Kim Of All She Surveys
As Katie Kim prepared for her recent Kilkenny Arts Festival performace, she told Celina Murphy why 2012 has been her busiest year yet.
Celina Murphy, 23 Aug 2012
When last I spoke to Katie Kim, she confessed to having a semi-serious preoccupation with the number 12, having chosen it as the title of her debut and picked 2012 as the year to release her haunting second album Cover & Flood. We’re now six months into the most exciting year in her career, and things could scarcely
be better.
Cover & Flood debuted to universally rave reviews; in April, Ms. Kim mesmerised a couple of hundred fans with a stunning launch show in Dublin’s Unitarian church and went on to make her British television debut, taking to the Later... With Jools Holland stage as part of her initiation into The Waterboys. Meanwhile, Cover & Flood has been catching the ears of all the right people, including alt. hip hop genius André 3000, who snapped up a copy during a Dublin shopping expedition.
“He picked up a couple of albums in Freebird,” Kim tells me. “It’s great that he’s even interested in what’s going on here. To be honest I’m under the radar with a lot of what’s going on musically, especially ‘cos a lot of the people in my band and a lot of my friends are making their own music. I tend to listen to stuff that’s really close to me so I’m a bit disconnected from the world. I should be listening to more. When I worked in a record shop, I used to listen to so much music, I feel very guilty about it.”
Kim has played a crucial part in shining a light on the fertile Irish underground, a scene that’s well represented at this year’s festival.
“It’s a great line-up,” she enthuses. “Matthew from 3epkano who’s involved has got great taste and put together a really diverse spectrum of people.”
With a few church gigs already under her belt, Kim will be right at home in Kilkenny’s 900-year-old St. Canice’s Cathedral, where she performs with American pianist Rachel Grimes.
“We’ve done a good few of those kinds of gigs now but Canice’s is kind of on a different level. It’s so ornate and intricate, every single corner of the building has something hand-carved, so it’s a completely different experience to being in a venue like the Unitarian.”
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