always going to be a place for music. It’s just about carving out your own lane I guess, finding your place within it and using the modern tools to advantage.

Being able to do it your way can’t be diminished either?
Exactly, you just have to like know your worth and it’s like any job, it’s definitely a full-time job for me more so than ever. It’s better than doing something else, right? Like an office job!

Were you ever sort of worried about the second album blues?
Not really. It hasn’t really been an issue because to be honest, this feels like my first record. The other one was so drawn out from my time in America. I did like three records in America that I never released. Being on the back end of that, I was just so worn out. That’s been my hardest thing with the solo stuff is just actually releasing stuff. Creating is the easy part, but I’ve found it hard to know which songs to go out with and what I wanted to put out to the world. So, obviously I’ve just held a lot of stuff back. When I was working on this record, I was working with my partner Graham, and we did the whole thing at home. We collaborated on every single sound and every song, everything was a collaboration. It just felt like a new face and that was really exciting. He brought his flavour to the production, he brought a bit of that eighties influence that’s in there with some of the synths and stuff. It kind of feels like my first record really.

Those three albums that you mentioned will they ever see the light of day or has that moment passed?
Well there’s definitely some of those songs I might release because they are actually finished, mixed and mastered. I might actually put them out at some point. You obviously have to feel right as an artist about what you’re putting out and you can’t just put any old thing out and it has to feel right to you. I think there will be a time where I will feel like I want to put out some of that stuff from America. So yeah, I, well, I’ll never say never

Were you tougher on yourself this time around with the songs?
I definitely know what I like now. I still feel like I kind of struggle with keeping the attention. I like to kind of like waft in and then I’ll go and do something else and then I’ll come back. I’m definitely one of those artists that like working in short spurts, whereas other people can just sit there for like eight hours, like tweaking like a snare drum over and over. I just can’t do that. I like to come in and out. I think it gives you more clarity that way anyway, otherwise I just can’t make decisions. Definitely feel a lot stronger now about what I like, I guess all that comes with time and with trying things just naturally just progressing as a producer and as a writer,

Was it always in your head in terms of how exactly you wanted to sound? Or did it take shape as you were working on it?
They definitely have evolved. Some of the songs have gone through about three or four transformations. Some of them have changed tempo, some of them have changed keys. There’s a couple on there that have gone through many transformations, which is the beauty and also the frustration of doing everything at home. You have this canvas that can get changed over and over and, the palette can change in so many different ways. There’s so many different ways you can go, and that is an advantage and also a negative. That was a challenging thing for us was to sign off on things.

How did it go working with your partner in the studio? Did that make your relationship stronger or test the boundaries?
We’ve got a really good working relationship. A lot of people have said that to us that we’re both, in some ways we’re quite similar, which is sometimes a negative thing, but we’re both really bad at making decisions, so that doesn’t help! Sometimes I just have to be like, that’s it. Like that’s the one, blah, blah, blah. In terms of all the creative stuff, we’re very in line with what we like, we’re very similar. So, that has made it easier. In terms of doing all the socials, the art direction and stuff that you have to do alongside everything else these days, that’s easier. We’re very much a team.

Are you looking forward to getting back out on the road and playing here in Adelaide at the Beer & BBQ Festival?
Yeah, they asked us to play and it was a good option for us to do that show, so we said yes to that one. It is great to get back to Adelaide. Hopefully I’ll be back again later on doing my own show. I’m sure it will be great. Great line-up! Pretty much we’ll play the whole new record, which we’ve been playing over here at a few shows in Perth. I’ve got a couple from Human, maybe even only one. I might get a few more from Human happening though, and then a few classic Little Birdy tunes. Some of those songs are just too good not to play, so I always play like Hairdo, Brother and a few of the classics.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Katy Steele on the following dates, tickets at https://www.katysteele.com…