You need perseverance to make it in the music business, a quality Dundee’s Katie Lynch has in spades.
After her previous outfit St.Martiins fizzled out during the pandemic, its main lyricist almost threw in the towel to pursue a career in psychiatry.
Instead, she rejected an offer to study medicine at St Andrews University to give songwriting another try.
Now Katie is reaping rewards under a new moniker, Theo Bleak, releasing a series of well-received EPs ahead of a date at her home city’s Chamber East, an unusual venue more used to wedding receptions.
Over an oatmeal iced latte in a cafe round the corner, she reveals the ornate function room suits her new, emotionally charged direction.
Katie says: “It is costing me a fortune, because I’m having to hire a PA and everything, but it’s really different, kind of a gothic building, which I thought was really cool.”
New project is ‘bleak in a Twin Peaks way’
Given the self-lacerating nature of the Broughty Ferry-based musician’s lines, you can imagine she would have made a success of her alternative career. It also helps explains why Katie released current EP Pain on Halloween, with her boyfriend/long-term musical partner Mark Johnston.
“The EP is so dark and the nature of the project is kind of bleak in a Twin Peaks way, so that date seemed apt,” she says.
Katie was brought up by rock-loving parents happy to take her to gigs on school nights, including a memorable Foo Fighters performance.
Her own forays into music proved less successful and the demise of St.Martiins (also featuring Johnston) was especially devastating, she admits.
“I couldn’t talk about it for four years,” Katie remembers. “We didn’t do that well, but it was so special to me.
“Over time, a lot of different people chipped away at it from the outside. Things happened that made me lose my love for it and when Covid started we had a tour cancelled and I felt such peace about it.
“I was really worn down, especially by facing a lot of misogyny. I wasn’t listened to and experienced a couple of situations that were completely inappropriate. I felt if I was a man, I would have been taken more seriously.”
Self-aware lyrics come with ‘a lot of shame’
Although she has come to terms with that duo’s demise, Katie still has plenty of material for lyrics.
She analyses her own insecurities and poor experiences with men on EP tracks I Look Like A Fool To You and It’s Not Doing Me Any Good. Their creator, though, believes it is important to point out her own failings.#
“It’s not easy and with being objective comes a lot of shame,” she says. “It’s just being honest about my own complexity. I don’t have the answers and I’m not promoting any healing, just that we should look at life a little deeper.”
Katie admits she nearly fainted through the effort of creating Pain, yet the finished article is a much easier listen than you might imagine; thanks in part, she agrees, to its rich musical palette.
“It’s a bit of a juxtaposition and I like the mess of genres that come into it,” Katie says. “I actually have a background in musical theatre, but grew up listening to emo and indie. I also love movies, so I wanted a cinematic, soundscape feel.”
‘Necessity bred invention’ for skint pair
Their sound relies heavily on shimmering, nineties-inspired guitars, but also includes some gorgeously mournful cello on EP closer Raining All The Time.
It is a remarkable feat given this DIY pair – they have known each other since she was 11 – are both multi-instrumentalists, playing and recording almost everything themselves (Theo Bleak perform as a four-piece live).
“Necessity has bred invention because we’ve had no money,” Katie says. “We’ve learnt to do so much. Mark didn’t play the drums a few years ago and I didn’t play guitar, but we’ve given ourselves a unique sound.
“We did get an amazing cellist called Alice Allen, but Mark did make the joke if we hadn’t found her he was two weeks from learning it himself.
“Me and Mark always say music sounds like home to us, because you can always tell it’s our sound.”
Pain is out now. Theo Bleak plays Chamber East, Dundee, November 18.
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