Essex born Kate Walsh is on of the most unique voices on the singer-songwriter circuit at the moment. Her homemade, self released albums have reached a large audience through word of mouth. Her fourth release, Peppermint Radio, is an album of covers and is out this month.
Tell us a bit about Peppermint Radio your covers album. Where did the name come from and how did you select the songs to cover?
Peppermint Radio is the name I gave to my make-believe radio station that I had when I was a little girl. I used to sit behind an armchair in the dining room where the family cabinet stereo was and pretend my sewing machine was a mixing desk. I’d play all sorts of music, whatever we had on cassette albums or mix tapes.
Will you be performing these songs live when you tour later in the year?
I’ll definitely be performing these songs as part of the set but will also be including all the old favourites from my past albums. I know what it’s like when you go and see one of your favourite artists and all you want to hear is the song that got you hooked on them in the first place.
What are the plans for recording new material? Do you keep to a pre-ordained schedule with things like that or is a case of ‘it’s ready when it’s ready’?
Definitely the latter…’it’s ready when it’s ready’…I don’t believe you can rush these things, especially when you’re writing personal accounts of events and emotions. Feelings take time to process and the songs wont materialize before their time, not for me anyway.
Having your own label must be quite liberating, are there any circumstances where you’d sign up with a label?
If an independent record company wanted to give me an obscene amount of money to sign with them then it would be hard to say no. Unfortunately that is the stuff of dreams these days anyway as indie labels are struggling to even stay afloat. To sign to a major label now would be to sign away any creative freedom or spontaneous ideas as the machine only seems to be interested in units. It is a real shame.
Your lyrics can be very personal, are you ever tempted to just invent persona’s for your songs or to just write about broad, universal themes?
I wrote a Christmas song in January of this year and it is the only song I have ever invented a story for. My songwriting has always been a kind of self therapy process, a way for me to deal with feelings and emotions, the actual recording and releasing of albums is an after thought. If I try too hard on that it’s no longer a pure outpouring of the soul and the magic is lost.
You’ve been quite critical of the music scene at times, what is it that annoys/frustrates you about it?
As I said before it is just a shame that the music industry has become so industrial, churning out music that isn’t built or conceived to stand the test of time and perpetuating this throw away culture that we all seem to live in now. Young up and coming bands aren’t given the time or space to develop anymore and so nothing is really encouraged to grow or mature to it’s peak. There has to be a turn around at some point but who knows when that will be.
Can we expect to see you over in Ireland again soon?
Yes, I’ll be coming back to Ireland as soon as is possible. The Irish crowds have always been very welcoming and make me feel very at home there.
What are you listening to at the moment, any recommendations for meg.ie readers?
I’ve just moved into a new house and so my record collection got jumbled up. It’s been a great way to play old albums that haven’t been aired in a while so lately I’ve been listening to The Velvet Underground, Billie Holiday and a bit of Andrew Bird too.
By Kev Donnellan
