UK songstress Kate Nash knows how to rock and make pop music with a strong statement all at the same time.
She has released three albums so far in her career. Her first, Made of Bricks, was anything but, hitting number one in Britain. She won Best Female Artist at the 2008 Brit Awards then followed things with the record My Best Friend Is You, topping the charts again with "Do-Wah-Doo." A track on that album, "I've Got a Secret," was inspired by her stance on gay rights. The third album, Girl Talk, continues that trend with a song about bullying.
Windy City Times went backstage for an interview just moments before her last Chicago show, where she performed with her Grrl Gang.
Windy City Times: Hi, Kate. You have fans lined up waiting outside.
Kate Nash: I have the best fans ever. They are so nice and respectful. They even make me collages.
WCT: Have you had a favorite item that one of them has given you?
Kate Nash: A cross-stitch wall hanging of me and my bunny rabbit.
WCT: I didn't know you have a pet rabbit.
Kate Nash: She's called Fluffy. She's so weird and cool. She's very sassy and has so much personality. I didn't realize when I got a rabbit that it would be this way. I just thought it would be cute but now she is like my child.
WCT: Is she high-maintenance?
Kate Nash: She is such a diva! She will act up. When I am on tour she is very annoying at my mum's house.
WCT: You can't bring a rabbit on tour, can you?
Kate Nash: No, they don't really like to travel. When she is in a bad mood then she will stomp her foot.
WCT: Thumper!
Kate Nash: They thump so much it is bizarre. I will be in the living room and she will thump in the other room for attention.
WCT: I would love to talk about your bunny all day but this interview is not for Rabbits USA Magazine.
Kate Nash: Maybe sell it to Pets At Home. [Both laugh.]
WCT: You have been to Chicago several times, most recently at the Empty Bottle.
Kate Nash: That was a crazy day. I had a hand injury.
WCT: Did you hurt it when you were playing the guitar?
Kate Nash: It is a repetitive strain thing I have. The tendon gets really tight. It is probably because I just learned to play bass.
WCT: How many instruments do you play?
Kate Nash: Guitar, bass, piano, sometimes I like to write on the drums but I am not a great drummer. I used to play the Irish tin whistle because I was in Irish bands as a kid. My mum is Irish. I did Irish dancing and won trophies.
WCT: So your roots are in Ireland?
Kate Nash: I was born and bred in London. Loads of people think I am from Dublin but my mom is Irish. Our holidays were always at our cousin's house.
WCT: So for the record...
Kate Nash: I am a Londoner, mate!
WCT: Let's talk about new music. "OmyGod!" was written on a beach?
Kate Nash: It was, and on a beach in Mexico.
WCT: I love Mexicanos.
Kate Nash: They are so cute! I feel Mexican people are so sweet-natured. It was around the Cancun area. It was one of those holidays where you think everything will work out but it sucks even though I was in the middle of a beautiful place. I just wrote the song on the beach. It was good therapy.
WCT: Do you like writing on the road?
Kate Nash: I can't write a full song on the road. It can be manic. It is like wake up, travel, find food, soundcheck, interviews, gig. I am trying to be more strict with myself because I am very bad with time. I have to be alone when I am writing.
WCT: We need more roller-skating videos like in "3AM."
Kate Nash: It was so fun. Roller-skating is actually easier than I thought it was going to be. I had no idea if I could do it or not when I arrived at the shoot. It was luck.
I love that culture to just meet with your friends to roller skate and drink root beer floats.
WCT: You roller-skated very well.
Kate Nash: I even brought my own red roller skates. I don't know if it is the best hobby to take up when you are touring and need all of your limbs to play instruments.
WCT: Do you come up with your own treatments for these videos?
Kate Nash: Yeah, I really got into doing that. I have been in front of a camera for seven years now in various different ways and I have become very comfortable with it. I feel it works best when you work with someone who really knows you and gets your sense of humor. You can act like a massive dick and try things out. They will tell you what works and what doesn't.
There is a guy, Lee Jones, who comes on tour with me and the Grrl Gang who filmed "3AM." There is also Aram Rappaport who I worked on a film called Syrup with. He shot "OMyGod!" and "Sister" and "Death Proof" but the last two are not out yet.
I am shooting one for "Fri-End?" and it is funny because I came up with all of those ideas and knew exactly what I wanted to do. I have a friend in L.A. to help me with "Fri-End?" and I want it to be a bright happy, fun video.
I like it to be a story. Michael Jackson described it as a short film for a song and it is. When you think of it like that then it is another fun thing to come up with.
WCT: I remember at Lilith Fair when you described "I've Got a Secret" to everyone, explaining its LGBT meaning. That meant a lot to me.
Kate Nash: That is so cool to hear. There are a lot of things in this world that shock me or make me angry or sad. Being a musician you have a platform to stand on so I think there is a responsibility to raise issues. I like connecting with an audience to either stand out against something or if someone is going through something shitty then I can relate to it. I feel like me and my fans are outsiders.
WCT: On the latest album, Girl Talk, you wrote "Pink Limo Ride" for your friend that was beaten in a hate crime.
Kate Nash: I was really shocked. I had literally hung out with my friend the night before when we went to a festival. The next day I saw on Facebook he had got so badly beaten. He's gay and his friend was an alternative dressed girl and they were in a kabob shop in Soho. She got bothered because of the way she dressed and he stood up to defend her. He was beaten so badly that they fractured his face because of how they looked. That is so fucking wrong! It really upset me to see my friends like that. I don't understand violence at all.
I was trying to cheer him up by ordering in pizzas for him but he wanted me to write him a song so I did it in a day. I wanted to make him feel special.
WCT: That's sweet of you. What movie projects do you have in the works?
Kate Nash: I just finished a project called Powder Room. I just went to a screening of it and it is coming out this winter. It stars Sheridan Smith, Jaime Winstone and Oona Chaplin—a bunch of my peers who are British. I have always admired their work. It was a predominantly female cast and female director. It is leading up to Christmas with girls hanging out in the dressing room and eating loads of food and gossiping. It is new to me but I am really enjoying it.
I want to keep auditioning. I want a part in Quentin Tarantino's remake of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
WCT: He's making a remake of that?
Kate Nash: That is what I have heard...
WCT: The original is only available on VHS.
Kate Nash: I know. I love that movie and I want to fucking be in it.
WCT: Even if you can just get a small part.
Kate Nash: You know, he is going to do such a good job with it. I am trying really hard so just keep putting it out there.
WCT: So I have been listening to your music since the MySpace era and it seems to go between punk and pop. Are you torn between those two types of music?
Kate Nash: I don't feel torn; I just feel like it is really me. I love pop music. I grew up listening to The Beatles with my parents. I love the '60s and girl groups. The Spice Girls were the first band I was obsessed with then it was Destiny's Child. When I was 17 I got rejected from colleges and wound up working at a really bad chain store. I was walking by a record store one day and saw an album of the Buzzcocks. I had to check it out because it was such a recognizable cover and I just loved it. I then got into Bikini Kill and Riot Grrrl. I think it is quite me.
I like being silly and having fun. The pop side of me wants people to have fun at my shows. I am like that in life, too. I like throwing parties. I am already throwing my funeral party because I want it to be the best ever.
I am also very stubborn, passionate and sensitive. When people hurt me I feel it really deeply and want to scream.
WCT: So that is how people get to know you is through your music.
Kate Nash: I always say if you don't like my music then you won't like me.
WCT: For me, it was the other way around. I liked your music before and now I like you!
Nash returns to Chicago Nov. 1 at Metro, 3730 N. Clark St., at 8 p.m. See www.metrochicago.com .
