The Zine UK

View Original

Take Five: KAT FIVE interview

“My new songs explore identity and also give me space to vent some fury in an upbeat kind of way”

Kat Five

Is… a multi-tasking-talent of exception. A mesmerising face of music, arts and tech. A soul of support for fellow artists. A voice for equity and equality. Best known as half of the futuristic, Feral Five, meet TheZineUK documentary’s fave space vixen!

"SO Killing Eve!" - Women Produce Music

2024 Photography by Liam Maxwell. Stage Style: KatFive jewellery by Tatty Devine. Vintage top found at Retrouvé in Hackney.

As 2024 began, Kat Five found herself nominated for a Music Producers Guild Award (Self Producing Artist), courtesy of Feral Five’s superlative soaked debut, 'Truth Is The New Gold' - a Louder Than War Album of 2023.

Spring is springing and things are getting busy already…

April 13th and 14th - This just in:

Kat Five previews her new, fractured, electro-grunge at one of the year’s biggest weekends, Cro Cro Land music festival. Her art-soaked songs of reinvention - from post-punk electronica and dub, to a classical remix - feature on BBC 6 Music, Radio X, BBC Radio 4 - and more.

It’s a select and diverse line up of ALL-RECOMMENDED top tip talents. At only £30 for the weekend or £20 per day, if you can be there, do it! The Sunday alone is a line up of the year! Now double that!

Remaining Cro Cro Land tickets are at https://www.wegottickets.com/f/13319 - Event art design by 31% Wool

Kat Five’s “Kat-walk” of a tale is a golden thread in TheZineUK tapestry - a wealth of interwoven back stories that have seeded over the last few years. Every artist and ally are essential to our interdependent “Fertile Environment” - which keeps blooming.

For instance, a few years ago, Feral Five performed at the National Portrait Gallery. They were part of an art spectacular for music world icon and fellow multi-tasker, Martyn Ware. We were in awed audience attendance. In this situationist documenting, it was one of those "did that really happen?" moments!

There was live music, ballet, poetry, 3D sound installations, performances and projections. This one night only artist’s colony inspired by Picasso) was actually called ‘Everything You Can Imagine Is Real’ - if you know how TheZineUK situationism whimsically rolls, this makes total sense…

It feels like this image from the Feral Five show, needs to be framed and hung rung back up in the National Portrait Gallery!
Photography: Simon Mooney © National Portrait Gallery, London

Another, was definitely the live launch of the debut Feral Five album, 'Truth Is The New Gold', last Summer! We called it a "fusion of electronica audiovision, cyberpunk, stage style and musical community" with Ms Mohammed, Jonathan Hogg, Super Sevens DJs, Prive, Malcolm Garrett, Anita Maj, Katie Tavini, Tatty Devine, Reckless Yes Records + more allies, fans and friends united for a music people party moment in the East End of London’s Bohemia Place!

Outfit by Privé - wanna see a blip of Kat Five in action on the Kat Walk? We have a TikTok for that!

KAT CHAT

From every aspect, Kat Five is a stage style leader, an ideas instigator, a dream collaborator crossing the streams of the arts and AI thoughtfully and seamlessly. TheZineUK wanted to know:

Z : "What are some of the positives in your crossover fields of tech and the arts?"

K5 : "There’s a happy love-in between my music and my adventures in ethical tech. Artists should be helping shape the future, plus you get plenty of inspiration and an early look at new toys!"

#FeralTruth interactive audiovisuals by Jonathan Hogg at #TruthIsTheNewGold album event. Photography by Don Blandford

Adventures also include being a regular and supportive presence at many of the pulsing moments around live music...

Z : "Can you recommend a handful of independent music festivals and events that are game changers?"

K5: "For sure. There’s so much game-changing going on! Huge love, thanks, and admiration for Cro Cro Land, yourselves The Zine, Loud Women, and Get In Her Ears. They all put on the freshest events where you’ll find your new favourite bands and they’re changing the musical landscape, especially for women. I love playing for these legends and can’t wait to preview my new tunes at Cro Cro Land in April."

Photography by Liam Maxwell. Cro Cro Land Festival line up: https://www.crocroland.co.uk/

Talking of legends, in Kat Five's own right, meteoric levels of magnetism are attracting a select selection on side...

A virtual Inspiration Installation at the Featured Artists Coalition AGM - KAT FIVE + BISHI (Signature Brew) photography by TheZineUK

Z : "how did you come to be working with so many legends by the time of your own multi media MOMENT, #TruthIsTheNewGold live?"

K5 : "The Feral Five album project was dubbed ‘equal parts electro-glam-punk record, art project and science experiment’ by Joyzine, and it was so exciting that music and design legends like Martyn Ware, Malcolm Garrett and Tatty Devine, and AI technologists like Jonathan Hogg (visuals) and Birds on Mars (sound) wanted to be part of it.

The collaborations have all sprung out of genuine connections though, and meeting these great people through music and tech, art, and activism.

A copy of everything Malcolm has designed for us, from the vinyl album cover to t-shirts and the jewellery collaboration with Tatty Devine, goes into a museum collection in Manchester. It’s mind-blowing!"

#TruthIsTheNewGold by Malcolm Garrett, graphic designer of the influencers (Duran Duran, Buzzcocks, Feral Five) and an Ambassador Of Art!

As if all that wasn't best buzzy busy biz enough, there's new Kat Five material on the horizon.

Z : "Can we get a hint of what inspired you?"

Feral Five at Hackney Social, May 2023 - photography by Don Blandford

K5: "Inner fire and the rollercoaster that is life! My new songs explore identity and also give me space to vent some fury in an upbeat kind of way. Rawness, renewal and rage, the 3 R’s, fractured electro-grunge style. Beware of earworms"

Z : "Your stage style, please where do you get your look? (It's so distinctive that I once ran up to hug a "Kat Five" in the Amersham Arms without my glasses on, then had to go to the toilet and pretend that's where I'd been heading, ha ha)"

There are Kat Five fans in all dimensions of our multiverse…

K5 : "Sad to miss that hug! I’m a real magpie, love all things shiny, and even got called a space goth by PRS Magazine. I scavenge things here and there that catch my eye and my look is based on how I feel in the moment (blue! silver! gold! pink!)

It was also incredible working with the designers at Privé studio on custom stage-wear for our Feral Five interactive audiovisual show. They gave me couture rockstar treatment, and I’d bring my guitar along to fittings to make sure the gold armour worked in performance. They are huge talents!

A huge talent in her own right, Ladies, Gentlemen and the rest of us - KAT FIVE!

Kat Five (@katfive_) • Instagram

pssst! Extra appreciation for Feral Five’s audiovisual involvement with the travelling circus of recommendation and celebration that is the Zeenagers Expo, launched March 2024.

12th April: Sound Of Tomorrow conference (talking AI and Music) Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge - Free tickets:

14th April - Cro Cro Land Festival, Stanley Halls, London SE25 - part of the "Event Of The Year" contender weekend starring all thriller no filler must see names.
Weekend ticket recommended!