Katie O - Chamber
Katie O is the stage name of singer and musician Catherine O’Halloran. Catherine has enjoyed an illustrious career to date, performing alongside a host of big names and prestigious orchestras as well as lending her ethereal vocals to numerous albums and movie soundtracks.
Having grown up in Asia as part of a large musical family, Katie O has always been singer, surrounded by the music of her mother’s Irish folk band. Since moving to Glasgow, she has been a part of many esteemed projects,
Having collaborated with musical royalty AR Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire) where Catherine added her vocals to the Oscar winning movie The Golden Age starring Cate Blanchett, she has gone on to sing on movies such as Oliver Stone’s World Trade Centre and In Time starring Justin Timberlake. Catherine also features on the 2016 album It’s Nearly Tomorrow by the Scottish composer Craig Armstrong (The Great Gatsby, Moulin Rouge).
Craig Armstrong said:
I've worked with Catherine for ten years…she has one of the most beautiful voices I've ever worked with. She sings from her soul, and it communicates with everyone.
In between appearing on numerous movie soundtracks, Catherine has also performed as a soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, London Contemporary Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
She has also worked as a vocal coach and appears on BBC Scotland as part of the new TV show Love Song.
Making the bold move to focus on her own music in early 2017, Katie O was born and her debut EP release Chamber is a completely self-composed body of work and is much-anticipated by audiences and fellow-musicians alike.
With four tracks, Chamber deals with themes of isolation and dissatisfaction from a uniquely female perspective. The songs are honest and insightful and explore motherhood, societal expectations and being professionally underestimated.
The first three tracks of the EP explore issues Katie O experienced when she was going through a period of isolation and felt a sense of dissatisfaction with her life. The final, all-important track in Chamber, Moments/Just Like These expresses a long-awaited shared contentment.
Katie O says on her inspiration for the EP:
I wrote all four of these songs just after having my children. With no family nearby and a partner who works away, it was a weird time of feeling isolated but yet having a totally chaotic mind. I was trying to make sense of my purpose in the world.
The EP is about the feeling of not being seen or heard, being underestimated professionally in Wind and Stars and personally in After the Party. Then the rage that accompanies dissatisfaction with where you are in life shines through in Chamber.
However, the song Moments celebrates the fleeting, but incredibly important moments, when you have the space to be heard and can reflect on the most amazing things; the sunset, the sky, the kick inside.
Three years in the making, Chamber features a stellar line-up of accomplished musicians, each with their own wealth of achievements and awards. Playing on the four track EP are, Dave Philips (guitar), Andrew Gifford (double bass), Aileen Gobbi (fiddle), Steve Forman (percussion) and Fraser Stone (drums).
Chamber is released today, Friday 19 June and kicks off with the title track and it’s a great start, I would describe Chamber as a dark alt pop tune, it has a great electronic sounding melody, which really allows Katie’s vocal to drive the track.
The opening lines describe those feelings of isolation when Katie sings “here in the darkness, here we stand, here in the silence you held my hand, here I have nothing and pain in my chest, please give me one thing, let me rest”.
Its a brooding song that finishes dramatically.
This is followed by After The Party, this definitely has more of a folk feel to it with its gently plucked guitar and percussion driven melody. There are some great pieces of musicianship is this song ambles beautifully to its conclusion.
Again it describes the aftermath of feeling not valued and appears to centre around the aftermath of a party and picking yourself up from it, I loved the opening lines “I was wondering that for when it’s over, boyfriends out and all too hungover, everybody’s gone and we’re alone, at the hour we should be sleeping I’m a little too close to weeping cos I love we are going home”.
Next track is Wind And Stars it continues in the vein of indie folk, with a melancholic melody set by a haunting guitar riff. Again Katie brings a strong vocal to this track I liked the line “underneath the bridge I call you in the dark, I left you in the light of my body …..”.
The final track Moments is much more upbeat, it has a more pacy rhythm to it, some jangly guitars set the initial melodies and these are added to when the drums kick in.
It tells a story of everything falling into place and creating special memories when everything is perfect, the happiness of the track is captured in the catchy chorus when a Katie sings “I live and breathe for moments just like these, I live and breathe for moments just like these”.
I really enjoyed Chamber, with its melancholic emotional opening tracks, which Katie has drawn from her own experiences to create but that upbeat finish with Moments was just a fantastic heart warming finale, it’s the perfect way to end the EP as the feel good vibe leaves you skipping along with joy.
Tracklist
Chamber
After The Party
Wind And Stars
Moments
Give Chamber a stream now:
https://open.spotify.com/album/27n1VO3MbHS09dlzd7vZxi?si=PPT7O1wuSGSuZW8gB1m13Q
If you are looking for a physical copy of the EP, the CD can be purchased using the link below:
https://www.birnamcdshop.com/product/katie-o-pre-order/
Katie O can be followed on Website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Spotify:
https://www.facebook.com/katieosings/
https://instagram.com/katie_o_music?igshid=ssjdzj5ll13o
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7GpC6gk4GkWd6IeskwzIvD?si=DJVlt2NlQaGr35Mo5zbUmw