Kate Marie Nash was born on July 6 1987 in Brent, London, to an English father and Irish mother. She grew up in Harrow, in North West London, and was keen on music from an early age, learning to play the piano at school. She later attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in South London, whose alumni include Leona Lewis, Amy Winehouse and Adele.
After an audition at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, she broke her ankle after falling down a flight of stairs. During her recovery, she was unable to walk and so concentrated the time she had on songwriting and playing her guitar. When she had recovered, she started performing at small venues in London. She uploaded her music and live videos to MySpace in 2005, and began searching for a manager and producers. Her MySpace page caught the attention of Valgeir Sigurðsson, and soon she had found a team willing to work with her.
Her debut single, Caroline’s a Victim / Birds, was produced and recorded by Sigurðsson, and released through Moshi Moshi Records in February 2007. The single was only available on 7” vinyl and was originally limited to 1000 pressings, however demand increased and the number of copies was doubled. The video for the A-side received airplay on MTV2. The B-side, Birds, was later to feature on her debut album.
Nash was signed to Fiction Records (a branch of Polydor) in April 2007. The single Foundations, which was co-written with Paul Epworth, was released in June of that year and shot into the chart at number two. The song received unprecedented amounts of airplay, and Nash was catapulted into the limelight, with many people comparing her to Lily Allen and the success of Foundations to that of Allen’s single, Smile. Following this success, the release date of Made of Bricks was pushed forward to August 6. The album featured songs which had been performed at Kate Nash tours throughout the UK, and went straight to the number one slot.
Riding on the success of Made of Bricks, Nash performed at numerous festivals including Wireless, Bestival, Glastonbury, Latitude, Reading and Leeds, as well as appearing on Later with Jools Holland.
Three more singles from the album were released from the album in 2007 and 2008: Mouthwash, Pumpkin Soup and Merry Happy, before she took a break to start writing new material. Her boyfriend, Ryan Jarman of the Cribs, introduced her to Bernard Bulter (producer for Duffy’s successful album Rockferry) who worked with her on her second album, My Best Friend is You.
On February 11, Nash released a free digital download, I Just Love You More, which preceded an announcement of her Northern American tour in support of the new album. The first official single from My Best Friend is You, Do-Wah-Doo, was released in April 2010, with the album following a week later.
Kate Nash tickets will give you a chance to see the Londoner’s new 60s-style musical direction, for which the Guardian has praised Nash’s “growth as an artist”.
