Interview: CALLMeKAT & Alexa Wilding

Interview & Photos By Star Child

We caught up with Danish songwriter CallMeKAT and New York songwriter Alexa Wilding after their lovely show at Mercury Lounge on June 29, 2010. Wilding delivered a softly flavored acoustic-folk set, while Kat had a simple electronica based sound that is heartfelt. You need to listen to the music to understand the delicate, but honest songs apparent in both these artists music.

We chatted with them about the show, how they meet,  about the pluses and minuses of NYC, and how a song with kazoo comes together. The two will tour together in the Fall.

Alexa Wilding (left), Kat Ottosen (right)

Star Beat Music: First, how did you enjoy the show tonight? 

Kat Ottosen: We were actually just giggling about it. We had so much fun, I think I can say that for the both of us. 

Alexa Wilding: Well, Kat and I met when Au Revoire Simone introduced us and they're sorta match makers. So we've  been planning to perform together for a long time, so it was so nice to finally have it happen as sort of a pre- September preview. For me it was just really fun to see that my hunch was correct-- that we do well together on a bill. I hope everyone else thought so. 

Kat: I hope everyone else does, too. I often feel miserable after New York shows and tonight I have this nice feeling (laughs). So I feel like we planned it well. 

Alexa: Hmm. That's the thing that sometimes people don't realize. When you're still trying to get to a certain point, you're doing a lot of work for a show. This was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Making it happen and working together. I think it's been very fun for us to meet because we're not in bands. We're solo, so it's almost like we've been in a band together in a weird way. We've been making decisions together, booking shows together, so tonight it was nice to see that it worked. 

K: Sometimes you meet other musicians and you feel like you're from a planet and they're from the same planet. 

A: Yes, exactly. 

K: Even if the music is different. That's how I felt when I opened for Au Revoire Simone and when we were introduced it was sort of the same feeling. 

A: It's like you're old friends already. It's nice because I think our music is very different but it has some similarities that are pretty fundamental.

SBM: When did you meet? 

Alexa: About a year ago when Heather from Au Revoire Simore came back from tour. They're rfiends of mine. She said you have to see this video of this girl I took called CallmeKAT. They kept talking about this CallMeKAT and I finally saw the video and had chills because here's this girl in Denmark making very different music. My music is acoustic based and Kat's electronica based but there seemed to be a similar yearning and poetry...like a commitment to beauty, I think, so I really related to that. So Kat came to New York in February and I was co-curating a pop up store on Mulberry Street with a Finnish designer, Ivana Helsinki, who I do collaborations with. We did a video together. Kat showed up at one of my shows and we got to meet. 

Kat: We were like, maybe we can play a show, maybe we can play a couple shows. Maybe we could take over the world. 

SBM: Thus the tour in the Fall. 

Alexa: (laughs) The banged up brunettes are taking over the United States. 

Kat: Yup. 

SBM: Kat, can you tell us how you got the opportunity to come to the U.S. and play? 

Kat: Yes. I've been attracted to New York City for many years. In the beginning it was like this jolly, happy, I found the best, most interesting place in the world thing. When I was studying I just came here whenever it made sense and I was so inspired that I really started writing a lot. Then later on I started spending more time here and last year I got a grant from the Danish Arts Council. They gave me a couple of grants before that but this was one really nice and it was to be used for international career development and so I had some new collaborators here, business collaborators and thought let's give it a go. So that's actually one of the reasons why I can make it happen and be here for such a long while. On a time management level, I'm between two albums. So I had this project in February of finishing the international debut. I've been focusing on some shows and some showcases. I've played SXSW, and I just came back from North By Northeast and in the mean time the whole thing was broken up by a European tour that I did. 

SBM: You finished recording your debut album? 

Kat: I never even got to settling down with collaborators outside Scandinavia.. In 2009 I thought, 'this album is getting old. Could have another direction'. So it got revised. I went back and worked with a good producer who remastered and remixed the whole thing.

Now I'm going to begin my second full-length album, so I'm really excited about that. It always feels like jumping a little bit from a high cliff- you know that the water will be nice as soon as you get there, if you reach the water. It's always a little crazy the moment before you jump from the cliff, you have all these things that you have to remember and you want to not forget your inspiration and all that. 

SBM: Alexa, what's going on with you in terms of new music? 

Alexa: I'm actually in the middle of recording my next release. So this first one was an 8-song EP. It was self-released, ITunes. I sort of have my own label, like a lot of us do now. This is a 12-track, full-length album. It'll hopefully be done late Fall for release in the winter or the spring, at the latest. Really looking forward to that. 

SBM: What kind of stuff are you doing on this album? What can listeners expect? 

Alexa: Obviously it'll still have that sort of Alexa stamp on it. That spray of acoustic sounds. I love having a solid acoustic netting to the songs and the then the words sort of do their own thing. Like a lot of musicians do a different thing, vocals do different things. For me it's the very traditional someone accompanying themselves. The biggest addition will be Wurlitzer and Roads organs. I'm making a switch from predominately guitar to working on the piano, which has been really fun for me. 

CALLMeKAT

SBM: Kat, how did your other two NYC shows go? 

Kat: They were maybe the three most different shows I've played in such a short time. One day you're in a conference room in the Scandinavia house, doing your own sound, trying to repair the speakers and it ends up being really, really nice. The next day, I'm at this Polish Community Center opening for our great friend Au Revoir Simone. The sound was a little funny that night but it was fun to play because it was the first really big room I've played in America, so that was really nice. Their fans are so sweet. (looking at Alexa) You should look forward to opening for them. They actually came into the room when I started playing, so that was great.

Tonight, I really like Mercury Lounge. I think it sounds good in this room. It feels like you can actually do your work without obstacles. It's like if you're working in an office, there's a desk with a computer that works. You know you don't have to figure out 10 passwords before you can get to do your work. It's like here the sound is good and the room feels good. It's like the sound is actually alive in this room. I can be a little depressed about the New York shows because there's so little time between the shows that you don't really have time to get your sound and so you're playing against all odds. You're trying to get your message through, but sometimes a whole lot of it gets eaten up by bad sound. Stuff that's not working. I don't want to sound so whiny because I know that's the circumstances but it's actually the past three shows they've been sort of nice in their own way. Really different, really nice. 

Alexa Wilding

SBM: Alexa, I think it's interesting that you grew up in New York City so you know a lot about the music scene and the neighborhood, and Kat, you're from Denmark, but now reside in New York City. Music wise what's your experience of being in NYC and favorite aspect of being in the city? 

Alexa: I said something on stage tonight. When I was a little girl, my sister and I would basically stalk famous people. It's funny. The special thing about New York is that everyone you idolize you see here. So you can find out where they have coffee. You can find out what museum they go to. It sounds sort of silly but in the same respect there's so much music available to you and growing up it was exhilarating. The older I got, the more shows I could go to. I have great exposure to all kind of music. So for me that's the wonderful thing about New York. You get to see everything first and it make you very hungry for content and inspiration. I love New York for that reason. Its changed a lot now. There used to be a downtown scene and now there's a Brooklyn scene. Growing up it was so funny, we'd never go to Brooklyn. I grew up mostly in the Village. I had one friend in Park Slope, maybe, so it was so funny to when I went away to college at Bard and suddenly no one was in the east village anymore. (laughs). I said where is everyone? 

Star Beat Music: Williamsburg. 

Alexa: I'm like they're over there?! Then I went out there and realize, so exciting. With all that said, I don't really consider myself apart of any sort of scene. Musicians say they're part of this group, they're that group, they work with so and so. Maybe it's the native New Yorker in me, I don't mean to sound snobby, but I guess I feel a little bit on my own, even thought I have friends in different scenes. I feel like that's the New York way. Just do your thing! Kat?

Kat: For me New York is a whole lot of different things in one. It's a really big challenge to come here. I come from a really small country. We're only 5.5 million in total where I come from [in Denmark] and here I think there are more people just in New York City than in the whole country. Sometimes it feels good to get a little lost in that and get to take the challenge that it is to play music in a city like this where it feels like everyone is in a band. It's inspirational because everything is very convenient in Scandinavia. I'm really, actually not apart of any scene there either. Maybe that's why we like each other so much. We're sort of two loners. 

Alexa: That's a great way to put it. I've always felt like a loner and not quite sure who I was right to open for or who I should be playing with, so it's nice to maybe find your fellow loner. 

Kat: Yeah. From the other side of the sea. 

Alexa: I know. I have a thing for Scandinavians.

Kat: On another level, it can also be a little hard because there's a chronic sense of desperation that I can be really disillusioned by because that is not where I'm coming from and it can be a little hard, but it's also a good learning experience. Being here makes me really realistic about my projects. I don't sit at home in Denmark and think all these big thoughts without doing anything about them. Being here has made me realistic. You got to be real about your goals and what you want to do because everyone has their own goals here and if you want to do something you have to be really specific about it. I think that's one of things that New York has taught me. 

Ok, two more questions. 

Alexa: Ok. We're chatter boxes. 

SBM: Kat, The last song you did “Flowers in the Night” is the song I've been listening to, so it was cool to hear live. I didn't realize there was so much going on in that song. The kazoo was cool. Now the question is. Is it that the kazoo needed a song or the song needed a kazoo.

Kat: Actually, it's really relevant question and it makes me think. I've always been really fond of the thought of a kazoo. But I think that song was calling for a kazoo. I'm always experimenting with my keyboards. The two on stage are sample keyboards, so I sing into them and record my voice. So when I play with my right hand it's mostly actually my voice, so when I play the keyboard I play it with the sound of my voice. So I had experimented with singing in different kinds of ways and experiment and all these things. When you play a kazoo you actually sing because you sing into and the little paper in it makes it sound like a kazoo. So I sampled the kazoo into my keyboard and said maybe I need to imagine that my kazoo is a trumpet. If I thought that I was really good trumpet player how would I dream of playing and started playing around. I did it on stage and thought this so much fun. Then people actually thought it's fun, too. 

SBM: What artists do you enjoy listening to? Either new artists that you've recently found out about or bands and artists you've been listening to for years. 

Kat: I really like [listening to] old cranky men. Sometimes I feel that I listen to the music that is most far away from my own world because it gives me a breathing space. It doesn't invade my own thoughts. I really enjoy Bob Dylan and Neil Young. I actually dont know if Neil Young is cranky, but I have feeling that Mr. Bob Dylan is. But for the past year i've been crazy about The Kinks. It's like I'm listening to it all the time and I can't get enough. I don't know why. Then I like really old stuff like Billie Holiday. It's just like relieving for the mind. Some new stuff I've became fond of is Beach House. I really like cinematic feel and the way she's like, she just woke up and gets in the room and is tired and singing but it's still so spot on. I'm a keyboard fanatic so I guess I like the moody, sounds they use for the keyboards. Not so many bands take it so far out with the moodiness. I like that. 

Alexa: I just can't believe we have that in common. I guess the equivalent for the Kinks for me is The Doors. It's out of control. Cranky men. Neil young and Dylan. But even the weirder old Tim Buckley, John Kail, I love Lou Reeds solo records, and the Velvet Underground makes my heart feel at home. When I hear Nico sing, I'm just, you can shot me I'm happy. Happiest girl in the world. And of course Joni Mitchell in the 70s, her later stuff. I listen to a lot of Appalachian music, and shape note, and sailor songwriting songs. Real old folk stuff. I think my stuff is really influenced by that, sort of tales. Then new bands...I'm a big Chairlift fan. I love Charlotte Gainsbourg records. I've been making a point to listen to new stuff. 

Thanks to Kat and Alexa for chatting with us! Alexa plays Rockwood Music Hall in NYC on July 27 and August 18. Both shows are free.

http://www.myspace.com/thisiscallmekat
http://www.myspace.com/alexawilding