Hiya Katie & The Bad Sign, thanks for joining us in the virtual RGM lounge today. Grab a brew and take a seat.
What made you decide that music is a thing for you?
Katie– I’ve always loved writing. I loved English and writing stories in school and my dad brought me up in household filled with music. I never really thought I could sing and struggled with not sounding like everyone else to begin with, but my dad always said you have the best kind of voice you have a Blues voice. I picked up a guitar at 16 started gigging when I was 16 and never looked back!
Introduce us to you all and your musical history.
We are a 5- piece consisting of Katie on vocals and acoustic, Richard and Harry both on electric alternating lead parts and harmonising. Jack on bass and Robin on drums
Robin– Hailed from a 4 generation line of drummers. Started playing military snare drum rudiments age 12, full kit at 13. At that age joined a rock band. 1st UK tour at 15. Joined a rap group around 18 and toured the world. At 24 studied at the prestigious Berklee college of music in Boston. Returned to the UK, started teaching privately and lecturing in higher education. Since then been self employed as a musician playing with various groups/bands and thoroughly enjoying getting the opportunity to go back to rock roots.
Harry –Started on classical guitar, but was raised on 70s/80s rock. So made the switch to electric guitar. Played with loads of bands in the Manchester music scene across different genres. Feel most at home playing the bluesy, rock style stuff we play now
Katie brought up on soul and blues music got into Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Janis Joplin as a teenager and started writing folk and Americana songs on my acoustic playing all round Manchester and festivals across the UK. Teamed up with Simon Dine, Paul Wellers producer and recorded a whole album together with one of the songs being featured on a no.1 Netflix film. I found a love of left field country music and modern blues music aka KALEO and Rival Sons and with my background and the musicians I met along the way formed Katie & The Bad Sign.
Richard – Die hard Beatles and Oasis fan but I have an eclectic taste. I love recording and developing sounds. Gigged professionally in bands for over 15 years.
Jack- I have been playing low notes for 21 years in many different contexts and across multiple genres. I consider myself somewhat of a “hack” bassist but enjoy laying a solid foundation and working closely with the drummer to build a strong rhythm section; something which has stood me in good stead and allowed me to accompany a diverse range of musicians. Asides from function work I am involved in a few different creative projects and have played with Katie and the Bad Sign for nearly 2 years.
What’s the live music scene like in Manchester right now? Anyone we should be looking out for (bar you, of course)?
Manchester is filled with music and always has been. It of course has a very strong student culture, so we have so many bands and artists here. It’s almost overwhelming! But of course great as there’s so many styles. Country music has completely taken off and become almost the new pop music. And although we aren’t out and out Country we just lean towards it in some of our songs. We have lots of Manchester musical artist friends so of course have to mention Gorilla Riot, Toria Wooff, Chloe Jones, Doad, Between the Vines and Luna Marble but we could go on!
I’ve seen a lot of people struggling for support recently online. What’s your view on the industry?
We feel there is a definite pressure on bands/ artists to have a large online presence, but the reality is the fans are on the ground. It’s the people you meet in your day to day comings and goings and the gig with only 15 people there.
Where do you feel you currently sit within the music industry?
We have always felt a bit of outcasts, we feel we sit in-between the Blues Country and Rock scene. Not being enough of each to fully ground ourselves in a scene. But we love the music we’re creating it of course has a lot of hints back classic sounds but we feel we have put our own stamp on it and brought it into the present day with our own flavour of Modern Blues Rock.
Tell us two truths and a lie about you.
We played a stage that was powered only by people being on bikes and if they stopped cycling the power would cut off and the music stop.
Half of the band is fully straight edge and doesn’t drink. Rock n Roll
Rob can only play the drums with his shoes off.
Do you ever worry about people taking things the wrong way or cancel culture? Discuss….
The whole point of art and music is to express yourself and your opinion on matters. Not everyone will agree and that’s cool we all have opinions.
But our opinions make us different as long as you’re not being grossly offensive to a particular culture or gender or sex then you should be free to say what you feel.
Do you sign up to any conspiracy theories? If not, why not?
Jack -The Elvis one. He’s definitely not dead, I went to an open mic in Tameside and saw him perform 3 times in one night
What was your best experience on stage?
We’re gonna tie the same festival into both of these questions. We played Upton Blues main stage two years ago but we went back last year and played the local bars that put stages on. We got to play four times rather than the once and word was getting about all weekend about our band, by the time we came to play our last gig the crowd was really big and they were so up for it dancing, the sun was out too which made it even better.
BUT the first gig we played there it was starting to drizzle a bit so everyone came inside and was watching but it was so humid. We were all sweating. My hair had ballooned twice the size. I looked to the side and saw sweat dripping from Harry’s guitar. We were all dying. Finally someone in the crowd managed to open the fire exit and the relief of the fresh air hitting us felt so good.
What are the next steps you plan to take as a band to reach the next level?
We are just in the midst of a headline tour of 6 dates. Playing places we’ve never played before so that was a big step for us. We have played plenty of festivals but this was another step up. We’re already starting to plan the next one as I really feel being on the ground is the way to build these days. You need a social media presence but its definitely not the b all and all.
I hear you have new music. What can you tell us about it?
Yes, we have the album dropping 4th April it’s called Revolution. I started writing Revolution the song at the end of 2022. There were still a lot of feelings and processing about everything we had been through with COVID and how our lives felt like they were taken away from us. A lot of the album is quite angry and I don’t think there’s enough female rage albums out there. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the world right now we have no control over and it’s frustrating. So here I am letting my rage out and the lads are writing killer riffs to back it up.
What was the recording process like?
We love recording. Richard especially does. He would be quite happy only recording and not even gigging haha We tend to record live all in one room and the drummer Robin in another. We take drums and bass from the live recordings and layer the rest of the overdubs on top for the guitars and vocals.
This creates lots of energy. That’s the biggest and hardest thing capturing the same stage energy in a recording. We all know the Oasis story of their first album. It’s a big deal capturing and keeping that energy. As they say it’s all about the feel
What was the biggest learning curve in writing the new tunes?
Trying to write for that bigger band sound. I’ve always got to think how is this going to sound on stage at the end rather than just writing whatever I want. Of course I can still write what I want, but I just need to have that in my mind whilst I’m writing will the crowd sing- a- long or is this something you can have a bit of a groove to. Is there a good riff people will immediately recognise.
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
No. Normally there’s lots of things I would change but as I’ve got older I’ve learnt to accept the flaws. That’s what makes music music, having some rawness too. I can get pretty caught up with this over polished sound but it shouldn’t be perfect..
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
Yes please sign up to our mailing list at www.katieandthebadsign.co.uk
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