FROM TEEN-POP BAPTISM BY FIRE, TO SUMMERISLE REBIRTH, KATY J PEARSON RETURNS STRONGER
EARLIER THIS summer, Katy J Pearson played the O2 Academy in her adopted hometown of Bristol, at a benefit for Ukraine. “I felt really proud,” she beams, “of Bristol representing.” The line-up included Idles, Portishead and Billy Nomates, plus guest host, the actor Paul McGann. “Soundcheck was kind of overwhelming,” Pearson admits, “but backstage there was a real community spirit – being part of it made me feel really happy.” After 2020’s psychedelic Return, Pearson is about to release her second album, Sound Of The Morning –a record overflowing with stylistic playfulness and melody, foregrounding her winsome, Jane Wiedlin-meets-Dolly Parton vocals. But her career began aged 15 when Ardyn, her duo with brother Rob, won a battle of the bands at Gloucester Guildhall. The pair were spotted by the head of A&R at Polydor. “They wanted me to be a pop star,” she remembers, wincing slightly. “Like a London Grammar, singer kind of vibe. But at that age it’s impossible to truly know what your sound is.” After two years, Polydor let them go. “It wasn’t the best experience,” she admits, “but it was the most fantastic baptism by fire.”
Despite having a natural flair for melody, the major-label experience left her initially pop-cautious. “I think I had a vendetta against grand pianos,” she laughs. “When I first went into the studio with [producer] Ali Chant, I was like, ‘No, that’s where all the pop songs are written, on pianos.’” Instead, her debut was warm, rootsy and purposely scuffed around the edges.
Its follow-up, Sound Of The Morning, shows no such tentativeness, sounding as fresh with possibilities as its name suggests. With its hint of pagan mysticism, the title “really feels like what I was trying to encompass.” The opening title track has a suggestion of rebirth and a vaporous flute, and forms a conceptual bookend with the closing cover of Willow’s Song from The Wicker Man soundtrack. Though KJP’s version is recast in a deep motorik groove, it retains the contrast between sensual warmth and unnerving chill in Paul Giovanni’s original.
“I feel like the record as a whole is a mixture of quite grounding and comforting and quite brash and unsettling,” she considers. Throughout its stylistic contours (folk, roots, pop) runs a strong, songwriterly backbone, translating personal anxieties into broader human connections. Presciently, Alligator was written in the fallout from a huge gas bill, while a conversation with her mum yielded Confession, a subtle interrogation of #metoo: “As a young artist I’ve been in situations with male writers that were creepy as hell.”
Such experiences, however, didn’t deter her from collaboration, with numerous artists passing through the new record. “I remember saying, ‘I don’t want to have too many collaborators,’” she laughs. “Then as soon as I let go, it made everything better.” An extension, perhaps, of Bristol’s well-connected creative hub? “I’ve had space to flourish in Bristol,” she agrees, though the city’s liberal-mindedness played less well on a recent visit to a London tattooist. “As soon as the guy found out I was from
Bristol he went on a rant about statues,” she shudders. “And it was a rubbish tattoo. I had to get it fixed.”
Sound Of The Morning is released on Heavenly Recordings on July 8.
“I think I had a vendetta against grand pianos.” KATY J PEARSON