Katie Laffan on teamwork and her single
The 21-yearold’s new single Tastemaker is released this week
Acouple of things happened in the last few weeks in Ireland which indicated that we are now truly part of part of a broad musical church. Firstly, The Russangano Family from Limerick deservedly won the Choice Music Prize for their album Let The Dead Bury The Dead. They became the first predominantly black Irish act to win the award. Then they and a number of other acts, both black and white from the hiphop, dance and spoken-word disciplines stormed the hallowed National Concert Hall on the Saturday of St Patrick’s weekend. It was a showcase of the diversity of approaches and musical backgrounds that Ireland is seeing now. There wasn’t a Stratocaster to be heard or a leather-jacketed rock band to be seen.
Twenty-one-year-old Katie Laffan was the opening act. A performer who looks to the dance pop of Róisín Murphy in her Moloko days, Jamiriquai and DeeLite for inspiration. She played three songs, including her excellent new single Tastemaker, and was cheered to the rafters. Katie is also part of the Word-Up Collective, a group of artists who support and help each and stage gigs under the guidance of industry veterans Phil and Annette Udell.
She is one of the few white artists in the collective but that matters little. They are all bonded by a love of r&b, hip hop, rap and dance, each to their own and all for each other. It might seem like a new dispensation, even a revolution, but to Katie it has become the natural order of things.
‘The Word-Up Collective are great people to a man and woman. We try to help and support each other as much as we can.
‘It just makes sense to us to do that,’ she says.
‘When I’m watching the others play, I might hear a drum beat that inspires me to write a song. I’m always tempted to rap but I really can’t rap. I tried it before but I wouldn’t put my family through that again. I was crap at it.’
Luckily, the girl from Walkinstown has an ear for a tune as songs such as Tastemaker, the feathery pop of Bubbly and the edgier earlier single Trophy prove. Katie began playing at 13.
Later she did a course in Music Production and Sound Engineering at Ballyfermot College. Her decision to do that was dictated by her no-nonsense attitude to the music industry.
‘I always had a doubt in my mind about doing music as a bit of a silly thing,’ she says.
‘I got into the BIMM School but I didn’t go there for that reason. Anyway I couldn’t afford the fees. I thought Ballyfermot would give me qualifications in things that would be useful to me as a whole in the music business.’
Her performing career is very much on an upward trajectory with Tastemaker due to be released at the end of the month. But when she feels the dream is just too hard to attain, it is her supportive parents who to tell her to keep the faith.
‘They love that I do music. They’re hard-working people. My dad’s a taxi driver and my mum sells art supplies. My mum shares everything I do on the internet. My dad pretends not to be as interested but I know he is,’ she laughs.
‘They really believe in me. I might get a bit pissed off the odd time and say I’m getting a job and they just constantly encourage me to keep going.’
With the next single release imminent and a collaboration with Irish Electronic producers Trial And Error under her belt (the impressive Cried Wolf), Katie feels it isn’t just her on the up and on the cusp.
‘I’ve been going to gigs since I was 16, ‘ she says.
‘You could predict almost exactly what a band was going to sound like as they were setting up. I like some rock music but it just felt like that’s all there was. Don’t get me wrong, I got my first gigs in places like Sweeney’s and The Mercantile that mostly do rock bands and everybody there was very supportive but now it’s become so unpredictable.
‘You can go to a venue and hear r&b, hip hop, ska and there is just all this variety out there.’
Amen to that. Katie Laffan’s latest single Tastemaker is out on March 31