FEATURE:
Foundations
Why Kate Nash Is One of the Most Important Voices of Her Generation
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I have said before…
how there are few artists who are tackling huge issues. There are some around, though when it comes to a wide range of vital issues and subjects being discussed, there are not that many who are speaking up. Kate Nash is different. A huge supporter of the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community, she has fought and sung up about trans rights. She also speaks out for Palestine and the genocide happening there. Someone who also tackles sexual abuse in her music, this is an artist who is among the voices of her generation. One of the most important. At the moment, Nash is touring North America. She is back home to the U.K. for a date on 2nd December at St Matthias Church. I do want to bring in some interviews from this year. I have huge admiration for Nash. You can follow her on Instagram. In terms of her beliefs and how she is very much an advocate and ally, it is wonderful to see. Her latest singles are quite different to what she was writing about earlier in her career. Songs that were sometimes humorous and other times cutting, they had a definitely vibe and sound. Not that her new music lacks humour. However, there is this real sense of purpose and politics. Kate Nash is someone who cannot stand by and let communities and civilisations be oppressed and destroyed. How she is this idol in the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community. Next year is quite a big one for her. She turns forty. Her debut album, Made of Bricks, turns twenty. Her debut single, Foundations, turns twenty on 18th June. She does have an album out next year called Cailín. That is out on 22nd January. In terms of the singles she has released the past year or so, it adds weight to the album already. Whether the remainder will be more personal. Looking at the titles, it is hard to tell. Her latest single, Christmas Eve, is amazing. It is the album’s final track. Given the fact that Russell Brand has been sentenced to ten years and six months for rape and sexual assault, Nash will no doubt tackle that and men who shielded him. That said, Freedom of Me sort of does that. It examines how media outlets and online commentators dissect, mock, and show scepticism toward women in rape and sexual violence cases. That song also was partly inspired by Russell Brand and his crimes.
You can pre-order Cailín. You can also order it from Rough Trade. Considering the singles that have been released and what Nash is addressing, I think this is a hugely important album that everyone needs to hear. Though there is a personal edge. The importance of her Irish heritage. Many who have this limited view of Kate Nash and he music need to listen to her newest singles. Her sound has evolved through the years. I feel Cailín will win huge reviews:
“Eleven years in the making, Kate Nash’s sixth studio album Cailín is a love letter to her Irish heritage. Produced by KoOoLkOjAk and recorded on the west coast of Ireland at Stiúideo Cuan, under the watchful eye of pioneering trad musician Charlie Lennon, Cailín is a raw, raucous album combining traditional Irish sounds with punk energy, nods to hip hop production and Nash’s knack for a killer hook.
“This was my first music,” says Nash, who grew up in an Irish community in North Harrow, where she attended a Catholic school. When visiting her mother’s “loving, vibrant Irish family” in Ireland every summer, she found that music infused the fabric of life in a way that felt natural and instinctive. “All my earliest musical memories were in Ireland: live music in the pub, going to Sharon Shannon gigs, seeing the best accordion player you’ve ever seen and it’s a bored-looking eight-year-old boy in a puffer jacket. There’s a real respect for musicians.”
Marrying punk protest songs with a joyful celebration of trad music, Cailín explores themes of colonialism, inequality, religion, internalised shame and forgiveness and family, drawing on the rich texture of Irish folklore and mythology. The tradition of strong Irish women is at the heart of the record, from the young girls celebrated on the “90s grunge eyeroll” of title track ‘Cailín’, to the resourceful single mother navigating the housing crisis in ‘Póg Mo Thóin’ (“There’s all these politicians arguing with each other on news programmes, then you cut to people’s real life and it’s like, can’t you just fucking help them?”), to Nash’s grandmother, memorialised in the poignant yet joyful ‘Irish Saints’”.
I will come to a CLASH feature, where they spotlight Kate Nash’s recent single, Freedom of Me. In the list of topics I mentioned that Kate Nash has spotlighted, I did forget to mention one. There is an interview with Tems this year, where Nash was asked about ambitions beyond her own music. Nash said how she wants to work to get a fairer deal for artists. To represent them. Nash is someone who genuinely cares and sees all the inequality, corruption and abuse. Rather than sit back, she speaks up and out. Puts it into her music. I am not sure if Cailín will include any songs that lash out at the music industry and how hard it is for artists. In 2024, Nash made headlines when she announced she had started an OnlyFans to help fund her tour. Rather than this being a stunt, it was actually something that sparked big conversations. GRAZIA reported the story:
“She refuses to diminish the quality of her show by lowering the budget any further – not when she could just, as she puts it, flash her arse online instead. ‘I need extra income to take the stress out of [touring],’ she says. ‘And to pay my band and crew fairly, to put on high quality shows for my fans. I like flashing my arse and I know a few people that run their own adult film companies or work on OnlyFans, and I thought it was a fun way to start the tour “Butts 4 tour buses”’
She was surprised by the attention she received with her announcement, not least because many musicians have OnlyFans now. Earlier this year, Lily Allen claimed that she’s earned more selling feet pictures on OnlyFans than she ever has from Spotify streams. Rapper Cardi B reportedly made more than £45million during her short stint on the site and Iggy Azalea is said to make more than £13million a month.
For Nash, it’s about more than just money - she wants to make a statement about the state of the music industry. ‘The music industry is corrupt, broken and has failed artists completely,’ she explains. ‘The level of success that is required to make profit has become so inaccessible for most people. The major labels have set it up so that themselves and a bunch of tech bros can profit in the millions and even billions and musicians are getting poorer.
‘It’s not ok because it excludes working class people from entering the business,’ she continues. ‘It means that indie, mid-level and smaller artists are left struggling and will most likely look for other jobs when they hit their 30s. It’s a feminist issue because female musicians that want kids will likely have to give up music if they want children.’
It’s a race and sexuality issue too, she says. ‘There is so much discrimination and we need to financially empower people for their own work. Economically it’s not just bad for musicians, it’s bad for the entire country. Something like one in 10 tracks that are listened to most in the world are by British artists and only about a 30th of that money comes back to the UK. It’s a disservice to the entire country and I think it’s a disgrace. Things should be better now than they were 20 years ago, but we are in crisis I’m not sure what makes the UK great if we lose our music culture and grassroots. It’s really sad. 125 venues in the UK closed last year and more will fall. If bands keep cancelling tours, then we lose more venues, and more jobs are at stake. Van and bus drivers, roadies, sound engineers, lighting engineers, tour managers, people that own gear hire companies, rehearsal rooms, managers, videographers, photographers, the list goes on. Financially we are responsible for everyone in the industry, yet we are being ripped off”.
I am eager to get to CLASH and their feature around the release of Freedom of Me. A song that I feel is going to remain so relevant, even though Russell Brand is in prison, there are so many other men out there that have not been brought to justice. It is also interesting what Kate Nash says about freedom of speech. It is a wonderful song that sort of makes my point about her. This generation voice that I absolutely love, I am not doing much but putting Nash’s words out there. Trying to spotlight what an incredible artist she is. What she is speaking about, and how she is using her voice and platform:
“New song ‘Freedom Of Me’ is a raw, stripped back offering, with Kate’s piercing vocal augmented by a solitary tin whistle.
A song about womanhood, free speech, and sexual abuse, ‘Freedom Of Me’ asks about the measures needed to assure our personal independence.
Out now, it’s an intense piece of songwriting, coupled to an eloquent note from Kate…
I’ve noticed the globalisation of this American approach to, and obsession with, freedom of speech on social media. We think of George Orwell’s 1984 when it comes to controlling what we can or cannot say, and it makes us feel like freedom of speech is incredibly important. But is it? I don’t really think it is, and I think America is selling a lie.
The far right are very concerned with and protective of freedom of speech. I’m obviously someone who speaks out about what she thinks. But in the UK, our speech is governed by national legislation, including the Public Order Act 1986, the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006, the Online Safety Act 2023, and the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. Rightly so, in my opinion. I would argue that my right to exist free from rape and violence, with access to healthcare without political debate, is far more important than freedom of speech. The same goes for a trans person. My right to protest is fundamental.
The song is also a reflection on how the media treats women in rape cases. I wrote it right after watching Dispatches’ ‘Russell Brand: In Plain Sight’ and watching the commentary online. It’s quite difficult as a woman to listen to the derogatory and casual things people say, and to watch the way women are dissected: the mistrust, the anger, the jokes, then the boredom. I listened to the radio the next morning and heard people who worked for these massive TV corporations feigning shock. I thought, ‘How could you be shocked?’ It made me angry that we pretend this isn’t normal.
I was also listening to the Covid inquiry into the Conservative Party at that time. Men in positions of power who literally run the country saying things like ‘dodging stilettos from that cunt’ really stuck with me. It’s not lost on me that this song is dropping the week Russell Brand is on trial and we are reading about the Cornell 7. The terrible thing about this song is how it will always be relevant”.
Prior to a conversation between Kate Nash and Tems, there is this BBC article. Kate Nash discussing “Irish history, heritage and covering Sinéad O'Connor”. Famine will appear on Cailín. This month, we mark what would have been Sinéad O'Connor’s sixtieth anniversary. Her legacy and impact is huge. She is so sorely missed. I did want to highlight this BBC feature around Kate Nash covering Famine:
“Singer-songwriter Kate Nash believes many English people are disconnected from parts of their own history, and her latest single is an attempt to start a conversation about why.
She has recorded a cover of Famine, Sinéad O'Connor's 1994 song about one of Ireland's darkest periods, using it to explore wider questions about how Britain's role in the famine is remembered.
For Nash, the project was also deeply personal.
Born in London to an Irish mother, she attended a Catholic school, spent childhood holidays in the Republic of Ireland and the first instrument she learned was the tin whistle, despite long claiming it was the piano.
Revisiting the song more than three decades later, Nash said she was struck not only by its message, but by her little knowledge of the subject matter.
'That's so audacious'
"Sinéad gave me the whole history lesson that school never gave me, that I didn't really get at home either," Nash told BBC News NI ahead of a performance in Belfast as part of this year's Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann fringe programme.
She is quick to clarify what she means when she says English people do not know their own history.
"When I'm saying the English don't know their history, I'm also English.
"So I'm saying, I don't know my history… and I want to learn."
Nash, who released her debut album almost 20 years ago, says her latest project is hugely personal
Nash's debut album Made of Bricks came out in 2007 and spawned her biggest hit, Foundations.
She's since released four more studio albums, including 9 Sad Symphonies in 2024.
While working in the United States more than a decade ago, Kate met music producer Kool Kojak and was encouraged to explore her Irish heritage through music.
After O'Connor's death in 2023, he suggested recording Famine.
"I was like, 'oh my God, that's so audacious, only an American could suggest that'," Nash said.
"But then I thought, why not?
"The tradition of covering old folk songs, passing music through is really important. And the more people that cover that song really the better, because you can bring that message, the education, to a new audience."
Rather than simply replicate the original, Nash rewrote parts of the song and added a new verse reflecting her own experience of dual identity.
"England doesn't take responsibility for destruction that it's caused, for its empire and now commonwealth, they left us uninformed", she sings, echoing wider debates about how Britain's imperial past is taught and remembered.
Deeply intertwined societies
Enda Delaney, professor of modern history and director of research at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, believes Nash's point of view is "fair comment".
Unlike in the Republic of Ireland, he said, Anglo-Irish history is not routinely taught to English students, creating a gap in public understanding.
"The fact that one million people died in a part of the United Kingdom, which of course Ireland was in the 1840s... there isn't a really good knowledge of the context in which those terrible events occurred."
He said there should be greater emphasis on Irish history in schools and pointed to growing interest in the subject at university level.
"When you've got two societies which are so closely located to each other and so deeply intertwined, it's really important that both Irish people and British people understand those shared points of history”.
I am going to finish off with DAZED. Tems met her hero, Kate Nash. It is a great interview. “Here, the two musicians meet for the very first time for a conversation about AI, autotune and how the music industry is worse now than it was 20 years ago”. I am really looking forward to the release of Cailín. I think it is going to be one of the best albums of next year:
“Tems might be Kate Nash’s biggest fan. Here, the two musicians meet for the very first time for a conversation about AI, autotune and how the music industry is worse now than it was 20 years ago”.
“At the same time Nash released her debut album, Made of Bricks, Tems, then 12, was given her first iPod. Her uncle had loaded it with a random assortment of songs, including tracks from Nash’s album. From then on, Tems’ daily school commute was soundtracked by Nash’s cockney-inflected confessional anthems; songs like “Mouthwash” and “Mariella”. The plucky piano arrangements inspired Tems to teach herself to play. At first, she only wanted to learn Nash’s songs, but eventually she began writing arrangements of her own. While Tems had dabbled in songwriting since she was nine, it was Nash, some 3,000 miles away in London, who helped unlock her musical world.
Today, Tems is known for her uniquely imperfect vocals. Every note she sings is charged with raw emotion, and when her voice breaks and crackles, it only becomes more relatable. Now, with over 30 million monthly listeners and fresh from headlining London’s All Points East festival, fans might not have guessed that her sound can be traced back to Nash. And she’s the first to admit it, too: in recent interviews, Tems has credited Nash as one of her earliest influences, though the pair have never met before. Until now.
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As Nash prepares to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Made of Bricks and returns with new music, we bring the two artists together for the first time. It should be noted that the first minute of the conversation consisted mostly of silent screaming, shaking their heads and covering their mouths in starstruck disbelief.
Tems: How did it feel seeing people connect to your music at that time?
Kate Nash: It’s interesting now, being 20 years into my career, I’m reflecting a lot. When I was younger, I wanted to be like other artists – I was trying to be like Alicia Keys or Jeff Buckley. I was writing in other people’s voices. I was desperate to go to university, but I didn’t get in anywhere, even my backups. But I also had a heart condition at that time and had to have surgery. Looking back, I think [my surgery] massively impacted how I viewed everything. I was working at Nando’s, grilling chicken. Then I had heart surgery and realised that I hadn’t lived. I wasn’t living. I realised that I didn’t have to be a poet or write about stuff that wasn’t my experience; I just started to write about my life and what was happening to me. When you find your truth and are more honest as an artist, you connect with more people. My open heart, although it’s got me in trouble, is also why I’ve connected with you and other people and their stories.
Tems: I am working on new music. I’m having fun, but I’ve also had a lot of things on my heart, so there’s some heavy stuff.
Kate Nash: I’ve been working on music that explores my Irish heritage for the first time. I grew up going to Irish-Catholic school and was put into Irish music school when I was little. So I suddenly thought, why haven’t I explored that in my artistry? In your mid-to-late thirties, you start to realise how your childhood impacted your adulthood, and that comes from what my parents went through and why they went through it.
Growing up in England, we don’t get taught about our history from the perspective that we did anything wrong. With Ireland, it’s very political, because England is this massive coloniser who had such a violent impact on so many countries in the world, but we don’t get taught any of that. And actually, we did a lot wrong. So the new music is coinciding with this awakening in the world. It’s actually the most personal work that I’ve made. But I also think we’re going to see people wanting that human experience more. Especially with the conversation around AI – you want the individual and the imperfections, because that’s what makes it unique and real and raw.
Tems: Do you have any goals beyond music?
Kate Nash: I really want to change the law regarding how the music industry exploits artists. I don’t feel like you can negotiate with the music industry. I’m so annoyed that it’s worse now than it was 20 years ago. I wish I were sitting here saying that it’s so much better now than what it was in my day. I feel really angry about that, so I’m driven by that anger to see what I can do to try and make a difference for younger artists”.
I am a big Kate Nash fan. Her new singles are her best work yet. Cailín is out on 22nd January. If you can afford to pre-order it then I would recommend you do so. Kate Nash is one of our best artists. One of our finest people. I do think that she is a voice for her generation. Someone who shows her love and support for the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community. Calling out the music industry and how hard it is for artists tour and survive. She wants an end to genocide in Palestine. Writing songs that address how rape victims are treated. How Freedom of Me is a song that (sadly) will be relevant for a very long time. Even if Cailín will not change the world or too many policies, it will open minds, win hearts and…
MAKE a huge impact.