Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Revitalised Spirit With KAT O From KTV

Transcript

Revitalised Spirit With KAT O From KTV · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so KTV on thet on the singer, songwriter, guitarist.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: We've got Philip Yarra on bass and backing vocals and
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: John Hastings on drums.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: That's the current lineup. And the band was around late
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: nineties originally in its original.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Form and only reformed probably late last year, late twenty
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: twenty four. And yeah, we're currently gigging and we started
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: playing shows just recently and they've been going pretty well.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Fantastic, Kat, thanks for joining us today.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no problem, Thanks for having me Crease, it's great to.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: Have a chat. It is.
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: Indeed now, as you say, TV returned to the stage
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: late last month for the first time to speak the
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: out and one.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: So how was that the show? How was it getting
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: it out of the way, Yeah, yeah, it was good,
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: it was.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: It was a little bit nerve racking, I guess.
• 0:56
  Speaker 5: I mean, you know, we've all been in a lot
• 0:58
  Speaker 5: of other bands as well, but in between, but yeah,
• 1:02
  Speaker 5: KTV was a band that did pretty well back in
• 1:05
  Speaker 5: the day, so it was great to kind of bring
• 1:06
  Speaker 5: back some of the old songs and stuff like that.
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And like I know, you would have done a
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: lot of practice lead up to it, but on the
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: actual night, Like how did you go.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: With the chemistry? Like it did it come straight back
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: as soon as he's fired up?
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Or yeah, yeah, because Philip and I have been well
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: we started in bands like when we're in our twenties
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: and we kind of like played you know, we played
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: all the gigs, you know, like only to the mixer
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: and five people in the room and you know all
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: that sort of stuff, you know, but like, yeah, the
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: chemistry was fantastic and we've got like John on drums now,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: who's who. Philip and John were in a band together before,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: so they knew each other and yeah, it's just a
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: lot of fun and it's like going home, I suppose nice.
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: Now, the story of KTV goes back past the turn
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: of the century, so that's established a bit of a
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: timeline here, Like the band formed in Melbourne in the
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: late nineties and it.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Is following there. So what were the early years of
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: the band.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Like, well we did we were around around the time
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: when Killing Heidi had their Reflector album out and was
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: number one. That was the number one band in Australia,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: you know, back when, back when, remember when, back when
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: bands were actually number one in Australia. You know what
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, Like that was great days because that unfortunately
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: doesn't happen anymore anyway. So so yeah, we we got
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: to support them at the Prince of Wales and that
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: was like a really.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Huge show for us.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: We also there was a competition that the Push put
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: on push play record.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: We won that as well, and we.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Did like co profile gigs with Deborah Conway VI Queen
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Linda in front of like I don't know, thousands of
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: people at the Art Center. Like there was some really
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: really big shows and we played with some of our
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: heroes as well, Magic Dirt, you know, Mola, other Kiss Chase,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: the other bands like that that were you know, doing
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: stuff at the time. So so yeah, like we did
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: well at the time, definitely, and the scene was amazing
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: back then.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: You know, it was a lot different, wasn't it. Yeah, Yeah,
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: it's amazing there.
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: Like pretty much every one of those bands you just
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: mentioned then they're still going. So it's like it shows
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: that the old school of music nothing against the new
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: music coming out at all, but the old school rock
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: sensibilities of Australian bands is probably stronger than anywhere in
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: the world.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, totally, I reckon it. Is and yeah.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, Animal's obviously doing really well overseas,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: and that's fantastic for them because when they used to
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: play you know, the Bendi back in the old days
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: and started out here and everything, and they've become massive.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: I just wish it would happen to more bands.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the future coming up, I think it will.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: We're starting to get noticed on more of a global stage,
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: I think. Yeah.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I reckon too.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: So you guys break up again it or break up
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: in two thousand and one after numerous lineup changes at
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: that stage. So was it that was a plan to
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: be a permanent separation or was it all left open
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: to the possibility one day.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Well, at the time, it kind of seems like it
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: was done and we all went on and did different
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: projects and stuff. So it was really just, yeah, I
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: kind of didn't expect it to reform.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: I guess it was kind of the band that I
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: had done.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I don't know, so I suppose I had the most
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: success in and you know, as I've been a musician
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: for quite a long time, you kind of always look
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: back and look at your biggest success and wonder why
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: you haven't achieved it again, I suppose, but we had
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: an opportunity because we were put on a compilation CD
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: for Sound as Ever and our demo Gemo track was
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: picked up and there was a bit more bit of
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: interest in the band, so and I was in between
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: bands at the time, so it kind of made sense
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: to a few people in the industry told.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Me, yeah, put it back together, this is a great
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: time to do it. So, yeah, we did.
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: Didn't You mentioned that compilation track like it was an
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: old demo of your son High Street and it was
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: a compilation of a lost nineties these songs.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: I guess it was, so that led to increased like
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: people listened to the band again.
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: But did that come as a shocks you, Like, you've
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: obviously known it was done on the compilation, but when
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: it was received so well and touch so many people,
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: was that a bit of a shock.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was really good because it really like it
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: never made.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: We had two EPs out initially and it never made
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: for some reason, any of the EPs, and I really
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: listened to it and I was like, I don't know
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: why what happened?
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: And they remastered it so it sort of sounds better
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: than the original and it was great to sort of
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: hear it again. And yeah, it was like a real
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: buzz because I didn't really think that track was ever
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: gonna do anything, so it was great to kind of
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: have it out there.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And was it an easy decision to reform or
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: do there have to be a few behind the scenes
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: conversations go on?
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Well, I was trying to.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Well, we did sort of reform late last year with
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: another drama but here because which was an original member
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: of KTV as well as Philipps.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: But he's in a lot of tribute bands. He's really busy.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: He's a full time I'm musico doing that, so he
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: couldn't commit. And Philip also is pretty famous. He's in
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: like he's in Looney Tunes and Agents of Reverb and
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Miss Cartonic. He just played with Bad Manners on the tour.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: He was the touring guitarists, so he's pretty busy too.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: So the fact is fitting this band in he's pretty amazing.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: I know, you guys well beat in other bands in
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: the meantime, but the music scene would have changed considerably
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: over the twenty five years that this band was away,
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: So wasn't an adjustment trying to slide this band back
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: into the music machine again.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think yeah.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, like we said, like back in you know,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: in those days, like the scene was, the scene was
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: really different, and like the I think the one thing
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: I miss is the street press, Like I had beaten
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: in press and the actual physical you know, street press
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: was so just so on.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: The wall I posted on the Telegraph files I thought, oh.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and they were so supportive of indie bands,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: like you didn't have to be really big, like they
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: would put your photo in or review your single and
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: stuff like that.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: And I just feel like since it's gone digital, like it's.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Really just there's just nothing really out there, and unless
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: you're like already really well known, like it's really hard
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: to kind of get your name out there. I mean,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: so it's it's yeah, it's a lot hard to work,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: like for bands starting out these days, Like it's just yeah,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: they just don't know how great it used to be.
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: It doesn't And did you have like before you has
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: made it official, like did you have any discussions about
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: the direction the band was going to take in or
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: was it just a given that you were going to
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: keep going the same way you were?
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so like, there was a lot of
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: material because the band kind of you know, only went
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: for about four years or so, and there was a
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: few different lineup changes, but there was a lot of songs,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: a lot of songs being written at the time, and
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of different material that we.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: Kind of could pick and choose.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: So at the moment, we've got a set of I
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: don't know, like twelve eleven whatever songs, but there's so
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: many others that we can kind of pick and choose
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: from when we you know, want to want to you know,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: work on anything else, and plus you know, there's new
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: songs being written as well, So yeah.
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: I believe you're actually planning to head in to the
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: studio surely to record some of that.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a song of us that was released in
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: like the previous band Philip and I were in. Actually
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: it's called Melt, and it always had a really great response.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Our friends always really loved it and commented on it.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: But it was kind of like it was on an
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: album that was like a it sounded more like a
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: demo like it didn't it didn't have.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: That great sort of production sound. So we want to
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: get it out there the way it should be.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: You know, so we're gonna, yeah record that hopefully soon
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: and release it as our sort of first comeback single.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, is it just a single plan for the stage
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: where he planned on doing a bit more?
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh more would be great, but I had this
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: stage probably just a single just to kind of get
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: something new back out there.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: That's like like our focus.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they started to touch on this a little bit.
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: But moving forward, are you going to you plan to
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: rework or revisit the songs you.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: Had from back in the day or do you plan
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: on writing.
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: New material and sort of moving forward from this point.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be a bit of both because
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: like because like because we had two EPs and I
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: don't think we're there might be one song that we're
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: doing from those EPs, so there's a lot of songs.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: And also because John's kind of knew the drummer, he's
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: kind of new to this, so he's kind of great
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: in that, Like we're going to ask him, like what
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: stands out to you on these EPs because we're too
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: close to the song, so he might say, look, this
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: is you know, sounds really good because he's got like
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: a fresh pair of ears, so that sort of really
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: works too. So I think a bit of both old
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: stuff and new stuff combined.
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: I reckon, Yeah, I want to say I'm going to
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: be like, for those who are familiar with KATV.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Well, it's basically nineties inspired, so just see it's kind
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: of like I mean, i'd say pop punk, but it's
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: not really pop punk like. It's kind of indie punk,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: bit of grunge like and a nineties kind of sound.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I mean a while ago, I got told that my stuff,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: the stuff I write's a bit similar to the Breeders.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so you think.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: You think about like the Breeders and like, I don't know,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: but are you Blondie? I mean, stuff like that, but
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: then also more current current stuff. So it's a bit
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: difficult to.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Kind of like narrow it down. But I mean it's
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: melodic and it's kind of got grungey guitars and stuff.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: So so yeah, I mean a lot a lot of
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: people seem to like it.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: So that's good. I think your timing is perfect too,
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: because the music that you.
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: Would have been making back around the turn of the
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: century is actually starting to come back in now, so
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: it's not it's not going to sound outdated when you
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: start doing it again.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, because my daughter's twelve and she loves
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Olivia Rodrigo and I was so wrapped when she took
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: the Breeders on tour, which I thought was so cool,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: and her young audience became fo fans of the Breeders
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: because she's really into that sort of music. And she
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: just got Robert Smith and Wiezer on played Glastonbury and
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: reading I think got them on stage.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: And like, I thought that was really cool. So it
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: just shows that younger artists.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Coming up are like, yeah, they're really big fans of
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: stuff from back then, and it's great.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: It is indeed.
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: Now you mentioned the comeback gig that you played last month,
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: but I believe you've got a couple more games coming up.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we do.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Our next gig is at the Last Chance Rock and
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Roll by.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: We're playing there on September.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: There's sixth, so that's a Saturday, and that's a matinee.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: So we've got Absalom and Jess Shreds playing with us.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: So it goes from three to five in the ARVO
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: and we're on at about five and October. We're still
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: working some stuff out. Hopefully we'll record in November. We've
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: got some really really high profile, amazing shows that I'm like,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: just keep a secret for now.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: I don't know right at all.
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: We can people go to find out about these shows
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: when you are ready to do announce them.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so we've got Instagram and Facebook and we're just
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: got YouTube down as well. So basically just KTV is
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: a bit hard to search because of karaoke television and
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: it's kind of on the internet is everywhere. But if
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: you just search Kate k TV underscore band on install
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and just k TV band is eventually going to come up,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: and our colorful logo is there, which.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: I'm going to show you, but I have to get up.
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: Right well, thanks very much for your time. Welcome Chris,
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: seen and hopefully you make it up your bridge, but
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: I can come in a.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: Bere and check you out.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it'd be great. Great to see. Thanks Thanes, Chris