Kate Nash talks about the female ‘genre’ and how she’s hearing old songs differently now
She may have been born several decades after they were popular but that doesn’t stop popstar Kate Nash citing the girl groups of the last fifties and early sixties as influences for her latest album. It’s been a long time coming but those expecting a retread of her 2007 album ‘Made of Bricks’ will have to look elsewhere.

The 22-year-old’s come a long way since her debut and ‘My Best Friend is You’ boasts more mature themes, a wider range of influences and more challenging sounds.

First single ‘Do-Wah-Doo’ sees a shift in Kate’s perceived sound. As you might deduce from the title, it was inspired by groups including The Ronettes and The Supremes.

“I really got into that sound,” she explains. “I’d heard it when I was little, but really started listening to it when I was on tour in 2008. “I picked up this box set, a collection of rare girl group singles, and I just found the writing amazing. I heard ‘Stop In The Name Of Love’ by The Supremes, a song I knew inside out, in a totally different light.

“As a kid it had this amazing dance beat, but then I must have been feeling emotional and it just hit me that it’s the saddest song ever.

“This woman is begging her partner to stop cheating on her, and she’ll forgive him as long he comes back, but she just needs him.”
Kate started listening to more and more girl groups from that era and noticed a common theme.

“That time period, late fifties and early sixties, was really interesting because a lot of people seemed to be in unhappy relationships, because it wasn’t acceptable to get divorced. That situation just makes for the most heartbreaking music.”

There is also the influence of former Suede guitarist-turned-award-winning-producer Bernard Butler to consider, too.

“As soon as I played him the demos he just got it and understood what I wanted to do, but I’m quite defensive and inexperienced really.

“Because of that, I can get really defensive when I meet producers.

With Bernard I went straight in and said ‘I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to do that’ and he just said ‘Yeah, all right’, which made me feel instantly at ease. And he really knows girl group music.” It’s interesting to hear Kate talking about “girl-group music”.

She doesn’t believe artists should be defined by their gender.

“I just think everyone has the right to be judged as an artist in their own right,” she says.

“It’s just the media wanting to put everyone in boxes and being able to say ‘We know what this is’.

“I think everyone gets it, but I did say at the Brits (in 2008, when she won Best Female Artist) that female isn’t a genre.

There is a bunch of new female artists and they’re all totally different and you just have to look and listen to them and work out whether you like them or not.

“You have to figure out what’s genuine and who is the result of a record label saying, ‘Oh, girls are big at the moment, let’s get one in and make her huge’. I think that’s really easy to spot, judging by the content, so we need to take every artist and band as an individual.”