Katy B: Mission Accomplished

19 August 2011

by Poppy Reid


Katy B is revered for plenty of reasons - her doe-eyed maturity, arresting presence, and the sense of urgency she injects into a dubstep culture screaming for mainstream recognition.

Born Kathleen Brien in Peckham, South London, the 23-year-old still lives at home with her family. Speaking to TMN on the phone from the family bathroom, she drops her voice down an decibel or two so as not to wake them. “It’s just past midnight here,” she says softly.

Next month, Brien will make her maiden voyage to Australia, where she’ll perform alongside fellow Gossip, Santigold and The Streets at Parklife festival. Procuring the spot on the back of her ARIA chart mainstay On A Mission, the debut defies the fate of many artists who started their career the same way. Brien featured on Geeneus’ As Iand DJ NG’s Ministry of Sound-released single, Tell Me (What It Is); but while most guest cameos fizzle into distant memory (eg. Estelle) along with the plethora of UK dance subgenres, the singer went on to receive epithets like ‘the first lady of funky house,’ and ‘the voice of dubstep.’ With such lofty plans for Brien and what her success spells for female singers endeavouring to break out from the underground, it’s surprising to hear her admit she didn’t always have a hunger for singing stardom.

“I was one of those people who just wanted to do everything. I wanted to be a dancer, I wanted to be a pianist,” she says, laughing. “I wanted to be an actress, I wanted to be a footballer. I was always getting involved in lots of different things.”

It wasn’t until she was accepted to BRIT School, a performing arts academy in London, that she decided to follow fellow graduates Adele, Amy Winehouse, Jessie J and Leona Lewis into the pop star cog culture machine. But while she may have studied with some of the UK’s most successful exports, Brien attributes Benga (the producer of her first single Katy On A Mission), and pirate radio station Rinse FM as the launchpads that shot her to recognition.

“He [Benga] has a massive fanbase so I think that helped,” she says. “The underground really supported it so that pushed it up and more people joined on and caught on to it.” 

Rinse was not only the first to play Katy On A Mission, before it received its commercial license in June last year, Rinse FM also premiered tracks from both Dizzee Rascal and Wiley in their early days. Brien even signed to Rinse FM’s recording label after a series of unsuccessful meetings with the majors.

“I think you just get a feeling when you’re in talks with someone, you know?” she muses, her South London accent thickening. “I remember meeting a couple of managers and I just didn’t get a good vibe from them, d’you know what I mean? “When I started working with Rinse FM I just knew that they were all about supporting new music and they were really interested in music in general, and I didn’t feel pressured at all.”

Brien achieved this all with unexpected success too, accolades and praises have been ringing in since the album’s release in May this year. Four of her On A Mission tracks charted in the UK’s top 10 Singles Chart, she was recently nominated for the coveted Mercury Prize, and she can now count almost every publisher on her side of the world among her fans.

“Everything is like a snowball. Everything lends itself to each other,” she explains. 

Brien has the potential to spearhead an uprising for female artists of the underground, her sass-soaked voice feeds refreshing moxie into a genre lousy with homogenous offerings. For now though, she is happy to remain, at least while her expectations stay mild, a working singer/ songwriter.

“I don’t have any kind of goal of ‘I want to sell this many records,’” she says. “I just really love singing and I like recording and making records; so as long as I get to do that for a long time, I’m happy.” 


On A Mission is out now (SME)