Q/HMV Interview Revelations!

[nrc@cbema.att.com (Neal R Caldwell, Ii)]

It may be that this Q/HMV interview with Kate contains some of the
best news we've heard in a long time.  It seems that the boxed set may
indeed be a turning point as Vickie has said, but not because Kate
is going into hiding to have babies as some have suggested. If 
anything Kate hints that she's coming out of hiding to some degree!

There seem to be at least two important themes in the Q/HMV interview.
First, about coming to terms with her recognition and perhaps even
performing live.

 
| I wanted to make a video for TSW, but I was feeling insecure
| as a peformer. Though I like being the observer rather than the 
| observed, I felt this time I had to confront myself as the observed. 
| And what would help would be to take on a part that would give me a 
| sense of confidence and creative feedback.

...

| It sounds really corny, but i feel so honoured that people into my
| music are so. . . . . patient. Their priorities are gorgeous; I 
| don't feel thare's a fickleness- they're happy with whatever i do. 
| It's almost a form of love.   When we did the shows last time(1979), 
| I did love it. The contact with the audience was fantastic. But I did 
| feel a tremendous sense of intensity towards me and I felt very 
| exposed. I'm really quite a quiet, private person, and it was very 
| difficult for me, and that's got a lot to do with why I haven't toured, 
| which has left me without a great sense of contact with an audience. 
| It's quite a surprise to me to think I'm a famous person. It jolts me 
| and I think, Oh my God!  Right now, I would like to have more contact 
| with audiences again. I think it would be a nice thing. 

...

| Q:Have you begun to formulate your next move?
| 
| Yes, I have, but I can't tell you because it's probably going to change! 
| I want to find a balance between the observer and the observed. I love
| making music, and as long as I'm doing that, even if the albums don't
| sell, there'll be a certain amount of recognition. I feel I have to
| accept that, and learn from it and not run away from it any more. . . 

...

| Everything contains the opposite-the little observer and the little 
| observed.  This is my plan, to get the balance..."

YEAH!  Kate says that she's not going to run away from her recognition
any more.  She's run from the Love-Hounds long enough and it may well
be that the upcoming convention will be her "two steps on the water"!

It appears that - as I've suggested in the past - her dwindling live
appearences were more a result of her own insecurities about performing 
than the standard reply that they didn't want to perform without doing a 
full blown extraveganza.  

I don't think that this means that we'll be seeing The Tour of Life II
but I'm excited about finding out just how she plans to strike the
balance she seeks.  I wish I could make it to the convention <sigh>.

Kate also talks about going back to the basics in her song writing and
that she's writing already!

| I think I'm starting to feel different about a few things, and my
| attitude toward live work is one. I would like to think from this point
| onwards I could speed up, and keep the momentum of my work faster. I
| have a tendency to think too much. I've just started writing again, and
| there's no pressure on me. I get no sense of people expecting anything
| from me, because I take so long. That's a very nice feeling, actually
| doing something in my own space. 

| How I wrote at least the last two albums was to go into the studio 
| and write ideas on to tape, as it were dump stuff on to tape,  forget 
| about it and then move on to the next area.  But when I first started, 
| I always used to write on the piano, and just the last couple of months, 
| I've felt at home again writing on the piano. It's such a different 
| process, I find it quite shocking. 
 
Ok, so we've heard about her frustration with her slow pace before but
she seems somehow more motivated here.  She spoke in interviews around
the time of TSW about how "art" should really be fairly simple and how
strange it was that her work was becoming so complex.

Kate seems ready to take a step back and see how she can develop her
old techniques in a new direction.  I don't think for an instant that
Kate is going to create an album that sounds like _The Kick Inside_
but it sounds like she may be taking a step back from the intensely
thick arrangements of _The Sensual World_.  It will be exciting to see
what she comes up with, and when!

 

"Don't drive too slowly."                 Richard Caldwell
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