106 At the end of the day… Kate Nash
After I finish a performance on tour, I’ll be buzzing until 3 or 4am. I definitely can’t sleep straight away. You have to get rid of that energy. I usually want to eat something, probably a bag of Hula Hoops (a lot of crisps get eaten on tour), then I listen to some really loud music and dance on the bus.
Living on a tour bus is like being at teenage camp: you revert back to really silly jokes and weird routines. Once, we bought these kids’ torches that had dinosaur shapes at the end. We would shine them on the roof of the bus and everyone would have to make up stories. You bond so much because you end up having so many deep and meaningful conversations. I love my band – they’re like my sisters. I feel lucky that I have a job where I get to spend so much time with people I really love.
There is a point on tour, though, when you go insane. Especially when you have to deal with a rank dressing room, like we did in Boston. I actually lost my mind a little bit. I opened my towel and a gigantic clump of other people’s hair fell on me.
The routine is not glamorous. There’s a stage when you can’t get clean. Even after a shower – you think, ‘Well, that was pointless, it’s in my pores.’ You’re just dirty and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Life is a bit different when I’m shooting TV show Glow. After we’ve wrapped for the day, we sing a lot of songs in the make-up trailer. We wear a sh*t-tonne of glitter and crazy bangs that we have to brush out. There’s a lot of chat with the girls – there’s 15 of us. Everyone is a hilarious clown because they’re all incredible comedians and improvisers. We make each other laugh all the time.
The first thing I do when I get home is walk my dog Stella. She’s crazy: she can jump 10 feet. I rescued her from a homeless man who sold her to me for $20. I thought I was going to help her, as she was this poor dog on a dirty road and she was going crazy. But then I held her and fell in love.
The amazing thing about having a dog is that you have someone who is so happy to see you all the time. It’s easy to get consumed by work, but having to walk my dog every day is grounding and really important for me. I could easily have a full meltdown every night because I get really bad anxiety attacks. Having to be responsible for Stella is really helpful for that.
I pretty much have to stay in because my pick-up is usually 4am. I do what my mum does: she says she’s going to bed but she’ll spend two hours walking around the house, tidying, picking things up. Sometimes I’ll play my piano and my guitar – I go through phases when I get the itch to write a song. I have a little home studio set up so I can record whenever
I want to.
Sleeping is not my favourite thing to do. I’ve had [really bad insomnia] since I was 14. I’ve been scarred from being a teenager! But I can do a lot on a little sleep – it’s what gets me through tour. I get nervous and think I’m going to crash before the performance. I always think, ‘F***, how am I going to move my legs and do the show?’ – and then right before you go on, you get this crazy adrenaline rush and it all kicks in. Kate Nash is on tour in the UK now; visit katenash.com