Katerina is a singer-songwriter originally from Greece. Now based in Scotland, Katerina released her debut single: They’re Trying To Sell My Books at the end of last year. Her secondary single: Ballad Of A Hollywood Dreamer was released March 15th and was an instant success; receiving a play on BBC Introducing. I was lucky enough to grab a moment with Katerina to discuss the topics of her latest single, her move to the UK and what inspires her as a musician.
First off, it feels only right to ask you – how are you today?
“I am good, thank you! I’m really happy with how the song turned out and people have said the nicest things to me so far which is really cool!”
Your debut single: They’re trying to sell my books came out at the back-end of last year. I love the name of it, it instantly attracts me to want to listen! Would you be able to tell us a little bit of background knowledge on the song and how it all came to be?
“Thank you! Well, They’re Trying To Sell My Books is a silly little song about a girl who doesn’t want to go out or do anything with her life, time flies and eventually her parents get so sick of her they threaten to sell her books if she doesn’t move out of the house. It’s essentially a song about being too afraid to change your circumstances and take risks in your life but it’s not as fun when I explain it like that.”
-laughs-
“I wrote the melody first and thought it was too sad that’s why I wrote this ridiculous story-line to balance it out.”
Your follow up single: Ballad of a Hollywood Dreamer was recently released and I feel a real sense of storytelling behind your music. Would you say there are any connections between Ballad of a Hollywood Dreamer and your debut?
“Thank you! I would say that for me the songs have very different attitudes. Ballad of a Hollywood Dreamer is a very confident dream-like and nonchalant song about someone who wants to go to Hollywood and be an actor. It’s a very free spirited song about living out your own narrative while also being aware of how you are being perceived because of it. Whereas, They’re Trying To Sell My Books is about staying put in one place and being too afraid to do anything. This is most reflective in the lyric ‘what’s the use in leaving when you can spend your time dreaming of the worst and the best times that could be‘”.
I know you grew up in Greece, I was just wondering how that lifestyle might have had any affect on your music?
“Even just the idea of summer is more inspiring than winter.”
-laughs- (Oh, I hear that!)
“Some of my songs are born out of that energy that summer has in Greece. I’m from Crete and it’s really beautiful there! I would say it’s a very inspiring place if you’re an artist.”
You currently live in Scotland. First off, how are you finding the weather? Cold, right? Secondly, how does life in Scotland have an impact on your music career, if it does have any at all?
“Yes it is a bit cold. I would say that living here definitely works to my advantage when it comes to music. There are just so many different options and Glasgow is probably one of the most musical cities ever. I read somewhere that there are 130 music events happening in Glasgow every week! You’ve got a lot of opportunities to play live and you just meet so many people here who work in different fields in the music industries. It’s so exciting to me!”
I’m aware that you’re an artist as well as a musician, would you say one is your predominant focus or do you put equal energy into both?
“Do you mean my drawings?”
-laughs-
“I would say that music is my main focus but I love drawing and I definitely plan on becoming better at art in general. I also love illustration so yeah I need to work on that.”
Who would you say is a big inspiration to you when it comes to the music you make?
“For the longest time I was obsessed with Taylor Swift and I still love her ’cause she’s the best pop songwriter ever. She can write catchy but also lyrically complex songs while at the same time changing her melodies, chord structures and instrumentations between albums in order to evolve as a songwriter. It’s also incredible to me how she can write about the same topic (relationships) in SO many different ways. I don’t think people realise how incredibly creative and imaginative you need to be in order to do that successfully and still be surprising to people after 10 albums.”
“I also love Alex Turner (lead singer of Arctic Monkeys) and Neil Young because they are just incredibly cool and I would love to be either one of them. They both released 2 very successful albums (Neil Young – Harvest Moon and Alex Turner – AM) and neither of them cared about maintaining that level of success. They followed their instincts and created the music they wanted to create. In their songs they don’t explain anything or state the obvious. I would say they probably don’t even care about writing something meaningful and that’s very important. They are just expressing their artistic worlds as they are and I can’t think of a more freeing way to write music.”
As I mentioned earlier, I feel a strong sense of storytelling within your songs, is that a natural creative path for you or something you really sit down and try to bring attention to?
“I wrote both of these songs two years ago and I would say that at the time I still cared about having some kind of story-line within and tried to be as coherent as I could in my way. However, now I am definitely just writing nonsense for sure. It doesn’t come naturally to me to write distinctive and clear story-lines so I’ve stopped doing that and I am now approaching songwriting in a more freeing way where I just instinctively follow my train of thought and trust that process.”
Lastly, what does the musical future hold for Katerina?
Well, in the near future I have a gig this Thursday at Ivory Blacks alongside a band called The Trenches and the gig is in aid of Cancer Research UK. Aside from that, I plan on releasing more music this year so definitely look out for that!
Do be sure to check out Katerina’s Ballad Of A Hollywood Dreamer via the link below and watch this space.