Start Listening To: Kate Bond

Banish toxicity once and for good with ‘Yasmine and Beauty Sleep’.

Kate Bond is a neo-soul artist based in Newcastle but from Bradford. 2021 was a big year for her as she released her first two orignal singles, Yasmine and Beauty Sleep. Now she gets ready for an even bigger 2022, starting off with her single Thinking Of You which is out 28th January. 

Can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

I’m Kate Bond, I’m from Bradford originally now based in Newcastle and my music is like girly vibes. Well not girly vibes but feminist in tone, neo soul in sound and I like to make songs that people can vibe to and not realise the deepness of, but also can look deeper into and think oh what is she actually trying to say.

How would you describe your sound?

I’d say my inspirations have been Amy Winehouse definitely, Joy Crookes, kind of that new wave of neo soul that’s come in. I’d say my main inspirations is definitely like the Tom Mitch era of sound in terms of like guitars and how like I want my sound to sound. My roots are really in jazz, I used to sing in my dad’s jazz band. He’s a musician and he does like every genre going but he started in jazz so when I was like 8 years old he was getting me to sing Billie Holiday and stuff like that. So that’s where the soul side goes in but then, as you develop as a teenager you know you go into indie rock and you think you’re an indie rocker and then it all goes full circle and you realise actually, no I was always kind of a jazz singer. I kind of found my way into my roots through the new wave of neo soul which is definitely something that connects with me because it’s got the mixture of soul, jazz, it’s got that nice little break with the guitars, leaving room for the vocals and I just like that in music so that’s kind of what I’d describe my sound as.

How did it all start with music?

I’ve been in a few bands, so I was in an indie rock band when I was younger but we won’t mention that because its embarrassing. We’ve all done it! We’ve all bought a pair of doc martens and thought we were indie rockers. I like to think all the bands were all part of the journey because realistically the way that I perform now on stage has all been through all the different bands I’ve done when I was younger and they weren’t great, they were quite embarrassing actually but it’s character building. You can’t just get to the end result and be good at performing without doing all the grassroots stuff. So I feel like I’ve been trying to do what I’m doing now for ages, I’ve always wanted to do the jazzy stuff but then I compromised as I went along based on the musicians I was working with. everyone wanted to be punk rockers so I was like alright then guess we’re doing indie rock! Along the way I found that I had to learn the guitar because I was working with men that just didn’t want to do what I wanted to do. Not in a bad way but they would just kind of think I was stupid. So we went into lockdown and I bought a guitar and I learnt it and that’s why I play the guitar today.

How has your location influenced your music?

So Newcastle I’d say definitely made me think about going solo and I think the scene here is really nice and community driven which I like so I think that when I was trying to do the solo stuff Newcastle was a very warm place to start. But when I was back in Leeds during my indie rock phase, I felt like there was a much more competitive scene there, I don’t know if that’s just indie rock though, it might be. That there is just more competition it’s less friendly whereas in Newcastle its nice and warm, everyone’s trying to support everyone. And so it’s a lot easier to make connections here, I think. I’d say most success has come from being in Newcastle especially with BBC introducing just wanting to support people.

So your new single Thinking Of You, it’s much more emotional than the previous two, what inspired that?

I think I’ve always written a broad range. My first relationship was very long term so I’ve been single for a while so a lot of my music is documenting my thought process of the single world because I actually had a four year relationship. I was in second year of uni when I broke up with my boyfriend so I’d never been single when I was sexually active so I had never experienced the audacity of men. So I was in this new world so that really inspired my songwriting. Most of my early stuff is just being very single and having no emotional attachment because I’d already had that for so long. But this new song is about when I was not quite in a relationship but you know I’d fallen. Yasmine is actually about the same boy so it’s kind of having a very toxic short term thing because you just fall into something when you think someone’s the right person, thinking they’re perfect, and because I’ve not been with someone for so long I didn’t know what I was doing, I just thought oh I like him! He must be perfect and then he was just an absolute toxic king. I think Yasmine was very much discussing the toxicity of the relationship so this song is kind of like acknowledging that as much as I as a friend would tell someone you just need to dump them, it’s so easy to just fall back in love with the thought of them. So thinking of you is kind of like me battling the urge to text him when I know that I shouldn’t because I’m like I think I like you but I know you’re a twat. So that’s basically the song. But its showing a softer side to my feminist vibes I think.

How do you write your music?

I don’t really know it comes in different waves. I started writing over beats for a little bit because I was listening to a lot of hip hop and I was kind of experimenting because a lot of my songs are quite lyrical in terms of they have a lot of lyrics to a bar. It’s not rap but I’ve always been one to not leave a lot of room for the musicians. I like to get my point across, verging on hip hop but it’s definitely not, it’s definitely still neo soul and a bit of pop. I wrote Yasmine over a YouTube beat to start with and then once I got the lyrics I sent it to a producer and then they started going back and forward with it with me. This new one I wrote on the guitar so it’s a bit different. It just whatever feels right. I don’t write enough to be honest but when I do its usual either beats or guitar depending on how I’m vibing. A lot of the new stuff I’ve worked with a producer and we’ve made the beat together which I think is a better way of writing because we can vibe off each other in the studio, and then I’ve gone away, written it and come back.

Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s important to you?

To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar. That’s actually one of the albums I keep going back to because the first time I listened to it I was quite young. My twin brother Eddie loved Kendrick Lamar, and I didn’t really know why, but then later in life I’ve come back to it and listened to it as a whole piece of work. I think it’s really important to listen to an album as its meant to be heard, because that was from start to finish just immaculate. It’s got such a deep meaning and even the whole metaphor of how to pimp a butterfly is explained within the album. And it’s just mad as a writer, I just like to walk and listen to albums all the way through so when I listened to how to pimp a butterfly all the way through for the first time, because I’ve listened to all the songs individually but never in the right order and I heard it and was l like oh my god he’s so clever. I had to listen to that metaphor like five times through it was so sick.

Tell us something interesting about yourself that isn’t to do with music?

I’m a linguist so at university I studied Spanish and I actually did French and Spanish at A level so I’m very into my languages. If it wasn’t music it would be something to do with languages and I’m not really using my degree but you know if music doesn’t work out you can catch me in Spain, I’ll be chilling with the boys Enrique and Jorje and we’ll just be vibing with some paella. But yeah I’m also a massive geek about Spanish history so I’d love to do a whole road trip of Spain because I know so much about it and I actually haven’t been to Spain since I’ve been able to speak Spanish which is absolutely horrific, thank you pandemic.

What do you hate right now?

I’m a bit of a pessimist when it comes to Tiktok as a musician because I know it’s the way forward but I don’t want to admit it because I don’t want to be a Tiktok musician. And the thing I find about Tiktok is that as it’s such a great algorithm it’s so good to discovering people. But I also think its allowing for the bare minimum, because I see these musicians that are getting record deals and I’m flicking through them and it’s like they’ve written a song in like five minutes and they’ve gone for it and it’s just the bare minimum. And I might sound salty because I’m not going viral on Tiktok but I read some of it and I’m like how is this music?! It’s annoying. I think the music industry is going too much for quick bucks you know, less about developing artists anymore, more like they’re getting big quick let’s put loads of money into them and then lets drop them. What happened to loving musicians? I’m trying though, you’ve got to try everything, but yeah it just infuriates me. It’s not for me.

So hate Tiktok, but what do you love right now?

No I love Tiktok! I love being on Tiktok and scrolling for hours I just hate making Tiktoks. I don’t know what I love right now. Cheese. Really cheesy meals that I like really high. Just cheese and carbs and nice stuff.  

What was your favourite album of last year?

I’ve got two. I’d have to give it to Little Simz for my first choice because I just think you can’t beat that album its immaculate. I love everything about it. And then second place would be Skin by Joy Crookes because that’s also immaculate. There was a lot of good music out last year to be fair.

And who are you watching for this year?

Lola Young. I know she’s already like a one to watch technically but she is really good. And Wet Leg. I’ve discovered them literally last week, I’m so late to the party but I love them. Not my usual type of music but I love it.

Thank you, is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

You can pre-save my new single. And I’ve got a headline gig at Cobalt on the 24th February!