Sheffield singer-songwriter Kat Eaton is back with her third solo album, What Happens Now, and a run of shows taking her across the UK, Ireland and Europe.
Ahead of a homecoming gig at Crookes Social Club on 3 October, Exposed caught up with Kat to talk getting back onstage, the stories behind the new record and taking tour life in her stride with four-month-old Ada June along for the ride.
Hi Kat! First of all, congratulations on the arrival of Ada June. Have the last four months flown by?
They really have. She seems to be touching all those milestones, which is amazing to watch. She’s a long-awaited baby, an IVF baby, so we feel incredibly grateful she is here.
This touring schedule coming up is gonna be hard work, but also very exciting, and I’m really pleased to be taking her on the road with my parents. We started in London on Saturday and then we’re going to Ireland in three weeks’ time, so that’s gonna be pretty exciting. Then we’re off to Europe.
Busy Busy! How are you feeling about the upcoming tour?
To be honest, I’ve been a bit nervous about it. As a new mother, you struggle with identity as it is, so it’s quite nerve-wracking to find the confidence to be able to jump up on stage and say, “Here I am!”
There are themes of found family behind your song ‘Kings and Queens’, as well as that connection to northern soul and the north of England as a whole. Does that feel more relevant than ever on this tour?
Yeah, and it’s a wonderful thing to be able to share it with the fans that come along. I always make a point in every show to express how grateful I am for the people that come out to support me; they are part of something that is a live event. There’s a song that we do often called ‘Come On Up to the House’ by Tom Waits, which celebrates that.
Joe Glossop plays a toy piano on ‘Better Left Unsaid’. How did that come about?
It’s simply that we were at Konk Studios and the toy piano was just there on the side. I wonder how many tracks it’s been used on.
We wanted to use it because I thought it was fun. I think a lot of people look at production of music as a dark art. And it is a dark art, I have to say. Mixing especially is a dark art, but sometimes [production] is really fun and silly. And that part was particularly
fun and silly.
Are there any stories from making What Happens Now that came out of those smaller, quieter moments?
We wrote a lovely song called ‘Humming Low’, which is a lullaby for Ada. It’s all about nostalgia and a simpler time before technology, when there wasn’t as much noise and you could hear nature more. Apparently, if you go to the centre of the earth, and you put a microphone there, you can hear the sound of the earth turning on its axis and it’s a really low hum.
There’s also ‘By Now’, which is about struggling with my identity and with who I was as a woman – and societal expectations of that. I wrote that before we had Ada and after our second attempt at IVF had failed. One of the lines in the middle eight is about the timeline that society expects from you as a woman.
It’s refreshing to hear you talk about the work behind building a career, rather than that social media idea of becoming an overnight success.
Yeah, I think you have to be clear about why you are doing it. It’s an amazing job, but it’s a very hard industry to be in. I just love writing and performing music, and that’s my focus rather than being famous or anything like that. I have worked very hard over a long period of time to get to where I am, and there have been some very difficult moments as well as lots of incredible ones. But if you are passionate about it, you just keep doing it.
For me, control is very important as well. I want to be able to make choices that are right for me, which has meant turning down some offers along the way that may have looked great, but I didn’t feel they would take me where I wanted to go ultimately. So rather than work with a big label, Nick and I have built my own team of people so I can have control over my career, which is really important to me.
How does it feel having fresh eyes on a project you’ve been working on for so long?
It’s a strange feeling when you release a new album, as I finished this one almost a year before it was released and there’s a lot of anticipation about how it will be received. It’s been amazing so far, though, so I am very pleased.
Have you got a song from What Happens Now that you’re most excited to perform live?
I’m really looking forward to performing ‘By Now’. I’m going to be doing a solo performance of that song and it’ll feel totally different to the original.
How have you found balancing it with your career, both during pregnancy and since having Ada?
I was touring up until I was seven months pregnant, which was hard work but actually felt great. In the first months, I was throwing up pretty much until I got on stage, but then, weirdly, something kicks in and your body knows it’s show time!
Since she’s been born, it’s been an adjustment and difficult for sure, but we are figuring out how to work and look after Ada at the same time.
Finally, what’s one non-negotiable album Ada June will grow up listening to?
Joni Mitchell’s Clouds.
Kat Eaton plays Crookes Social Club on 3 October. Tickets are £20+bf and available via kateaton.com.
