Q+A With Kat Greta

Hear2Zen Magazine

8 months ago

Beats, grooves and husky delights lie in wait on the debut single Let It Go from dynamic drummer and songwriter Kat Greta. Featuring Melbourne’s Charlie Lane on vocals, Let It Go marks a rousing first look into Kat’s impending maiden EP Get Up & Go due out on Friday August 5; and the slick flavours of Let It Go can also be caught live in action in July and August, with Kat launching the single at The Old Bar in Fitzroy on Thursday July 21, and an EP live unveiling at The Workers Club in Fitzroy on Sunday August 28, with the EP available to grab on vinyl on the night. Kat swung by with a quick Q+A with us, so check it out!

Hi, thanks for taking the time to chat with Hear 2 Zen, what have you been up to today?

Thanks so much for having me! I’ve just smashed a couple of coffees, got some practice in, and thought that I had better finish getting all of the sand off my drums! (We shot the video down on the beach, and my poor drums are still bathed in sand.)

Tell us about yourself, how long have you been performing/creating music for?

Ohhh since I can remember. My earliest memory of performing was in grade 3 – I was a painfully shy kid at a new school, and I decided to get on stage and perform “The Phantom of the Opera”. It just shocked everyone – the teachers and students were floored because I didn’t speak a word in class, but I just became this different person on stage.

Who are your greatest inspirations? Why?

As a drummer I love John Bonham; he had this groove and charisma like no other. I think I could actually learn most things just from listening to him. Also, I am always a sucker for a good melody, so I adore the greats like Simon & Garfunkel, Brian Wilson, Carole King and Kate Bush just to name a few.

How do you create music? Are you lyrics/story driven, or does the music/melody come first? Explain your process.

Yeah, I always start with the music and melody first. I’ll sit at the piano and just play what I’m feeling. I’m quite an emotional person. The lyrics won’t come until very late in the process, sometimes even after I have put down all the other instruments. The story comes without much conscious consideration, but a theme emerges, and coincidentally it is always super meaningful to me.

What has been your greatest challenge so far in performing/creating music?

Getting my first gig as an original artist. I must have emailed about 50 different places, but because I was just starting out, no-one had heard of me, and it was tough to get a gig. Then also the time and work involved with the recording. I actually took 2 weeks off work to record the EP, and some nights we wouldn’t finish until about 2am.

Tell us about your new release Let It Go, how did it come about?

I wrote Let It Go while I was going through a hard time at home. My parents have become quite unwell and are limited with what they can do, both physically and mentally. I am learning that life is very short, and if you’ve got a dream, the best time to do it is now. You never know what’s around the corner.

What advice do you have to artists who are just starting out?

Learn an instrument, find opportunities to perform as much as you can, and write from the heart. Get vulnerable. Listen.

Tell us your favourite Zen practice.

I love doing Wim Hof breathing, it’s an incredible feeling. After a few rounds of this, you exhale, and you can hold your breath for a really long time. It really centres me and feels like it resets my whole system.

ABOUT KAT GRETA

Let It Go dazzles with modern 80s cool, with gleaming keys, driving beats and frolicking melodics barreling around the whiskey-soaked vocal stylings of Charlie Lane and Kat’s potent drumwork throughout. Equally embracing vintage and modern tones in a sharp and simplistic arrangement, Let It Go fluidly embraces nods to the likes of 80s greats like The Doors and INXS, alongside the melodic approaches of Carole King, The Beatles and Billy Joel. But while this modern-vintage hybrid has itself been years in the making, Kat also struck inspiration for Let It Go in seizing the day professionally and personally for her debut release, as she explains, “Let It Go is about letting go of what isn’t serving you well, and finding the courage to be free. Life is short. In this case for me, it was rediscovering the joy that playing the drums brings me. I had a gut feeling that there was a suppressed dream inside of me, and I just needed to take a leap of faith and find the courage to do it. Also, on a very personal note, my parents are both living with degenerative illnesses and it really brings home for me the notion that life is very short.”

The video for Let It Go perfectly complements the vintage flavours and lyrical themes on display in the track, with Kat roadtripping in a Mustang convertible with her hair in the wind and, most essentially, with her drum kit along for the ride. Teaming up with Dayne Edward on the clip, who has previously worked with Maya Vice, Zretro, Tanha MC, Adidas and Tune Squad, the end result is a quintessential road trip adventure around areas close to Kat’s heart, as she elaborates, “We decided that I’d drive an old car in the video, something a bit vintage to suit the song. We went with a Mustang because Mustangs are like the ultimate symbol for freedom. I would drive it down an open road, roof down, hair blowing in the breeze, with my drums in the back. Then I find myself at the ocean beach down at Portsea, playing drums out in the open air at London Bridge. It’s really quite liberating. It represents my dream of being free and playing the drums. We chose the location of Cape Schanck and the surrounding areas down on the Peninsula with the lighthouse track, and got a drone to really capture the beauty of the area with the windy track and crashing waves. Also, the Mornington Peninsula is where I grew up and still live, so I’m quite attached to the area.”

While Let It Go, and her upcoming EP Get Up & Go, may mark Kat’s first official foray into the musical realm as an artist, her own backstory is lined with plenty of Aussie music royalty. Hailing from a big Italian, musical family, Kat’s own immersion into music comes as little surprise, with this Victorian powerhouse related to Nic and Chris Cester of Jet, Eugene Cester from TISM, Alf, Johnny, Jayney and Lydia Klimek and opera singer Christina Russo. With plenty of new material and live shows on the horizon, Kat has spent a lifetime around music, playing from an early age and being surrounded by various musical instruments growing up. And with 2022 culminating in Kat finally launching her solo project, this is only just the beginning for this compelling artist; and it’s a journey Kat is entirely ready for, as she concludes, “I am super excited to be releasing a new single and EP this year. It’s been a few years in the making and it’s been an incredible journey so far. It took me a really long time to work out my sound and style, and I did this in a backwards way – I made the recording before I got the band together. I’ve learnt a lot in the process. I am happy to be able to release my music with the confidence that this is the kind of artist that I am.”