Ken Rose -boom bash ping!
Hannah Marshall - moooooom, screee, yeeeeeyoooo and vvvvvvvoom
Influences
Tom Waits, Edith Piaf, Bagpuss (and everything else by Oliver Postgate), Martha and Rufus Wainwright, bells, Nick Drake, glass, Sandy Denny, Faure's Requiem, moist and elaborate cake, Kate Bush, The Tiger Lillies, Quimby the Mouse, Shockheaded Peter, European film soundtracks especially Il Postino, all Fellini, Mon Oncle, Led Zeppelin, Billy Bragg, Joan As Policewoman, submerged clocktowers, The improbable duration of Kenneth Connor's "phwooar"s, Chris Ware, Van Morrison, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, toy pianos, corsets, Vashti Bunyan, Radiohead, Audrey Hepburn, Jacques Brel, Pink Floyd, the search for the smallest cuckoo clock in the world, Jeff Buckley, Dory Previn, Lili, Leonard Cohen, MGM blazing technicolour musicals in the 1950's, Antony and the Johnsons, bears, Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell, Francis Lai, puppets, Joel Grey, Paper Cinema, Nina Simone, Syd Barratt, Nirvana, Allen Ginsberg, Velvet Underground, Edward Scissorhands, lace handkerchiefs, Regina Spektor, lions, Tim Buckley, Danny Elfman, e.e. cummings, Brian Blessed, talking like Brian Blessed, Ray LaMontagne, Victorian dolls houses, flotsam and jetsam, The Muppet Show, the possibility of flight using woollen cape. The Clangers (although included above), my dog, the socks my dog keeps in my bed.
Sounds Like
Stringladen songs with piano, autoharp and improvised twinkly noises on cobbled together objects
"Fresh, engaging and gorgeous" - TOM ROBINSON, BBC6
"Harmoniously discordant, strange yet familiar, sinister yet comforting. Kate Daisy Grant ignores the stale formula music industry and brings us something truly new and innovative. Like Alice in Wonderland she takes you on an atmospheric, and sometimes unsettling, journey through surreal dreams filled with whimsical and quirky sounds. Accompanied by a Victorian mechanical toy orchestra, Kate's intimate lyrics and sensuous tones take you by the hand and lead you through this unique experience. Melancolic and totally absorbing this is a dream you don't want to wake from. Subtly and gloriously produced. A gem."
GRAHAM PHENIX, 3AM MAGAZINE
"One Thing You Should Know About Me seizes the listener from the seemingly carefree waltz of the title track, which is actually a decadent dance along the precipice, on an extraordinarily tempestuous voyage, through extreme pitches and rolls of emotions, and the spectre of an ominous wave that threatens to engulf everything, but leaves one ‘with the wild waves whisht’ in the last track, The Language of Science, which dazzles like the molten gold of low sunlight on wavelets. Kate Daisy Grant has a completely seductive perfect counterpoise between breathy fragility and lip biting ardency, vulnerability and supremacy. In her lighter shades she might be Nordic or French with echoes of Ida Marie or Julie Delpy (particularly in the waltz title track, which brings to mind Delpy’s A Waltz for a Night from the soundtrack of Before Sunset), whilst her smokier, darker tones on the tracks Peaches or Truth evoke PJ Harvey or Siouxsie Sioux."
GUY SANGSTER ADAMS, PLECTRUM MAGAZINE
"Saw the brilliant Kate Daisy Grant play tonight and she was astounding! Cannot recommend her highly enough so forgive me whilst I sit astride a stuffed giraffe to tell you the rest. Kate is an extremely talented songwriter with a quirky take, and her singing too is extraordinary...aided slightly be the fact that she was born with three tonsils. You must get to see her folks even through a kaleidoscope. My monocle fell off twice in amazement and was finally eaten by my false beard whilst several clockwork birds did a fly by in her honour. She will tickle your fancy whilst melting your heart. Catch her before she falls into another dimension."
JUPITER JOHN, PERENO WORLD
Kate was born in London and raised on a strict diet of Bagpuss and The Beatles. She started playing the piano as soon as she could reach the keys.
Gigs followed, all over London...then one evening, while singing for her supper at Maison Bertaux (London's oldest cake shop featuring the most out-of-tune piano ever heard) she met Ken Rose. Producer/ songwriter and lion-haired wizard, Ken had just returned from a tour playing guitar with Marianne Faithfull. Their perfectly matched mismatchedness was plain to see - he arch-dude of LA horizontal 'tude, she a spider-lashed runaway marionette with a dash of potty mouth and a love of war poetry - "Let's make a record," they said.
After many an attempt - hard rock, indie schlock and Dutch acid kazoo, Kate decided to travel back through time. She remembered the sinister-sweet tinkle of Danny Elfman's Edward Scissorhands, she remembered the plink and plonk of the Clangers, and throwing open the toy cupboard, out poured her orchestra. Toy bells and pianos, dustbin lids, teapots, double bass playing robots, drums full of pennies, autoharps and school recorders - all of them were included.
Kate and Ken locked themselves in a tiny studio/ playroom, and were visited there by all manner of wonderful folk - Hannah came to claw the cello as if it were a cave full of stalactites, Alison used her gypsy fiddle to glorious effect, Mardyah and Malcolm played and arranged string quartets as if it was the last waltz on the Titanic. Some just came to point and laugh.
A strange symphony emerged from the turbulent sea: ships bells, whistles, mechanical birds, the sinister sweetness of the Victorian toy orchestra - and through it all Kate's voice, the bastard offspring of Thom Yorke and Sinead O'Connor, the thread that bound it all.
Ken, like a crazed seamstress, deftly wove patchwork piece after piece into the whole, using his battered laptop as yet another weird instrument to add to the chaos. From the clutter arose a magical beast - an album like a jewel-encrusted creature of glee, tea and tears: 'One Thing You Should Know About Me'. Every song is from the junk shop that is Kate's heart. Have a rummage - you might find something you like.
KATE'S ALBUM - 'ONE THING YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ME NOW AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD ON ITUNES AND LAST.FM
Hi Kate, thanks for a perfectly wicked set on Tuesday! The power and emotional range of your music knows no boundaries, from the beautiful and sublime Lighthouse to the hilarious Brian Blessed's Beard (with audience participation) it really was very very entertaining evening. Look forward to next month! x
Oh, Kate, I got it wrong, now I see Open Arts Cafe date is not 21-06 but 21-05. I would've made a complete hit & miss...! Regardless I am coming to c u when u perform next:).xx
you gorgeous gorgeous girl...what a lovely gig...'pumpkin eater' always makes me cry...adore you! biglove kerzillions to the moon and back, please come and play again!!! sgx
The remarkable and searing talent of Kate Daisy Grant......absolutely beautiful songs and a singer with the experiences of her life simply dripping from her voice....I had such a great weekend Kate.....Can't wait to do more whenever...however XXXXX
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