Braids
Meet Katie Lee
Last night I was hanging with musicians who were bellyaching about having to answer bad-to-terrible questions from bloggers. And let’s face it, outside of graduate students, music bloggers are kind of the worst. The lone writer in the room, I brought up a point from the other side of the aisle—sometimes musicians are awful, humourless people to interview.
Katie Lee from Braids is far from humourless. She’s so full of humour that it’s coming out of her ears. She made me enjoy doing my job so much I feel comfortable anointing her as my new favourite person. (Sorry Dan Hedeya.)
Then again, why wouldn’t Lee be mirthful these days? Braids, the Calgary-to-Montreal convert that started all of our 2011s off on the right foot with the outstanding Native Speaker, is riding tall in the saddle. They’re talented and hip, playing Osheaga and currently shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize (and its $30,000 purse). Talk about a gravy train with biscuit wheels.
No, seriously, talk about it Katie.
“It's nice to know that people are listening to our music,” she says, before rocking the Fame’s a bitch pose. “I would like to think it doesn't make a difference in my day to day activities; maybe it has subconsciously changed the brand of cereal I eat. Lately the honey oats haven't been hitting the spot like they used to.”
Charming gal, ain’t she? Below please find some more Katie Lee wit and wisdom in a section I like to call Her Answers Are Better Than Whatever I’d Write To Lead Up To Them.
On her location when she found out Native Speaker had made the short list: “Taylor, Raph, and Austin were in Montreal in our recording space when they found out. I found out a couple days later after I finally decided to be a good friend, my guilt of not calling them earlier was growing substantially by the day, and I called to check up on how they were doing. I was in Columbia, SC at that point.”
On what she’d want to do with the prospective $30k: “Record another album. Go to India. Record an album in India.”
On if I could borrow $50 of the prospective $30k: “Sure, however, there will be a skill testing question.”
On playing outdoors where the sound rises up and goes nowhere: “The sound rises but it’s okay because the people listening are usually pretty high too.”
On whom she’s excited to see perform: “At Osheaga? Claude VonStroke.” (I’ll take porn names for $800, Alex.)
On how Native Speaker required repeated listens for me to really get into: “I’ve always been bad at first impressions.”
Katie Lee
Katie Lee
Braids
You must be logged in to leave a comment.
