Kate NV Talks 2020 Album Room for the Moon, Surprising Sources of Inspiration, and Future Projects
Kate NV is without a doubt one of the most dynamic and compelling artists on our radar these days. Known to many through her highly-recommended solo albums Binasu, для For, and this year’s Room for the Moon, Kate NV (aka Ekaterina Shilonosova) is also a founding member of Moscow band Glintshake. As impressive as that résumé reads, Room for the Moon and its associated music videos strongly indicate that Kate NV’s profile will be growing exponentially in the coming months and years.
We jumped at the opportunity to have a rare, extensive one-on-one Kate, who graciously shared illuminating details about new album Room for the Moon, her composing and recording process, diverse inspirations, and upcoming plans.
Bobby Weirdo: How are you doing today?
Kate NV: I’m great – I’m currently working on a track. And you?
BW: I’m doing well, all things considered. Here in Los Angeles, a lot of things are shut down, so it’s been difficult.
KNV: It’s so surreal, because everything in Moscow is functioning as it was before the pandemic. In stores – and anywhere you go – you can just walk around without a mask, and it’s fine. It’s completely different [here].
I just visited my friends’ exhibition, and had to wear a mask entering the museum. Then you can take it off [once you are inside], and no one checks. When you enter any building, they check your temperature, and that’s it. Nobody is wearing masks, and people are hanging out everywhere. There was an indoor concert yesterday with more than a hundred people, and everyone was dancing…
Maybe it will hit us super hard in September – no idea. I’m pretty sure we don’t know the real numbers, and the whole thing is very irresponsible. The whole city is ignoring the rules, so it feels like no matter how hard you try it won’t make a difference.
I’m definitely not going a lot of places, and I’m not hanging out a lot with anyone. Yesterday I performed with a band, but mostly I stay at home with my boyfriend. I’m basically working, and not going to any kind of parties, but my friends do. You can’t tell anyone what to do, because all the cafes and restaurants are open. Social distancing isn’t working well in Moscow.
Kate NV. Photo: Richard Johnathan Miles
BW: You have been doing some socially distanced performances, like the one in the hotel room…
KNV: Yeah, but that one was recorded in the end of June. Everyone was wearing a mask and it was a small skeleton crew. Everybody was so concerned about coronavirus – the crew took tests, there was sanitizer, and everything was super official.
BW: You had a birthday August 1. How did you celebrate?
KNV: I invited a few of my friends to go outside in the park, and we walked a bit. Then I traveled together with my boyfriend to the mountains. We spent a week there, trying to avoid lines of people standing anywhere. When you go to the mountains, the hardest thing is to get to the highest point. Then, when you get there, there are usually no people around. It’s a nice view, you’re alone, and the air is so fresh. The weather was awesome, and it was the best week. It’s nice to have a chance to just walk and hike.
BW: Are you still riding your bicycle?
KNV: I’m riding the bicycle, and I’m grateful to have that ability, because when you ride the bicycle, it automatically means you are able to avoid the people. I haven’t used any public transport since March, so it’s been almost half a year. I’ve almost forgotten what the Moscow subway looks like, and I don’t even know where my subway card is.
It’s cool when you have a bicycle, but it’s kind of scary, because Moscow weather gets shitty in the middle of the fall. [Then] you can’t cycle; you have to take a taxi. I get motion sickness, so I’m trying to cycle everywhere.
BW: How did you get connected with Matt [Werth] from RVNG?
KNV: I spent a couple months in New York the winter of 2016, since my boyfriend lived there at the time. My friends in New York both knew Matt, and were sure that he would love my music. I don’t know why – they just knew.
They invited him to my concert at Elvis Guesthouse on the 29th of December, in between Christmas and the New Year. Usually, people don’t go to concerts on those dates because they prefer to spend [the time] with their families, but he actually came. I don’t remember if I saw him there, but he sent me an e-mail saying he loved [the show].
I sent some demo tracks to RVNG, but I don’t [remember] if I got a response or not. Then, a couple months later, RVNG asked me if I wanted to participate in Peaceful Protest Project – a charity with around six musicians. They made cassette tapes, with each musician on one side [of a cassette tape]. They asked if I would write four or five tracks specifically for them.
At that time, I was really into improvisation. I spent most of the winter in the U.S., and then when I came back home, I didn’t want to actually sing songs. I was really into making ambient textures, but not like a drone or ambient-noise. I wanted it to be more [playful], toyish-sounding. I was really into it, and knew that’s what I wanted [to be doing].
The next thing I knew, I got an e-mail from Matt, and I said I would love to do the [music for RVNG]. I recorded the tracks for them, which I loved because it was very natural, and just for me. I don’t even remember how I created them; they just came to me. I just sat in one place, and the music wrote itself. I usually say that my chair made my music for me; I didn’t compose that music.
RVNG loved the tracks and suggested a full record. I recorded a few more, and that’s how [the album] happened. RNVG is the best label I could imagine for the music, because the vibe is so similar, and everything was in the right place at the right moment.
Kate NV. Photo: Talib Shillaev
BW: So when you were in this zone, writing all this music, was that what would later become the album [для] FOR?
KNV: It was [для] FOR, which happened on the way. I had already started songs that ended up on Room for the Moon, but they were kind of interrupted by [для] FOR. There was a moment where I didn’t want to sing, and got tired of songs. It just happened.
I was trying to create my life program in [such] a way that I would have to sing a lot. I started songs and couldn’t figure out how to finish them. When I realized that I didn’t really want to sing while performing live, I [knew] I had to switch and try something else. That was the moment I started [для] FOR.
Then, [I spent] a year and a half of writing the [для] FOR record, touring, and playing improvisations. After that journey, I realized I was tired of playing improvisations and sitting [while] playing instruments. I wanted to sing and dance physically, and that was the moment I was ready to finish the [Room for the Moon] songs.
I’m always trying to listen to what the music around me wants to be at the moment. I cannot force myself to make a song if I’m really into making ambient at the moment. Each time you press the button of the synthesizer, you never know if you’ll end up with a track or a song. You have listen to where you’re going, and it depends on your mood, the context, and everything.
So, [для] FOR happened very naturally. I planned on making an ambient record, but I always thought I would make a pop record first. It was the opposite, because I felt that I couldn’t force myself to do something that I wasn’t into at the moment. I go with the flow. Everything you create should be light, go easily, and bring you joy on the way, because the process is the only thing you own in the end. Once you finish something, the result isn’t yours anymore – it’s public, and everyone owns your track emotionally. But the process is yours, so it’s really cool to be happy and enjoy that process.
I’m happiest when I make music. My relationship with music is probably the healthiest relationship in my life. I do not expect anything from music, and music doesn’t expect anything from me — we just coexist.
BW: Speaking of the process, I wanted to ask about the complexity of some of the Room for the Moon songs. Here we are talking about how the songs flow through you, and you’re a sort of conduit as you sit there, but those songs are complex…especially some of the time signatures. How do you come up with the foundation of those songs, because that seems like something you have to plan.
KNV: That’s a very cool question. It’s not the first time someone has asked me, but it’s the first time someone has asked me in an interview.
I have a friend who is a contemporary composer, and she plays in a cool ensemble that performs complicated, contemporary, academic music. We’re friends, and sometimes we chat. She’d been listening to the record, and one time she asked me about “Du Na”. She started listening to the track, and asked how I came up with the time signature, and if I planned it. I didn’t know, so she asked me if it was an intuitive thing, which it definitely is. It’s not planned; it just happens.
It’s funny, because there are two times when I have to remember to check the BPM and time signature. First is when I start something, play it, and realize it’s not 4/4. You have to count, just to make a grid in Ableton Live. You make the grid and a click attached to that grid, and then forget about the time signature.
The second time I get surprised by the time signature is when I put [the track] into the Octatrack. Octatrack is a stupid machine – it needs to know where the bar ends, or if it’s in 3/4 or 4/4, so you have to change the time signature. Every time I see that different time signature, I’m like, “Oh wow! I forgot it’s different.” I hear that it’s not 4/4, but I don’t think about it that way.
The third time I remember it’s not the most obvious time signature is when people ask me about it, and if it’s planned or not. I usually answer that it’s a very natural thing, and I don’t think about it. Music just happens; it’s a natural thing. It’s intuitive; I don’t count or plan. I’m lucky I have a natural feeling for different time signatures. I’m pretty sure it’s not a common thing, and I don’t know how it happened.
I finished music school, but I don’t remember studying different time signatures. Maybe it’s because I listened to a lot of prog rock bands, and when you listen to a lot of different kinds of music, it gets into you. The more you listen to different, complicated music, the more natural it becomes to you to use later.
The only things that matter [to me] are the hook or the riff. These tracks all started with a hook. The hook in “Marafon 15” was a repetitive bass line. The same with “Not Not Not” and “Du Na”…it’s the hook. You hear the groove, and then build up everything else. If the groove’s not 4/4, it’s like, “OK – everything else should obey this groove.” That’s the only rule: first the groove, and then everything else.
BW: You mention bass lines, which is something I particularly wanted to ask you about. The bass is prominent in your recent recordings. Do you play bass, or is that just how you were hearing the music when you were recording?
KNV: My friend [who] plays guitar in our band Glintshake isn’t a bass player, but I love the way he plays bass guitar. Usually he comes up with hooks and riffs accidentally that aren’t really [typical] bass hooks. He has [a guitarist’s approach], but with a bass guitar, which is very funny.
We’ve spent a lot of time together, because we rehearse as Glintshake, and sometimes we just jam randomly. I’ll come up with a hook on the synthesizer, and will ask him play something like it, or he’ll come up with a hook on bass. I’ll take a small loop out of it, and use it that later – differently [and] in a completely different context. I love bass lines, and when I’m making bass lines by myself, the bass line is the [foundation] of most of my tracks.
I love bouncing songs, and bass lines are always something that really catch my ears. I love house music, because the bass line is always really boomy. I like funk, because bass lines are very important [to it], and it just makes the groove more interesting.
I’m a shitty bass player. My hands are too small to play a proper bass guitar, unfortunately. I would love to play bass, but I’m fine playing bass lines on the synthesizer. One of my favorite parts of making a track is coming up with a catchy bass line, and sometimes it’s easier for me to come up with a catchy bass line than a [vocal] melody. I can’t explain it; I just love [doing] it.
Kate NV. Photo: Talib Shillaev
BW: You mentioned studying at music school. What was your focus while you were there?
KNV: My music school was in Kazan, where I was born. [Kazan is] the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan. I studied piano the first two years, and then told my mom that I wanted to sing. My mom listened carefully to me, and was always asking me what I wanted to do. I’m really grateful that she helped me to grow the feeling of knowing what I want emotionally. Sometimes I don’t know what I want to eat, but I definitely know what I want to create. Sometimes I don’t know, but most of the time I’m sure what I want to do. That’s because my mom asked those questions, and I had that question of what I wanted since I was four – maybe earlier.
So I switched to choir, and finished music school with the choir. It was eight years of music school, and because I was in Tatarstan, we studied a lot of Tatar composers and Tatar music, which I think had a great impact on me as a musician.
I never thought about that until I started listening to a lot of Japanese music, and asking myself why that music felt so relatable to me. I realized that Tatar music is also based on the pentatonic scale. It’s also joyful, and it’s interesting that even sad songs in traditional Tatar music are composed in major keys.
People ask me why most of my music is composed in major keys, and not minor keys. I never had an answer, but I finally realized I was raised in this very friendly environment, where two cultures – Russian Orthodox and Islam – are linked together in peace in one republic. People are very kind and hospitable in Kazan – it’s emotional and cheerful [there]. They hug you, and it’s sincere – they’re not pretending. I was raised in that kind environment, so of course I’m a very open person. I’m not trying to hurt anybody – I’m just trying to help people feel better. That’s how I was raised, and that’s why my music is like that.
BW: You’ve talked about movies and stories that have influenced you. Many times, it’s not the original version, but rather the Russian version of those stories that has been your influence. The Adventures of Buratino, for example, is a Russian story based on the Italian The Adventures of Pinnochio. Then there’s Russian Mary Poppins – Mary Poppins, Goodbye – that also influenced you. Do you look to those works consciously for inspiration, or is it just that you were exposed to those influences when you were growing up?
KNV: It’s interesting that you mention Buratino and Mary Poppins, which aren’t Russian stories. There’s also a book called The Wizard of Emerald City, which is a total rip-off of The Wizard of Oz. But it’s more complicated [than that], and there are several books. It was my favorite story when I was a kid. My dad even composed songs for me about the characters from those Russian Wizard of Oz books.
It’s funny, because it’s not like we were trying to appropriate other cultures with those stories, though I guess that’s [what] it is. But the cultural boundaries that were created during the time of the Iron Curtain meant that people were trying to recreate [something], always looking to the West – Europe and America. It was [as if] it was better there – the grass is always greener. And when you didn’t have access to [those places], it felt like it was magical there. We were trying to create our own universe with the tools that we had at that moment. But we made it our very own – we created our own universe with beautiful songs and the characters that we got from abroad.
I wish our TV channels had shown us The Sound of Music. We probably did have it, but I didn’t watch it until I was thirty years old. I remember we learned the songs from that musical when I was in school, like “Do-Re-Mi”. I remember the first time I heard “My Favorite Things”, but it was [John] Coltrane. I had no idea it was a cover – I just [heard] the track and thought it was amazing. Then I found out it came from the movie, and it was crazy. It’s interesting to come to that kind of cultural thing from the other side.
It’s an interesting cultural journey, and I’m happy it’s happening that way. You see the connections, but from the other side. I don’t know much about kids’ movies from the US, or UK, because in Russia it wasn’t popular to show those kind of movies. We were really into our own filmmaking, and I’m pretty sure that’s because of complicated relationships between Western culture and [our own]. It’s almost the same now, but now we have the Internet, and access to everything.
I’ve actually started watching lots of old movies, and one of my favorites is The Wiz. I’m a huge fun. It’s funny, because I watched it a year ago, and I’ve been listening to the soundtrack for about a half year. The first time I listened to it from the beginning to the end, I was cycling in Akihabara in Tokyo. I had to stop, and I started to cry – it touched me so much.
I didn’t know that movie existed, because I live on the other side of the ocean and it’s not a part of my culture. I saw it as a thirty-year old, and loved it. I was obsessed with the movie, the costumes, and the characters. The cast and production are amazing. It’s a stupid movie, but I love it with all my heart. I can’t imagine what would have happened to me if I saw it as a kid – it’s insane.
I’m at the beginning of the journey with US and UK movies. I’ve been influenced so much by Russian films, because that what we had in the moment.
BW: You’ve been working with what you had access to…
KNV: It’s funny – it wasn’t shown on TV, but when I was very little, my mom and dad somehow found cartoons on VHS cassettes. It was a super illegal kind of thing, but somehow they found a pirated VHS cassette of The NeverEnding Story, which became one of my favorite movies. I watched it constantly, and I loved everything about that movie.
BW: I know that things are unpredictable right now, but Room for the Moon is out now, and I think it’s a fantastic album. Do you have plans to tour in connection to that soon, or are you going to go straight into writing new music? What do you think the rest of 2020 and 2021 are going to look like for you?
KNV: Thank you for the question. It’s funny, but – surprisingly – I was over-prepared for the pandemic. I actually finished two albums, and we decided to release Room for the Moon first. There’s another album completely finished that I don’t have a title for yet. I just need to mix a few tracks, and it’s done.
I’m working on things I had planned on [doing] anyway. I feel great that I don’t have a lot of concerts going on at the moment, because I can concentrate on making and editing videos, recording new tracks, and making new stuff. All of my friends are saying that they miss concerts so much, but I can sit at home and just work – it’s pretty cool.
I definitely miss traveling; I think the eyes need to travel. I love Moscow, my room, and my working space, but I miss traveling. I get used to traveling every month, going different places, seeing different people, and watching their lives in different environments. It’s very inspiring, and I miss that. That’s why I was happy to travel to the mountains – it felt like normal times.
I’m looking forward to touring later, when it’s allowed. I wish I had a band like Tears for Fears. They’re one of my favorite bands, and would be perfect as a live band. I would love to perform with a band, and have fun playing live songs together. But I don’t know when that’s going to happen.
I try to find advantages in every situation. I think one of the most important things [for a] human is being able to adapt and be flexible. I’m trying to stay flexible as much a possible.
