Yesterday, I had the incredible opportunity to speak to BRIT Award winner Kate Nash, best known for her 2007 hit single Foundations. We spoke about her career, the music industry, and the Music Fans’ Voice survey that she is helping to promote.
I think it's safe to say you haven't had the most conventional career. You started off signed, you released 2 albums on a label, then you released 2 independently. Now, you're back on a label. You've also appeared in GLOW, the Netflix original series. Would you say that all the ups and downs that you've had have made your career all the more rewarding?
I think so, yeah. I feel like when I reflect on it, it feels like the only way it was ever going to go, and I don't think I really am totally conventional as a person. So, I was always going to carve out a space for myself, you know. I think that [what is] really important is for people to know that if it doesn't feel like there's a place for you, there's somewhere that you can dig out your own place.
Definitely. And you’ve performed at, I mean, some of the biggest festivals in the world: Glastonbury, for example, and also some very iconic venues. Here's a little plug, UEA's very own LCR and The Waterfront, you've performed at both of those.
Yeah!
How important is live music to you both as an artist and as a music fan?
I mean, I can't imagine my life without it. The outlet, the connection that I'm able to form with people, this kind of magical invisible thread that you feel when you're at a show between yourself and other people in the songs. Either [for] me, as the artist on stage, or as a fan watching the artist on stage, it's like a weird invisible connection. I think it's the closest thing to magic that we could hope to feel.
I'm advocating now to help, basically, change things because [they] are quite terrible. The grassroots [venues are] in crisis, as I'm sure you're aware. It's becoming more and more difficult for bands to afford to be able to go on tour, and that's anything underneath a stadium level. I made quite a scene last year because I started an OnlyFans account, and a campaign called ‘Butts for Tour Buses’, where I'm selling pictures of my a** to pay for the tour bus, to make the point that even [for] an artist like me, who [...] has millions of listeners, thousands of fans, [and is] selling loads of tickets, it's still becoming really difficult to actually go on tour because it's just too expensive, and you go on tour and you just lose money.
I'm in a position where I'm privileged to be able to take those losses, but then, I was having to fire members of crew because I literally [couldn’t] take any more losses. Once I was on the road, I realised how bad things had gotten, and I was like, this is not cool, because there [are] plenty of people that can't take the loss, and they're the ones cancelling shows and actually quitting bands and stopping making music. I don't think that music should only be for the privileged. I think music should be accessible to everyone. I want to see really diverse voices and artists on the stage. That's why I'm now working on this Music Fans’ Voice survey.
Could you explain to our listeners what the Music Fans’ Voice survey is about?
All you have to do is take a survey; it takes 15 minutes, and it will basically help shape the future of UK live music. Just to communicate to people listening why it's so important to just do a survey, even though it sounds kind of boring and unglamorous [and] it's not as fun as me getting my a*** out and screaming outside the Houses of Parliament: it's data, and data is one of the most valuable things on the planet right now. I'm sure everyone knows that if we collect data from music fans, [the] government can use that data to make change. [Data] is one of the most powerful things that you could have. If you care about music, if you care about gigs, [...] go to musicfansvoice.uk and take 15 minutes out of your day to make your voice heard, and you'll be part of shaping the future of UK live music.
I think fans are starting to notice the impacts that come with live music essentially becoming a monopoly. Ticket prices are increasing because of dynamic pricing and just because it's expensive for artists to tour nowadays, and also the ticket selling platforms just aren't fit for purpose. People were struggling to get tickets for their favourite artists, and bots are managing to do it to sell the tickets for twice the price. What will the fans actually get out of this survey, and what are you planning to do with the data?
You'll be able to complain about all those things. You'll be asked questions about every element of what is included in going to a gig. [...] Just to put it plainly, this is what they did in football, and this is modelled exactly after that. There was a panel my mate went to about 14 months ago at a festival, and someone said the music industry needs to do what the football industry did, and he was like, I’m going to do that. So, they've built this survey model completely after football, and the football industry made the biggest changes to the industry in 25 years, so your voice will be heard.
The government has to listen to data, because [...] data is a permanent record. And [there is] a threat to people's jobs if they don't listen, so action will have to be taken. It will really depend on what you say and what your answers are in the survey. So, make sure you take the time to talk about the things that matter to you.
You've spoken in depth, not just in this interview, but in other interviews about how the music industry is failing its artists. As you said, you went into debt just to go on tour. You've been in the industry for nearly twenty years now; what changes have you noticed since you started to the present day?
There's been so many changes, I think youth culture has changed drastically, obviously, but at the same time, young people are just the same as they were twenty years ago in terms of just trying to discover themselves and figure out who they are. I think that I want to see better conditions in venues. I want to see more access to young people. I want to see more resources.
I feel like we've got all this amazing technology at our fingertips, but people are overwhelmed and swamped, and it almost feels like there's less opportunity than ever, [when] there actually should be more, and there is more, but there's all these things in the way. I think if we could get some of that stuff out of the way and make the conditions a bit easier and make it a bit more accessible and fairer, there's such an opportunity for people to flourish.
It's a really weird place to be in where things could be way better than twenty years ago, but they're not, and that is not acceptable. One hundred percent, I should be sat here [saying that] it is so much better than it was twenty years ago, but I'm not, because the music industry has failed artists. But it's just over a few hurdles, do you know what I mean? There is optimism, because I do think that, in the world, there's loads of things that are way better, but we're seeing a rise in some of these areas that we don't like. So, we're like, what happened?
So yeah, just know I'm really trying to storm the castle from the inside.
Do you think that if this failure of artists and failure to live music venues continues, it will significantly impact live music as a culture, as a business?
Yeah, one hundred percent. I think, as a business, it’s a bad business plan. Are we going to just watch every venue close, lose hundreds of thousands of jobs, limit diversity within the arts, and only have access to shiny stadium concerts that not everyone can afford to go to? That sounds like a really rubbish future, doesn't it?
Yeah, absolutely. Just to round out the interview, we’re going to go for a few quick-fire questions. First of all, what's your favourite venue that you've performed at?
Oh my gosh, I love [O2] Shepherd’s Bush Empire. I really love that venue, and I love KOKO. I just played there in November, and I was reminded of what a great venue that is as well. I like venues that are proper gig venues, but they feel a little bit theatrical as well.
And what's the best concert that you have been to?
Oh my God. I'll never forget when I saw Regina Spector at Lock 17 in Camden. That was really influential for me, but then, I saw Beyoncé do Renaissance at Tottenham and that was incredible.
I was there too!
Were you? It was amazing. I think I am someone who wants to go and watch someone in a pub in the backroom and feel intimate, and then I will see someone here for their stadium concert. I'm for art across all levels.
And finally, my show on Livewire is called The Slaylist. Foundations has made an
appearance on mine, but what song would you put at the top of your Slaylist?
At the top?! It's going to have to be a right now kind of situation, you know, what's on the top of my Slaylist right now. I'm really having a Stacie Orrico moment, do you remember Stacie Orrico? You're too young to remember her. There's this song called Stuck that I'm really obsessed with. But the song I always want to listen to, no matter what, is The Cure[‘s] "Just Like Heaven".
The Music Fans’ Voice survey can be found at musicfansvoice.uk.