Kate Crash is a Los Angeles-based songwriter, record producer, filmmaker and multimedia artist. She is best known for her surreal short films that coincide with the records she writes and produces. Kate Crash, the artist, the prophet, the singular being, has herself been the vision of a future in various corners of Los Angeles, appearing and disappearing before she could be trapped by the world, it seems. She has always been a messenger from the near future of Gibson and Beukes and the realm of all the visionaries like herself, both the thunder signaling a storm to come, and the beam of light that lets us see the beauty of our world. Her beautiful melodies, that hearken all of our most personal memories, our most cherished things that go so far beyond the physical, tell us that even when it’s too late it’s not too late. As Kate sings in the same song, there is a darkness, but she is also the dark that is against the dark.
Interview Meikee Magnetic
Tell us all about the new album and how long you’ve been in creation mode for it to come into existence:
Fuck the Internet is part one of a series that explores the role of identity as we fuse our physical, mental and spiritual with tech. It’s like one part of the human species is being left behind and a new species is being created. In part two, the character dives deeper into the idea of the simulation as salvation. What is reality? I think a lot of people are struggling with climate change, the decimation of the middle class, sexuality overthrown with intense and immediate extremes, the pressures of perfection, power and escapism. The opening number, “Post Apocalyptic Ecstasy Slavery”, explores the near future of overpopulation and equality and the escapism.
As the album goes on, the character goes from escapism to realizing they have given over themselves to something they don’t even know what it is. It’s not the answer they were looking for. “You Sold Reality” comes from the point of view of a less than benevolent AI. In “A Stray Without A Body” the character describes how she feels as she is getting uploaded and losing all physicality. The final song, “Everybody Machine” imagines the planet, post-human, and the new species telling of what was. This is not my personal thesis of the future, this is simply an imagining of one character’s experience.
You went in a electronic future indie witch house direction on your new tracks. What’s your workflow and how are you self producing?
Throughout the year, I song write most days. At the end of the year, I go through everything and see what I want for which album as I usually make 2 or 3 at a time. I conceptually and sonically find whatever the message is to express the concepts and emotions. I find the sounds I want to use for the album and produce a song in one or two days, depending on the amount of stacking the drums need. For FTI, I combined hip hop and electronic programming with indie pop, punk and cinematic elements. Part two gets much more theatrical.
How will you be promoting the new album FUCK THE INTERNET?
I don’t have plans for a live show for Fuck the Internet but I am releasing selfie and lyric videos. They combine war footage and AI surveillance. In 2021 I will be doing a very strange and futuristic live presentation for the follow up album.
Credits Chiwan Choi, Photography by Rush Varela and Deirdre O Callaghan
MORE INFO:
www.katecrash.com
www.facebook.com/katecrashmusic
